by InterestedOne 23 Replies latest watchtower bible
In the book Mankind's Search for God, the WT says the following:
The oldest portion of the Bible predates all of the world's other religious writings. - chapter 1, paragraph 27.
From a little Google searching, I read that other religious writings predate the oldest portions of the Bible. Which is it? Can someone point me to information that would help clarify. Is the WT statement true? If it is not true, how would a JW defend the statement?
How would they know without any physical archeological evidence?
The Sumerian creation myths predate the Genesis account.... along with a few others.... http://www.google.com/search?q=do+the+sumerian+creation+myths+predate+genesis&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe= .. I guess if they don't consider paganism a religion this might be true... lmao
on second thought maybe they are hinting @ what Genesis really is... a conglomeration of different texts written and edited by different men throughout time... with it's origins in the forgery of egyptian, babylonian and sumerian texts...
naaahhhhh.... just wishful thinking on my part....
Rock drawings of the Rainbow Serpent predate Adam by thousands of years ..... and we still have the originals.
This doesn't make sense even in their own religion.
They believe Moses wrote the oldest books of the bible while he was in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. And according to the witnesses: Egypt already had a lot of gods while the Hebrews were enslaved, some of which Jehovah put to shame with the 10 plagues.
So I'm not sure how they can even claim that, when their own religion puts the earliest bible book at only 3,500 years ago, centuries after the flood.
Not to mention the fact that even if it were the oldest that doesn't mean it's right. And they'll agree with that conclusion when they realize that some other religious text is older.
Suddenly when it's NOT the bible that's the oldest, the age of the book doesn't matter anymore. Ain't that funny?
Yes, I recall in art class seeing rock drawings that date back to 9000 B.C.E. or earlier.
Kind of hard to say that the first man walked the planet around 4000 B.C.E. in light of this evidence.
It's hard to believe that Watchtower would print something that isn't accurate.
http://corior.blogspot.com/2006/02/part-8-what-creation-book-says-about.html
But if you point this egregious error out to the WTS, you will be ignored. I remember studying the epic poem Gilgamesh in college. We were told it predated the writing of Genesis by at least a thousand years. Accuracy and responsible, verifiable research are not the hallmarks of the WTS.
Quendi
Lore wrote:
Not to mention the fact that even if it were the oldest that doesn't mean it's right. And they'll agree with that conclusion when they realize that some other religious text is older.
I think they've even shot themselves in the foot with the idea that oldest = right, so they can't even use the possible escape you suggest above. In the same paragraph that begins by saying the oldest portion of the Bible predates all other religious writings, it lists some various other religious writings and then says:
If some of these works are divinely inspired as some assert, then what they offer in terms of religious guidance should not contradict the teachings of the Bible, which is the original inspired source.
In the next chapter, it says:
It is not that all religions actually grew out of one religion, but the ideas and concepts should be traceable to some common origin or pool of religious ideas. - chapter 2, paragraph 27.
To sum up, it says:
In other words, going back to the analogy used earlier, the account in Genesis constitutes the original, crystal-clear pool from which stemmed the basic ideas about the beginning of man and worship found in the various religions of the world. - chapter 2, paragraph 40.
They seem to be saying that since the oldest Bible books are supposedly the oldest religious writings, all other religions drew their ideas from those Bible books, and that the validity of those other religious ideas must be judged according the Bible because it is the oldest.
Without checking, the Hindu Vedic writings, Gilgamesh, the Stone Age art work in the caves of France must count. Baghavad Gita. I am not certain about details but it definitely exists. Judaism is a very ancient religion but it did spring forth in the Garden of Eden. Gilgamesh shows a highly evolved society. When I read Gilgamesh again recently, it seemed more sophisticated and much better written than the Gensis flood account.
Ancient Chinese writings must predate the Bible.
