Theos-Talk Archives (October 2003 Message tt00351)

I glanced at the reference, and it seems to make a common logical fallacy.
The premise, as I read it, claims something like:

"Since an evil man and his movement borrowed ideas from a particular system
of thought, that system must itself be evil and responsible for what the man
and his movement did."

Plugging in values to this logical fallacy, one claim is:

"Since Hitler and his Nazi movement borrowed ideas from Theosophy, Theosophy
must itself be evil and responsible for what the Nazis did."

Taking other examples:

"Since Jim Jones and his church borrowed ideas from Christianity,
Christianity itself must be monstrous, bearing responsible for the wholesale
suicides at his cult's commune."

Or

"Since Bin Laden and his followers borrowed ideas from Islam, the Islamic
faith must be responsible for his murderous deeds."

Who would read an article with such logic and let it pass without question?
Only someone with a deep-seated bias against the group or movement being
slandered by such a "guilt by association" type of presentation.

As a general rule, I'd say that any religion or philosophy offers a view of
the world and noble principles to live by. Ignoble and selfish individuals
pervert a lofty worldview to rationalize what they do and to make it easier
for others to follow them. Noble people use the same materials to make
themselves and the world a better place.

-- Eldon

-----Original Message-----
From: Morten Nymann Olesen [mailto:global-theosophy@adslhome.dk] 
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 12:32 PM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Theos-World Smear campaigns on Balavatsky

Hi all of you,


Are any of you aware of this smear campaign:
http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/thenewage.html