Below is a discussion of methods of rhetorical fallacy with examples where the Watcthower has used these techniques to support suspect doctrine. Can you think of any other examples?
Rhetorical fallacy is the use of false reasoning to manipulate a person to wrong conclusions. The Awake! 1990 May 22 p.12 contains an article entitled Five Common Fallacies—Don’t Be Fooled by Them! that describing five common ones;
FALLACY NUMBER 1 - Attacking the Person
FALLACY NUMBER 2 - Appealing to Authority
FALLACY NUMBER 3 - ‘Join the Crowd’
FALLACY NUMBER 4 - Either/Or Reasoning
FALLACY NUMBER 5 - Oversimplification
Carl Sagan discusses the more common methods in The Demon Haunted World and I have quoted some of these and then compared them with Watchtower statements. Understanding these techniques is helpful in identifying Watchtower doctrine that is supported by false rhetoric.
Ad hominem
“Latin for "to the man," attacking the arguer and not the argument.”
Ad hominem attack is to use a person’s reputation is to invalidate his argument. For example, saying that a person’s statement is not worth considering because they are homosexual. Related to this is the phrase to “shoot the messenger”.
The perfect example of an ad hominem attack is a Watchtower article from 1986. This five page article lists a number of claims apostates make. Without any address to the claims the article devotes itself to a barrage of attacks on the motives of apostates.
Watchtower 1986 March 15 p.18 “What is often the motive of those who criticize the Society or those taking the lead? Is it not often that some application of Scripture affects them personally? Rather than conform to sound doctrine and direction, they want the organization to change. Let us illustrate this with a few examples:”
Argument from authority
Trust Nixon “because he was President”
Information is not necessarily correct simply due to the credentials of the deliverer. The Watchtower calls for unquestioning acceptance of information from the Organization because it comes from Jehovah!
Watchtower 1974 July 15 p.441 “The point is that Christians have implicit trust in their heavenly Father; they do not question what he tells them through his written Word and organization.
Argument from adverse consequences “The defendant in a widely publicized murder trial must be found guilty; otherwise, it will be an encouragement for other men to murder their wives.”
Behaviour should be judged on its merits, not speculative consequences. The hysteria surrounding disfellowshipping is a case in point. A courteous salutation should not be prevented in the off chance that an occasional friendship may develop.
Watchtower 1981 September 15 p. 25 “And we all know from our experience over the years that a simple “Hello” to someone can be the first step that develops into a conversation and maybe even a friendship. Would we want to take that first step with a disfellowshiped person?”
Appeal to ignorance
“There is no compelling evidence that UFOs are not visiting the Earth; therefore UFOs exist … Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
Many former Witnesses live their lives in the fear of “but what if Armageddon does come.” It can not be “proven” that such an event is impossible so this can become an internalised appeal to ignorance.
Special pleading
“Often to rescue a proposition in deep rhetorical trouble. … eg. How can there be an equally godlike Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the same Person? Special plead: You don't understand the Divine Mystery of the Trinity.”
The Watchtower often appeals to special pleading when a person questions its doctrine with terms like “wait on Jehovah”, don’t “question Jehovah”. Disagreement is described as a sign of immaturity.
Watchtower 2003 March 15 p.25 “Do I patiently wait on Jehovah when answers to lingering questions seem slow in coming?”
Watchtower 2004 February 15 p.17 “At the same time, we recognize that our knowledge of God’s purpose is not perfect; our understanding has undergone adjustments over the years. Loyal Christians are content to wait on Jehovah for all such refinements.”
Watchtower 1995 October 1 p.27 “God’s faithful modern-day Witnesses would never dare to question Jehovah”
Watchtower 2006 October 15 p.30 “Mature Christians also realize that being at the Kingdom Hall for the Bible-based talk is more important and beneficial than being at a wedding feast or a gathering that might follow.”
A common question is “Why would a loving God destroy 6 billion people, just because they are not Jehovah’s Witnesses?” Typically a Witness may use the special plea; “It is not for us to question Jehovah’s justice.” In reality, this is a valid question that highlights a major flaw in Watchtower Doctrine.
Begging the question, also called assuming the answer e.g., We must institute the death penalty to discourage violent crime. But does the violent crime rate in fact fall when the death penalty is imposed?
Kingdom Ministry 2002 p.1“Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah!” (Ps. 144:15) Those words describe Jehovah’s Witnesses as the happiest people on earth
What is the evidence that supports such a claim?
