Posts by cognisonance

20

Watchtower says: if your unbelieving relatives think you are in a cult, try to see things from their point of view

by cognisonance in

12 have empathy for unbelieving relatives.

while we may be overjoyed about the bible truths we have learned, our relatives may mistakenly believe that we have been tricked or have become part of a cult.

we should show empathy by trying to see things from their viewpoint and by listening carefully to discern their real concerns.

cognisonance

Maybe it will have the effect of some JWs reading "apostate" info they would get from the family that is Terrified they are in a Cult.

That might be a good outcome. Maybe I should share more information with my extended never-been JW family...

20

Watchtower says: if your unbelieving relatives think you are in a cult, try to see things from their point of view

by cognisonance in

12 have empathy for unbelieving relatives.

while we may be overjoyed about the bible truths we have learned, our relatives may mistakenly believe that we have been tricked or have become part of a cult.

we should show empathy by trying to see things from their viewpoint and by listening carefully to discern their real concerns.

cognisonance

12 Have empathy for unbelieving relatives. While we may be overjoyed about the Bible truths we have learned, our relatives may mistakenly believe that we have been tricked or have become part of a cult. They may think that we no longer love them because we do not celebrate holidays with them. They may even fear for our eternal welfare. We should show empathy by trying to see things from their viewpoint and by listening carefully to discern their real concerns. (Prov. 20:5) The apostle Paul endeavored to understand “people of all sorts” in order to share the good news with them, and a similar approach can help us as well.

Periodically I look to see what bull shit my family still has to read and found the above.

What? So the Watchtower is advocating our family members still stuck in should be willing to try and see things from our point of view and listen carefully... How can I get my parents, my cousin, my uncles, and other relatives to see my point of view and listen carefully to my concern they are part of a cult.

I suspect this is impossible. The bold sentence above says the aim of seeing their viewpoint is to "discern their real concerns" (as if thinking they are in a cult is not a real concern!?). Further, the last sentence show the ulterior motive, all this listening is with aim to find an angle to spin to try and preach to us unbelievers. And while I view my self as an unbeliever (I'm an atheist), to them I'm a disfellowshipped apostate so I doubt they will listen to me if I tried.

I just find it astonishing the level of disingenuousness the above paragraph contains! Not to mention the implicit duplicity (oh, this idea only applies to group x, but not group y, despite both groups not believing in our teachings).

I also find it appalling the idea of only trying to understand where someone else is coming from without a genuine interest or care in their viewpoint, but only to find a way to argue your case with them. The automatic discounting that their view must be wrong because it isn't your own -- wow, just wow -- no wonder JWs are so ignorant! They have no ability to be open minded about anything as they think they already know it all.

Lastly look at the level of thought control in this paragraph: "we may be overjoyed" (what about the JWs not overjoyed?), "we have learned" (have JWs learned anything or have been told what to believe?), "may mistakenly believe" ( again example of being told what to believe, no JW has "learned" they aren't a cult member -- kind of contradicts the "we have learned" phrase), "We should" (telling what to do again), and "real concerns" (again the cult accusation must not be really the concern).

31

Cute: A Goose Quacked And Pecked At A Cop’s Car. When He Followed Her, He Couldn’t Believe What He Saw!

by Hecce in

officer james givens has served with the cincinnati police department for over 26 years, but has never quite experienced anything like this before.

he was sitting in his patrol car in a parking lot when he got an unexpected visitor.

a goose came up to his car and started pecking on the side of it.

cognisonance

Makes us realize how much a travesty it is that we eat animals. Chickens, cows, pigs, and others are likely just as sentient as the goose in this video. I'm not vegan/vegetarian, but I do eat a lot less meat then I used to. Hopefully one day I can make the full switch. This is another area of cognitive dissonance for me.

40

Some Good News About Me (Although Anthony Morris Will Be Furious)

by pale.emperor in

just wanted to share with you some good news i'm really excited about.

i have been accepted for university to study psychology and counseling.

my goal is to become a counselor and, in time, to specialize on treating those who have left high control relationships/groups like we all did.. it'll take a few years before im qualified but studying in university has been a dream of mine since i was 12, which was systematically dashed to pieces by watchtower.. .

cognisonance

Congrats and good luck. You have a lot of work cut out for you, but it'll be worth it. I'm also engaged in university studies. Been at it trying to complete my undergrad part-time for the past 3 years now.

