So basically the Watchtower's assertion is that God must have created all the creatures we unearth, and that those species are unique and did not evolve into humans but were a stand alone species that eventually went extinct.
-Sab
How do Jehovah's Witnesses Explain This Fossil Record?
by sabastious 143 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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notverylikely
If memory serves, they attack Carbon-14 dating. However, Carbon-14 dating is not used for older fossils. The half-life is too short.
I had a sister once tell me that carbon-14 dating was useless because the flood covered the like a blanket and kept the radiation from the sun from getting to the earth.
Of course, I recently had a brother (right before my DF) tell me that evolution had to be false because the brain couldn't spontaneously combust. I had to agree with him on that one.
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unshackled
Evolution is indeed a fact, but suffers from the large throng of creationist's babble of misinformation. WT's recent Origins of Life is a pathetic argument against evolution which basically resorts to misdirection and quote mining. It should be noted as well that nothing written in Origin of Life is an original thought by the WT...these fake arguments have been thought up by other religious groups such as Answers in Genesis and the Discovery Institute. Find it funny that the WT is just riding on the coat tails of these other creationist groups.
The ironic thing with the creationist's obsession with the fossil record is that it isn't even the most solid evidence for evolution. The facts for evolution stand solid without a single fossil. Regardless, the supposed 'missing links' is also a major falsehood. Fossils are rare and we're extremely lucky to have any. Every time one is found and it fills a "gap" they just rant that now there are twice as many gaps!
This is an interesting thread because I find it strange that the WT took up another attack at evolution after the 80's publication 'LIfe How Did It Get Here?'. The evidence is so overwhelming that evolution is fact that it seems so odd that it is still disputed. I suspect with our current public acceptance of evolution we are in another flat-earth stage. Where it will take some time for the tide of reason to squash the creationists attempts at holding on to their ancient belief systems.
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blondie
I was told by one brother that they were fake and put there by Satan...I think that was borrowed from another religion.
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Leolaia
*** g83 3/8 p. 15 Creationism—Is It Scientific? ***
Would the God of truth purposely insert such illusions in his creation just to deceive us? Such reasoning reminds one of the story told of the little old Fundamentalist lady who was being shown through the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. She did not believe the park ranger’s speech about the huge reptiles that had once lived there and whose fossilized bones she was seeing. She offered another explanation for them: “The Lord put them there to fool you.”
Yeah they don't mention Satan, but the idea that the fossils are a deception is rejected.
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sabastious
unshackled, can you explain why we don't need a fossil record to prove evolution?
-Sab
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Leolaia
*** w86 4/1 p. 18 pars. 9-10 Integrity in Serving the God of Truth ***
In 130 years of searching for fossils of the missing link between ape and man, evolutionists have come up with a pitifully small array of bones. According to the magazine Science Digest, “all the physical evidence we have for human evolution can still be placed, with room to spare, inside a single coffin!” No doubt, that is where such so-called evidence belongs—with the lid of the coffin nailed down tight! Those magazine pictures of ape-men that are used to bolster the evolution theory are nothing more than figments of the imagination, drawn on the basis of a few small fragments of a skull or a jawbone.Would a nearly complete skeleton do, then?
It's not the quantity of remains, it's the quality. The morphology of extinct hominids like A. afarensis, H. ergaster, and H. erectus is very well understood on account of what has been fortuitously preserved.
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sabastious
Would a nearly complete skeleton do, then?
Didn't you hear the WT Leolaia? Keep that stuff in the coffin!
-Sab
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unshackled
Hey Sab, I'm no scientist (being raised a JW took care of that!) but from what I've learned about evolution it is well-established over a variety of sciences. Fossils could be likened to icing on the cake. Here are some of the key evidences for evolution…I'll do my best with terminology but I'm still learning:
- DNA and our molecular clock: since our DNA has been handed down from every evolutionary ancestor our genome carries a lot of evolutionary baggage.. The term "junk DNA" has been coined for things that were functioning DNA but at some point in our history, a mutation disbled the gene – whilst leaving behind its remnants as junk DNA.
Examples are….
Humans have structures in their genetic make-up that were once used to produces enzymes to process vitamin C.
Embryos of all humans start to grow gills early in their development. This is also true for all other mammals, birds, reptiles as we share a common ancestry with fish.
- Biogeography: the geographical distribution of animal species around the planet based on tectonic plates and continental drift. We see things such as lemurs (all 37 species) only exist in Madagascar; no monkeys in Madagascar; all 20 species of armadillo exist only in South America.
Geological succession: the time at which species appear in the geological record perfectly matches up with what we would expect to see if evolution were true.
Vestigiality: evidence in our bodies of things left over from our past. Goose bumps, wisdom teeth, the planters muscle, Jacobson's organ are all examples of this. 10% of people are now born without wisdom teeth. Evolution is happening right now and the day will come when no one has wisdom teeth.
My favourite example for debunking the intelligent design babble is the laryngeal nerve. An incredible example evolution that is consistent across all mammals. Rather than try to explain, you gotta check this video out:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdm5he_richard-dawkins-demonstrates-laryng_tech/
Give The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins a read. It does a great job of laying out the clear evidence for evolution across a variety of sciences. Anyone seeking truth should be interested in our real history on this planet. Fascinating stuff. -
notverylikely
all 20 species of armadillo exist only in South America.
And Texas.
