An example of someone engaging in cognitive disonance would be when a smoker, despite all the research that proves smoking is deadly, continues to smoke even though on some level he knows smoking is harming him. He truly wants to keep smoking especially since the idea of giving it up overwhelms him and despite of the possibility that he might get lung cancer, which frightens him. In order to ease the discomfort he feels, he reasons that Dr's don't always know what they are talking about, he reasons that at least he doesn't smoke Cigars and he certainly doesn't smoke as much as his Grandfather who smoked 3 packs a day since he was 13 and lived to be 80. The disonance sets in and his discomfort is releived.
JW's who are troubled by the past history of the orgainzation and are frustrated with some of the new light, or the way things are being handled by the Elders, engage in the same kind of behavior. The idea that their beleifs could be based on something that isn't true is so frightening, they go to great lengths to ease the fear this possibility creates. They might reason that maybe their leaders have made mistakes in the past, but at least they don't go to war...and I don't understand the new Blood Fractions reasoning but look at how abstaining from blood protected us from AIDS. What about the growth in the organization, surely 7 million people can't be wrong? They often go as far as to villify anyone who points out the past errors or presents evidence of wrongdoings or flaws in the current teachings. Although undereducated or never having done any research themselves, they mock scientific studies that cast doubt upon their own understanding of man's origin for example, even though nothing they believe in can be backed up by any physical evidence or reliable data but is based solely on anecdotal information that has been bent to fit around acutal historical events.
Of course they can say that Apostates do the same thing. They say Apostates just want to do what they like and they look for flaws in the organization and use human imperfection as means to justify leaving God's people and to ease their guilty consciences.
