Cognitive Dissonance, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me
Recently, some interesting discussion began on this website about the concept from social psychology known as cognitive dissonance. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines it as “psychological conflict resulting from incongruous beliefs and attitudes held simultaneously.” According to Wikipedia — our authoritative, infallible and inerrant source for knowledge of all things — the term first appeared in 1956 in a book titled When Prophecy Fails. In that book, the authors explored the behavior of the members of a small UFO-obsessed cult, how they coped with the inner conflict that came when their predictions about alien invasions didn’t come true.
Our friend Vitaly alerted us to a YouTube video called The Witnesses at Your Door which illustrates cognitive dissonance. Vitaly wrote:
I liked this video after I left ubf. There seems to be very many similarities especially in the leaving process.
Vitaly’s comment, and the interesting discussion that he started with Chris, can be found here.
The video is 37 minutes long, and I think it is well worth watching. So I made a unilateral decision (sorry, Vitaly, hope you don’t mind!) to pull the video out of his comment and place it here in an article of its own, so that it gets more attention.
Pay No Attention To That Man Behind the Curtain!
In the book Ethnography as a Pastoral Practice, author Mary Clark Moschella hones in on some painful truths about pastors.
Religious leaders are often socialized to be better at speaking than at listening. It is understandable that preachers want to teach preach and lead with their voices and their carefully honed understanding of scripture and theology…..Being the resident religious expert gives you a kind of status and a feeling of control. On the downside of accepting this role, however, is that it may lead to what Yogi Berra called ‘talking too much’ (p. 141).
Lincoln, Life of Pi
Both movies will be nominated for multiple major categories during the Golden Globes and Academy Awards season. Though both movies are over two hours long, they kept my attention and interest throughout.
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Go Ahead. Make My Day
Dirty Harry’s classic line “Go ahead. Make my day” is one of the best Hollywood movie lines ever. Check out the super cool extended 4 min clip, or the 12 sec clip.
How might we paraphrase this? “You think you can push me around? Try me.” “Don’t mess with me. If you do, you’ll lose.” “You think, you’re tough. You haven’t met me yet.” If you can pull it off and mean it, it is downright scary, especially with a smile or a smirk.
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The Hunger Games
For the first time ever, I saw a movie by myself on the first day. I felt odd in that everyone else seemed to be under 30 years old, with the majority under 20. Also, everyone went in pairs or groups. There was a group of 27 teenage kids sitting all around me at the 11:30 am showing. But I went by myself, since my wife dislikes violence, especially of teens killing teens.
The Hunger Games is about a fictional futuristic dystonian society where 24 teenagers from 12 U.S. districts (a boy and girl) are chosen by lot to fight each other to the death. This is an annual televised live event, called the Hunger Games, which is for the amusement and entertainment of the people. The lead character, Katniss Everdeen, volunteered as a competitor (Tribute) because her younger 14 year old sister was chosen from District 12. She offered herself in place of her sister. Continue reading →
The Gospel in "The Descendants"
If you intend to go and see The Descendants do not read this, for it contains movie spoilers. It won the Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture drama, though “Moneyball” and “The Help” were also excellent movies. George Clooney also deservedly won Best Actor for his lead role in the movie. My last movie review was The Social Network, which was about how Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I love film. Although I do not consider myself a “film junkie,” I do see a fair number of movies a year, ranging from classics to the latest new releases. There is something magical about seeing with my own eyes what someone else has imagined in their head.
I have also come to appreciate that seeing movies is a practical amusement. In times past, books were the major diversion for most people; but in a day and age where people are constantly on the run and busy with family, church, and school commitments, reading seems slow and laborious. A person can see in a couple of hours in a movie what might take them a month to read in a book.
Are You A True Friend?
The Social Network has recently won the Golden Globes award for Best Picture Drama, and it might also win the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2010. This film is about Mark Zuckerberg, a computer genius who, at 26 years of age, the youngest billionaire in the world. It tells the story of how he started Facebook when he was a student at Harvard University in 2004.
This movie made me think about friendship. The story focuses on Zuckerberg’s relationships with four young men: his best friend, Edwardo Severin, who was the co-founder of Facebook, and three rich Harvard students. Their friendships with Zuckerberg broke down, and all four eventually sued him for huge sums of money.
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