A House Built on Fallacies

by Farkel 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Farkel
    Farkel

    Here are just a few examples of the kinds of fallacious dub arguments we've heard and used ourselves when we were dubs.

    Heck, the WHOLE DARN RELIGION is nothing but a series of fallacious arguments!

    ad hominem - (attack the arguer, not the argument)

    "Since apostates have abandoned Jehovah, they are of their father the Devil and nothing they say can be trusted."

    appeal to ignorance - (if an assertion has not been disproved, it has to be correct.)

    "No one can prove Jehovah doesn't exist. Therefore, he must exist."

    argument from omniscience - (the arguer tries to assert it knows everyone's actions or beliefs)

    "All apostates are out to destroy Jehovah's earthly organization." (Many apostates don't give a rat about dubs!)

    appeal to tradition - (people have believed something for a long time, so therefore it has to be true)

    "Because of the rich spiritual heritage of Jehovah's organization, we can be sure our beliefs in these last days are approved by Jehovah himself." (Or as Mark Twain might say, "if millions of people over a hundred years have believed a stupid thing, it is still a stupid thing.")

    appeal to authority (citing a dubious "authority" to help confirm the argument)

    "A noted scientific journal stated that blah, blah, blah."

    (That unnamed "scientific" journal was Popular Mechanics! The WTS is notorious for using this kind of argument and not citing the source. In one example, the WTS cited an "authority" that when tracked down, turned out to be Reader's Digest! In another, it cited a newspaper which stated how much earthquakes have increased in the 20th century. It turns out that the newspaper's source for its information was taken from the Awake! magazine!)

    argumentum ad baculum (using fear as the basis of an argument)

    "Those who don't come into the safety of the Spiritual Ark will soon be destroyed by Jehovah at Armageddon."

    circular reasoning or begging the question (the assertion assumes the conclusion)

    "Jehovah has an earthly visible organization and we must follow it, because this organization was appointed by Jehovah himself."

    confirmation bias (using only some examples that confirm an argument, but ignoring all others that disprove it)

    "Sister Jones wanted to pioneer, but didn't have a car, so she prayed to Jehovah for help. Within 2 weeks she had herself a car. So you see, Jehovah does answer our sincere prayers." (While Pioneer Sister Jones was praying for a car, Pioneer Sister Smith was praying for her life right before she was brutally raped and murdered.)

    loaded question (any answer to a question will imply agreement to it)

    "Those like you who left the organization hate the organization and Jehovah. And you haven't stopped hating Jehovah either, have you? (A "yes" answer implies the person hated Jehovah in the past. A "no" answer implies the person continues to hate Jehovah)

    non sequitur (the conclusion does not necessarily follow from the assertions)

    "The Bible states that crime would rise during the last days and so it has. Therefore, we can confidently say crime will continue to rise even further until it is so far out of hand that Jehovah will have to destroy the wicked at Armageddon."

    red herring (diverting the argument by changing the subject)

    Opponent: "None of your JW predictions have come to pass."

    dub: "The Bible says that there would be many ridiculers in the last days, and people like you prove the Bible to be true."

    (The argument was about JW predictions, NOT about ridiculers.)

    slippery slope (unproven adverse consequence will occur if something happens)

    "Those who leave safety of Jehovah's visible organization soon degenerate into debauchery, including adultery, crime and drugs."

    special pleading (the one making the assertion wants an exception made [which he cannot reasonably justify] to standards he applies to everyone else)

    "Jehovah gave to Bible to all of mankind so they could read it and gain his favor, but only Jehovah's Witnesses are able to understand the true meaning of the Bible."

    straw man (misrepresenting the argument and then attacking the new argument)

    Opponent: "The policies and doctrines of the WTS are harsh and unreasonable."

    dub: "It is hard to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses and many people are unwilling to put in the hard work it takes to be one of us. The Bible says that lazy people will not receive salvation."

    (The opponent was talking about harsh and unreasonable doctrines, NOT hard work.)

    false dilemma (assuming there are only two possibilites when there could be more)

    "You've been studying the Bible with me for over a year now. It's now time for you to decide if you want to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses or receive eternal destruction from Jehovah."

    questionable cause (if b happened after a, then a must have caused b)

    "Brother Russell said the Gentile Times would end in 1914. World War I started in 1914. Therefore we know the Gentile Times Ended in 1914."

    (The fallacy is that the dub thinks WWI was caused by the ending of the Gentile Times, when there are many other possibilities for its cause.)

    subjectivist fallacy (a claim that what is true for everyone else is not true for the arguer)

    dub: "Lying is wrong and the Bible says liars will not enter the Kingdom of God."

    opponent: "But you lie to your enemies."

    dub: "Jehovah allows his chosen people to lie to their enemies."

    the undistributed middle

    "All true Christians preach the Kingdom message."
    "All Jehovah's Witnesses preach the Kingdom message."
    "Therefore, all Jehovah's Witnesses are true Christians."

    In this case "true Christians" has not been defined as to all the things it includes. It may also include the requirement that to be a "true Christian" one must have to show charity towards others, and so forth.

    A more obvious example would be:

    "All humans have two legs."
    "All ostriches have two legs."
    "Therefore, all humans are ostriches."

    The set called "two legs" may contain more animals than just humans and ostriches. Likewise, the set called "true Christians" may contain more requirements than just preaching the Kingdom message.