Observational selection“Counting the hits and forgetting the misses.”
Yearbook 1997 p.4 “As the chart on pages 34-41 shows, the ingathering of sheeplike ones continues to progress. While the growth in some lands was less than in former years, in other places there were outstanding increases. Rwanda reported 61 percent; Albania, 52 percent. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, and Russia showed increases of more than 20 percent.”
Kingdom Ministry 2003 p.6 “Isaiah aptly prophesied about the increase in true worship at this time. Through the prophet God foretold: “I myself, Jehovah, shall speed it up in its own time.” (Isa. 60:22) Certainly, the last decade has proved to be Jehovah’s time for increase in Eastern Europe.”
Publisher growth rates are positively presented as evidence of Jehovah’s blessing. Yet in 1997 the overall growth rate was only 4.4% and by 2003 it had fallen to 2.2%. For every 3 people baptized 1 stopped publishing. Attention is diverted from the dramatic decline in growth, with little explanation as to what this indicates regarding Jehovah’s blessing.
Statistics of small numbers
"They say 1 out of every 5 people is Chinese. How is this possible? I know hundreds of people, and none of them is Chinese.”
Common in conversation are comments like, “Worldly people think drugs are acceptable, everyone in my workplace does them”, or “No one in my congregation has ever been divorced, so witnesses have a lower divorce rate than worldly people.”
Misunderstanding of the nature of statistics
“President Dwight Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence.”
An example of misused statistics was highlighted in the chapter on divorce. An Awake! article made the claim that only 4.9% of Witnesses compared with 50% for worldly people. As was explained, this is comparing unrelated statistics and results in a gross distortion of the facts.
Awake! 1997 September 8 p.11 “In some countries one marriage out of every two or three ends in divorce. But the above-mentioned survey indicated that presently only 4.9 percent of the Witnesses are divorced or separated from their mates.”
Inconsistency
“Consider it reasonable for the Universe to continue to exist forever into the future, but judge absurd the possibility that it has infinite duration into the past.”
One of the most common logical fallacies with Watchtower publications is the use of inconsistency, most particularly when comparing events affecting Witnesses with similar events affecting others.
When Jehovah’s people experience the power of prayer it is a sign of God’s blessing.
Watchtower 1992 September 15 p.15 “The anointed prayed for a way out of their inactive state, and in 1919, God answered their prayers, delivered them, and reactivated them in his service. (Psalm 143:7-9) Surely, Jehovah’s spirit was then helping and leading his people, as it does to this very day.”
What do the billions of worldly people that feel their prayers are answered indicate? Christian bookstores are filled with books on the power of prayer.
The reason people do not believe Watchtower teachings is attributed to Satan blinding the minds of unbelievers.
Watchtower 1984 June 1 pp.5-6 “If anyone does not want to hear and get the sense of the truth and turn back and get healing for himself, Satan the Devil will take advantage of that fact. Satan blinds “the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.”—2 Corinthians 4:4”
The inconsistency of this reasoning creates an interesting catch-22. If Satan is able to prevent billions of people from understanding Watchtower truth, how does a Witness know that they are not similarly blinded by Satan?
“The Light Gets Brighter” is the great justification for Watchtower errors, the errors of other religious groups are not dismissed so casually by Watchtower articles.
Awake! 1970 April 22 p.8 “Yes, millions of persons have been shocked to learn that things they were taught as being vital for salvation are now considered by their church to be wrong. … “Just ten years ago we Catholics had the absolute truth, we put all our faith in this. Now the pope and our priests are telling us this is not the way to believe any more, but we are to believe ‘new things.’ How do I know the ‘new things’ will be the truth in five years?”
Non sequitur
Latin for "It doesn't follow" e.g., Our nation will prevail because God is great. But nearly every nation pretends this to be true; the German formulation was "Gott mit uns".
Watchtower 1964 July 15 p.447 “The growth of our printing facilities since 1920 is another indication of Jehovah’s blessing on his organization.”
Watchtower 1971 September 15 p.562 “While Satan’s organization crumbles, the organization of Jehovah prospers marvelously under his protection and guidance. Those who symbolize their dedication to Jehovah by water baptism are increasing rapidly year by year”
If this is true, then what does the greater growth rate of Pentecostals indicate? What does this indicate now that baptisms are declining year on year?
