Questions...

by Aequitus 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  parakeet

  garybuss: "End products of radioactive decay in rocks in the earth testify that some rock formations have been undisturbed for billions of years."
  
  
  So now JWs accept that method of determining age? Back in the 70s, when I was a JW, carbon dating and similar methods were tools of Satan.
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  OnTheWayOut

  Parakeet said:

  Carbon dating

  They do not accept the dating:

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  g90 2/8 p.11 What Happened to the Dinosaurs?***
  

  One method being used to measure the age of fossils is called radiocarbon dating. This dating system measures the rate of decay of radioactive carbon from the point of death of the organism. "Once an organism dies, it no longer absorbs new carbon dioxide from its environment, and the proportion of the isotope falls off over time as it undergoes radioactive decay," states ScienceandTechnologyIllustrated.
  

  However, there are severe problems with the system. First, when the fossil is considered to be about 50,000 years old, its level of radioactivity has fallen so low that it can be detected only with great difficulty. Second, even in more recent specimens, this level has fallen so low that it is still extremely difficult to measure accurately. Third, scientists can measure the present-day rate of radioactive carbon formation but have no way of measuring carbon concentrations in the distant past.

  So whether they use the radiocarbon method for dating fossils or other methods, such as employing radioactive potassium, uranium, or thorium, for dating rocks, scientists are unable to establish the original levels of those elements through ages of time. Thus, professor of metallurgy Melvin A. Cook observes: "One may only guess these concentrations [of radioactive materials], and the age results thus obtained can be no better than this guess." That would especially be so when we consider that the Flood of Noah’s day over 4,300 years ago brought enormous changes in the atmosphere and on earth.

  Dartmouth College geologists Charles Officer and Charles Drake further add doubt to the accuracy of radioactive dating. They state: "We conclude that iridium and other associated elements were not deposited instantaneously . . . but rather that there was an intense and variable influx of these constituents during a relatively short geologic time interval on the order of 10,000 to 100,000 years." They argue that the breakup and movement of the continents disrupted the entire globe, causing volcanic eruptions, blocking sunlight and fouling the atmosphere. Certainly, such disruptive events could change radioactivity levels, thus distorting results from modern-day radioactive clocks.
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  Mulan

  Do Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the earth is 6000 years old, or 4.5 billion? And if Adam and Eve were the first people on the earth, how would the multitude of races come about from the inbreeding of Adam and Eve's children? And during this time, people became wildly dispersed across the planet and adopted various other religions. I believe in the year 1AD there were 1 million people on the earth

  I have thought this was an interesting fact for some time, since at the time of the Israelites exodus from Egypt, in the 1500's BC (somewhere in there), there were over 1 million who left there. How can that be if there weren't that many people on the planet???
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  garybuss

  Parakeet, you wrote: "So now JWs accept that method of determining age?"My quote was from Reasoning From The Scriptures 1989 p. 88 "Creation" heading.
  
  
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  BluesBrother

  The article described T.rex as having large teeth , but does not actually say that that it was meat eating , or not. This is their conclusion to the three article series.

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  g902/8p.11WhatHappenedtotheDinosaurs?***

  When the dinosaurs had fulfilled their purpose, God ended their life. But the Bible is silent on how he did that or when. We can be sure that dinosaurs were created by Jehovah for a purpose, even if we do not fully understand that purpose at this time. They were no mistake, no product of evolution. That they suddenly appear in the fossil record unconnected to any fossil ancestors, and also disappear without leaving connecting fossil links, is evidence against the view that such animals gradually evolved over millions of years of time. Thus, the fossil record does not support the evolution theory. Instead, it harmonizes with the Bible’s view of creative acts of God.
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  PrimateDave

  Aequitus said: "I believe in the year 1AD there were 1 million people on the earth..."
  
  I believe that figure to be incorrect; the actual population would have exceeded 100 million around 2000 years ago. Perhaps someone has a reference to a plausible estimate.
  
  If you are amazed by the overall fertility of mankind in the space of a few thousand years, however, you should consider another case from the "inspired" record. According to Acts 7:14, seventy-five souls went down into Egypt. Genesis 46:26, 27 states that seventy souls went down into Egypt. Yet apparently not long after Joseph died, "there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we" (Ex. 1:6-9)
  
  According to "inspiration" the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years, or maybe for just 215 years. (Exodus 12:40 or Gen. 15:16)
  
  "Assuming that all the 55 male descendants of Jacob who came into Egypt married ..., the Hebrew population in Egypt would naturally augment in about the following manner: The first generation (offspring of the twelve) that came into Egypt was 55 males; liberally allowing five male children each, the second generation, sprung from these, would number 275; the third generation, offspring of the second, would number 1375; the fateful 'fourth generation,' that of Moses and the exodus, would reach the sum total of 6875 male persons.
  
  "The inspired record, after relating the 'spoiling of the Egyptians' by the Chosen says: 'And the Children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle' (Ex. 12:37, 38)!
  
  "Only about a year later (Num. 1: 1), at Sinai, the formal census of this warrior host was taken, of every male 'from 20 years old and upwards, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel; even all that were numbered were 603,550' (Num. 1: 45, 46)! Even in this host the Levites were not numbered (1: 47); when afterwards they were separately numbered, 'all the males from a month old and upward were 22,000' (Num. iii, 39). On the very conservative, and quite inadequate, basis of estimating these warrior-males to be but one out of every four of the old men, women, and children, we should have a Hebrew population of 2,414,200 souls, not counting in the 22,000 Levites and the great mixed multitude of slaves and camp-followers who accompanied the hosts of Yahveh. The Jewish Encyclopedia and most accepted authorities estimate the total numbers of the exodus to be about 3,000,000!"
  
  Quoted from Is It God's Word? by Joseph Wheless
  
  
  
  
  
  Dave