I see that it is because of the underlying reason why people hold onto faith. There is usually an ulterior motive as to why people ‘believe’, and this might be because the person can’t come to terms with something in their lives that they are missing or in fear of.
For example, Reniaa who posts on this forum can’t come to terms with the thought of dying. The thought of being dead forever is one of the biggest things that drives her to go to the extremity of unreasonableness. Now she will claim that she is on here to correct the biasness of this site, but really she is almost obsessively fighting against the fact that we could all be right, and that her god doesn't exist, and that she will be dead forever. Now as that is a painful reality for her to face, too painful, she desperately scurries around to prove us all wrong, so that she doesn’t have to face the fact that she is going to die, just like the rest of us. The thought is so frightening for her to grasp, so horrific, she has to fight vehemently to prove us all wrong just so that she can gain appeasement from the thought of the reality that she will one day die and that this life is all there is.
So she can’t afford anyone to prove her wrong because this will shatter that hope she has, which would cause her great distress. So rather than face that she will fight to the (unreasonable) death to prove things otherwise. The horror of reality is what drives her fight against it and you can see that clearly in the way she posts and how desperately she is to prove everyone wrong, and why she has so much to say. Every time someone opens up the possibility that her faith might not be true, they are really stabbing her heart through, causing her pain inside, which she is going to have to defend herself against. So she does this using the denial that her faith gives her.
So she has very good reason to be as defensive about her beliefs. She just couldn’t face life without. It would be too much for her…..
There are other reasons to, but I see this as one of the primary reasons why people hold so tightly onto their faith, especially among the JW’s, and why they are to defensive when challenged. There is also religious pride and arrogance to account for (not said as a derogatory statement but with the air of being the ‘chosen ones’ in mind) which gives the believer much esteem. If that is taken away then the believer will first of all have been fooled and also will have a hard job coming to terms that they are just an ‘ordinary’ person, just like everyone else, contrary to what they would have thought while in the religion.
It is always interesting observing people when they do become dogmatic and emphatic, but usually you will be able to see the true seat of motivation underlying their defensiveness.