Other examples of non sequitur are:
• crosses are pagan, so Jesus did not die on a cross
• birthdays are wrong because the Bible discusses two birthdays which ended in death
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc
“Latin for "It happened after, so it was caused by" Before women got the vote, there were no nuclear weapons.
Kingdom Ministry November 2001 p.8 “Working under angelic direction, we have found many who are hungering and thirsting for the truth. (Rev. 14:6) Householders have said that they had been praying for help when a Witness came to their door.”
With a billion hours of preaching statistical probability dictates this should occur. It is not proof of God’s blessing as it is commonly for religious groups to present experiences of people praying shortly before conversion as indications of divine providence. A lady came to my door one day preaching about the Seventh-day Adventist religion. She was raised a Catholic but later in life went looking for truth. In the process she studied with Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists. She identified the Adventists as being truth.
Likewise experiences such as followers giving up drugs do not prove God’s intervention, as it ignores all other alternatives, such as that the same experiences happens with other churches and simply by submitting to rehabilitation clinics.
Excluded middle, or false dichotomy
“Considering only the two extremes in a continuum of intermediate possibilities … Either you love your country or you hate it.”
Such black-and-white thinking is common element within high control religion. The narrowness of the following quote is extenuated by realising that Witnesses are led to believe only they serve Jehovah.
You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth p.208 “Either you are serving Jehovah God or Satan the Devil. … Regardless of your answer, if you follow the unrighteous ways of the world you cannot be serving the true God, Jehovah.”
Watchtower 1968 March 1 p.136 “Are you so different from the majority of mankind that you can say that they are serving the Devil but that you are serving the true God? There is a people who are that different, and everyone knows they are different and no part of the world. They are Jehovah’s witnesses.”
Slippery slope
“If we allow abortion in the first weeks of pregnancy, it will be impossible to prevent the killing of a full-term infant.”
The Watchtower 1983 April 15 p.28 presents a similar argument to that described by Sagan.
“Because, the doctor explained, “a generation which has readily accepted the idea of abortion as an efficient and morally neutral mechanism . . . will readily embrace . . . ‘therapeutic’ euthanasia as a mechanism for disposing of a surplus population at the death end.”
How ironic it would be if those now advocating the killing of the unborn by abortion would themselves be the ones killed by “‘therapeutic’ euthanasia,” should such a measure be adopted in the future! ”
Confusion of correlation and causation
“A survey shows that more college graduates are homosexual than those with lesser education; therefore education makes people gay.”
Watchtower 1970 May 15 pp.315-316 “Helpful in this regard, then, is appreciating the fact that autoeroticism or masturbation is no mere innocent pastime but rather a practice that can lead to homosexual acts. How so? In that self-induced masturbation may make it easier and more tempting for one to engage in mutual masturbation, which is a form of homosexuality. Sincerely striving against this practice will go far to protect a youth.”
This is obviously false reasoning. Over 90% of males masturbate, yet only 10% are said to be gay.
Additional methods
Straw Man
A straw man argument occurs when another’s position is misrepresented for the purpose of more easily attacking it. After knocking down the misrepresented position it is concluded that the original position has been demolished, even though the actual argument is not dealt with.
For example the Watchtower gives the following description of heaven in order to discredit our living forever in heaven, though nowhere in the Bible is heavenly life described as such.
Watchtower 1981 June 1 p.6 “It is the life for man that Jehovah God originally purposed. And what is that? Bliss in heaven sprawled out on a billowy cloud, twanging a harp as you float along in space and eternity? No! It is not that vain and useless existence that idle dreamers have conjured up as heavenly life.”
Sweeping Generalization – Dicto SimpliciterWatchtower 1989 January 15 p.22 “Some even leave negotiations to worldly relatives, who then demand an exorbitant price. While this bargaining goes on, the situation could push the young people into fornication. This is what takes place among worldly people.”
Red HerringA red herring is the introduction of irrelevant material into a discussion to divert attention away from the points being made. When a Witness is confronted with a difficult issue a common response is to ask “Where else would we go?” which is a red herring as it diverts attention from answering the issue at hand.
Another example would be to counter this chapter with “How can you say the Watchtower presents false information, the magazines are filled with valuable and informative articles.”
Suppressed Evidence Suppressed evidence is manifest when relevant evidence is ignored. The Watchtower argument for Jesus death on a stake instead of a cross is a prime example as it places emphasis on a small number of sources (such as Vines), ignoring the large weight of evidence that a cross was the foremost form of impalement in Jesus day.