Englishman.
Yep, that’s what I think happens. And that’s what I’ve seen/experienced myself!
In the "Independent thinking"-thread
* http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=4040&site=3
I told stephenw20 about something, that has been happening to me for a couple of months. And it is IMO an example of how long-time JW slip into “automatic transmission” when confronted with issues they don’t like:
I decided to share what I had read/learned about WT-chronology with two of my best friends. (I talked to to them pesonally - they had nothing to fear from each other, as they did not know I had been telling both of them. And it was ME, who brought up the issue... a person they have been calling their best friend for years...) Both long time JW, long-time elders and in any sense the kind of brothers you would expect to be able to do independant / reasonable thinking and to be mature enough to discuss the consequences...
Well - i was shocked that they seemed to be unable or at least completely unwilling to discuss anything. Time and time again both of them told me, that if there should be any change in the WT-chronology, the WT itself (the FDS) would tell us about it. When I tried to explain them, that this was, where I had my problem ... they warned me of such thinking and it became clear to me that each of them was too afraid of even thinking about the consequences of what we were talking about.
It is not that they did not know enough about the topic. They simply chose to ignore any of my arguments and told that they would not read anything - even if I personally had written it down, after having done research for nearly 9 years... no 'apostate-stuff'...
On many other topics - of course nothing that questioned the WT - we have had some interesting arguments. But at these occasions it was impossible to get through to them - if you understand what I mean.
And that's why I think it is the case, that many, many JW are AFRAID of independant thinking. But of course: Maybe that's the result of so many years of learning: AVOID independant thinking...
Englishman, that’s the way I see it – and it’s frustrating. Nothing I can do about the "Defense-Mode" or the "automatic transmission"...
cecil