Critiquing an article out of the June 2006 Awake!

by Pallbearer 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Pallbearer

  URL for article:http://www.watchtower.org/e/200606b/article_01.htm

  The short article noted above appeared in the June 2006 issue of Awake! Although I think the author did a good job in general I totally disagree with the following three things that were said:

  (a) By asserting their independence, Adam and Eve irreparably damaged their relationship with Jehovah (b) and inflicted sin’s imprint upon their organism, right to its genetic foundations. (c) Jehovah purposed to make it possible for the offspring of Adam and Eve to be freed from sin’s deadly grip.

  With regards to the "a" part: We notice the author argues that there is no hope left for Adam and Eve. So the official position of the Watchtower Society is that Adam and Eve will NOT receive a resurrection. However, there is nothing in the Biblical account that suggests Adam and Eve were irreconcilable. With regards to the "b" part: The author claims that the tendency to sin was passed down to everyone by means of genetics. Actually, our genes have nothing to do with the shortcomings that we commit. The quality of parental guidance and education has everything to do with it. With regards to the "c" part: Once again it is implied that Adam and Eve will not receive another chance at life. There is nothing to suggest that Adam and Eve merited being thrown into the "lake of fire" along with Satan. (Revelation 20:10) The lake of fire is a symbol for eternal destruction, where only irreconcilable people are sent. Do you agree or disagree with me?
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  VM44

  Acquired characteristics are not passed down to its offspring.

  When did The Watchtower decide it could decide how genetics operates?
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  smellsgood

  "The tendency to sin is not inherited. It is passed down by learning--if parents are mystic they will teach that to their children."

  Well...this sounds sort of nice, but it really doesn't happen that way I would say a large part of the time. Of course it is most visible with extreme examples like

  Hitler: now, did he learn mass extermination of the Jews from his parents? Was he sat down by his father (until he was thirteen) and mother (until he was seventeen) every night where they would tuck him in and sing a gay Aryan supremacy propoganda themed lullaby?

  Vlad the Impaler: Was he raised by the people around him to impale, burn, skin, roast, torture and boil people? Did he attend live clinical demonstrations on how to terrorize the baddies? Or was it just written, and oral instruction on how best to do this? Perhaps there was illustrations of a designated criminal having his best hat nailed to his head.

  Of course, like I said, these are the extreme examples.

  Along with Hitler, millions of Germans participated in the genocide of the Jews, the murder of countless others.

  Approximately 13,000,000 were in the Luftwaffe service between 1939-1945

  Were they raised to be cogs in a killing machine? Is it possible that until that point that they chose to carry out torture and murder of innocent people would have been perfectly ordinary people if you had met them on the street before the killing started?

  Clearly, it is not statistically possible that 13,000,000 people could have been categorized as 'psychopaths', How is it that so many people chose to participate in on of the greatest human atrocities ever to be committed?

  Likewise, if what you stated was true, the only theives would be children of theives, only rapists, children of rapists; the only people who tortured children sexually and posted it on the internet would be the children of those people who had also done that.

  I think perhaps it might be said that people can go terribly wrong regardless of their upbringing.

  I suppose they just weren't raised by mystics.

  I think its a bit silly to say the 'tendency to sin' is something one 'learns.'

  "The churches make up rules that are intended to get us hooked on God"

  Really?

  That strikes me as nonsensical. If Churches are self-serving, then the best thing they can do is to do what the WT does, get the individual hooked on the Church. Why would anyone who doesn't go to Church get 'hooked on God' if that were the case?
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  james_woods

  Acquired characteristics are not passed down to its offspring.

  When did The Watchtower decide it could decide how genetics operates?

  It has never bothered them to take up crackpot ideas on medical science before - remember the "thinking heart" of the 1970s? This does bring up an interesting question, though - if just the one original pair - Adam & Eve gave rise to all human genes, how do you explain the random distribution of such rare but totally dominant genes as Sickle Cell Anemia, or Colorblindness? Wouldn't everybody have them by now if that were the case? Just one more point, I can barely remember now, but wasn't there a major turnaround on the possibility of Adam's resurrection in the early 1960s? And if I remember it right, they formerly thought Adam did not get one (before this 1964 or so magazine), but it said in the article I am thinking about that in fact he would be brought back in the new system and life would be up to him if he followed the teachings. Or, maybe it was the other way around - but anyway it was a reversal on their teachings about hope for Adam. It caused a lot of contraversy at the time. IIRC, there was a lot of Anti-Adam sentiments with the old school Witnesses, and they were pissed about this change. If that is right, then wouldn't this be another flip-flop on the issue?
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  still_in74

  (a) By asserting their independence, Adam and Eve irreparably damaged their relationship with Jehovah (b) and inflicted sin’s imprint upon their organism, right to its genetic foundations. (c) Jehovah purposed to make it possible for the offspring of Adam and Eve to be freed from sin’s deadly grip.

  With regards to the "a" part: We notice the author argues that there is no hope left for Adam and Eve. So the official position of the Watchtower Society is that Adam and Eve will NOT receive a resurrection. However, there is nothing in the Biblical account that suggests Adam and Eve were irreconcilable. With regards to the "b" part: The author claims that the tendency to sin was passed down to everyone by means of genetics. Actually, our genes have nothing to do with the shortcomings that we commit. The quality of parental guidance and education has everything to do with it. With regards to the "c" part: Once again it is implied that Adam and Eve will not receive another chance at life. There is nothing to suggest that Adam and Eve merited being thrown into the "lake of fire" along with Satan. (Revelation 20:10) The lake of fire is a symbol for eternal destruction, where only irreconcilable people are sent.

  A - this is a "cult" comment, if you are independant minded you could irreparably damage your relationship with Jehovah/Org. B - this is a rediculous statement even for the WTS. They are claiming that we sin because we are genetically imperfect because Adam & Eve sinned. That is absolute insanity! Have they forgotten that Adam & Eve were perfect when they sinned??? They even present that after the 1000 years in the "new system" the Great Crowd on earth will not be immortal like the 144K, thus they could technically sin, and if they do they would be immediately destroyed as Jehovahs sovereignty has already been proven. Yet these sinners would be PERFECT! So have Adam & Eve passed anything on to us?They passed on mortality for sinning from a perfect state. they had the ability to sin just like we do. We have the ability not to sin just like they did. Point is they were immortal before they sinned, we are mortal one way or another. But they were immortal with a price. They had the threat of everlasting destruction hanging over them and at any moment they could be "struck by lighting" for breaking a rule. Sounds like fun. Then again, kind of sounds like being a Jehovahs Witness ! C - what about those offspring before the Mosaic Law? They had no means of attonement. If Adam & Eve couldnt be forgiven then neither could anyone before Moses. Oh but Abel found favor in Jahs eyes, he sacrificed a lamb. Well thats true but who told him too? How did he know that jah would not be displeased by such a countless slaughter? He must have known in his heart, or perhaps Jah had made them aware of such a provision the org says. Oh really? And where is this presumption found in the bible? Could it be that Moses applied Mosaic Law anachronistically back to the creation account? Yes I think the author(s) of the creation account made a blunder when they were attempting to connect Judaism to the creator/creation. This goes hand-in-hand with the spinning sword in front of the entrance to the garden when neither swords, weapons, tools or even metal of any kind had been invented yet. Boy those creation account boys must have been smoking some bad weed that day....