Posts by losthobbit

38

Have you ever successfully persuaded anyone?

by losthobbit in

i've had many conversations with religious people and am always surprised that i am never able to get anyone to put their programmed beliefs aside and process the logic that proves how unreasonable their doctrines are.. so, i'm wondering, have you ever successfully persuaded someone to change their mind about something that they had been brainwashed with, and if so, how did you do it?.

thanks in advance .

losthobbit

Thanks for the question, Tammy:

What is your purpose in your attempts to persuade someone to change their mind?

There are two groups of reasons... one is personal, and the other is idealistic.

My personal reasons:

- I hate lies

- My mother cries every time I talk to her about religion, because she thinks I am going to hell. I also think she loves Jesus more than she loves my dad. I feel like I can't really talk to her about anything that matters, because the only thing that matters to her is Jesus.

- My wife also cried when I explained to her that I am no longer a Christian. She too, wants me to end up in heaven with her.

- When I was a Christian I struggled whenever I prayed, because I hated the idea that my friends and family would end up in hell. I took extreme measures to try and help people to learn about Jesus, because I didn't want them to end up in hell. I don't want my friends to have the same burden.

- I'm too scared to even tell anyone else in my family that I am no longer religious. They knew me when I was religious, and they won't understand.

My idealistic reasons:

- I want the world to be united, not divided by religious grouping.

- I love this planet, and the people on it. I want people to focus on real solutions to the world's problems, not believe that there's some god out there who's allowing wars, global warming and starvation for a good reason and who will fix all the problems in his own time (or that he'll destroy the planet anyway).

- You can probably guess a few reasons why I would want to persuade JW's that they're learning lies.

38

Have you ever successfully persuaded anyone?

by losthobbit in

i've had many conversations with religious people and am always surprised that i am never able to get anyone to put their programmed beliefs aside and process the logic that proves how unreasonable their doctrines are.. so, i'm wondering, have you ever successfully persuaded someone to change their mind about something that they had been brainwashed with, and if so, how did you do it?.

thanks in advance .

losthobbit

Thanks for your thoughts, Tammy :)

5

Christian Pastor claims "sex demons" made him molest girl....are you sick of "the Devil made me do it?"

by Witness 007 in

this born again minister met up with a teenage girl in the congregation, gave her some alcoholic drinks then raped her...he then beat her and set her on fire to cover his crime, but she survived horribly disfigured.

during the police interview he claimed he was "under the influence of sex demons.".

i'm so over dumb ass christians putting the blame on satan for there crimes...is this the 1500 century or what?.

losthobbit

what? you don't believe in demon possession? you're all heretics! burn them!

38

Have you ever successfully persuaded anyone?

by losthobbit in

i've had many conversations with religious people and am always surprised that i am never able to get anyone to put their programmed beliefs aside and process the logic that proves how unreasonable their doctrines are.. so, i'm wondering, have you ever successfully persuaded someone to change their mind about something that they had been brainwashed with, and if so, how did you do it?.

thanks in advance .

losthobbit

Hi Tammy

Thanks for your excellent question:

You have already placed all the religious into the category of irrational, and you, yourself, into the category of rational. What makes you know anything more or better than anyone else - religious or otherwise? Why should anyone listen to you?

Tammy, I used to be extremely religious. About thirteen years ago a man suggested to me that I read a free online book, called "Software for your brain". This is not an anti-religion book... it's an objective book which explains what open mindedness and closed mindedness is, and how to become more open minded.

I read the book. Some of it sank in, and some of it didn't. The most important thing I learned from the book was the concept of "Cognitive Dissonance". That is when you hear something new, or not inline with your beliefs, and your brain immediately rejects it. The book teaches you how to enable yourself to consider new information, instead of rejecting it.

Over the next few years I started questioning my religion, but instead of realizing that I was questioning flawed concepts I presumed that my understanding was flawed. Because of this I started making up a whole bunch of excuses for the problems in my religion.

It was only after about ten years that I decided to have a chat with a preacher. He pointed out that the excuses I had made up contradicted the bible. Althought it was not his intention, he helped me realize that I should not make excuses for the questions that I have. I had many questions at this point, about things in the bible that made no sense to me at all.

In an attempt to be open minded I wrote many emails to religious people, asking them about my questions. Some of these emails took many hours to write. I also read everything they sent me, and everything they suggested that I read, trying desperately to find answers to my questions.

