The Watchtower Society first published a book on evolution in the late 1960s or early 1970s, simply known as the Evolution book. It is a small hardbound book, the same in size at the old "Truth" book. Other than reading it, I never really studied it. Then sometime in the mid-1980s the Society published a larger book called, "Life - How Did it Get Here - by Evolution or Creation?" Sometime in 1992 I met Alan F. He and I were still officially JWs. He shared a copy of his research work on the Watchtower teachings. I put it in a large three ring note book. It totaled about 500 pages. I would guess that about 350 to 400 pages were dedicated to his research on the book, "Life - How Did it Get Here - by Evolution or Creation?" I was very impressed with his detailed research and findings. Alan was an engineer at a software company, and I was an engineer at Trojan Nuclear Plant, near Rainier, Oregon. Having similar backgrounds, I very much appreciated the academic level of his work. Anyone who reads Alan's posts on JWD understands what I mean. I still have his research work in my library. In my post on Watchtower false arguments, I noted that the Society quoted from a comic TV writer as though he were an expert on the topic of evolutioin> I recalled today the name of the writer was Francis Hitching. I then typed his name into Google, and lo and behold, I see an article written by Alan. Here are a couple of quotes so you can see just how unscholarly the Society is, as well as the source link so you can read all of Alan's article:
Research on Hitching turned up the following: Hitching is basically a sensational TV script writer and has no scientific credentials. In _The Neck of the Giraffe_ he claimed to be a member of the Royal Archaeological Institute, but an inquiry to that institute said he was not. He implied in the "Acknowledgements" of _The Neck of the Giraffe_ that paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould had helped in the writing of the book, but upon inquiry Gould said he did not know him and had no information about him. Hitching also implied that his book had been endorsed by Richard Dawkins, but upon inquiry Dawkins stated: "I know nothing at all about Francis Hitching. If you are uncovering the fact that he is a charlatan, good for you. His book, _The Neck of the Giraffe,_is one of the silliest and most ignorant I have read for years."Source: http://www.skepticfiles.org/origins/hitching.htm Note: Hitching wrote the book, "The Neck of the Giraffe" published by Ticknor & Fields, New Haven, Connecticut, 1982, paperback. Clearly, just this short paragraph alone shows is that the Watchtower Society writers do little or no real research. They are not well educated. And, in their lust to "prove" their religion true, they allow themselves to do shoddy work so they can get books to market. They care little for anything we might think of as "truth." Alan also found this quote about Hitching from the Creation/Evolution Newsletter, Sept./Oct. 1987 which shows that Hitching is no better than the Watchtower Society:
Hitching does cite Bowden's earlier book _Ape-Men -- Fact or Fallacy?_, but Bowden accuses Hitching of "lifting" several passages and illustrations from his book without acknowledgment: in other words, plagiarism. "Hitchin's [sic] book is largely an exposition of the creationists [sic] viewpoint from the beginning to almost the end," Bowden points out.... Hitching is also a paranormalist, an advocate of psychic evolution.... [Hitching's book] _Earth Magic_ is a wild, extremely entertaining and thoroughly psychic interpretation of megalithic structures.... Hitching also includes in his scheme cosmic cataclysms, Atlantis, pyramidology, dowsing, ESP, miraculous healing, and astrology.Utterly fascinating ... good work Alan. Jim Whitney