I was born a jw and i was taught since birth but since i was child i always knew i didnt want to be here or believe in this. I was always the kid to ask questions but i would always get ignored or told that im ‘not smart enough’. I know many people have been brainwashed into this since birth as well and i was wondering hit that happens? What cause someone to just believe everything they’re told like this and not really giving themselves a chance to think. Was I just self aware at young age? Please let me know your thought.
Sorry if this doesn’t make sense, English is now my first language.
No, you make sense. As a born-in child, I was told that I'm overthinking things and asking too many questions. I didn't recognize it at the time, but the indoctrination wasn't adding up.
I was told that 1+1=3 and if I questioned that, I was told that I'm overthinking things.
I think JWs, as well as many high-control groups, neuter critical thinking ability at a very early age, as well as groom children to be emotionally reliant on the high-control group for validation.
I was 13, and questioning doctrines. My parents made me talk to the elders and I ended up having a bible study with one of the elders wife. I was asking her all the questions which she couldn't answer to my satisfaction. I didnt believe they were the 'one true religion' and I couldn't believe that a loving kind god would kill everyone apart from the jws. Especially as I had 'worldly' friends who were kind and loving. I was kicked out at 18, because I was the oldest and my parents thought i would be a bad influence on my siblings. My siblings all left anyway. My sister returned in her 20s.
I was pomi for a long time. The teachings, regardless if I truly believed or not, stuck with me for years. What if I was wrong? I lived a good honest life in the hope that if I was wrong then jehovah would save me. I was so young and so confused.
Now I'm pomo and I know it's all bs and I am finally free of the WT.
The only thing that upsets me is I cant tell my family why I will never return. I know too much.
There are probably many things that go into it.
My mom and step-dad converted when I was 12 or 13, so I saw that they very much wanted to earn the reward of everlasting and pain-free life, so they were happy have the justifications for beliefs provided by the publications. There is some plausibility to the arguments, though I realized when I thought critically about the arguments many were dependent on circular-reasoning and/or logical fallacies and/or ignoring/denying facts that didn't support the argument. At first I felt "special" for being among the few with the "best" understanding of the bible and god's plan.
After one round of arguments with my folks, I realized that they probably weren't really considering or evaluating what I said, because they thought they knew better than I could. I think JWs believe (or maybe believed 50 years ago) that they could prove all their beliefs logically, and that specific belief is used to dismiss or deflect facts or arguments that might cause them to lose faith without the need to really think.
The repetition of the claims and arguments especially with reading while listening or speaking while reading does ingrain those "answers" into the brain so that the brain returns them automatically.
Also there is hubris. Despite letting others be misled about religious beliefs (or science), they believe that god would not allow them to be wrong or to be deceived about this, because they are sincere/humble (not)/good. This goes with the feeling I had of being special for being in this small group of people.