In the WT's Defence (page 4)

rolling rock

Would not the WTBTS, have to have something good about them to defend them???

Abandoned

I didn't read this whole thread. OK, end of disclaimer....

Now, cognitive dissonance isn't always a bad thing. It is when the end result is delusion. Congnitive dissonance can also be the kick in the butt needed to get to work and start taking advantage of the opportunities around you. For example: If someone wants to be an actor, but never studies acting, or takes part in the theatre, or goes to readings or any of the stuff that actors usually do to become actors, his or her dream will reamin unrealized. However, by taking advantage of cognitive dissonance, and visualizing that the person has already become the actor they want to be, the resultant cognitive dissonance can make them more aware of the opportunites that already exist around them and more motivated to take the necessary risks.

I highly recommend the book, The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. This is one of the two guys behind the huge Chicken Soup for the Soul line of books.

Surfrusty

Yeah I agree with that. We all have dissonance to deal with. And it isn't necessarily always negative. But knowing it's effects can help us to view things from a different perspective. Unfortunately sometimes it's difficult to know what kind of hoops our mind is jumping through to reduce dissonance.

shadowofbathory

Sunfrusty, thank you for your feedback i can see you are a thinking man.

Satanus, yes mate another shrimp etc. so u remember me? u were around back then and i remember getting into a few heated discussions with you. its all good

everyone else, get over the CD stuff and address the balance of the post,

Satanus

I had the other name back then, still w satan in, lol. I think i was more feisty, too. Unclebruce used to stick up for you. He still pops in, occasionally.

S

thecarpenter

Yeah man, screw all of you and your druggy satanic AIDS carrying friends, the WT is da shit man, and Jeeeeehooovaah is going to smite your ass all over the pavement. Attend meetings or die!!! There's no child molesters nor any UN scandal, you guys just smoke too much crack just like the latest Awake! magazine said you did. Satan and his demons got you by the nutsack, and I'm gonna live in Paradise Erf with the rest of my JW buddies, and we're gonna have a party to celebrate when you're dead! I am better than you.

Pretty good try, but you have to say something like this.... the watchtower isn't perfect, they never claimed to be. the truth gets brighter and brighter so old doctrines will be disgarded. Issues such as child molestation and the UN scandal was a unfortunate mistake due to the imperfection of man. As for 607 bce and the blood issue, in time if it proves to be wrong, we will adjust and move on but we won't let up in preaching the good news that our lord has given to us as a commission.

this sound a bit more geniune. Answer that you evil poztates!

Quentin

As i dont have the time nor the desire to represent as a WT protagonist here

Then why bang the drum and call forth the storm troopers? You don't have time, or you just lazy? Plenty of for, aginst and every thing in between gets posted to this board...

SirNose586

the watchtower isn't perfect, they never claimed to be. the truth gets brighter and brighter so old doctrines will be disgarded. Issues such as child molestation and the UN scandal was a unfortunate mistake due to the imperfection of man. As for 607 bce and the blood issue, in time if it proves to be wrong, we will adjust and move on but we won't let up in preaching the good news that our lord has given to us as a commission.
this sound a bit more geniune. Answer that you evil poztates!

... I-I am stunned! I cannot answer such a bulletproof defense!

J-ex-W

JW males have a healthy ego. They get to bully with their bible and babble and bellow bellicose blather when they take us on here at JWD.
But, in reality; it is sad. We are debating ourselves (from long ago) in a kind of echoing timewarp. When we burst their bubble it is our own we hear pop from a distance!
Belief in the absurd is the dizzying dance of the dutifully demented. The music here they'll not find to their liking.

Terry-------- This is very eloquently stated. And sooooooo true....

J-ex-W

Just some things I found online. Put more simply, if a guys thinks it's wrong to have sex outside of marriage then proceeds to do so, the next day he'll probably start questioning the validity of his belief that fornication is wrong. Once he has convinced himself that his previously held belief was wrong or baseless then the mental conflict is reduced or eliminated. No more cognitive dissonance. The same can happen with JW's. If I have a wrong desire or have acted on one that creates conglict or dissonance. The mind can't accept that. So what is it that tells me that the desire or action is wrong? God? The Bible? The WTS? Then the subconscience starts looking for holes in your belief in God, The Bible or the WTS latching onto whatever will support this idea. Eventually after the value of those things is reduced no more dissonance.

Surfrusty-------- This explanation of cognitive dissonance is in the ballpark but misses some nuances. For instance, some define it as the 'pinch' you feel between two conflicting thoughts, just before making a move to change one or the other or both thoughts. However, some never do feel that pinch; i.e., rather than address the pinch (pain of recognition of the conflict), many go another route entirely: Deny, deny deny the conflict to others and to themselves.

And it is not necessarily a conflict brought on by bad behavior (as your post seems to imply?). Cognitive dissonance does not have to arise from a guilty conscience (although it can). For example, as a JW, I experienced cognition dissonance regarding so-called Christian headship. I have never believed women were in any way inferior in worth, capability, or position relative to men. Yet, the JW's expect that regardless of what superior qualities or knowledge a certain female may have, in a given situation, a man (or a baptized boy!) will be given the preference in decision-making and task-handling--simply for his having that proverbially envied penis.

I operated at this (unexamined) level of cognitive dissonance for quite some time--as a coping tool, really, given my environment--until I could do so no longer and had to say, 'Enough! My judgment in these matters IS more relevant than yours [certain males'] and I must listen to ME.' Poof!! Cognitive dissonance gone, and no wrongdoing on my part precipitated it. (Well...depending on who you ask. My ex would see it entirely differently...but then, he wasn't exactly invested in looking out for my welfare, either. --To him saying NO was wrondoing.)

Many times because of this very unresolved dissonance, I went against my own gut and followed the dictates of either my husband or some other male authority in the WT. Since leaving that situation, MY situation has improved dramatically. I would never go back to operating that way again. Dissonance gone. Poof!!

In the WT's Defence

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