by Room 215 28 Replies latest jw friends
Cognitive Dissonance in 30 words or less:
"If you don't like these opinions, I have other opinions."
or
"Having opinions which do not fit with other opinions one holds."
Here's a classic example:
"Jehovah will slaughter you if you don't listen to my message. But he LOVES you."
Farkel
Edited by - Farkel on 2 July 2002 8:50:33
Mike: Here's a try at ``cognitive dissonance:"" The capacity to believe --and defend-- two contradictory premises concurrently. Only ten words... (you owe me 20 back!) rgds.
Amnesian: Your capacity for recall belies your chosen moniker; bravo!
Ozzie: With stuff like this in print and still accessible via CD-ROM and/or bound volumes, who needs ``apostate'' literature? With the egregious exceptions of Franz and Penton, their own back issues and older publications are far more damaging than anything their opponents have printed or said,
Thanks for your research - this one's a keeper!
I am so glad I finally came in here to take a look. This one is priceless
Sorry, it's not 30 words or less, but here is a very good explanation of Cognative Dissonance
Sorry about the religious overtones of the article, that wasn't my point here.. The first few paragraphs explain cognative dissonance very well!!!!!
In short, Cognative dissonance is the 'self defense' mechanism of the human brain, when presented with facts that completely contradict something that you believe to be true, and which are of such importance to your being that proving these facts false will have huge reprecussions (emotionally, physically, mentally) if indeed you were to accept the new 'truth'.. It can cause someone to not listen to what is being said; you see examples of this all the time in JW's. They cannot accept the conflicting evidence, as to do so would cause great discomfort to even entertain the notion, so instead, their 'self defense' mechanism kicks in, and they do not even 'hear' to what is being said..
How many times have you been talking to a JW, and you see a sudden 'blank stare' from their faces.. They are in 'self protect' mode, because what you are stating to them is causing dissonance between what they know to be true and what you are presenting to them as evidence that they cannot accept and still believe what they believe (They cannot reconsile the evidence within their own 'truth') ... Instead of facing the 'truth', they 'protect' themselves.. It's less painful that way!!!
Example:
Talk to a JW, who 'knows' that the GB speaks as if it were god, heck, to her, the GB is god.
Then show her the scriptures about False prophets, show where the GB spoke for god, and bingo, all of a sudden the GB are fallable men who make mistakes..
But then you tell her that God cannot make mistakes, so why is god using fallable men to tell the world of his truth?
Keep this line of reasoning up with her for any amount of time, and soon she will be faced with 2 options:
A.) Accept that something isn't correct, and the GB cannot be god (A very painful and frieghtening prospect for someone who believes the GB speak for(are) god). Your entire life changes that very moment (As I'm sure many ex-witnesses here can attest to this very fact)
B.) Employ cognative dissonance, which spares you from having to 'face' the fact that you do not want to deal with. So, instead, as a self-preservation mechanism, you basically don't listen to what is being presented any longer.. You have spared yourself the 'pain' that goes with accepting the 'truth'.
It's easy to tell when someone hasn't employed cognative dissonance yet, because they usually exhibit uneasiness, sometimes even get physicially sick when they are trying to actually 'solve' the problem, but at some point they do shut down because they cannot solve the 'problem' within their own perception of truth. At that point, they are employing cognative dissonance, they have stopped accepting any more evidence, and in fact, most likely, aren't even hearing what you are presenting to them any longer, as their brain is 'protecting' them from further pain and anguish.
Edited by - itsjustlittleoldme on 2 July 2002 9:34:2
Edited by - itsjustlittleoldme on 2 July 2002 10:6:44
Hello Room
Congnitive Dissonance= God is a God of Love OR Jehovah of Armies
Merciful, Just, Full of Loving Kindness, Not Partial, BUT is a Jealous God a
will Destroy you and rot out your eye sockets if you cross the Governing
Body in your Christian Conscience regarding protecting little children.
AMNESIAN- I just had a "what the hell was I thinking moment" actually I get quite a lot of them
OOPS! messed up in the paragrah. Sorry
A Roarer,
Here's my favorite:
"God is a God of love."
"Love is not jealous."
"I, your God am a jealous God."
Resolve THOSE statements rationally!
Farkel
Whoa....
Thanks for posting this.
LOL @ Amnesian, farkel, Aroarer....you basically summed up my thoughts. I can't imagine seeing this article and these contradictions and STILL nodding my head and going, "yep, uhhuh, that's the truth!!" Oddly enough, there are those out there who do just that...and to think at one time I was one them (scary thought)...
And to think we hung on these guys' every word! How could be have been so dumb
I'll never know the answer to that question.
Poor poor Fredie. In his later years he had forgotten what statements he had written while in his private room typing away new study articles. He should have researched his OWN material first.....before writing new articles because...........dementia is a pain in the ass!
