by Satanus 40 Replies latest jw friends
It's puzzling to me how some kids can grow up in the 'truth' and still not believe the stuff. I really believed it. 'Course i had it scared into me, beaten into me, etc. That's my excuse, anyway. What quality does a kid need to have in order to remain free of the indotrination?
S
i was like you..believed it totally and unquestionably for most of my life.
maybe the ones that dont have worldly relatives that help balance their thinking, or maybe had " bad" association at school where they actually discussed reality.
I have heard some children described as "growing up alongside the truth." I figured it was the best of a bad lot.
Blondie
"What quality does a kid need to have in order to remain free of the indotrination?"
A healthy dose of skepticism and a questioning mind did the trick for me, especially after hearing throughout my childhood about the pagan roots of all the things a kid would otherwise like to indulge himself in (i.e., christmas gifts, birthday presents, easter candy, halloween, etc.). We were always taught to examine the facts & make a rational decision. Of course, the dubs get a little pissy when your rational decision doesn't fall on their side of the issue.
i wonder about this all the time too. i wish i was one of those kids that had natural critical thinking ability! unfortunately critical thinking ability has to be learned by most of us. the few people i know, who were those kids, had a natural disposition to science and skepticism.
I was born in the truth and I can honestly say I only truely believed in it for a good 2 weeks out of my life. I just knew it was crap ever since they told me my best friend in the whole world that wasn't a witness was going to die at armeggedon. Just couldn't accept it. Only times i truly believed it was when i found this site and i thought the devil was after me so i went into super JW mode. Then visited the site again and realised that you guys can explain a lot more than the JW's. That doesn't mean the social scaring from the JW lifestyle hasn't hit me hard though. Maybe worse since i never talked to JWs or non jws except for few occasions.
My son was pretty much raised in the 'truth', despite the fact that I had turned my back on it. (I know...how could I do that to him? There is a story there, but let's just say I thought I was doing the right thing at the time). There was a year or two there around the age of 8 and 9 that he was overly zealous. He turned 16 today. We talk about it a lot. I am amazed at how much healthier his outlook is then mine. He simply says he doesn't believe they have it right, he's not really sure what is right, but the whole JW thing doesn't feel right to him. I don't see any scarring.
I do think that having some strong influences that did not buy in was helpful. I wouldn't consider him to be overly skeptical. But he was attending meetings with his JW grandparents, and going home to his two moms. I have to believe that when he compared the two styles of leadership, he preferred the one that encouraged him to think for himself and make decisions based on his own observations rather then dictated by an invisible god through autocratic elders.
So maybe that is a piece of it. I wasn't really encouraged to think for myself. Everything was fed to me, and questioning was discouraged. Perhaps, somewhere along the way, questioning opens up the world of possibilities.
* twists up traditional fatty before discussion begins to ease the mood*
What quality does a kid need to have in order to remain free of the indotrination?
Someone said scepticism. My question is........do kids have the ability to be sceptical at an early age? I wondered many things, but never doubted my faith or questioned the rightness of it as a kid. What's a kid though?
Just today I heard of another witness who is about 18 now, smokes cigs, weed. This kid was a cute little well behaved boy who faithfully went door to door with pappa as a youngen. When he got to the age of independence ( just recently), .....he wanted NOTHING to do with the organisation.
This was always strange to me as I could never understand how someone could just leave with no worries or reserves about leaving.........when the only reason it appeared they left was simply because "they didn't want to be a witness anymore".
For me.....I had TO KNOW I was decieved and learn all the things that proved it before I could leave.
Gumby
I have 2 kids the oldest one believes it the younger doesnt. Idont know why I spent hours trying to convince the younger one but it was no use he just didnt want to know
I think that an outside counterbalancing influence makes a world of difference. In my case, I lived totally as a jw because of my father, with the exception that I went to Catholic schools because of my mother. I had direct contact with really good people from "Babylon the Great". Mind you I couldn't associate with them because of my father, but I saw with my own eyes as I was growing up that they were actually helping people more than most of the jws who were just preaching to them.
On top of that though, as best as I can figure, there's a lack of belief in general about all things supernatural. I was always fascinated by it, even found myself wanting to believe at times, but never really did. I think its just an innate tendency in some of us.
