Re: Russell's connection to Masons and Secret Societies

by Enlightened1 22 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Phizzy

  Russel's connection is extremely tenuous, by extension so is that of Rutherford and the org. since, until this day.

  There is no Record of Russell being a member of any Lodge, and their would be had he been a member.

  Chas. Russell's Uncle, IIRC, was a member, but so what ? so were many in those days, more than now.

  Russell no doubt thought it expedient to get the Masons to look favorably upon his movement, and maybe then buy some of his Publications, and so he used Masonic expressions, but we all do that in everyday speech, we speak of people being " on the Level" etc. etc.

  There is simply no irrefutable proof of any direct connection. And we rightly expect quite a bit of proof, had there been a connection.
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  Phizzy

  Lack of knowledge in other areas has no bearing upon Russell's supposed but unproven "connection" to Freemasonry, or anything else.
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  vienne

  Our Cognitively Challenged troll’s “proofs” as presented above are full of classically defined logic flaws. Most prominent of these is Argument from Absence (Ad Ignorantiam). She suggests that absence of evidence is in fact evidence. For instance, saying "there is no record of Russell being a member of any Lodge" implies that he was a member and the lack of any documented proof is in itself proof that he was. This is moronic. Absence of evidence is not evidence.

  A subset of Ad Ignorantiam argument is “Cherry-Picking Evidence,” a selective use of information. She presents a series of statements that have no or questionable worth as evidential matter.

  False Dichotomy: Her statements create a false sense of dichotomy where one might think that, since there is no documented proof provided by the organization, it implies an absolute proof that the Watchtower is hiding ‘something.’

  Ignoring Counterevidence: Our mental case fails to deal with substantial evidence that Russell was not a Mason.

  Aside from the logic flaws I’ve noted here, she has through these ‘discussions’ failed to clearly state why she was disfellowshipped, evasively stating that she disagreed with those in authority. She denied being EasyPrompt, though later implying she was. She has suggested that she is God’s messenger, though her thought processes suggest she’s an escaped mental patient. Probably flushed her meds again. And as a bit of humor, she persists is thinking I’m a Witness or a former Witness, and she confuses me with my mother.