Even as an atheist he could not leave the Bible alone. He had been obsessed by the thought of the horror of hell. At the age of seventeen he tried to convert an atheist but lost his own faith. He became an earnest worker in the Congregational Church. Russell was born in 1852 of Scottish and Irish descent. What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.Īs it stands, Jehovah’s Witnesses are yet to meet their burden of proof.The Jehovah's Witnesses are a sect founded in 1879 by Charles Taze Russell, a Pittsburgh draper. No one else is under obligation to prove that their beliefs are false. Either their assertion is true, or it is not true. Therefore, Jehovah’s Witnesses automatically adopt the burden of proof. In the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses, they make the positive declaration that theirs is the only true religion and the ‘truth’. The burden of proof belongs exclusively to the person making the positive claim. They are commonly used when Jehovah’s Witnesses are pressed over the lack of evidence for their claim of being Divinely ‘appointed’. You can’t disprove our religion / if Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t have the truth then show me who doesīoth of these popular JW arguments commit the ‘shifting of the burden of proof’ fallacy. If they were to do so objectively, they would soon realise that they have no valid justification for their religious convictions. Even if it could be demonstrated that the Theory of Evolution was incorrect, it would in no way mitigate the necessity for Jehovah’s Witnesses to meet their burden of proof.īefore concerning themselves with the logical fallacies of others, Jehovah’s Witnesses really ought to recognise their own fallacious arguments. The same mistake is made when they ‘refute’ the Theory of Evolution. By exposing the ‘false’ teachings of other religions, Jehovah’s Witnesses erroneously conclude that their religion must be true by default. This is a variation of a strawman fallacy. We do not teach the false doctrines of Christendom and false religion Rather than falsify the arguments of their critics, Jehovah’s Witnesses will invalidate their opponents’ position by attacking the person, and not their argument. The arguments of the Watchtower’s critics are rejected because those individuals are automatically assumed to be wicked and liars, regardless of whether they have valid and sound arguments. This argument commits the ad hominem fallacy. We do not listen to the arguments and opinions of apostates and opposers An unfalsifiable position is by its very definition, fallacious. There is also no means of falsifying the teachings of the Governing Body. As a result, there is no way to distinguish a true religion from a false one, which means every religion is unfalsifiable. Similar in nature to the example above…the flaw in this argument is that it can equally be used to excuse the mistaken teachings of every denomination outside of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The mistakes made by the Governing Body are as a result of human imperfection What they believe now can neither be verified nor falsified. There isn’t a single teaching that could not be subject to change or alteration because of ‘progressive light’. This argument puts a question mark over the Watchtower’s entire teachings. Any teachings that are demonstrated to be false can be instantly replaced, leaving it impossible to falsify their theology. This argument is a variation of the ‘moving the goalposts’ fallacy. Jehovah reveals His truth in a ‘progressive’ manner It could be that ALL religions are untrue, therefore the argument is logically flawed. This argument fails to consider all possibilities. Jehovah’s Witnesses erroneously conclude that because no other religion has the truth, it has to be their religion that is true (or the closest to the truth). This argument commits the ‘argument from ignorance’, or ‘the argument from personal incredulity’ fallacy. If Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t have the truth, who does The bible is the claim… not the evidence. This proposition commits the ‘argument from authority’, otherwise known as the ‘argument from false authority’ fallacy. We are the true religion because we only teach what is written in the bible Here is a brief list of the most common arguments (or statements used in the construction of their arguments) Jehovah’s Witnesses make that are fallacious in nature:.
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