Has the WTS changed its view on carbon dating?

by Jourles 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Jourles

  I remember back to my high school days when the blue Evolution or Creation book was all the rage. In it, I recall the WTS using several reasons as to why we cannot trust carbon dating whatsoever. Has there been any change in their thinking in the last 15 or so years or any new developments on this front? The reason why I'm asking is because of the newly found Syrian wall painting that was uncovered. In the article, they mention it is roughly 11000 years old and they deduced this from carbon dating:

  "It looks like a modernist painting. Some of those who saw it have likened it to work by (Paul) Klee. Through carbon dating we established it is from around 9,000 B.C.," Coqueugniot said.

  As we all know, human civilization couldn't possibly have been around on earth back in 9000 B.C. Adam and Eve only came on the scene back in 6000 B.C. So who in the heck painted this then? Did Satan predict what was going to happen in our day and he painted it himself just to screw around with the WTS?

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071011/ts_nm/syria_painting_dc
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  Awakened07

  I believe they still teach the water vapor hypothesis; that earth was surrounded by a layer of water vapor that was used in the global flood. This water vapor canopy then was the supposed cause of the globally warm climate in the day of Adam and Eve, and also disrupted the creation and distribution of C-14, so that it throws off the measurements we do today.

  Of course, the water vapor canopy hypothesis has been debunked scientifically, but that doesn't really matter when you can insert a supernatural cause for it.

  Add to that the various other radiometric dating methods used, that take us even further back (to put it mildly) and has nothing to do with the formation of C-14, and it starts getting rather ridiculous.
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  garybuss

  
  
  Reasoning From The Scriptures 1989 p. 88 Creation
  Was all physical creation accomplished in just six days sometime within the past 6,000 to 10,000 years?
  The facts disagree with such a conclusion: (1) Light from the Andromeda nebula can be seen on a clear night in the northern hemisphere. It takes about 2,000,000 years for that light to reach the earth, indicating that the universe must be at least millions of years old. (2) End products of radioactive decay in rocks in the earth testify that some rock formations have been undisturbed for billions of years.
  
  
  "Consider the relationship between Jehovah and Jesus. They were together in heaven for perhaps billions of years."
  The Watchtower, August 15, 2005
  Page 27, Paragraph 15
  
  
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  Awakened07

  Yes, garybus, but they still believe that Adam and Eve were created approx. 6000 years ago, so there could be no civilization before that.

  I'm uncertain if they still believe that dinosaurs walked the earth alongside Adam and Eve though. They once (for 70 years at least) taught that each day was 7000 years, but I guess that's changed to indefinite time periods now.

  It's interesting how they'll sometimes cite science, and then other times utterly reject its findings when it fits them - sometimes within the same, or a few adjoining sentences.
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  Dansk

  It's interesting that for a group of old fogies who stress that they are inspired by God they continue to change things, as though God can't make up his mind. "It's new light!" More like old sh*te!

  Ian
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  Hellrider

  About that wallpainting:

  "It looks like a modernist painting. Some of those who saw it have likened it to work by (Paul) Klee. Through carbon dating we established it is from around 9,000 B.C.," Coqueugniot said.

  I only see this as a very valid argument against the decay of modern art, nothing more...
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  Gopher

  I'm uncertain if they still believe that dinosaurs walked the earth alongside Adam and Eve though. They once (for 70 years at least) taught that each day was 7000 years, but I guess that's changed to indefinite time periods now.

  The Awake magazine back in the 80's or 90's clearly stated that dinosaurs died out before mankind walked the earth. So they FINALLY got that right. Does anybody remember the green NWT Bible that had the inside map depicting dinosaurs walking around Africa???

  I remember the 7000 year "creation day" theory, but that idea went out of favor after 1975. It was mainly meant to support the idea that it could be 6000 years from Adam's creation (allegedly in 4026 BCE) until Armageddon. Freddie Franz used that strange 6000-year idea to whip up the 1975 hysteria.
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  marmot

  I'd LOOOOVE to know what the current reasoning is on this, too. I'm an avid history buff, especially Native American history and there is loads of radiocarbon evidence that humans were here over 10 thousand years ago.
  
  There are many instances of Clovis points found preserved in-situ in extinct ice age megafauna remains such as mammoths and giant bison, all carbon dated more than 11000 BP (before present).
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  ninja

  never mind carbon dating....jourles......your avatar looks like a nerdy adolf hitler
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  OnTheWayOut

  I seem to recall that they have still recently published something that
  refers to 6000 years of mankind or some such garbage. They have not
  abandoned their teaching that Adam was created just over 6000 years ago.
  Adam did not come on the scene in 6000 BC, it would be 4026 BC (BCE).
  They don't actually remind us of this teaching, but it is still their doctrine.

  As far as carbon dating, look here- we are dealing with a cult that has no
  scientists. Their old information will be referred to about carbon dating if
  anyone was to ask questions. They don't want to print new information
  about carbon dating, because their ignorance would be pointed out. They
  just tell their flock to not believe the scientists and to stop trying to disprove
  them, but accept every last thing they say.

  Of course they must still be against the accuracy of carbon dating, but they
  know it's more accurate than it used to be, so they are silent.

  It wouldn't surprise me if science ever proved things beyond doubt that WTS
  would seriously print that Satan made it look old by supernatural abilities.
  That is not an original idea, I have read it here before. Or Jehovah is testing
  our faith with these "too old" things. There's always a loophole.