Past Watchtower Claims

by Giordano 3 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Giordano

  I’ve been reviewing the scientific claims that the Society promoted through the Golden Age magazine (later replaced by the Awake).

  Each statement comes from an official publication of the WTBTS. While this material goes back many years so do JW’s beliefs that were and still are promoted as the ‘truth’.

  A more up to date account of JW science and medicine and many other great topics........ can be found on jwfacts.com

  The science of the Watchtower plus an occasional face palm I couldn’t resist.

  “Color and Physiognomy..........A blue nose..... is a symbol of austerity, with perhaps a prudish tinge.....The size of the nose, as also the size of the eyes, is not without significance. The small-nosed man cannot have a judicial mind, whatever his other excellencies may be. And a man whose nose upturns can no more be expected to administer justice than a pug dog can be expected to act as a shepherd.”

  Golden Age Jan 19 1921 pg. 224

  “Vaccination never prevented anything and never will and is the most barbarous practice...........Use your rights as American citizens to forever abolish the devilish practice of vaccination (which) has never prevented smallpox any more then serum injection has prevented typhoid.........” Golden-Age Oct 12 1921

  “.................nearly all sickness and disease and physical and mental imperfection, are due to a failure of the body’s ‘mills and factories’ to manufacture standard projects (???).........remain independent of doctors who employ drugs, medications, vaccines, serums and surgical operations for diseased conditions” Golden-Age Jul 5 1922

  “But the dog-rabies-vaccine imposition is the latest! When it has been shown conclusively that there is no such thing as rabies! ..............Vaccinations summed up is the most unhygienic, barbaric, filthy, abhorrent and most dangerous system known. It’s vile poison taints, corrupts and pollutes the blood of the healthy resulting in ulcers, syphilis......tuberculosis, cancer, tetanus, insanity and death”

  Golden-Age Jan 1 1923

  “It has never been proven that a single disease is due to germs.” Golden-Age Jan 16 1924 (This was a dozen years after medicine had proven bacteria and viruses caused most diseases)

  (Speaking about the resurrection after 1925 when there would be the start of the new world and no death....... the writer suggests the following in TWTP pg 228 on how to recruit decorators to redecorate the homes that would now be available.) “You will have secured the services of the best decorators you can find. Some of them used to be undertakers; but since there are no more people dying, they have to seek some new occupation. Their experience as undertakers prepared them to become decorators with very little difficulty.”

  “Pastor Russell....discussed the mysteries of.......mental telepathy, mind reading and women’s intuition.” Golden-Age Feb 15 1925 pg 332-3

  (After maintaining that there would be ‘no slip ups’ about the importance of 1925 the Society tells those who were greatly disappointed that ) “Some anticipated that the work would end in 1925..................The difficulty was that the friends inflated their imagination beyond reason......” WT Aug 1 1926 pg 232

  ..........coolies (Orientals).....cutthroats and murderers...” Golden Age Mar 10 1926

  (the) 'Flood may have been caused by all of the other planets being on one side of the earth simultaneously. God may have inserted the “youngest” planet Neptune on the other side to act as a gravitational corrective to make sure it cannot happen again!’ Golden-Age Jun 16 1926 pg 583

  “Human footprints seven feet long found in California.” Golden-Age Jane 13 1926

  “Disease (is caused by) fermentation and heat.........not germs. GA Aug 25 1926

  “....current agitation over birth control (is evidence that) the ‘New Age’ is at hand.” GA Apr 7 1926

  “Air baths are good for preventing colds. What you do is strip naked mornings and evenings and then bob up and down for a while.” Golden-Age Feb 1926 pg 310

  Who could ask for better advice!

  Gio
• 

  OrphanCrow

  Giordano, the Golden Age magazines are a treasure trove of weird and wacky ideas. The medical advice is pretty much all anti-AMA propaganda and fueled by the abundance of alternative practitioners who supported the WTS

  I particularly like this medical advice that appeared in a 1912 Watchtower (their wacky ideas were firmly planted by the time the Golden Age appeared):

  CURE FOR APPENDICITIS

  It is known that only about three out of every one hundred

  operated upon for appendicitis really have a diseased appendix

  needing removal. We give below a simple cure for appendicitis

  symptoms. The pain in the appendix region is caused by

  the biting of worms near the junction of the transverse colon

  with the small intestines, low down on the right side of the

  abdomen.

  This remedy is recommended also for typhoid fever, which

  is also a worm disease. The medicine is Santonine: dose, 3

  grains, an hour before breakfast; repeated for four mornings,

  or until all the symptoms disappear. Then one dose per month

  for three months to eradicate all germs.

  This recipe is of incalculable value. Not only will it save

  the surgeon's and hospital fees of perhaps $200, but it saves

  weeks of ill health, inconvenience, convalescence and loss of

  salary.

  The Watchtower - January 15, 1912
• 

  ILoveTTATT2

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santonin
  
  

  Santonin was an agent which (compared to more modern anthelminthic drugs) was very complicated to use and entailed rather serious risk to the patient. Nearly every formulary and herbal which lists santonin or santonin-containing plants lists the real risk of yellow vision and of fatal reactions; even small doses of santonin cause disturbances of vision, usually yellow vision or perhaps green (xanthopsia or chromatopsia). Even the Encyclopædia Britannica noted:

  ...These effects usually pass off in a few days. Large doses, however, produce toxic effects, aphasia, muscular tremors and epileptiform convulsions, and the disturbances of vision may go on to total blindness.

  More typical is the warning given regarding side effects of santonin in King's American Dispensatory:

  Santonin is an active agent, and, in improper doses, is capable of producing serious symptoms, and even death. As small a dose as 2 grains is said to have killed a weakly child of 5 years, and 5 grains produced death in about 1/2 hour in a child of the same age. Among the toxic effects may be mentioned gastric pain, pallor and coldness of the surface, followed by heat and injection of the head, tremors, dizziness, pupillary dilatation, twitching of the eyes, stertor, copious sweating, hematuria, convulsive movements, tetanic cramps stupor, and insensibility. Occasionally symptoms resembling cholera morbus have been produced, and in all cases the urine presents a characteristic yellowish or greenish-yellow hue. We have observed convulsions caused by the administration of "worm lozenges." Death from santonin is due to respiratory paralysis, and post-mortem examination revealed in one instance a contracted and empty right ventricle, and about an ounce of liquid, black blood in the left heart, an inflamed duodenum, and inflamed patches in the stomach (Kilner). . . . Santonin often produces a singular effect upon the vision, causing surrounding objects to appear discolored, as if they were yellow or green, and occasionally blue or red; it also imparts a yellow or green color to the urine, and a reddish-purple color if that fluid be alkaline. Prof. Giovanni was led to believe that the apparent yellow color of objects observed by the eye, when under the influence of santonin, did not depend upon an elective action on the optic nerves, but rather to the yellow color which the drug itself takes when exposed to the air. Santonin colored by the air does not produce this effect, which only follows the white article. The air gives the yellow color to santonin, to passed urine containing it, and to the serum of the blood when drawn from a vein, and, according to Giovanni, it is owing to its direct action upon the aqueous humor, where it is carried by absorption, that objects present this color. The view now held, however, is that of Rose, that the alkaline serum dissolves the santonin, which then acts upon the perspective centers of the brain, producing the chromatopsia or xanthopsia.

  Yes... "wisdom from above"!!
• 

  sir82

  Here's a similar topic from years ago, with a lot of in-depth analysis & plenty of good clean fun:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/115448/golden-age-goodies