The "figurative" heart

by Sour Grapes 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • blondie
    blondie

    The WTS used secular sources of the time that said that person who received a heart transplant, literally took on the characteristics of the heart donor. This was during the time when the WTS said organ transplants were not for jws. (This changed in 1980 though) When the medical community backed off from the idea of "personality transplants," so did the WTS but tried to disavow their initial position.

    The WTS likes to re-invent their position on their pre-1980 viewpoint, in the following Question From Readers. But note this statement at the end. Why would the elders have to be told that in 1980 they should not disfellowship a jw who has an organ transplant, unless it had been a disfellowshipping offense prior to that?

    https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1980212#h=1:0-5:779

    The congregation judicial committee would not take disciplinary action if someone accepted an organ transplant.

    Here is the secular source of the WTS viewpoint that those having an organ transplant, heart, took on the personality of the donor.

    https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1975642?q=transplant+personality&p=par

    Transplant Problems

    It has long been known that heart-transplant patients have a higher-than-average amount of postoperative psychiatric problems. But it seems that the same is true with regard to some other vital organ transplants, such as kidney transplants. U.C.L.A. psychiatry professor Dr. Pietro Castelnuovo-Tedesco is quoted as saying: “An outstanding finding following transplantation is the not infrequent occurrence of serious emotional disturbance.” One study of 292 kidney-transplant patients showed that nearly 20 percent experienced severe depression after the operation, a few even attempting suicide. By contrast, only about one out of every 1,500 general-surgery patients develops a severe emotional disturbance.

    A peculiar factor sometimes noted is a so-called ‘personality transplant.’ That is, the recipient in some cases has seemed to adopt certain personality factors of the person from whom the organ came. One young promiscuous woman who received a kidney from her older, conservative, well-behaved sister, at first seemed very upset. Then she began imitating her sister in much of her conduct. Another patient claimed to receive a changed outlook on life after his kidney transplant. Following a transplant, one mild-tempered man became aggressive like the donor. The problem may be largely or wholly mental. But it is of interest, at least, that the Bible links the kidneys closely with human emotions.​—Compare Jeremiah 17:10 and Revelation 2:23.

    In the WTS Index under Beliefs Clarified , they point to this change:

    https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001948#h=5:0-11:176

    All such functions, capabilities, emotions, and qualities are ascribed, not to the literal heart organ, but to the figurative heart as representing the total inner personality.

    Also, here is another turn around:

    https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1984641#h=1:0-19:498

    What an amazing number of different functions and capabilities are ascribed to the heart! Do all of these reside in the literal heart? That could hardly be so. This is indicated by those languages that make a clear distinction between a fleshly heart and a figurative heart....(but then they try to explain why they were not really wrong in the first place) Thus a clear distinction is made between the physical organ and the person’s motivations and emotional qualities, though a relationship between the two is maintained.

    (When the WTS came out with the literal heart idea, my jw family thought is was totally wrong, but did not advertise it to other jws. When the "clarification" came out, they felt vindicated. In hindsight, we should have seen it as a good reason to leave.)


  • iwantoutnow
    iwantoutnow

    overwhelming evidence against that.

    I had to tell someone (an elder) from the stage that was was false once.

    People hang on to moronical ideas from the WT for decades after.

    I had to deal with "no rain" before the flood...

    The earth is in a perfect orbit and can not move in or out...

    CULTS are great at creating FALSE INFO - and when no one READS A Fing Book - there is no counter info the ball game is over.

  • Sour Grapes
    Sour Grapes

    Thanks Blondie.

  • BluesBrother
    BluesBrother

    I well remember this teaching. Was there not District Convention in the 70's that featured a large illuminated heart on the platform?

    To be fair, the Society only picked up what a lot of medical reports were saying in those early days of experimental heart transplants.

  • Pete Zahut
    Pete Zahut
    To be fair, the Society only picked up what a lot of medical reports were saying in those early days of experimental heart transplants.

    Yes, that is very true and one can't fault them too much over that. The problem I have is that they seemed to gloss over the fact that they had once based their logic and interpretations of certain scriptures on the heart literally being the seat of our emotions. For a good long stretch of time, they even claimed that a person would take on the personal traits of the donor after an organ transplant and a blood transfusion. They use secular information that supports their beliefs yet they speak with authority on these matters as if what they are teaching has been revealed to them by Jehovah himself. As far as I know, they never actually came out and said that they were wrong and corrected themselves once they knew better. One could respect them for that if they did. Like other matters, they simply stopped talking about it and after a time, began using different phraseology when talking of this subject.

  • blondie
    blondie

    Yes, Pete Zahut, the WTS never apologizes, just says that the WT members ran ahead of the organization, that it was individual opinions when it is too clear what happened and those people lived through the events, and it is in black and white in the publications and talks from the platform they heard in person.

    If that fails, they say the light is getting brighter and wait on their god to sort it out. I am still waiting.

  • Sour Grapes
    Sour Grapes

    I just don't understand why the Borg always has to put figurative in front of heart everytime heart is mentioned. The Bible doesnt do that. It is like they make some big deal over it.

  • btlc
    btlc
    BluesBrother: I well remember this teaching. Was there not District Convention in the 70's that featured a large illuminated heart on the platform?
    Yep, I remember that too, it was in mid 70's, big scary heart made of styrofoam, I was maybe 4-5y old, and I didn't like it at all
  • blondie
    blondie

    Not only that, at the convention I went to, the heart was beating and it went over the sound system.

  • btlc
    btlc

    The Watchtower, March 1, 1971, page 134:

    "... and thus we do not want to make mistake of viewing the literal heart as merely a fleshly pump as does orthodox physiology today. Most psychiatrists and psychologists tend to overcategorize the mind and allow for little if any influence from the fleshly heart, looking upon the word “heart” merely as a figure of speech apart from its use in identifying the organ that pumps our blood."

    The Watchtower, June 1, 1986, page 15:

    "The ancient Egyptians believed that the physical heart was the seat of intelligence and the emotions. They also thought that it had a will of its own. The Babylonians said that the heart housed the intellect as well as love. The Greek philosopher Aristotle taught that it was the seat of the senses and the domain of the soul. But as time passed and knowledge increased, these views were discarded. Finally the heart became known for what it is, a pump to circulate the blood throughout the body."

    So, Watchtower admitted that their previous belief was based on pagan superstitions, rather than modern medicine!

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