When I was still an active member of the Jehovah's Witness cult, I used to read these magazines filled with articles that detail life experiences of other "faithful" Witnesses. They were always cheesy to read, but later on, something that struck me was that they were always somehow not verifiable at all. You know, say you have an article that argues about being faithful even in the midst of peer pressure. And then a quote from some Daniel from Costa Rica or Evelyn from Canada follows, quoting these "people" about how they were faithful even in the midst of peer pressure. At first, I just let it go, but later on, as I became more and more skeptical and wanting to verify sources, these statements eventually became major stumbling blocks that I find hard to wrap my head around.
And the funny thing is, it seems that we now have evidence pointing to the idea that the Watchtower Society actually just fabricates these things!
See, in this article, somehow it was revealed that the Watchtower Society actually just uses the same words over and over again, even though they claim that it is a different account. It seems that the organization just recycles its own material even though it claims that it is not doing so. The more serious thing is that these are supposed statements that support shunning, the controversial practice of Jehovah's Witnesses to cut off family members who stop believing.
The author of the article I link to above makes a very good argument exposing the Watchtower. The article gives convincing evidence that the Watchtower Society doesn't actually have people who have these experiences, but rather, they're just making it up, for their own purpose. Not to mention that they are self-plagiarizing. As a former academic, that is a big deal to me. And seriously, what is the probability of two individuals using the exact same combination of words to express a supposedly very personal experience, 14 months apart?
When I wrote my dissertation, I carefully cited my sources, and readers could go back and trace their origins if they wanted to. For the Watchtower, nothing like that is possible. I suppose critical thinking isn't a valued asset for those old men running the show in Warwick.
