Watchtower Study today Jan 4 2015 , Fallacious Reasoning (issue Nov 15 2014)

by BluesBrother 26 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  BluesBrother

  The subject of the study was Jesus Resurrection . My post is not about the subject and whether or not that can be believed in. Millions of Christians do and it is not my place to debunk religious faith. The point is the line of reasoning used by the article writer in a very poor attempt to "prove" that it happened.

  Paras 11 - 14 have a subheading "Why we know that Jesus was resurrected" and four reasons are given:

  1) It was foretold in Scripture(the Psalms) and apostle Peter attested to it. I would call this an appeal to authority, but is the authority universally accepted? No . It is a reason for a believing Christian to accept it but   has no weight with an unbeliever.

  2) The testimony of so many witnesses . Bible writers recorded it , yes, but we are supposed to be supporting that record. It says that Jesus appeared to more than 500 people at one time . "Testimony involving so many eyewitnesses cannot be discounted". But wait, we have one scripture that says this in 1 Cor 15 : 6. So we have the testimony of one man , a believer , who says that 500 people saw him, not 500 witness accounts. That is a lot different,

  3) "The zeal that his disciples showed in proclaiming it" shows it must be true. This affirms a consequent , in that only a reality could motivate men to the lengths to which early Christians went. Look at the world today . Sadly there are those prepared to act as martyrs and sacrifice their young lives based on promises and extremist religion. Does that make those promises true? Of course not!  Throughout history people have gone to extreme lengths for their cause. That does not prove anything.

  4) "We have evidence that he is now ruling as King and Head of the Christian congregation". Really? Evidence that can only be seen by the members of the congs. of J W's.  the rest of the world is blissfully ignorant of that fact because like the kings new clothes - it does not exist.

  As a piece of logical reasoning I find this totally, childishly wanting. No doubt those with the rose coloured specs of faith in the WTS will lap it up, but not me. I repeat that belief in Jesus is unaffected by this , I have not left Christianity but if they want to reason on it, they ought to do better than this.
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  coalize

  It's what we called in french "a reasonning who convince only the already convinced"
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  millie210

  One of my favorite things on this forum is when someone dissects the study article on Sunday.

  Given that they have a collective brain trust of writers formulating these articles, you are so right, that they ought to do better.

  
  
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  BetterGuyNow

  I agree, Millie210!

  
  I went through so many years going to the meeting on Sunday, just accepting what I read as gospel because it came from the GB.  I never really thought about me putting trust and faith in an early organization rather than a spiritual one.  I never had a relationship with God, but was a fantastic Witness because I did good in the eyes of the WT.

  
  Now when I see someone write about a recent magazine or part on the meeting, I can't wait to get into the article.  It's the most intensive study of the WT I've ever done!  :-)
  
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  MissFit

  Great post.  Thank you for taking the time to write it. It was concise, respectful and easy to understand. 
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  coalize

  Now when I see someone write about a recent magazine or part on the meeting, I can't wait to get into the article.  It's the most intensive study of the WT I've ever done!

  Exact I feel exactly the same. In fact I see now that I never study the WT before, I just underlined the answers of the stupid questions...
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  Stirred

  Kids and I are reviewing this right now .....we can't help but say, "what???"  Par. 14 claims we have proof but offer none. I asked kids if we can find proof.  This is actually good for us to review critically. We are also surprised to read about dead person thrown in Elijah's grave.  We wondered if that caught on for a while and was unsuccessful with any other dead ones they threw in.  Were there some they chose to not throw in as they didn't want to resurrect them.  Maybe they guy was just near death and the fall jolted him back to activity.  This will be interesting to see what evidence if any ones may "research" to really answer or will they be satisfied with empty claims.

  i asked kids to see if they can find unique answers that prove JWs have truth since all christians can claim that their preaching proves they are directed and protected by God/Jesus.
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  DesirousOfChange

  I went through so many years going to the meeting on Sunday, just accepting what I read as gospel because it came from the GB.

  What has always amazed me, even before I discovered TTATT, is when a speaker would quote from a Watchtower or any WTS Publication, as though it was equivalent to quoting from the Bible.  WTF?  Or, the Public Speaker that would say: "I'm quoting now from the Society's Outline....."  SO WHAT?  

  As we now know, just hold your breath and that quote from the WT or the outline will become Old Lite before you turn blue-in-the-face.

  Doc
  
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  stillin

  Blues bro, the third point in your summary is the only one that carried any weight with me. 

  I thought it would have been obvious to include some sort of evidence from the Roman record, but "apparently" there is none. Something so significant in history should have gotten everybody carving stuff into stones!
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  Oubliette

  BB, nice analysis!

  Essentially, it's all an appeal to authority: the Bible and the WTBTS's peculiar interpretation of it.

  A better question is: Can we trust the WTBTS?

  After nearly a century and a half of getting practically nothing right, the answer is clearly a resounding: No!