I noticed that there is a lot of information out there on the net about the ‘Life: How did it get here?’ book and about the book “The Bible: God’s word or mans?” but I haven’t seen anything talking about the newest book released by the society ‘Is There a Creator Who Cares About You?’ – 1998 Watchtower Bible and Tract Society . So here’s a pretty basic rebuttal of the book.
Chapter 1: What Can Add Meaning to Your Life?
This chapter is trying to make the case that the only way to find purpose in your life is through God. They use a quote by Albert Einstein “The man who regards his life as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life.” Indeed this is true, but Einstein himself didn’t believe in a literal God, but found his meaning through science and the pursuit of knowledge. There are many ways to find meaning in life; one shouldn’t limit themselves to only one.
“Over the centuries, many have sought answers through religion. Buddha … sought enlightment, or meaning, in religion but without belief in a personal God.” – Pg. 7
Indeed, I agree with this statement 100%, in no way is spirituality linked to a belief in God or an afterlife. There are some great books out there about this subject; ‘The God Gene’ by Dean Hamer is one I would recommend. Some of the largest religions in the world such as Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism and others have priests, temples or monasteries but no religious belief system in the standard sense.
After establishing that religion is a valid way to seek meaning in life the Watchtower makes the usual mistake of trying to attack science: “Likely you know examples of ‘scientific facts’ that prevailed in the past but that in time were proved totally wrong.” - Pg. 8 They then lists what they consider to be some of these ‘facts’ like the earth being flat. Well, first of all the idea of the earth being flat was never one that was based on anything we would call science; these ideas were part of religious beliefs of the time (including early Christianity and Judaism).
For an encore to this purposefully misleading claim, they next try and link these ancient philosophical ideas to modern scientific theories. They use the example of an 18 th century philosopher David Hume who said he could see how complex biological design could come about by chance, to say that evolution is not a well thought out theory. Do I even need to point out how stupid an argument this is? How can a philosopher with no background in science who lived in the 18 th century be used as a source to question evolution? AHH!
“We invite all who have an open mind to consider this subject … one who possesses ‘Intellectual Honesty’ is characterized by a ‘readiness to scrutinize what one believes to be true’ and ‘to pay sufficient attention to other evidence available.’” Pg. 9
Wow! If only this were true of the Witness themselves! This almost sounds like ‘apostate’ thinking! God forbid one have an open mind to the evidence and consider both sides of an argument! Surely this can’t be what they mean?!?! Calm down, this surely isn’t what they are trying to imply as is clearly seen in the chapters to come.
- Enjoy! I’ve already written a rebuttal for chapters 2 and 3, I will type those up tomorrow when I have time.