DINOSAURS - What do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe?

Bloody Hotdogs!

Hi all,

As part of my deconversion catharsis, I have been building a(nother) website to highlight some of the more ridiculous JW beliefs. I’m a looong way from done, but I wanted some early feedback on one article: Dinosaurs. http://www.jwbeliefs.com/dinosaurs/

I would like to know if I have misrepresented any JW beliefs - that is not my intention. I’d also love to know if there are any good images or quotes that I have missed.

The site gets almost no hits, so I’m not doing this because I think it will make a difference. It’s just nice to get a few things off my chest! The truth of what JWs teach about ancient life and natural history always bothered me...

Cheers!

Simon

I'm not sure they have a very clear published belief system or maybe it's just hard to pin them down on anything during a discussion.

The creationist / dinosaur mismatch with scientific facts was a big factor in my leaving and when the elders were trying to "help" they were adamant that they died during the flood and that coal and oil was produced then by the "enormous water pressure". There were lots of "erm" moments though - I'm not sure even they knew what they were supposed to believe.

Were their explanations convincing? Well, I left ...

BTW: Nice site ! :D

LoveUniHateExams

What do they believe? - I don't know but I'm sure they think Jurassic Park was a great film.

Who wouldn't want a baby raptor in the new system?

LoveUniHateExams

Sorry, I'll try and answer the OP in a serious, sober fashion.

According to what I've read at JWN whilst lurking the WTS believes the dinosaurs were created by God to:

1. act as kind of earth-moving equipment and fertilise the soil;

2. provide coal as fuel for humankind (even though my lead lecturer's field of study is the microphytobenthos of lakes and esturies - she maintains that what is put into cars is largely the result of dead diatoms).

The above 'reasons' seem to work with dinosaur genera such as Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops and Stegosaurus (all herbivores that no doubt produced huge amounts of faeces - cf. cows, horses, elephants) but don't take into account smaller, carnivorous genera such as Velociraptor, Coelophysis, Troodon, Ornitholestes, or the two clades of pterosaurs represented by Dimorphodon and Pteranodon.

OneEyedJoe

I just skimmed your page, but I think you may have a little "old light" in there. The JWs have essentially stopped pushing the 7000 year "days" of creation and gone to a more traditional old-earth creationist teaching wherein each day could be any number of years and merely represents a time period in which god's activity was focused on a certain thing.

Not long ago there was a CO that talked about the fact that the universe was 13.8 Billion years old. I think most of the CO talks are pretty rigid, now, and the 13.8 billion years old bit was a fair portion of the point of the talk, so I think this is being officially acknowledged.

Another fun teaching that I don't think they've ever officially backed away from (though it hasn't been mentioned in a very long time) is that the obviously carnivorous dinosaurs that have been found had large teeth, not for chewing meat, but for ripping the tough bark off of trees. Because we all know how much nutrition there is in bark, it seems perfectly feasible that a t-rex could've sustained itself by eating bark when it seems to have been perfectly suited to eating other dinosaurs.

James Brown

I do not know what JW's believe today. I have been out since 83.

I do not know if dinosaurs were around millions or hundred of thousands of years ago.

But I do believe they coexisted with men in modern times.

Men have drawn pictures on stones with them.

Trey smith has a good video on the God project regarding dinosaurs it is long but if you are interested and havent already made up your mind check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lktmmd7YnD8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zz8_MxcnzY&list=PLEA099CE59F0A0322 I can think of a hundred reasons not to be a Jw. But dinosaurs and the flood are not one.

Bloody Hotdogs!

Hi OneEyedJoe

As far as I can tell, JWs are NOT traditional old-earth creationists - relative to reality, they are young earth creationists. I tried to adress this issue on another page: http://www.jwbeliefs.com/jehovahs-witnesses-believe-creative-days/

Of course, I'm also open to correction if my information/quotes are not correct... It is true that a lot of what they believe will hinge on this teaching.

Apognophos

Me have drawn pictures on stones with them.

I don't really know what that sentence means, but if you're saying those stones are authentic ancient drawings, then I'm sorry, they're totally bogus.

James Brown

agognophos.

It should read men have drawn picturs on stones with them.

Tell me why are the stones bogus?

_Morpheus

I trust blondie to pull the appropriate referances but the last awake published early 2000's left it at "god created them, they died long before man was created and served whatever purpose the desert god intended"

DINOSAURS - What do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe?

Share this