    Farkel

  • Marvin Shilmer
    Marvin Shilmer

    Howdy, Farkel

    An amazing thing about the average JW is that they constantly infer they are reasonable and say they seek reasonable conclusions yet when it comes to a command of the known laws of reason (logic) they are totally oblivious! Forget whether the average Joe Publisher has any command of the known laws of logic, my experience is they lack any familiarity with the basic laws governing logical development! This absence turns their oft-repeated mantra "Let's be reasonable" into an oxymoron. By "Let's be reasonable" they do not mean, "Let's apply the known laws of logic." They mean accept what I believe or let's end the discussion.

    Once during discussion about the consequences of neighborly love, I said to a fellow elder about an argument he offered, "Your presentation is an enthymeme." He replied, "There is no reason to use vulgar language!"

    Marvin Shilmer

  • Undaunted Danny
    Undaunted Danny

    I've Got It Farkel,you are among my top 5 favorite JWD posters keep up the good work! Zany Remember The 8 marks of a mind control cult:Eight Marks of a deadly Mind Control Cult applied to Jehovah's Witnesses What has helped preserve my sanity from 33 years of WT$ indoctrination is the striking similarity of Jehovah's Witnesses with Moonies.

    Maine Times

    May 24 - May 30, 2001

    ?Nobody likes Jehovah's Witnesses except other Jehovah's Witnesses'

    Danny Haszard is a third-generation Jehovah's Witness........ Maine Times: I don't know much about Jehovah's Witnesses. They come to my door once in a while and talk with me about my religious beliefs.

    . Q: After a lifetime of Jehovah's Witness, how did you move beyond those teachings?

    A: I figured out that their teachings were just so much, convoluted cult trappings. The thing that really save me was this: When you get disengaged from a cult, you're brainwashed that you're doomed. They brainwashed me that I was like Judas Iscariot - Judas betrayed his master, and now there's only one thing for you to do and that's to go off and hang yourself. For three years I was so shackled and chained to them I was afraid to tell the mental health people why I was depressed and suicidal. Then I looked up a cult support group, and I walked into the meeting and there were all these ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, ex-Scientologists, ex-Moonies, and I realized I identified with them. We're all cut from the same cloth, all come from the same pedigree. And it opened up my eyes. You can't attack any cult because they're brainwashed to not listen to anything negative. Jehovah's Witnesses will take all the bashing they can hear about Moonies and Scientologists because "Oh, they're a cult" - but then when you think about their fundamental dynamics and how they operate, you realize Jehovah's Witnesses are just like that.

  • zen nudist
    zen nudist

    the rules of logic are difficult enough, but there is also hidden assumptions to deal with...

    for example

    JWs believe that they will be, if they die now, raised from the dead....

    JWs believe that they will cease to exist but for a memory in the mind of God at their death, they will be dead souls, having no eternal anything that survives them... the spirit is seen as electricity which vanishes from their lifeless body at death, their soul is seen as the whole living package which now has no life and thus empty of anything that can be called them....

    the assumptions most JWs have is that some part of them really does still exist and will come back to life....

    otherwise why worry about a copy of you enjoying paradise when the original is dead, buried and long gone?

  • Marvin Shilmer
    Marvin Shilmer

    Hello, Zen Nudist

    It is a philosophical question you have raised about what it means to be resurrected. One line of thought is that we are what we make ourselves, in which case if something of us fails to survive death then it would seem no more than a copy of us can be resurrected. But another line of thought is that we are what God says we are, in which case what God resurrects is exactly what died, which means what is resurrected is not a copy.

    If a person believes in an omnipotent God then he has to believe that everything about a person can cease to exist but that God can raise this nonexistent person back. This is possible by virtue of omnipotence, which means God has the power to literally do whatever he wants.

    If a person does not believe in God or a resurrection then the whole question is purely an academic philosophical exercise.

    Marvin Shilmer

  • Undaunted Danny
    Undaunted Danny

    definitions (factoid) noun: something resembling a fact; unverified (often invented) information that is given credibility because it appeared in print (ieWatchtower publications) altWT$ 'anachronistic alchemy' quantum quackery' and their 'gospel of gobbledygook' i.e.Christ Jesus did NOT return to power in 1914 the central CORE doctrine of the foundation of the "House" of Watchtower. Quantum quackery: fundamentally flawed fallacies Rubber Duck The "Quack" test: If it Quacks like a Duck................ JW as the articulated manipulator also known as:"don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining"

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    Has anyone done an analysis of the logical fallacies of the Reasoning book. I know that there have been refutation of specific claims in the book, but it would be very useful to show that WT-style "reasoning" as promoted in the self-styled Reasoning book is fallacious....

  • itsallgoodnow
    itsallgoodnow

    Hi Farkel. That's great info. I hadn't really thought much about fallacies and the principles of logic until after I started figuring out this JW stuff was not trustworthy. I can't really say I have a good grasp on good/bad logic yet, I'm only beginning to understand it. The list you made with the examples we would always hear is really great. Thanks.

  • confusedjw
    confusedjw

    A house built on Fallacies, well that would certainly be a house built on posts like they do those beach houses and of course the phal ... oh ... wait ... fallacies.

    Never mind.

  • Undaunted Danny
    Undaunted Danny

    (That unnamed "scientific" journal was Popular Mechanics! The WTS is notorious for using this kind of argument and not citing the source. In one example, the WTS cited an "authority" that when tracked down, turned out to be Reader's Digest! In another, it cited a newspaper which stated how much earthquakes have increased in the 20th century. It turns out that the newspaper's source for its information was taken from the Awake! magazine!) Farkel's post

    Right O.! The WT$ frequently quoted from 17 magazine back when i used to read the awake magazine ca.1980's.Not just on youth matters either.

    Below is my all time fav.Gotcha Watchtower:WT and "Mad Cow" disease: Did they know?

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