I never had much faith in whatever resurrection was. What appealed to me about JW doctrines was the rejection of the "It's a mystery" defense of the indefensible. When I would ask how going into non existence could be reversed when all the atomic parts of who we are had been scattered for thousands of years, the answer was "Jehovah can do anything". Also, if new materials are used, would we really be the same person, reconstructed? Doesn't that support the idea that there is some constant personality existing, at least as a blueprint? When we die we are alive "In God's Mind" was the usual answer. It might as well be "It's a mystery." Finally, if Jesus was brought back to life, didn't that undo the sacrifice since nothing was really lost? OK, he gave up the right to life forever as a perfect human, whoo'de'doo. He went from second in command to second in command with a crown. Big sacrifice. What are your thoughts on the idea of resurrection? Was it a problematic doctrine for you?
Resurrection, Reconstruction? What is it? It never made sense to me. Your opinion.
by Wasanelder Once 40 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Wasanelder Once
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waton
good question, never worried about that, beyond my rebuilding ability of stuff broken.
It has to do with the mystery of consciousness, the picture we create of the universe in our brains/minds.
The bible stories are not the answer.
How about the dead that came out of their tombs during the time pf jesus' death, and went up into jerusalem?
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Ding
The WT concept of "resurrection" is really re-creation.
I was going to say "cloning," except that nothing from your original body is used.
In WT teaching, using material unrelated to the body that died, Jehovah gives you a perfect body that looks like the best version of your old body.
That's the hardware.
Because the WT believes there is no separate immaterial soul that survives physical death, Jehovah uses his perfect memory of you to program the re-created body using your memories and personality which he remembers perfectly.
That's the software.
It's not really you.
It's a copy of you.
Not only that, but the WT teaches (see Life Everlasting In Freedom of the Sons of God) that the great crowd will be resurrected with the same sinful thought patterns and tendencies they had when they died, so Jehovah would really be programming sin and rebellion back into you.
When you think about it, under the Watchtower's view, he could make as many such copies of you as he wanted with as many personality alterations as he desired.
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Fadeaway1962
What about the millions of babies that sadly die soon after being born , have not yet demonstrate what their personalities are.
What will god remember about them ?
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Finkelstein
If you deeply think about resurrection of all of humanity while no one dies for a 1000 years is irrational and physically impossible.
Its a nice ideological dream though, the kind of dream some ancients may have thought up for their gods to accomplish for their devoted worshipers.
Now we just have to find some supernatural gods to do it.
For now we are on are own.
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stan livedeath
i wonder if all those in the brave new world...when they become perfect...will they all look the same ?
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Wasanelder Once
Thanks for your thoughts guys. Very prescient. Big word alert!
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TD
Was it a problematic doctrine for you?
Yes. Extremely.
The JW explanation was disappointing at a very visceral level.
If resurrection is simply recreation of an identical body and the implantation of your memories, then what is there to stop God from doing it while you're still alive if he wanted to?
Would the resultant copy be you? If you pinched yourself to be sure you weren't dreaming would both of you feel it?
A very similar concept was explored in the Schwarzenegger move, The Sixth Day, where the clone truly believes he's the original. It always makes believing JW's uncomfortable when he realizes he's only a copy.
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DATA-DOG
If scientists could record my consciousness before I die and then download it into a body, it would only be a copy of me, as opposed to preserving my consciousness.
As stated before, then only way I could be resurrected was if my “soul” survived my death because a perfect copy would still be a copy.
Immortality would require your individual consciousness to live on, despite whatever body it was in. It’s just like the “Altered Carbon” show on Netflix. If your consciousness dies, you die.
DD
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LongHairGal
WASANELDERONCE:
I never quite accepted the JW religion’s paradise earth and resurrection teaching.
I didn’t really think much about it. But, when I ‘faded’ from the religion I made sure I purged this from my mind and made peace with the idea of death.
In order for the resurrection to be literally true, the creator would have to store BILLIONS of people’s thoughts and memories. (They also couldn’t possibly be conscious because then they would remember this - unless their consciousness is put into a hibernation state.). Then at some later date, a body of some sort that apparently would resemble the person..would have these memories put into it. Sounds so science fiction but who am I to say that some creator could not do this..But, WOULD they?
There is also the scripture “the dead are conscious of nothing at all, etc..” According to this scripture it all dissipates. Then how is it in Jehovah’s memory? To me this scripture contradicts any idea of resurrection because it HAS to be that person so it would have to be preserved somehow.
There are some people who want to cling to this resurrection teaching and who am I to stop them?