The pointing finger

[watcher]

[Karen]

[WolfVanZandt]

Watcher, you are the easiest to dismiss, so I will do so quickly.....

In other words, you have never met a Therian, you know nothing about them. I could easily (on the basis of your behavior) go down the list - your mother, father, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles - and make any scurrilous remarks about them as I wish but, fact is, I don't know them. That would be slander.

You, on the other hand slander thousands upon thousands of people you've never met. many people who do that have serious self esteem problems. They have to find people (usually those that are different than them) and cut them down - especially people they don't know - that leaves it all open to their imagination. So I do have something to go on to figure you out.

Fortunately, I seriously doubt if there's a Therian alive (including myself) that cares about what you think. You are simply .......... entertaining, and very dismissable. So I will dismiss you. G'bye.

Now, Stanley, you are far from dismissible and I won't just dismiss you. You make good points. But I'm not trying to say that you're wrong about your beliefs. What I am saying is that, if you, or any other Roman Catholic, wants to convince others of your beliefs, you will have to come up with something that others can identify with. You can say, "I feel better and better about my position every day," but it's far too easy to chalk that up to cognitive dissonance. It might not be but the way you describe it, it sounds as though it could be nothing but - in other words, cognitive dissonance is a valid and very applicable explanation for your experiences - nothing else being known.

Why should anyone explain your experiences by saying that you have found truth instead of saying that you are experiencing cogntive dissonance?

And of course, Watcher, is only an example of a person who can't think outside the box, so when he's introduced to such a thing, he prefers to explain it away. That's a very peripheral point in the conversation, especially when he obviously has no real knowledge of the issue. I, at least, have taken the time to educate myself on Catholicism and to actually know some Catholics and to have actually been inside and seen the workings of the RCC (which is, BTW, why I am generally much more accepting of Catholics and Catholic conepts than many of my Protestant brothers and sisters.)

[watcher]

[Stanley Anderson]

[Karen]

[girlfreddy]

[jo]

[WolfVanZandt]

The thing is Jo, that cognitive dissonance cannot be applied to just about anything. It only applies to situations where a person has made a choice under some kind of pressure but still has second thoughts about it. The minds fabricates justifications to equilize the resulting conflict.

For instance, cognitive dissonance would not apply in the case of the Baptist who, on a lark decides to attend a mass and realizes that "this is what I've been missing all my life."

It also wouldn't apply to a Therian who's grown up with the understanding that they are significantly different from the people they usually associate with and suddenly find out that there are are lots of other people out there that share their distinctives and they say, "I am what they are."

Girlfreddy, cognitive dissonance is not an attempt t prove something to others - it is more and attempt t prove something to self - that a questionable decision was justified without the presence of real suport. The points that make Stanley's case look like cognitive dissonance is:

1) He made the change with some reservation

2) Although he may have had some really good demonstrable reasons for making the decision to become Catholic, he hasn't voiced those reasons and, therefore, they are invisible to me.

3) And the longer he has been a Catholic, the more things he finds to support his decision - but he hasn't disclosed any of those things that make his decision reasonable. So it still looks like cognitive dissonance [b] to me;/b].

In other words, cognitive dissonance may not play a part in his gradual acceptance of his decision but, from what I know, it looks like it does and how would I come to understand that it doesn't?

Now, if it doesn't matter whether I decide to make the same change or not, it doesn't really matter whether I ever understand his real reasons for switching; but if it does matter whether I change, then it would be important for me to know the truth and, given the Great Commission, it is Stanley's responsibility to clearly communicate the real facts of the situation so that I do understand.

The problem with your view, Watcher, is that I have taken the effort to learn about Catholic Theology and have known Catholic people. You obviously don't know what Therianism is and have evidently never known any Therians. In other words, you're just blowing smoke.

In other words, I know something (maybe not everything but a good bit) of what I'm talking about - and you don't have a clue.

[Stanley Anderson]

[WolfVanZandt]