"Growing up a JW around JWs, being in Bethel surrounded by JWs, you accept things based on the fact that everyone around you accepts them. The generation change in the 90s blew me away, but nobody around me seemed concerned, so I kept my thoughts to myself and accepted. I accepted "Jesus' invisible presence since 1914" because everyone close to me did. Now I can think rationally and understand that Jesus has been visibly absent since 33 C.E. "Invisibly present", "visibly absent", just like Santa."
Thanks for the good afternoon laugh. :)
I really needed that.
I'm not sure if I believed all that crap, or just accepted it. What I do know is that in 2002 I left the org visibly upset and have been invisibly absent from the meetings, which has resulted in an apparent change of life for the better.
Observador.
INVISIBLE JESUS ALREADY CAME BACK........Gosh! Really?!!
by Terry 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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observador
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Terry
We can normalize almost any value in a social situation because of the artificial way in which subjective pressure is transmitted in a group.
Trekkers gather at Sci-Fi conventions and it is "normal" to dress up like a Klingon! Why? The group places high value on fantasy. You demonstrate participation in the group value by manifesting the OJBECT of value: a character from the fantasy.
Reinforcement of group values is what church, Kingdom Hall, conventions or prayer groups are all about!
Prayer doesn't do a thing for anybody until a group dynamic makes it VALUABLE by multiplying agreement. (Value added).
BELIEF is about attaching a high value to a group norm and personalizing it into fantasy fulfillment just short of reality.
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M.J.
Good point Terry.
Our sense of reality to a large extent relies on external feedback from those around us. Normally this is a good thing. We can get carried away with fantasies and self-aggrandizing delusions without this feedback loop. But what happens when the reality of a group of people is molded into uniformity?
Fantasy can take on the illusion of reality! Everyone's reality is the same. Feedback from others only reinforces the fantasy. The feedback loop is short-circuited! . -
M.J.
"We can normalize almost any value in a social situation because of the artificial way in which subjective pressure is transmitted in a group."
This is normally called culture. Culture is the shared base assumptions and ground rules of interaction between individuals.