Well, exactly Finkelstein. I thought we were just engaging in a flight of fantasy debate here - as I assume we are all perfectly aware that the TRex had huge predatory teeth and we are smart enough to discern what they were for.
CRAPPING DEAD DINOSAUR MEAT....and the religious implications...
by Terry 125 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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ballistic
We see the same raw realities as we look out into space, We don't see love or fairness out there or any other "godly" thing. Space is cold and unforgiving. Unlike the watchtower told us, it doesn't work like a wrist watch, there are violent collisions, suns explode, worlds are destroyed.
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Finkelstein
Its a darn good thing God cast that huge asteroid onto earth killing off all those large carnivorous dinosaurs
or Noah would have had a real time putting all those large dinos on the ark !
I bet those Tyrannosaurs Rex were a bit feisty
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Finkelstein
I guess when the ancient Hebrews were theorizing their stories they never considered that if animals didn't die what would be
the pursing consequences, concerning population growth of all species.
Death has to occur for life to continue on.
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Giordano
Crapping Dead Dinosaur Meat............ that there is poetry. Needs to be the title of your collection of critical essay's Terry.
Speaking of crapping meat hell I can get a wicked bout of diarrhea from just eating at Wendy's!
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Apognophos
I think it's important to distinguish WT teaching from general Christian theology here, Terry.
The Society taught (this is never written in modern publications, but it is still passed down verbally from generation to generation of Witness) that animals were once vegetarian. This is easily disproven by looking at fossils of T. rex, saber-toothed tigers, etc., as well as by simply looking at the world around us and how well-adapted some animals are to eating other animals (heck, even some plants eat animals!). Presumably this teaching originated from, as you suggested, the fall of mankind into sin, except there's no real reason why Man's sin would affect the animals.
If, as a Christian, one doesn't subscribe to this ridiculous notion, then the only thing needing explanation is why God would allow animals to kill each other. Any vertebrate is sufficiently advanced (and probably some invertebrates like cephalopods) to feel fear when being hunted, to feel agony when being killed or devoured alive, etc. Many are killed slowly before being eaten. Some animals even feel grief at losing their mate. However, I do not believe most theologians have suggested that the Original Sin had any connection to this aspect of nature.
Nowadays, I would also suggest that Witnesses are not particularly concerned with this issue one way or another. The "vegan lion" is a nice way to placate your child when they start asking uncomfortable questions about why animals kill each other, but it still doesn't answer why they are mortal in the first place. However, the average adult Witness simply can't give a crap about animals, so this teaching matters little to them one way or another. Generations of animals eating each other has no bearing on a JW's day-to-day struggle to live up to the onerous teachings of the WT Society on, being heaped upon the bewildered, hairless ground apes that we are.
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ballistic
Apognophos you forget that in the supposed kingdom, the lion and the lamb and cobra will lay down together. (and I don't mean in the sense that men do in Leviticus) This implies that the violence and murder animals comit is part of man's fall from perfection.
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Apognophos
Even as a Witness, I thought that those scriptures must be symbolic (lion-like ones will lie down beside lamb-like ones, children will be safe in the new world). I believe the Society has even suggested that interpretation in a recent article (although I think they were still hinting at holding onto the literal interpretation at the same time).
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ballistic
Yes, and what a confusing world it is where some things can be literal, other symbolic, and then we have anti-typical, what the hell was that?
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Finkelstein
Religion and logic never mix well together, its like mixing water and oil together.
You can try as you might but the results will always come out the same.