Seeing Cognitive Dissonance First Hand And The Stress It Causes

JW_Rogue

Okay, so a little update on my situation. Me and my wife have spoken more about what I've been thinking lately. Although, I didn't go as far as to say that I no longer believe. I simply said that I've been discouraged lately by changes I've seen in the organization. I also said that sometimes I think that this is just another religion like all the rest. She agreed that sometimes she feels that way as well. When I asked why she said because of the behavior of some in the Congregation that she feels are hypocrites. I agreed with her about that although that is not my main problem. She wanted me to go further and explain what had discouraged me but I told her that I wouldn't want bring her down. My real thinking is that at this point she isn't ready for the things I would bring out and it would just lead to a fight. So we left it at that.

A couple of days later we're watching a Nova documentary on the Geological history of North America. So the first episode details how the Earth came to have land masses appear out of vast oceans. My wife is really loving all of this because so far it coincides pretty well with the Biblical account. Although if you read it carefully there are already problems with the timeline in Genesis. So that is pretty much the first episode. By the end of it she was pretty excited to see the rest of the series. Episode two follows and guess what it's all about how and why Dinosaurs appeared in North America. Episode three is about the first humans to appear on the continent 10,000 years ago. Now normally my wife would just turn it over at this point but this time she wanted to watch all of it. She kept trying to make it fit in with the Biblical account. She kept coming up with different theories that she wanted me to validate, which I did not. The end of the series was about how mankind has changed the landscape by using natural resources like coal, oil, and gold. This reinforced her belief that mankind is "ruining the Earth" as part of Bible prophecy. Still I hope something got through and caused some doubts.

steve2

I like how you are careful not to go too fast. Slow and steady is far better. This sounds promising.You sound like a very considerate and loving spouse!

sir82

I've noticed a lot of JWs are able to engage in "doublethink", as defined in the novel "1984", when it comes to biology / geology.

They fully, 100% accept the WTS' claim that Jehovah directly created the very first human exactly 6041 years ago, but they don't blink an eye and fully accept (for example) that the first North Americans arrived here 10,000 years ago.

Doublethink:
"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink.'

stuckinarut2

Good reference sir82!

Yes, well done JWRouge...take it slow. Don't overwhelm her with too much too quickly, or she will pull her head back into her shell and it will be all over.

kairos

If I had to do all of this over again, I too would choose slow and steady.

I went 'all in', right away.
That rarely works.

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Three years later, my wife still attends all of the meetings, mans a trolley and says she's going to "wait on Jehovah". ( Wait and see attitude )

I'm DFd for 'admitted apostasy'.

pale.emperor

Three years later, my wife still attends all of the meetings, mans a trolley and says she's going to "wait on Jehovah". ( Wait and see attitude )

And while she waits her life is passing her by. Such a shame. Im glad i woke up from this relatively young (30). I'm also DF for apostasy, although in my JC my genuine concerns came from old publications that were "the truth" which now are not "the truth". And if we dare mention the old "truth" we're called apostates.

jwleaks

I love the Book of Genesis. The first chapter completely disproves that God is the author of the Bible.

Genesis 1:14-19 clearly states that God made the stars, the sun and the moon on the fourth day.

Genesis 1:9-13 clearly states that God brought forth vegetation and trees on the third day.

Genesis 1:3-5 alludes to God creating light and darkness on the first day but this does does not refer to the stars nor the sun or the moon as these are clearly referred to on the fourth day.

Therefore vegetation and trees existed on Earth before both the sun and moon were created which is not possible.