Things you KNOW, don't know and don't know you don't (know)

by Terry 28 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  The contents of your mind consist of:

  1.The things you know

  2.The things you know you don't know

  3.The things you don't know which you don't know you don't know.

  Did you get all that?

  1.I know my name is Terry Edwin Walstrom

  2.I know I don't know the square root of minus one

  3.This is the scary answer (!)

  Among the things you don't know there might be "facts" which aren't facts.

  When a little kid thinks about Santa Claus or heaven or monsters- that child doesn't know the facts AND YET is operating off of a sort

  of data base of seeming facts. (Let us NOT call them false beliefs.. "Belief" requires awareness of effort to believe and the intangibile missing proof.)

  .

  The child THINKS about these things and those thoughts come from SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE he/she has no reason to doubt or mistrust or fear.

  What you and I think about always connects those three categories like interlocking circles.

  1.The things you know

  2.The things you know you don't know

  3.The things you don't know which you don't know you don't know.

  There are areas a little bit IN and a little bit OUT of absolutely clear and identifiable certainty.

  So what?

  This is the interesting part.

  Without the ability to use partially true information AS THOUGH IT WERE ENTIRELY TRUE humanity could not make progress.

  Doubt that?

  Insects, animals and all life forms operate on a "given" set of circumstances. We call that instinct. Beyond that instinct few dare tred.

  Life forms survive or NOT based on each successive moment of DEALING WITH REALITY. Each success extends life long enough for yet another encounter.

  Humanity dominates all other life forms. Why?

  Humanity has a "stupid" factor it is able to exploit.

  What is this Stupid factor? Humans act AS THOUGH.....without proof....complete information...total fact...are theirs.

  MANKIND MAKES PROGRESS.

  In a Poker game a bluff can win the pot against another player's superior hand.

  The BLUFF appears as confidence.

  But, in this discussion, the BLUFFER cannot and does not actually KNOW when he is bluffing!

  The function of dealing with what DOES NOT ACTUALLY EXIST as though it does......is =to reality.

  Are you with me so far?

  This is what comes next.......

  When enough people act AS THOUGH they possess special knowledge (not knowing this is untrue) that confidence fuels a sense of purpose to achieve.

  A purposeful achiever will MAKE PROGRESS.

  The skeptic, the doubter, the cautious temporizer is crippled by what he is AWARE OF THAT HE DOES NOT KNOW.

  Which one moves forward and which one is stuck?

  This is where many of us find ourselves.

  Jehovah's Witnesses possess the TRUE KNOWLEDGE (which does not exist) and move forward confidently acting on their purpose.

  They do not and will not entertain DOUBT.

  The so-called Apostate is a threat only because JW's seek to preserve ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY (they don't know what they don't know) which

  empowers their joy, community and assurance.

  The Governing Body is the source of KNOWLEDGE (which isn't actual fact or even knowledge OF anything real) which gives them certainty.

  The person leaving behind the JW source of "Knowledge" (which isn't knowledge) LOSES the empowering confidence of absolute certainty.

  Investigating ACTUAL FACTS gnaws away the ABILITY to act postively and ambitiously toward a confident purpose.

  Losing the "Stupid" factor (acting confidently without fact) stops them dead in their tracks and life comes to a standstill.

  Ex-JW's bog down in PROCESS. Process without Progress.

  Process without Progress is merely overlapping the two circles of what you know you don't know and what you Don't know you don't know!

  IT MAKES LITTLE REAL WORLD DIFFERENCE once you lose the motor that drives your world!!

  We are trapped in this space between "heaven" and "hell" by what we KNOW we know...what we KNOW we DON'T know and---sadly, most of all by what we DON'T KNOW we don't know.

  This awful state of limbo causes many to immediately trade the JW CERTAINTY for another brand. It may be "spirituality", "GOD talk", Mainstream christianity, or "other".

  The addiction to KNOWING (which they mistakenly call:FAITH) is too great to avoid.

  If you find this is true in your life you now know something very very scary!

  Life without MEANING is too much of an empty reality to face.

  MEANING requires acting as though you know what you cannot: future certainty.
• 

  Terry

  When Jehovah's Witnesses coughed up wave upon wave of "information" about 1975 being the "End of 6,000 years of human existence" and connected that with the 1,000 year reign of Christ they moved forward with a grand sense of PURPOSE.

  Theirs was a certainty so absolute and unwavering millions of lives were changed by it!

