Straw man in last week's WT

sd-7

I couldn't help noticing the WT study article this weekend, which was about cultivating love that never fails. The correct spelling of it should have been CULTivate, by the way.

The straw man of the love that the world shows was presented first--that people in the world know only romantic love, love of money, love of themselves, and love of pleasures. This was contrasted with the 'love' that JWs show, which consists of obedience to God's commandments. Frankly, obedience to commands can easily be done without genuine love being involved. Case in point, the JWs. But how can anyone suggest that they alone, above all others, know about real love? Don't these people have non-JW relatives who love them a great deal? I know I do.

Of course, I'm not one of 'them' anymore anyway, so it's a moot point. But honestly, it felt like they just mailed it in on that article. It was just filler to plug the yeartext for 2010.

I was just reading about all the different propaganda techniques, and the 'straw man' seems to be a WT favorite. How many straw men can you find in the introductions to study articles? 50? 50,000? I wonder.

--Christopher

Mad Sweeney

I would say that they almost always set up a straw man somewhere in their articles. Not only that, but the straw man is usually a made-up, lying description of real actual people.

ninja

I would like to see them in a straw man

darkl1ght3r

Absolutely SD. The Watchtowers reasoning goes something like this, "There's no need FOR YOU to do research to find out why other viewpoints are wrong, WE'LL TELL YOU their views, and then explain why they're so wrong. Trust us. :) We're "Jehovah's Channel". Would Jehovah lie to you?"

That's why most JWs are so arrogant in their condemnation of other views and beliefs. They've been fed a false picture of the outside world. If only they could see how stupid it makes them look to anyone who has actually taken the time to think about and investigate the matters.

sir82

Isn't looking for straw man arguments in WT articles rather like looking for mullet haircuts in a Wal-mart? You don't have to go very far in before you find one....

Lady Viola

Was this the article of last Sunday? I almost got sick when they where talking about the brothers and sisters in Malawi!! Bastards...

I guess that was all about love too?

Terry

The LOVE of Jehovah's Witnesses for their fellow man excludes:

Hospitals

Colleges

Day Care centers

Women's Shelters

Charities

Job Training

Financial Planning

Retirement facilities

or any other HUMANE CONCERN

moshe

JW's are obviously social parasites as Terry's list has pointed out. JW's suck all the good stuff out of society, but they contribute almost nothing of value back. You would think that JW's would be #1 in building Habitat for Humaniy homes for the low income, but I would say it is a safe bet that JW's have never officially helped on one. How much effort would it take to set up a barrel at the KH to collect canned goods for a local food pantry, but, no-oo, it seems that JW's just don't love their fellow man or they would already be doing that.

WTWizard

They claim that all the world does is have sex and love themselves. Then, why does the Red Cross exist? Notably, the witlesses are not supposed to donate to the Red Cross.

TD

It's definitely a strawman from the standpoint of logic. Another dishonest obfuscatory technique is to accuse your opponent of that which you yourself are guilty of

Terry has already pointed out that the JW organization does not donate to and support most charities and charitable causes.

To that, we could add more. This is a religion that openly teaches that the road to paradise will be paved with the bones and carcasses of even "nice" unbelievers. This includes almost everyone. --Your unbelieving aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. The girl next door. The man across the street who washes his car every Saturday. All the members of the Baptist church down the block.

This is a religion that depicted a confused and terrified urban population raising their hands in pathetic and futile supplication to an angry God while he caused fist-sized hailstones to crush their skulls, buildings to fall on them, and the earth to open up and swallow them. --All this in a book studied with children.

This is a religion where members openly speculate on what large house they will occupy when the current owners are rotting corpses.

Who's love is really superficial? "Worldly" people who are shocked and repelled by this or JW's who see nothing wrong with it?

Straw man in last week's WT

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