Yesterday I discovered a number of Watchtower publications listed on Amazon.com, and started writing some reviews to counter the biased pro-JW reviewers.

Here is the text of my first review, of the book Life - How did it get here? By Evolution or Creation:

A complete misrepresentation of the sciences of the natural world and the theory of evolution. Full of fallacies, errors, strawman arguments, misquotes, misleading language, and appeals to ignorance. The anonymous authors did little to no real research on the subject of evolution, and the arguments presented in this book show that they have zero understanding of the concept. Scientists are repeatedly misquoted and their words taken out of context. Facts are twisted on every page to conform to their distorted view of the scientific method and the vast amounts of evidence from observational reality.

For example, page after page the Watchtower authors proclaim that the only alternative to Creation is “random chance”. They point to a seemingly complex life form, say for example, a Redwood Tree, and ask if such a beautiful thing could possibly have come about by “chance”. This is a very misleading statement, since evolution and natural selection is not chance — in fact, it is the exact opposite of chance. It is this sort of misinformation that depends on the ignorance of the reader regarding the basics of evolution, and further confuses and misleads them by staging invalid arguments that completely misrepresent real science.

Another example is how they use the famous Piltdown Man hoax as proof of a scientific conspiracy regarding human ancestors. But it was scientists who exposed this hoax way back in the 1950’s!

The Watchtower now has to conveniently ignore and hide from the fact that scientists have since successfully retrieved Neanderthal DNA from a frozen specimen, and are currently mapping the Neanderthal genome. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The amount of physical, testable evidence disputing the Watchtower’s claims is staggering. But since Jehovah’s Witnesses are discouraged from reading secular scientific works, they are kept in the dark regarding the true history of our natural world.

Some of the material is even directly taken from a previous book (The Neck of the Giraffe), often without citation, and written by a quack paranormal TV writer and self-proclaimed Psychic ‘Dowser’ (J Francis Hitching), who has no scientific credentials whatsoever.

Although published in 1985, and understandably quite dated, this book is still the primary go-to source of information on evolution for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Watchtower often publishes additional information regarding Evolution in their other magazines and books. Sadly, their arguments and methods used to combat evolution have not improved to this day, and they continue to mislead their followers regarding basic scientific fact.

To start on the road to a better understanding of evolution and natural selection, read titles such as The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design; The Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition; The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution; The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution; and Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters.

Other reviews were posted for the Proclaimer’s book, as well as What Does the Bible Really Teach? I would encourage other ex-JW’s to participate in Amazon’s ratings and social features to help raise public consciousness regarding Watchtower publications.

This weekend I watched a movie called To Verdener (or Worlds Apart), a 2008 Danish film based on a true story. It’s a drama about a Jehovah’s Witness family that is torn apart by the disfellowshipping and shunning practices of the religion. It’s quite accurate and unbiased in it’s portrayal of JW culture, beliefs, insider language, and family relationships; and is neither overly critical or apologetic.

While watching, I wondered how someone without a background in the Watchtower would really appreciate or understand everything that was going on. But it offers a unique glimpse into the life of a Jehovah’s Witness, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the religion.

While the spoken language is Danish, English-subtitled versions are available.

For my entire life as a JW, I was taught that humans are currently only capable of using about 10% of the brain. Sometimes the stated figure was much less (1% or even smaller fractions). This ‘fact’ was repeated from the podium and by my parents for many years. The reasoning and motive behind this teaching was that sin and imperfection has deteriorated our thinking ability since the time of Adam and Eve. Therefore, in the “new system”, our brains would eventually be restored to full capacity. I recall all kinds of wild speculation about what this would mean, and what special “powers” or senses we may obtain as a result.

“Some neuroscientists estimate that during an average life span, a person uses only 1/100 of 1 percent (.0001) of his potential brain capacity. You might well ask, ‘Why do we have a brain with so much capacity that we hardly test a fraction of it in a normal lifetime?’” — Is There A Creator Who Cares About You? p.62

The problem, of course, is that this teaching is complete and utter bullshit. This myth seems to stem partially from early neurological research in the 1800’s and 1900’s, which suggested that only about 10% of our neurons are firing at any given moment. New Age and paranormal movements have also jumped on this bandwagon, suggesting the other 90% of mystery brain power is linked to psychic ability. Likewise, the Watchtower and other Christian faiths have jumped on it in order to give credence to the whole concept of sin and imperfection.

