...and that applies to religion as well as politics.
If someone simply believes such and such is true, it doesn't really matter whether you "prove" it or not. People will believe what they want to believe.
I've Come To Realize That "Facts" Don't Mean Much If A Person Refuses To Accept Them
by minimus 160 Replies latest jw friends
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Gopher
That's especially true when religion enters politics - then those political views become a matter of salvation if any compromise is proposed.
It's also true when religion becomes political - i.e. a power-struggle between adherents who absolutely believe the other side is eternally doomed.
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EntirelyPossible
Can I offer you an olive branch?
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minimus
Gopher, good point.
EP, you're not on my list.
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EntirelyPossible
Oh, that was a reference to the olive branch thread. Part of the issue some had with an olive branch was the idea of accepting facts and data as they are rather than .... whatever else they wanted to do. People tried to beat me with my own olive branch for suggesting such a radical and crazy idea.
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Ding
It is difficult for us to change our worldviews because we function according to them and our egos are wrapped up in them.
That said, it is possible or JWN wouldn't exist.
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OnTheWayOut
Part of the issue some had with an olive branch was the idea of accepting facts and data as they are rather than .... whatever else they wanted to do.
In that case, I want to say this about this current thread: Minimus, how dare you suggest that I am closed-minded and refuse to look at facts.
If that seems unrelated, all I can say is "Facts are facts."
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Apognophos
EP, I actually thought you were trolling with that thread. Were you really sincere about that, and yet you agree with minimus' assertion in this thread?
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pixel
Some people are lazy and don't want to research. Others are scare of finding that what they believed was not correct, and some are afraid of change.
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EdenOne
I remember when going out in the field service and conducting Bible studies, we would explain to people how the bible disproved things like a burning hell, the worshipping of images, that Mary didn't stay a virgin forever, etc ...and people would nod and then would say, "Yes, but I won't change my devotion to my virgin Mary". And we would think: "How blind and dumb these people are, with the evidence right in front of their very eyes, and they won't make a change".
Yes, right ... and now I look at us, Jehovah's Witnesses, when confronted with evidence that something's seriously wrong with our leadership and some of our doctrines ... same. Must be some kind of mental defense mechanism.
Eden