12

What a beautiful day for service!

by StephaneLaliberte in

jw
friends

i heard this expression very often and even said it often myself.

now that i am out, i realize this isn't always the case.

there were many times i was going out in service saturday morning and couldn't wait for 12:00 to come along so that we could go swimming, bicycling, play basket ball, go to the beach... .

cognisonance

Not me, I always thought... It's too nice a day to go out in service (and hated going as a result), or it's too bad out to go in service (and hated going as a result). I've always felt that way, never enjoyed field service despite being a pioneer for 5+ years. Life for me was only fun for those fleeting hours on late Saturday afternoons/evenings.

I did not enjoy service, conventions, assemblies, meetings, talks, accounting (was a MS too), and all the other crap we had to do. I was born into this religious cult and thought this was what we were supposed to do, that it was right. Glad I woke up in my late 20s! I wonder how many JWs actually enjoy going out in service? I imagine not many (even among pioneers) unless they have nothing else to live for.

94

Karl Marx Genius Of The Modern World

by Brokeback Watchtower in

he was all for getting rid of religions and their delusions for the betterment of mankind.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mydmc1wio8.

cognisonance

Stephen Pinker's "The Blank Slate" provides an insurmountable obstacle to Marxism. It isn't written for that purpose but he proves conclusively that we possess an innate human nature. Marxism has to assume that humans are blank slates that can be moulded to act against their own interests.

I've read a bit of Pinker, but not that book. I'll have to check it out sometime.

Even apart from Marxism so much harm has and is being done based on this absurd ideology.

What is the absurd ideology you refer to here? The idea of humans being born with a "blank slate"?

94

Karl Marx Genius Of The Modern World

by Brokeback Watchtower in

he was all for getting rid of religions and their delusions for the betterment of mankind.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mydmc1wio8.

cognisonance

So I've thought about this more... Marx did get it wrong when he thought that people could be forced (or would all be willing) into adopting socialism. Socialism requires people to change how they think about things and what they value. Forcing this to happen is a bad idea.

Perhaps the best we can hope for is for economies to be a good blend of capitalism and socialism (much like in the Scandinavian countries). Even in the US, we're not 100% capitalistic. I've heard a person from Denmark say that the higher taxes there are not viewed with the same disdain as they would be viewed in the US. To the Danes, it's not a "redistribution of wealth", but rather more like an obligation to support the kind of community one wants to live in, where people who are less fortunate can really have a more equal opportunity. Their economy is still market-based, but they have more social programs than we do here in the US.

81

Gerrit Losch Claims JW's Attending College Are Spiritually Weak

by pale.emperor in

https://www.facebook.com/jw.0027/videos/799049613609936/.

the video was posted directly to a pro-jw facebook page.

i cant believe what i'm hearing... actually, nothing surprises be about this cult anymore.. didn't they say to the judge in the arc that they dont discourage college?.

cognisonance

So... making it through college is akin to trying to commit suicide by putting the barrel of a riffle in your mouth and pulling the trigger. You might survive, but he doesn't recommend trying it.

Does anyone else see this is an absurd analogy? I see nothing where attempted suicide by riffle is in any way like pursing a college education. Where the fuck does this nincompoop come up with this shit?

94

Karl Marx Genius Of The Modern World

by Brokeback Watchtower in

he was all for getting rid of religions and their delusions for the betterment of mankind.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mydmc1wio8.

cognisonance

Thanks for the info Cofty. I'll look into this when have the time to digest it.

94

Karl Marx Genius Of The Modern World

by Brokeback Watchtower in

he was all for getting rid of religions and their delusions for the betterment of mankind.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mydmc1wio8.

cognisonance

I haven't looked into Mao or Pol Pot. If those situations resulted in a minority ruling over the majority I don't think this is what Marx meant by "dictatorship of the proletariats". If your point is that like Mikhail Bakunin (and later even George Orwell), that Marx's ideas of how to handle things immediately after the revolution is over could never work out the way he envisioned, and that totalitarianism would result during an attempted transition from capitalism to communism, than I could be included to agree with you. It may not be possible. For that matter I'm not comfortable with the idea of a bloody revolution in the first place. However I was trying to point out that I'm not aware of any country that was doing things the way he envisioned. By the way, Bakunin advocated skipping any government after a revolution. I can't see that working either.

However, to say that socialism (what Marx and others either aimed for genuinely or with lip service) is somehow a bad thing -- I don't agree with you. His critique of what's wrong with capitalism I agree with. I also agree that we need a better system, we need socialism. How to get there is the question.