We now know that 100% of our brain functionality is utilized, and that the mythical concept of Sin is not at all based in observable reality.

“After all, if you removed 90 percent of your brain, you’d basically be left with the thinking power of a sheep.” — Eric Chudler, Ph.D., University of Washington

Well, there you have it. Sheep… 10%… you see where I’m going with this?

Check out the related articles in Snopes or Scientific American for additional reading.

In light of the old Jehovah’s Witness Discussion (JWD) site being shut down, several new forums are popping up to fill the void. Jehovah’s Witness Recovery seems to be the best of the bunch. The main focus is on providing a positive healing community for those who have left the Watchtower, are in the process of leaving, or even for current JW’s who are not sure where to turn.

Whatever your current situation, drop in and join us for some friendly discussion.

I recently went on a camping trip with a number of Jehovah’s Witness friends of mine. Keep in mind that, while most of them know that I am inactive and no longer attending the meetings, none of them are aware that I’m actually an atheist. One night, while sitting around the campfire, I posed a question that ignited a several-hour-long debate regarding the Anointed, or Heavenly class (the 144,000 faithful Christians who are allegedly chosen by Jehovah to go to heaven). I did not expect or intend for my inquiry to cause such a heated discussion, even causing one of the guys to walk away in frustration. This was over his idea that the Anointed, despite their state of imperfection, would naturally hold themselves to a higher moral standard than the rest of the Other Sheep, or the rest of those with the Earthly hope. Not one to argue, for most of this time I simply sat back and listened to the responses, especially since the argument that ensued wasn’t really directly related to my original question.

Anyway, my question was: How do individuals claiming to be of the heavenly class actually come to realize, with all certainty, that they are one of the chosen 144,000?

The official, printed information on this subject is frustratingly vague. If you were to ask someone who claims to be one of the 144,000, most likely the answer you will receive is something along the lines of “I just know.” Actually, I have done just that on several occasions. In fact, I posed this question to a man named Samuel Herd, who was one of my former district overseers (and is now one of the members of the Governing Body–the highest attainable ruling position in the religion). Again, his answer was short and sweet — he just knows.

As the campfire discussion wore on, I had to rephrase my question a bit. I vaguely understand the official response… basically a faithful Witness is ‘touched’ by holy spirit. But what I really want to know is, what exactly is alleged to take place when one becomes anointed? And how is their claim verified by the congregation? Is there an actual angel that privately visits them during their waking hours? Are they treated to an undeniable vision or dream? Are they born with this thought, or does the idea simply pop into their minds at baptism, or at some later time? Does a deep booming voice descend from the clouds? Are they presented with the Golden Ticket to the Great Chocolate Factory in the sky? Seriously, how do they really know?

The general consensus from the half dozen or so participants in this discussion, was that nobody really knows for sure. All of those who have had any direct contact with anointed individuals have never been able to get a straight, first-hand-experience or answer to such questions. Everyone also agreed that at least a small percentage of those who claim to be chosen are actually mentally ill or are just plain lying.

Becoming anointed also seems to be a prerequisite for becoming a member of the Governing Body, or the Faithful and Discreet Slave. Perhaps this is a motive for some? This is the class of men who claim to be the only direct channel of God, through which the Watchtower receives it’s divine direction. Whether they claim to be directly ‘inspired’ by God or not is something that they seem to flip-flop back and forth on over the years, depending on which answer conveniently supports whatever argument they are making at the time. How they can actually be the official channel or mouthpiece of God without being inspired in some fashion is beyond me. Without some kind of inspiration, it seems to me that the anointed “Faithful and Discreet Slave” class is made somewhat redundant and unnecessary.

Interestingly, during this century, the number of the anointed class has been increasing at a rate faster than that of the overall organization, with the latest reported number being 9,105. The excuse for this is that some former anointed individuals have fallen away from true worship, and new replacements are needed. Which doesn’t make much sense, since these men and women were supposed to have been sealed by Jehovah himself. Like one of my camping buddies suggested, you would think that Witnesses who knew they were chosen to be one of the 144,000, and thus had some kind of enlightening experience involving contact with the holy spirit, would hold themselves to a certain higher level of standards and integrity.

Perhaps most, if not all 9,105 living anointed are somewhere between exceptionally deluded, mentally ill, or pathological liars.