I put ten of my top questions in a video on YouTube, and received hundreds of views and about a hundred responses. Not a single one of my questions was answered in a way that makes sense to me.

The only reason I have been able to come up with for having so many unanswered questions about contradictions and illogical problems in the bible is the simple fact that the bible contains many lies or mistakes.

People simply believe the bible, and do not see the mistakes, because they have been brainwashed to believe that the bible is somehow perfect and does not contain any.

Many religious people believe that the bible is entirely true, but they do not have any rational reason to believe this. They may even use arguments like "it says that it's true".

I could go on and on about this, but anyone with strong cognitive dissonance will reject everything that I say that contradicts with their beliefs, so it's pointless to write any more.

This is why I asked the question, "Have you ever successfully persuaded anyone?" What makes people listen to reason?

6

Too much to do, not enough time!!!!!

by sinis in

jw
friends

god, growing up it always felt like the day wouldn't end, school went on forever, and i couldn't wait to be a "grown up".

now, i wish the days were longer, i had more time to do the things i need to do, and someone else would take care of me.

too much to do, and not enough time!!!

losthobbit

I had a dream last night that I was turning 1000.

By the way, if you can afford it you can hire a virtual personal assistant from about $4 per hour. You may want to read "The 4 hour work week", by Tim Ferris.

9

Study with the Johovah, Witnesses

by Mary k in

jw
friends

i have a friend who wants me to do bible study with him,my bible is not good enough for him and tells me i have the wrong icture.please help me..

losthobbit

Before studying with a Jehovah's Witness, there are a few things one should research on one's own... it's easy, just use google and type these keywords:

jehovah's witness psychological problems

jehovah's witness cult (or mind control, or brainwashing)

jehovah's witness failed prophecies

jehovah's witness shunning

That ought to do it. If you want feel like watching some interesting videos, check out "cs the apostate" on YouTube.

38

Have you ever successfully persuaded anyone?

by losthobbit in

i've had many conversations with religious people and am always surprised that i am never able to get anyone to put their programmed beliefs aside and process the logic that proves how unreasonable their doctrines are.. so, i'm wondering, have you ever successfully persuaded someone to change their mind about something that they had been brainwashed with, and if so, how did you do it?.

thanks in advance .

losthobbit

Since I'm currently high on coffee, my mind is in an altered state and I just came up with an idea for persuasion... I wonder if it would work...

Basically, if you found yourself in a situation with two rational people and one irrational person, the two rational people could have a conversation in which they regard the irrational person's suggestions as just silly, using peer pressure to encourage rational thinking.

An example could simply be two rational people discussing evolution, or the age of the Earth, or the time light takes to travel to the stars. In such a conversation a young-Earth theorist could be made to feel very stupid.

I'm just putting my thoughts out there... haven't really thought this through.

38

Have you ever successfully persuaded anyone?

by losthobbit in

i've had many conversations with religious people and am always surprised that i am never able to get anyone to put their programmed beliefs aside and process the logic that proves how unreasonable their doctrines are.. so, i'm wondering, have you ever successfully persuaded someone to change their mind about something that they had been brainwashed with, and if so, how did you do it?.

thanks in advance .

losthobbit

Thanks Qcmbr :)

38

Have you ever successfully persuaded anyone?

by losthobbit in

i've had many conversations with religious people and am always surprised that i am never able to get anyone to put their programmed beliefs aside and process the logic that proves how unreasonable their doctrines are.. so, i'm wondering, have you ever successfully persuaded someone to change their mind about something that they had been brainwashed with, and if so, how did you do it?.

thanks in advance .

losthobbit

I've had many conversations with religious people and am always surprised that I am never able to get anyone to put their programmed beliefs aside and process the logic that proves how unreasonable their doctrines are.

So, I'm wondering, have you ever successfully persuaded someone to change their mind about something that they had been brainwashed with, and if so, how did you do it?

Thanks in advance

9

Study with the Johovah, Witnesses

by Mary k in

jw
friends

i have a friend who wants me to do bible study with him,my bible is not good enough for him and tells me i have the wrong icture.please help me..

losthobbit

I'd recommend printing out this book (free download): http://www.box.net/shared/uclytd91jd

Take it with you, and use it as a guide for your bible study. The version of the bible doesn't really matter.