Dates are not important to the R&F because Armageddon is ALWAYS just around the corner. 1914, 1975, 1984, 1994, changes in the generation, I let all these things go. I reasoned, I'm not in this for date, but because I love Jehovah. It took me until this year (2009) to realise I was being duped. In the past, when I had doubts, I put them to the back of my mind. To stop them surfacing I immersed myself in tas much heocratic activity as I could for a married man with a young family.
Earlier this year I saw a level a nepotism and cover up by our COBE which shocked me so much that the doubts surfaced once again. At the same time, whilst preparing the memorial talk a realisation came over me that I didn't have a relationship with god or his son, but with a man made organisation. That's when I started thinking for myself, questioning, researching, waking up.
So its wasn't just the dates, the failed promises that made me come to my senses, it was a combination of so many things.
Sadly I know many good people who have put dates and doubts to the back of their minds, buried them deeply. 1914 has no meaning to them anymore (even though a few of them use it as a PIN number). They fall hook line and sinker for the arguments like "think of all the people who have come into the organisation since 1914 - all those lives that have been saved". So , like I used to, they robotically go about thier "live saving" work, never questioning whether there is more effective way of saving lives, other than placing literature with apathetic householder on Saturday morning.
Hopefully some will be woken up by a date, maybe 2014 (unless larsinger is right about 2012 -Ha Ha), but I think the majority of my friends will be on their deathbeds and still believe they will wake up in the new system, because it is "just around the corner".
Sorry for the ramble.