Link to article this is from is at end.
Those without structural visualization, including Herbert Armstrong, Garner Ted Armstrong, Roderick Meredith and a whole host of others, simply do not understand the universe or the world around them. They are linear abstract thinkers. They have no need of science. Their universe is magical — filled with all sorts of miraculous things which defy logic and science. There is a tenuous connection for them between cause and effect. This partly explains their lack of any concept of being a false prophet will lead to the lake of fire (with the caveat that the Bible is true). It makes no sense to them. They completely compartmentalize the consequences of their actions against the future in the universe and their world. They believe in potions (anointing oil), incantations and magic spells (prayer, fasting and prayer). They believe that the can change the world with the power of their mind (meditation). They can do the same things under the same conditions and positively expect wildly differing results.
With Herbert Armstrong, there was an additional problem: His father had high structural visualization — he even, apparently, had a patent for a type of furnace. Ironically, it appears that Herbert worked for his father in a factory at one point in his youth. Understand though, Herbert Armstrong could never understand his father: It was problematic, because Herbert Armstrong lived in a universe quite different from his father. He could not visualize the things his father could; he could never do the things his father did. On the other hand, since his mother had no structural visualization, Herbert could certainly relate to her much better.
Herbert Armstrong could never respect what he could not understand. He could not understand professionals, technicians and technologists with structural visualization. He devalued them. Their only worth to him was if he could use them and manipulate them so he could get what he wanted. This also contributed to his narcissism because he could never really relate to those farmers in the 1930s that became the backbone of his Radio Church of God. Later, in the 1970s, the image and perception of wealth attracted those without structural visualization into the Worldwide Church of God which aggravated the problems for those mechanics, farmers, technicians and technologists who entered into the WCG. Herbert trivialized them. He treated them with contempt. He saw them as lesser lights. The important people to him were those rich and famous who bolstered his image, both to others and to himself. He had to have photo ops with people who were just as deficient in talent as he was, but who had style and image over substance.
When Herbert Armstrong had his psychotic break and spent whole days in the Central Library in Portland, Oregon, he had found the writings of Greenberry George Rupert, which he found so compelling that he, through his magical thinking, believed that Jesus Christ was personally teaching him through the works of G. G. Rupert. He adopted them all in totality with no attribution, teaching them as his own — the tithing system, the feasts and… wait for it… British Israelism. Because he only understood magic and not science through his lack of structural visualization, he fell for British Israelism, hook, line and sinker. He would not have been able to understand DNA evidence, even as those today without structural visualization also cannot understand the DNA evidence, which utterly refutes British Israelism. It should also be seen that the other proofs that British Israelism is a kook idea would not have been understood as well. Archaeology debunks British Israelism, but because Herbert Armstrong and the Armstrongists don’t have structural visualization to understand archaeology, they are completely mystified as to why anyone would reject it. It’s because some of us have superior talent, that’s why. It doesn’t matter though, because who respects superior talent these days: It’s the rich, famous and well-connected that have the respect — it is those who possess style over substance and a lot of it. Smell nice, look good, sound right, and the world is yours. Well, not the world… society is yours. Society runs on magic not science, the same way Herbert Armstrong did.
Read the rest of the story here: 2 of the 10 most horrible things about Herbert Armstrong
