Constant out-of-context quoting; how do Writing dept. cope with that?

Anders Andersen

I am just wondering here: almost every single quote in JW literature for which a source can be found, is taken out of context.

Personally, I have checked almost every quote in the 5-questions brochure, some on dating and the cross in Reasoning book, and some in magazine articles I found interesting.

Just checked the "they envisioned a universe subject to whims of gods" quote in the Feb 2016 Awake.

Where the Awake article argues that the Bible is different, the original source continues to argue that also Biblical views are included in the earlier statement:

Created during rotighly the same period and in the same regions of the world, Aristotelian philosophy and Biblical accounts of cosmology and cosmogony are, not surprisingly, congruent in some respects. Aristotle's teleological explanations assumed that the world was fulfilling a purpose formed by a superhuman mind; Christian philosophy also is inherently meaningful and purposive.

https://archive.org/stream/EncyclopediaOfScienceAndReligion/Encyclopedia%20of%20Science%20and%20Religion_djvu.txt
So once again the literature quotes a source, and leads the user to a conclusion that is the direct opposite of what the quoted source intended to say.

But I'm wondering: don't the people in Writing dept. read the whole article before quoting?
Are they doing this on purpose or are they just dumb?
How do they live with their misrepresenting the facts, assuming they drink the KoolAid just as much as all of us did and are actually decent human beings?

Darkknight757

They must think that the normal j-dub isn't going to take the time to look up the original quote.

I was always personally amazed that scientists who taught evolution believed in a creator, until I found out that those quotes were taken out of context to make it appear so.

jhine

Dark Knight there are scientists who believe in God , Francis Collins , former head of the Human Genome Project , for one . He is fully conversant with the theory of evolution .

Jan

Darkknight757

Dark Knight there are scientists who believe in God , Francis Collins , former head of the Human Genome Project , for one . He is fully conversant with the theory of evolution .

I honestly didn't realise that. I haven't been studying evolution and science for too long but that's interesting. What I do notice is that wts often does quote spin individuals who do not believe in a creator.

blondie

I have encouraged ex-jws and jws that read the articles to check every non-jw quote for accuracy. Now jws won't because that means they are suggesting the WTS would lie or make a mistake. When I first started doing my comments on here, I check those quotes and was stunned. Plus they assert info but don't quote the material, no reference of where it is or who said it either.

Anders Andersen

@DarkKnight

You may not realise this, but accepting the fact of evolution is compatible with believing in a God or gods.

Official policy in Catholic church is that evolution is a scientific fact*, and the biblical creation story is to be understood as an explanation how humans are spiritually dependant of God.

Many people who understand and accept evolution (including scientists) believe is a God that kickstarted and/or guided evolution.

Accepting evolution is not compatible with a literal understanding of Genesis, as is the case with JW.

There is no way just 2 humans were created 4026BCE and everyone came from those two. There is way too much evidence directly contradicting that.

So the only people who can never accept evolution are the fundies with a literal explanation of Genesis, and a theology built on that explanation.

*) In fact, the earlier mentioned scientist Francis Collins is main science advisor for the Vatican

Anders Andersen

@Blondie,

Good job. Same here...I was flabbergasted when I really researched the 5-questions brochure and found misquote after misquote.

Going through all the sources mentioned in the brochure, there is no way a honest person still refuses to accept the evidence for evolution.

Whoever wrote that brochure is either really blind, or evil, or now disfellowshipped...

And still I'm surprised I find evolution a dirty word.

And still I'm disappointed when I find more misquotes.

slimboyfat

Why would a JW object to Christian philosophy being described as "inherently meaningful and purposive"?

Anders Andersen

@SBF,

They wouldn't (though you never know with JW).

Problem is, the Awake is making a case that Bible religion is better than other ancient religions, and to support that view they quote a source that more or less states that all ancient religions are the same.

Also, WTBS admitting that Bible religion is similar to Aristotle's evil satanic philosophy? *gasp*

GB (and most RF) will not survive that :-p

Diogenesister

It's always amazed me just how deceptive the WT writers are with their quote mining, out of context quotes and other devices used to mislead...there is literally almost never an honest and appropriately used quote in their work.

It leads me to suspect they are either insane or in complete denial , are pathological liars or they cannot honestly believe the garbage they print..its impossible, surely???

Constant out-of-context quoting; how do Writing dept. cope with that?

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