Can All Witnesses "Snap"? Or Not?

by metatron 7 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  One upon a time , Joe Witness stumbled onto an "apostate" internet site - and his curiosity got the better of him. He couldn't stop

  reading and went thru a wrenchingly painful weekend in which his deeply held beliefs were shattered. In short, he was suddenly de-

  converted from the "truth".

  This is how many of us got here. And what made us different from the rest? Can all Witnesses 'snap' like this?

  I am forced to consider what these de-conversions tell us about the Witnesses who remain: are they completely deluded? able to locate

  their posterior with both hands? idiots? or just patient ( and quiet) disbelievers? - as I suspect many Bethelites and older brothers actually

  are. Were we concerned with facts? And they aren't? What does that say about their level of practicality and sanity in dealing with

  life?

  It's all rather a puzzle. Can 6 million people collectively drift into complete fantasy? Maybe so. It gets stranger every year.

  metatron
• 

  minimus

  People tune out all the time. Nazism flourished because of dunderhead thinking. People choose to think just one way and the result is ethnic cleansing. Militants believe Allah wants all non conformists dead. How many millions espouse this ideology to some degree?

  JWs refuse to do much of anything because most are mentally LAZY!
• 

  journey-on

  I believe that CULTISH RELIGIOUS FANATICISM is intentionally induced by the methods and techniques devised and implemented by the WTB&TS.

  I won't list the ways they do that in this thread, but suffice it to say, "they have their ways".

  Therefore, bottom line, it's a psychosis, imo.

  Nobody in their right mind, would be like that... buying into something so blindly and fearing to search out the facts! The fear they have of reading anything

  even slightly contradictory creates a deep-seated psychological illness. STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT! An organization full of mentally ill people made

  that way by the slow deliberate implanting of sinister ideas.
• 

  inkling

  can 6 million people collectively drift into complete fantasy?

  6 million? How about 6 BILLION? Civilization drifts off in mass numbers into mass delusion all the time.

  [ink]
• 

  Robert7

  I would say no. I myself have looked at apostate sites a few times over the years, and they never phased me. If anything, they gave me 'proof' this was the truth. Of course I was going into it with blinders on. It took my own personal rational thinking to set myself free.

  For everything true stated about 'the truth' on apostate sites, there is a pre-canned response for everything. For example:

  - 'mind control' - it is repitition for emphasis. Loving provision from Jehovah.

  - shunning - Protects the flock. Loving provision from Jehovah.

  - No worldly association - Protects the flock. Loving provision from Jehovah.

  - Changed doctrines - New light. Loving provision from Jehovah.

  - etc etc etc

  People can choose and force themselves to be closed minded. This is why not everyone will see the real light.
• 

  GentlyFeral

  We're all familiar with the concept of doublethink, more or less --

  "'Doublethink' means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ... to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed.”

  What most discussions of doublethink fail to consider is that it is DAMN HARD WORK, and may even take a certain minimum level of intelligence.

  I think some fun-damn-mentalists* simply have more mental stamina than others. They stay in longer.

  *of which JWs are but a subset.

  gently feral
• 

  Mickey mouse

  In the case of JW's who are not "in" because of family I cannot say. I think it's a very uncomfortable thing to live a lie and I suspect many have a look at sites like this, know the truth is a lie but have to avoid thinking about it to protect their own sanity. Mine is hanging from a thin thread at the moment. I believe it's called cognitive dissonance?
• 

  willyloman

  or just patient ( and quiet) disbelievers? - as I suspect many Bethelites and older brothers actually are.

  That get my vote. It's precisely what I saw at the end, before I left.