by Anders Andersen 27 Replies latest watchtower bible
Dark Knight , Francis Collins has written a few books , one I would really recommend is " The Language of God " I believe that you can buy online at ICM books at a good price . Usually the cheapest as they specialise in Christian books .
I should add though that I do realise that the WT writers are notorious for their misquotes on , well , most things !
Jan
@jhine
I'll have to check it out after I'm done with "Your Inner Fish", which by the way is an excellent book!!
@Anders
Didnt know that about Fracis Collins, never heard of him. Don't pay too much attention to what comes from the Vatican. 😬
Personally it's been interesting looking at all the evidence which proves the modern human being has been here for much longer than 6000 years. Perhaps one day the wts with shed another light bulb on that teaching??😂
I don't think it's an example of misquotation.
Misquotation is when a source is presented as saying something it doesn't say. It doesn't mean simply that the source disagrees on other matters outside the quotation.
@SBF,
Indeed, the Borg is normally very careful to not misquote.
That's why I consistently speak about quoting out of context instead of misquoting.
The example in the OP may not be the most clear example of quoting out of context, but to me it looks like they intended to have us understand:
"Encyclopedia says [Ancient peoples (except Bible people) had this idea about how Gods influence the universe.]. They were wrong and superstitious.
Opposed to their wrong ideas the Bible is scientifically correct and does not lead to superstition"
But the actual quoted source intends to convey:
Ancient peoples (including Bible people) had this idea about how Gods influence the universe.
But maybe some fine details of the meaning of what was written were lost on me, a non-native English speaker.
@Diogenesister,
Well I don't know if they buy it themselves. And I don't know what's worse: being a smart but very unethical writer who doesn't believe what he's writing, or being a supposedly smart writer who is too blind to actually understand what he is writing about...
I think it is quite likely that they often do not research thoroughly enough to even realise it is out of context. They see a catchy sentence, possibly not even in the original publication, and are not aware of the meaning surrounding that statement. I have been guilty of that myself, particularly when I first was looking for Watchtower quotes, finding a sentence that says what I wanted, without fully considering the context.
there would have to be a heavily influenced viewpoint, and compromised conscience to be a writer for the WT. At what age do we suppose that a person would be considered 'trained' enough to be assigned an article?
How long would it take to brain damage a normal thinking person in order for them to have such unfortunate illogical conclusions? Does the writing dept ever use any other bible or resources outside those that are in the watchtowers own resource material? i wonder, How many people have left the headquarters shortly after arriving, realizing hey have just been required to sacrifice their consciences? In order to prove to my mom, that shes being misled, Id have to have the actual book from which these misquotes were taken, with the lines highlighted, and then then the actual watchtower that it was printed in, with the lines highlighted, but I bet shed reason it away and still call me misled,lol. her biggest fear of course, is her hope to live forever is gone if the bible is proven to her to be just a crazy history book. that's everyone's fear. that takes away all hope. and hope is all people really have.
It is my opinion that the Head of the Writing Department, and any Sub Eds, all know exactly what they are doing.
They know when the are using fallacies, half-truths, misquotes, or quotes out of context, they know when they are using loaded questions and all the mind control techniques they employ.
If they were simple minded believers making the odd mistake but overall writing what they perceive as the truth in an honest and open manner, it would be plain to see, and easy to excuse the odd error.
But the writing is clearly deliberately disingenuous and underhanded.
If you believe you have the truth, you do not have to lie about it.
"Quote-mining" is a danger for all who write articles...no matter the subject.
That is why professionals who submit articles (eg Doctors, scientists etc...) have to submit ALL references when they quote something.
A genuine "peer - reviewed" article stands up to scrutiny. And the author is not afraid of that occurring, nor do they discourage their readers from checking the references!
