by A Paduan 5 Replies latest watchtower bible
In defining their beliefs and doctrine, and interpretation of scripture, has the wtbts always commenced with their conclusion, and made the "facts" fit to it (not that the 'facts' last long).
eg. "The world" (other people) are evil, so vaccines are the devil's pus - we've dug up "a scientist" who says blah blah blah ..............
Sometimes, but most of the time they don't have to. When commenting on a mystical writings, it is always down to interpretation.
steve
yep they're the only group that works that way except maybe the bush admin.
Certainly....read anything they've written on secular evidence bearing on chronology (particularly in view of 607 BC).
5go is underestimating many groups out there. Science and Religion and Politics
are full of examples that start with the answers and ignore the data that does
not fit or that cannot be molded to the answers.
OF COURSE the WT makes the available information fit their conclusions.
Just one example out of thousands-
They say the 1914 date must be right, even though secular history doesn't support it.
Why?- World War One started late that year, the same time they said Satan was
ousted from Heaven and Jesus began ruling. They don't even try to get JW's to understand
beyond shallow parroting how they arrive at that date. They just say that history proves
them right. They have spun all the facets of the sign of the last days to support their
argument. When confronted with conflicting data, they question it to death and then say
they must be right because history proves them right.
Actually the WT teaching method doesn't start with answers, but with questions, which is way more perversely efficient.
The pattern being : WT question -> WT answer -> WT prooftext -> next WT question...
Very few people are prepared to question questions, or to ask their own questions in addition to foreign ones. Most simply appropriate WT questions as their own, feeling that they have checked the doctrinal construction step by step.
The most common topics of xJW forums show that typical WT questions (such as "what is the true religion") can outlive WT answers for a long time.