  Time proved their FACTS to be utterly without basis in reality.

  A great many people, myself included, discovered that what we KNEW was something NOBODY KNEW.

  Here is where we tend to go off the rails......IT DOESN'T MATTER that the FACTS were wrong.

  The difference between FACTS and "facts" is utterly meaningless in this instance.

  Ask me "why?"

  "Why doesn't it matter, Terry?"

  Thanks for asking!

  To the Jehovah's Witnesses life is about PURPOSE. Purpose depends on acting with confidence. The confidence gives them a positive identification with good rather than evil and with life rather than death.

  A JW's life consists in acting AS THOUGH what they say and do and think REALLY MEANS SOMETHING! The actual "facts" are irrelevent!

  When one set of "facts" is replaced by another and another and another the SENSE OF POSITIVE PURPOSE, HOPE and ACHIEVEMENT is what counts as they move forward.

  Meaning what?

  If you remove a Jehovah's Witnesses' facts there are plenty of new ones to replace those. That is why "proving" things wrong and attacking their basis of certainty is meaningless.

  You haven't touched the area that counts: WHAT THEY DON'T KNOW THEY DON'T KNOW. That is where their ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY is centered.

  You would have to drag each and every NOT KNOW out into the light of day and expose it as false as well as bringing it into what they KNOW they DON'T KNOW for them to acknowledge.

  This may have happened to you.

  If it did and you know KNOW what you didn't know you didn't know ARE YOU BETTER OFF?

  What replaces the absolute certainty and forward motion and sense of purpose?

  A NEW absolute certainty based on what you don't know?

  There are things which---since they do not and cannot exist--are only KNOWABLE through imagination and constant reinforcement.

  Investing BELIEF in these things is a separate issue beyond mere knowing and not knowing.

  FAITH is a totally separate subject, imho. You may as well commit to loving your stuffed Teddy Bear and having conversations with it

  as to pretend this is the same as having a relationship.

  There are people who have substituted pets for companions and refer to them as their "children" and "friends".

  Since they ACT AS THOUGH this is true---for them---it is true enough to be real.

  Your skepticism will anger and threaten them.

  What has this got to do with anything?

  Faith, Belief and confidence ATTACH to....this and that....and fuel our emotional motor for activity and purpose and confidence.

  But, there is an area we do not know we do not know which is even more profound.
• 

  sizemik

  I'm pretty sure I'm following you Terry . . . although I'm not sure whether it can be presented any simpler . . . or whether it's a necessarily complicated equation . . . probably is.

  I've found over the years since exiting, that there is much I don't know . . . I don't know what it is I don't know

  The believing JW however believes there is nothing he does not know worth knowing, so feels fully equipped to move forward based on what he knows. Am I correct?

  I'm interested in this, because during my early exit years, I most certainly felt hamstrung after divesting belief in what I knew

  It was certainly a void previously avoided

  What got me through that phase was spending some time with the philosophies of Albert Einstein, who spoke of the need to make allowance for the unknown

  It proved more difficult than it sounds. Einstein was able to accomplish this by a simple thinking technique, whereby he broke things down into there simplist form . . . the basic elements (a process of simplification), and then made room for the unknown when making a conclusion which could then give rise to action.

  This was something I never did as a JW . . . I never felt the need to of course. But when I began to apply it, it certainly gave me the ability to move forward . . . while still being open to new information.

  I've mentioned "making room for the unknown" in some previous threads, but have drawn little comment or concurrence. Not sure if this is what you're driving at . . . but it works for me.
• 

  talesin

  Terry! we are thinking alike. If that doesn't scare the bejesus out of you, nothing will. J/K :)

  synchronicity --- here's a posting I made a couple of days ago

  If we (humans) can only expand our horizons, and realize that we limit ourselves by believing that all that exists is bound by what we now know, this shift will happen more quickly. (eg. look at how medicine changed once we 'discovered' that many diseases were caused by viruses, and germs)

  Our conceit is our greatest barrier to learning (just like the JWs).

  t
• 

  Terry

  The believing JW however believes there is nothing he does not know worth knowing, so feels fully equipped to move forward based on what he knows. Am I correct?

  Yes. The DISDAIN of what JW's don't know because they view it as NOT WORTH KNOWING includes so many real things, true things and important things completely discarded! That sense of forward motion, progress toward the "new world" and eternal life become the substitute for what has been discarded.

  It was certainly a void previously avoided

  What got me through that phase was spending some time with the philosophies of Albert Einstein, who spoke of the need to make allowance for the unknown.

