JW Science Quote Of The Day 9-3

by TD 25 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  VM44

  The Awake! article says "the scientific community reconfirms..." and then quotes from an article published in the New York Times Magazine written by a FREE LANCE SCIENCE REPORTER!!!

  The author of the quoted article was Robin Marantz Henig, and her website says that she is an "author and freelance science writer", she is not a scientist and NOT a member of the scientific community!

  Robin Marantz Henig's web site:

  http://robinhenig.com/

  Link to complete text of the New York Times article quoted by the Awake!

  The Flu Pandemic

  http://www.nasw.org/users/robinhenig/flu_pandemic.htm

  --VM44
• 

  VM44

  The writers of the Awake! magazine don't know the subjects about which they in their articles.

  They are carrying on a long tradition that goes back to the original Demon Possessed editor of the magazine, the king of the kooks, Clayton J. Woodworth.

  C. J. Woodworth: The Demon Possessed Editor of The Golden Age

  http://www.premier1.net/~raines/woodworth.html
• 

  VM44

  Let's try to get the accurate numbers, something that the Awake! writer didn't do.

  From the wiki article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

  The Spanish flu pandemic lasted from 1918 to 1919. Older estimates say it killed 40-50 million people[1] while current estimates say 50 million to 100 million people worldwide were killed.[2]

  References (To REAL medical publications!):

  [1] Patterson, KD; Pyle GF (Spring 1991). "The geography and mortality of the 1918 influenza pandemic.". Bull Hist Med. 65 (1): 4-21. PMID 2021692.

  [2]"1: The Story of Influenza", in Knobler S, Mack A, Mahmoud A, Lemon S: The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready? Workshop Summary (2005). Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 60-61.
• 

  steve2

  Still, if the aim of the publications is to scare shit out of people, what's a few extra billion tossed here and there?
• 

  dust

  We could add that in this case the error was just copied from the NY Times. The quote is actually accurate:
  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9E0CE4DC1438F93AA15752C1A964958260
  
  Nevertheless it does illustrate that the writers are only humans.
• 

  TD

  stilla,

  You're absolutely right. Thanks!

  ~Tom (Of the no claims to spirit direction class)

  dust,

  As I pointed out, JW science blunders are sometimes "simply the result of not properly researching a secular quote."

  This was the case with the example given. Not only was Robin Marantz Henig wrong about world population, but comparing the Spanish influenze with a 4% mortality rate in its most virulent from with the 98% mortality rate of airborne bubonic plague was ludicrous. As Tuchman, McNeil and others have pointed out, the plague of the 14th century affected the entire world, not just Europe.
• 

  steve2

  This merely illustrates that, if a source of information suits our purposes we'll quickly use it. We all do it: If there's anything negative about the JWs in the media we'll jump upon it and publicize it. Likewise with the JWs, if there's anything positive about them in the media, they'll jump on it and publicize it. We have in common with the JWs being human, although we are probably freer to admit errors than they are!
• 

  TD

  Steve2

  This merely illustrates that, if a source of information suits our purposes we'll quickly use it. We all do it: If there's anything negative about the JWs in the media we'll jump upon it and publicize it.

  I disagree. We don't all do it. Some of us defend the JW's when the criticism is inaccurate. Fair is fair.

  Besides suiting the purposes of the one quoting the information, the information first and foremost, needs to be factually correct.

  The JW organization offered a quote that seemed to support the idea that conditions since 1914 are unprecedented. But they didn't perform their due diligence and check the accuracy of the quote prior to publishing it. This resulted in the embarassing and scientifically impossible claim that 200 million more person contracted the Spanish flu than were alive on the earth at the time.
• 

  steve2

  This merely illustrates that, if a source of information suits our purposes we'll quickly use it. We all do it: If there's anything negative about the JWs in the media we'll jump upon it and publicize it.

  I disagree. We don't all do it. Some of us defend the JW's when the criticism is inaccurate. Fair is fair.

  Fair point. I hadn't seen it that way. I also count myself as one who defends the JWs if the criticism is inaccurate!

  Having said that, and speaking generally about humans - and not specific groups of people - there is a tendency among humans to more acepting of evidence that supports their view and to be correspondingly pickier about evidence that contradicts their point of view. Lots of social science research has been done on biases leading to believing or disbelieving something.
• 

  Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit

  Shameful. The rank and file aren't allowed to do additional research, aka, read the NY Times, and the WTS knows that 99% of them don't feel the need to. So sad. Yes, it is rather fear-inducing isn't it! Repent, the end is nigh!!!