Watchtower teachings on the length of human existence.

by free @ last 44 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Cadellin
    Cadellin

    Nope, they are firmly attached to the belief that human existence is exactly 6,037 years old. They brush off the mountainload of evidence to the contrary by claiming that, while radiocarbon dating methods are reliable back to the flood (about 4,000 years ago, roughly), they cannot be trusted prior to that. Why? Because the removal of the water canopy disrupted atmospheric radiation and so there is no way of knowing what the proportion of C14 to C12 was.

    Which is absolute nonsense, of course. There are numerous independent and yet harmonious methods of detecting historic carbon levels, including oceanic foraminafera analysis and ice core samples going back tens of thousands of years, neither of which would have been affected by any supposed shifts in atmospheric carbon levels. But, alas, such independent research and (even worse) thinking is not to be engaged in by the majority of JWs, many of whom just don't have sufficient reading levels in order to process the implications of this kind of research.

    But here's another way of thinking about it. Let's say that the WT is right--that at the moment of the great deluge, when the water canopy came down, there was an immediate, dramatic change in radioactivity significant enough to affect the rocks and all fossilized remnants of life. That would create a paleontological/chronological boundary as dramatic as the KT boundary with its iridium layer, which would profoundly affect all dating methods in every discipline and would be very well-known among scientists. Think about it: radiometric dating predictions would function orderly all the way back to the date 2370 BCE, then suddenly, wham! Everything gets funky and the predictions don't work anymore; another model has to be substituted. You don't think scientists, researchers and other professionals wouldn't notice?

  • blondie
    blondie

    The WTS has stopped mentioning the 7,000 year creative (6,000 back to Adam, 1,000 years yet the 1,000 year reign of Christ) day. Last mention 1987, 1989 (23 years ago).

    http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/6087/1/NEED-HELP-7000-yrs

    http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/79775/1/The-7000-year-Creative-Day

  • konceptual99
    konceptual99

    @LostGeneration - why would they address something they don't have to?

    Because it would be the honest thing to do.

    It's getting to a point where faith is being stretched to breaking point. As far as I can see it is easier to have collateral damage in the form of people like me who cannot accept everything on face value anymore. We might fade away, DA ourselves or even get DFed. It seems that that is acceptable - it's our lookout. It's especially acceptable when there are enough people coming in from parts of the world where the Bible is still accepted and much of this is not an issue for people before they come into the truth.

    If I can't stomach it any longer then it's clearly my faith that is too weak and I've let myself down. If my kids don't accept it as they grow older then it's my failing as a parent.

    If I am going to convince them that creation is true, God has a plan and there is a paradise new world coming then they need to give me many more tools other than pretty pictures and lots of rehashes of the "surely this amazing thing in nature has to have been designed" rethoric.

    Alas, it seems like me and my family are going to brushed into the gutter with big signs around our necks saying "just couldn't hack it".

  • undercover
    undercover

    The WTS has stopped mentioning the 7,000 year creative (6,000 back to Adam, 1,000 years yet the 1,000 year reign of Christ) day. Last mention 1987, 1989 (23 years ago).

    Yea, they 'stopped mentioning it' years ago. They now weasel around it by saying 'eons' ago. But - they have never retracted those earlier doctrinal points. Ignoring it doesn't wipe it out of the official beliefs. They're just hoping no one notices it anymore.

    But not everyone has gotten the message. The last JW funeral I went to, a year or so ago - the speaker, a well known elder in the area, actually stated that the creation period of life on earth started just under 50,000 years ago. Not sure what that had to do with a funeral, but he out and out said it as if it was a known historical fact.

  • LostGeneration
    LostGeneration

    Because it would be the honest thing to do.

    Yeah, good luck with getting that from the WTS. Remember they are a religion/cult carefully crafted around information control. This takes many forms, but what they leave out is as important as what they put in to the material.

    You and I, and the rest of us on this board are the 2% that simply would not accept all of their pretty pictures and empty promises of paradise. That is built into their business model, the fact that they will lose a certain number of "thinkers" each and every year. Some "thinkers" even go as far as writing letters to the WTS asking for answers (Have you seen the Noah's Ark letters that one guy sent?, They are awesome) and eventually they get chased out or fade out like you say.

    As long as they keep 80% plus out of college, they can continue to propogate the lies, no matter what evidence is out there.

  • free @ last
    free @ last

    Lost Gen do you have a link to the Noah's ark letter?

  • LostGeneration
  • J. Hofer
    J. Hofer

    every christian group that takes a literal approach to the bible teaches about the same thing. and the non-literal christians who believe it's all some kind of metaphor make similar stunts in their reasoning. nothing to see here.

  • Cadellin
    Cadellin

    The WT may be trying to distance themselves from their past assertions regarding the length of the creative days, but the chronology back to Adam still stands. IOW, dinosaurs might have been created millions of years ago (though they won't use that terminology, prefering 'eons' as has already been mentioned), but Adam made his first appearance a little over 6,000 years ago.

  • jam
    jam

    Mark my words, New light "Adam was the first Spiritual

    Man" the first Jehovahs Witness.

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