  Allowing ourselves some room for ignorance in our world allows us to CORRECT OUR COURSE when wrong. But, only if we are heading some place that is an actual destination! When JW's correct their course they just make up new wrong facts. Where they are headed is illusory to begin with. Life is all about the tasks at hand on a journey to nowhere.

  This was something I never did as a JW . . . I never felt the need to of course. But when I began to apply it, it certainly gave me the ability to move forward . . . while still being open to new information.

  I personally feel each of us has to come up with a way that works for us to create goals and purposes without falling prey to them.

  Death may be an ultimate reality. But, who really can embrace such a fate and desire to move TOWARD that?

  Creating the best (temporary) life here and now may not be as delicious as eternal life in paradise. But, does that compel us to live in a delusion?
• 

  Terry

  If we (humans) can only expand our horizons, and realize that we limit ourselves by believing that all that exists is bound by what we now know, this shift will happen more quickly. (eg. look at how medicine changed once we 'discovered' that many diseases were caused by viruses, and germs)

  Our conceit is our greatest barrier to learning (just like the JWs).

  I hear what you are saying.

  What we now know (as you said) cannot ever be ALL of anything. Knowing that fact allows us to learn because we make room to learn by admitting to ignorance.

  I'm saying something a bit farther down that road by adding this:

  For us to get up off our butt and really commit to a purpose and throw ourselves fully into achieving a goal is what FILLS OUR LIFE with

  something that TRANSCENDS mere existence. Surviving is something cockroaches do very well. They do not aspire to art, music, literature, philosophy or science. They merely exist. Period.

  A totally committed, believing, performing Jehovah's Witness is filled with a glowing vitality (for awhile) harmonious with absolute certaintity that EVERYTHING will happen for the BEST! Why? Because a being named Jehovah makes that happen! All they need do

  is get on the side of that and they are home free!

  Contrarily...the Apostate who points fingers and undercuts their theology may be a real loser in life without much to move them or fill them other than the negative energy of revenge.

  You can't base a positive life on negativity and be happy.

  The difference between HAPPY based on delusion and HAPPY based on fact is itself an illusion!!

  It is much easier to be HAPPY based on the idea life won't end and you will be perfect!

  So, does this differ from what you said? I don't know but I can say this: NOT KNOWING what you don't know IS different

  from KNOWING what you don't know. As the saying goes: Ignorance is bliss.
• 

  thetrueone

  Religion in itself is responsible for creating many psychological delusions, some certainly more severe than others.

  The subject of 1975 and the WTS. is just an example of a stealth worthy delusion propagated and endeavored to

  further the promotion of the WTS. literature. The 6000 years from Adam's existence was once again exploited by this

  publishing house as a devised and controlled marketing scheme and one could see it was quite successful.

  The fear induced doctrines of the WTS. captivate people into total submission, dissuading any analytical thought processes.

  This becomes the know to them and they vehemently support this knowledge as its descriptively offered.

  The WTS. in one way or another controls the know for these people as they are being manipulated and exploited

  to meet the organization's collective means.
• 

  SixofNine

  Fortunately there is the scientific method. For everything else, there's Mastercard. Like when you know you don't know what has hurt her feelings, but you know that that "unknown" is likely you and something she knows you should have known.

  The UnknownAs we know,
  There are known knowns.
  There are things we know we know.
  We also know
  There are known unknowns.
  That is to say
  We know there are some things
  We do not know.
  But there are also unknown unknowns,
  The ones we don't know
  We don't know.

  Donald Rumsfeld —Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing
• 

  Terry

  The Department of Defense should read its own memos! I notice the date is a year after 9/11.

  I like the phrase: Unknown unknowns. Wish I'd thought of that.

  The current term for this sort of thing is BLACK SWAN.

  The theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain:
  The disproportionate role of high-impact, hard to predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology
  The non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities)
  The psychological biases that make people individually and collectively blind to uncertainty and unaware of the massive role of the rare event in historical affairs

  Specifically, Taleb asserts[6] in the New York Times:
  
  What we call here a Black Swan (and capitalize it) is an event with the following three attributes. First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.
• 

  SixofNine

  Whence some Archduke gets shot and before you know it I'm a six year old out selling magazines in the sweltering heat with my father who was only six years old himself when the Archduke caught it(!) And to think I knew why the Archduke was killed (for all these things to occur) when all the other kids only knew they didn't know.