Believing Everything Someone Tells You

by minimus 36 Replies latest jw friends

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  delilah

  I tend to take everything I see and read and hear, with a grain of salt. No, you can't always tell if someone is lying or telling tall tales, but eventually, they trip themselves up. They always do. The truth, does come out.....and I don't go shelling out to anybody, unless it's for certain that someone I know and trust, knows the person and their background.

  A girl can't be too careful you know.....

  However, people will be people, and for every fraudulent person that has been here, there are double or triple (or more) that many who are genuine. It won't make me stop posting here.
• 

  tula

  In order to develop discernment, you have to be a good listener.

  Hearing is not listening. Listening is interactive: it requires asking questions about what you just heard and giving a feedback response to affirm that you correctly understood what was said.

  I have noticed that many posters, instead of asking more questions of the poster, will instead, take some aspect of the post and make such comments as "I can relate to that". Then, they use the opportunity as a springboard to talk about their own situations. It sometimes reminds me of the "my dog's bigger than your dog" senerio.

  Just as a hypothetical example, if someone told me they were a new pioneer just starting out and within the first study or two could not answer questions on the resurrection and had to stop the study to go home and do more research, my first question would be "wasn't there someone with you who could have answered that question?" It has been my experience that a brand new pioneer would not be going out alone.

  As the resurrection hope is a basic premise for the foundation of this organization, it seems that this particular doctrine would have been drilled in so much that the answers would have been automatic (like zombies, from what I have experiened). I would wonder why elders of a congregation would send someone out all alone and without proper instruction and training to represent the organization.

  But that's just me. I would ask questions if I thought there were any validity to a post.

  The shame of being duped is that it takes your time and attention away from others who may sincerely need help.

  For instance, I noticed someone from the medical profession in ER submitted a serious concern and it took a very very long time for anyone to notice him. A JW possibly needing a blood transfusion came in to the ER last night. Maybe he needed some help to talk to her. Maybe a conversation here could make a difference in saving her life.

  When Drama Queens take all the attention on the board (and by drama, I mean how many different issues can one person have in 24 hours????) others who may truly need help do not get it.
• 

  Odrade

  Tula, are you aware of the definition of "hypothetical?" or are you going to try to continue your witchhunt here too?
• 

  tula

  bttt
• 

  cognac

  When Drama Queens take all the attention on the board (and by drama, I mean how many different issues can one person have in 24 hours????) others who may truly need help do not get it.

  Hmmm, given your post on Hypnotics thread, is it possible that you are referring to me... OR YOU??? hmmmmm......

  Do I win a prize????

  Sound familiar Tula??? Or are you just going to run away and not say anything again???
• 

  cognizant dissident

  It has been my experience that a brand new pioneer would not be going out alone

  It has been my experience that pioneers, very often work alone especially in congregations where they are the only pioneer.

  One of the most common types of fallacious logic is to make general assumptions, and apply them broadly across the board, on the basis solely of one's own very limited experience believing them to be somehow indicative of a much bigger picture. It is a very ego-centric way of reasoning, rampant amoung JW's and still very prominent amoung many ex-JW's. It leads to jumping to conclusions on very scant evidence.

  If we wish to make progress in our reasoning abilities, it is imperative that we don't just change the content of our conclusions, but the very process by which we arrive at them. It is not WHAT we think but HOW we think that is key!

  Cog
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  Elysian

  I've been reading posts on this board for a while and this one is by far one of the most balanced I've seen. I think we all need to get a grip of why we are here in the first place. Some people may prefer to have a public persona here in order to protect their privacy and perhaps even wellbeing of their families. So way even tell all the details??!!

  One sure sign if people are genuine though, in my experience is if they do not go out of their way to to protest their "genuineness", "innocence", "cleverness" etc. while smearing somebody else at the same time to EVERYONE who would listen to their story. In my opinion, such people don't really need friends but ego-trophies on their wall, and while we are at it, real friends do not shy away from pointing obvious errors and ego-trophies hunters are of the sort 'either-you-agree-with-me-or-you-are-my-enemy' kinda like some president I've heard of.

  So you can generally see if somebody is genuine or not by a simple test: are their post generally only about gathering people who will praise them how great, beautiful, smart, anything else, they are. I'd say such people actually need parents not friends regardless if they are 20, 30, 40 or more.