While this approach can be quite helpful and very effective with some, just be warned from an ex-JW (myself) that it can also have the opposite effect…especially if the person you are speaking with is already one of Jehovah’s Witness. (This is not to say that the above poster is wrong or to challenge them. I am only adding an extra facet to their already well-expressed ideas that may help.)
Jehovah’s Witnesses actually undergo weekly training in their Kingdom Halls that prepare them for such “attacks” on their belief system. They are instructed to label such “surprises” about their history as false stories. Their official instruction is that they are to identify the person sharing such “falsehoods” as under the influence of Satan or demons, and therefore most will just laugh away what you present to them, even if you present them with physical evidence. They believe that Satan will manipulate anything in an attempt to keep them from the “only source of life” which they believe to be their religion.
Part of the reason for this response is due to their wanting to be faithful to their religion (who doesn’t?). But the other reason for such a response is due to something people are calling
“the backfire effect.”
Normally when we are presented with information that goes against everything we currently believe or think we know about the same subject (be it religious or otherwise), we tend not to accept it but to label it with suspicion. If the information comes at us in ways that we cannot accept (such as evidence that we might have made a mistake in our choice of religion), we normally won’t agree with the evidence. Instead we will fight back in an attempt to stand firm in our convictions.
This is actually a good thing because, under normal circumstances, we don’t want to be readily shaken from our understanding of things (which we try to base on as accurate of information as we can get). But if we have truly made an error in something, this normal response makes can frustrate efforts to get us to accept our mistakes and correct them–the attempts can even “backfire”!
We like to think that we ourselves will readily make such changes if they were pointed out to us, but that is not true. It’s part of human nature to stick to our guns, so to speak. Therefore it can be doubly difficult to get any fact across to one of Jehovah’s Witness, even “backfire” by making them more assured of their beliefs. They will likely see such an attempt as an attack from Satan: “And if Satan is trying to stop me from being a JW, then I must be in the right religion. Otherwise why would the Devil be so against me?”
The truth is you cannot convert anyone (Catholic, Buddhist, Jehovah’s Witness, etc.) unless they want to change. People who want to stay faithful to their convictions will never give in to a challenge. Would you readily convert from everything you currently believe about God, the universe and yourself?
Still you
can live a life that challenges the incorrect view JWs have of you and your religion. You can be more studied in the Bible, be more merciful, loving, and helpful than they expect, and even convert them by living a witness that speaks volumes without your saying a thing. That is the most convincing, to be honest.
JWs believe nobody reads the Bible as much as they do, serves the needs of others in the world more than they do, and are better in being loving then they are. If you want to give them something they can’t argue against, be a living witness that excels any attempt to disbelieve. While such an approach to confront them with their mistakes might help some, it can also leave you more frustrated than when you first began!
