JWs and Evolution - Reasoning with the "facts" ?

by somebodylovesme 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • somebodylovesme
    somebodylovesme

    I am in the process of hunting down every "source" the JWs use in their books to "discredit" evolution. I think it could be fun. For instance - Robert Jastrow, the first scientist cited in the Reasoning book, wrote in the same book: "The fact of evolution is not in doubt" (The Enchanted Loom, pg. 96).

    Has anyone done this before? I don't trust the Society to be academically honest, so I am especially interested in checking out those quotes that have "..." between lines -- meaning they could and probably did eliminate important qualifiers.

    hee hee

    SLM

  • Nocturne
    Nocturne

    It has been done before, in fact I remember reading online about all the misquotes and misrepresentations in the Creation book. It's staggering how dishonest they are with this book, I'm sure someone here will have more info then I have, but just stick with the Creation book, and it should keep you busy for awhile.

    Nocturne

  • Euphemism
    Euphemism
    Has anyone done this before?

    Jan Haughland has a list of deceptive quotations in the Creation book. AlanF has also written some pretty detailed critiques, both of the Creation book and also the more recent Creator book. He has quite a few essays published at that same site.

    I don't know whether anyone has done anything as comprehensive as you are suggesting, however.

  • AlanF
    AlanF

    somebodylovesme said:

    : I am in the process of hunting down every "source" the JWs use in their books to "discredit" evolution. I think it could be fun. For instance - Robert Jastrow, the first scientist cited in the Reasoning book, wrote in the same book: "The fact of evolution is not in doubt" (The Enchanted Loom, pg. 96).

    : Has anyone done this before? I don't trust the Society to be academically honest, so I am especially interested in checking out those quotes that have "..." between lines -- meaning they could and probably did eliminate important qualifiers.

    Yes, I have. I've looked up about 90% of the references in the first half of the Creation book and have documented more than 100 instances of misrepresentation, misquoting, misunderstanding and outright deception. You can find the material here: http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/ce01.htm . The Watchtower author/compiler, one Harry Peloyan, who has long been the editor-in-chief of Awake! magazine, often uses "..." between the lines to deceive readers.

    If you want to do this yourself, be prepared to spend upwards of 1000 hours looking for the references. Some are nearly impossible to find, having come from publications with very little circulation. I found it difficult to even find out what some publications were. I never could find some.

    You'll also find some material on the newer Creator book here: http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/creator.htm

    And you can find some stuff on the connection between JWs and Young-Earth Creationists here: http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/yec1.htm

    AlanF

  • Carmel
    Carmel

    I did this in the early 1960's while in college. It was one of those issues that gave me complete confidence that I had done the right thing by leaving the Borg.

    carmel

  • somebodylovesme
    somebodylovesme

    Thanks for the links -- gotta run right now, but I will definitely check out your pages, Alan.

    ~ Thanks again.

  • astridkittie
    astridkittie

    LOL... you know, even as a jw I always noticed the disturbing frequency of the "..." in the literature's quotations. Of course, as a good little jw, I always assumed they were just shortening a really long statement down to its real point. Still, in the back of my head, I wondered why all the long quotations that needed to be shortened?

    Unfortunately, at that time, I didn't have the resources at hand to be able to actually look those quotations up.

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