I don't know if parts of this mag have been discussed. I've been reading it slowly, and though evolution/creation is not an argument I want to get in to (each to his own) there are a few points that I'm going to bring out in the next week or so that 'irritated me'.
DOES SCIENCE CONTRADICT THE GENESIS ACCOUNT?
Page 19 subheading 'Creations Appear Gradually'
Moses wrote his account in Hebre, and he wrote it from the persepctive of a person standing on the surface of the earth. These two facts, combined with the knowledge that the universe existed before the beginning of the creative perios, or 'days' help to diffuse much of the controversy surrounding the creation account. How so?
A careful consideration of the Genesis account reveals that events starting during one 'day' continued into one or more of the following days. For example, before the first creative 'day' started, light from the already existing sun was somehow prevented from reaching the earth's surface, possibly by thick clouds. During the first 'day' this barrier began to clear, allowing diffused light to penetrate the atmosphere.
On the second 'day' the atmosphere evidently continued to clear, creating a space between the thick clouds above and the ocean below. On the fourth ' day', the atmosphere had gradually cleared to such an extent that the sun and moon were made to appear ' in the expanse of the heavens.' In other words, from the persepectove of a person on earth, the sun and moon began to be discernible. These events happened. gradually.'
The problem with this, as we are probably all aware, is the way that the WTBTS tries to explain this annomaly of there being light and yet the sun and moon not actually being made until several days after the actual 'light appeared.'
Since there were NO people on the earth to actually see this as they had not been created yet, Moses probably obtained his version of events from the myths of the people of Sumer.
They try to explain away the sun and moon becoming visible by saying that all the clouds had cleared away. That being the case then, where did all the rain come from that apparantly God sent to flood the Earth in Noah's day? Where did this mythical blanket of cloud appear from 'again' later on when it was time to flood an earth that had never had rain, and never had direct rays of the sun shine on it?
Also, the NWT, their own Bible clearly says in verse 14 of chapter 1 of Genesis:
And God went on to say: 'Let luminaries come to be in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night; and they must serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years. 15. And they must serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth. And it came to be so. 16. And God proceeded to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night and the stars. 17. Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth...'
Their saying that the 'story' was written in the viewpoint of a man standing on earth holds no ground because, the story is supposedly inspired by the God, who supposedly made these things. The Bible clearly states that the sun and moon and stars were not MADE by God until the fourth day.
The WTBTS tries in this article to make itself appear MORE scientific and more 'grounded' than Christian Fundamentalist which it mocks throughout this magazine. 'Fundamentalists' is bandied about like a dirty word. And yet, their own teaching is nothing different to the Fundmentalist they seek to mock.
I'll show these quotes in a later post.