I referred to this recently in another topic I made, but I have spoken to a few JWs who do not believe that this scripture is to be taken literally because ecologically it doesn't make sense/seem possible.
New Light on Lions Eating Straw ! ? !
by Open mind 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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JWoods
I knew a number of witnesses (mostly elders, ironically) who thought that this was a JW children's fable along the lines of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. These same guys were completely derisive about that stuff of the heart being a second brain, too.
BTW, how did the WT finally back away from the evil thinking heart? Maybe that could be used as a prototype to tone this back as well.
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TD
This is not an important teaching by any stretch of the imagination, but it was this teaching that made me finally realize that there was no hope for the JW's
All religions are various mixtures of the seen and the unseen. I can accept that. Most religions are just enough of a mixture of the two that the average, normal person can still function. For example, a religion that teaches that large numbers of people are currently living on the surface of the moon would not have a membership composed of average, normal people, assuming they had any membership at all.
When I was much younger, I thought the JW's had simply 'lost their way.' Mistakes had certainly been made, but these could be corrected, perhaps as those who had made them passed away and were replaced with a younger generation of leaders.
It was this particular teaching; or more precisely, the cyclical stubborness in continuing to teach it decade after decade that made me finally realize that I was missing the point entirely and didn't really know that much about religion at all. There's a big difference between straw and hay and even the bull cannot subsist on straw. An organization that maintained a working farm with a herd of dairy cattle certainly knew this already. If that was not enough, qualified people; JW veterinarians and biology teachers had written them long letters explaining in excruciating detail why some animals were vegetarians and some were not.
To focus on physical facts is to miss the point. It wasn't that they didn't already know the truth about this and other teachings. They simply didn't and don't care. Is the JW organization ever going to change any teaching just for the sake of conformance with physical facts? Never. Certainly not in my lifetime and not in yours as well.
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JWoods
To focus on physical facts is to miss the point. It wasn't that they didn't already know the truth about this and other teachings. They simply didn't and don't care. Is the JW organization ever going to change any teaching just for the sake of conformance with physical facts? Never. Certainly not in my lifetime and not in yours as well.
And here you repeat the disgust Ray Franz points out in his first book at the complete indifference that the Governing Body showed when presented with clear evidence that witnesses in Mexico could buy/bribe their way out of military service while U.S. witnesses were going to federal prison (and worse, that Malawi witnesses were getting beaten in the streets for not being able to buy a stupid ID card.)
They simply could care less - so long as their power and position are amplified and preserved.
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RubaDub
things like the Ox pecker
He said pecker.
He he, he he, he he he.
Rub a DUb
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blondie
I have had elders adamantly say that there would be hunting and fishing in the new system and that people would eat meat.....
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JWoods
I have had elders adamantly say that there would be hunting and fishing in the new system and that people would eat meat.....
More than one I knew also maintained this, and in limited company indicated that all the "afternoon picnic with the animals" pictures were something like a Walt Disney comic book to keep the great crowd dumb and happy. And, if you think about it, the reality is that someone has to pick up the trash, pump and process the sewage, mow the lawn, etc. etc. etc...new system paradise or not.
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hamsterbait
Cattle eat HAY - if you put straw in front of them they will not eat it.
Does this mean never ending haymaking to feed all the ex-carnivores in "Paradise"?
(Paradise always refers to a heavenly place in the Bible)
And can some dub explain away how previously vegetarian creatures suddenly got short digestive tract for digesting meat, and hunting instincts after the Flood when God was resting (desisted from creative work?)
Since God has been resting for so long why is dry land still being created?
HB
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ninja
the lion truly will eat straw.....unfortunately.........the straw will be inside the wildebeest it just ripped to shreds
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ninja
and for those who say..."actually wildebeest dont eat straw"........your argument is a strawman