by worldtraveller 39 Replies latest jw friends
I did a report in high school about how old the earth was. My mother called our bookstudy conductor to ask about how old the earth was because she wanted to make sure my facts were right. He said that the earth was 6000 yrs old. needless to say I got an F on the report.
I better go back and check the sign on the door. It looks light I got the wrong religion here. Jehovah's Witnesses we talking about right?
I better go back and check the sign on the door. It looks light I got the wrong religion here. Jehovah's Witnesses we talking about right?
yep that would be them. Maybe the jws in my area were dumber than others.
So, apparently, my sister is mature, wise and educated enough to make a life-or-death decision, but she's not mature enough to walk home from school with a boy
Yep. Their rules suit them when they see fit. And they definitely do not jive from one to the next. Major contradictions exist with the WTS! Can't sign up to this shiite... ever!
WAIT, how old DOES the WT teach that the earth is? I thought they taught that the earth is like 7,000 years old?
Slimboyfat,
I see your point. Perhaps the writer of the editorial meant "the world [of mankind]," meaning everything in the world's civilizations is less than 6,000 years old?
True, JWs believe that the earth and the universe can be millions of years old. But, the traditional understanding of the WTBTS is that all animal life date to within 20,000 years ago, during the 5th "creative day." Land animals, according to the WTBTS traditional understanding date from the last 13,000 years, the 6th "creative day." Not too many scientists would hold those dates as verifiable.
I see your point. Perhaps the writer of the editorial meant "the world [of mankind]," meaning everything in the world's civilizations is less than 6,000 years old?
Nice JW-style interpretation there. (You even got the brackets!) What were you Fred Franz in a previous life?
The author clearly made a pretty basic mistake. Why make a weak attempt to deny the obvious?
I'm not saying I blame him all that much for getting it wrong. There must be plenty of people "brought up in the truth" who leave as soon as they can with little care for getting JW doctrines correct while they're making for the exit.
But if I was a Witness reading that article, that one basic error about the age of the "world" would give me more than the justification I would be looking for to dismiss it as lacking credibility.
True, JWs believe that the earth and the universe can be millions of years old. But, the traditional understanding of the WTBTS is that all animals date to within 20,000 years ago, during the 5th "creative day." Not too many scientists would hold that as verifiable either.
Of course scientists don't agree with the Witnesses either. Clearly I am not saying the Witness teaching is right. That was not my point.
Each Creative Day is 7,000 years long, exactly. That puts the second sentence of Genesis at 48,000 years ago. The first sentence, in most translations allows for a semantical separation. The Society teaches that the earth could be billions of years old along the rest of the Cosmos. The millenium is supposed to complete the last 1,000 years of a 7X7,000 year creation.
The idea that the Creative days were 7,000 years long came from Charles Russell. Not even a hint of Scriptural support.
One error doesn't invalidate the rest of an article. I remember that JW attitude clearly myself. Problem is, it's a standard that's impossible to uphold and even a standard they are unable to live by. Many JW's are experts in dismissing something because of one error. They're only fooling themselves if they do so.
Sure, I agree.
I just think it's a shame the mistake is there because I know what Witnesses will make of it.
"What kind of Witness was he? We don't even teach that!"
Yes, this is what they say outloud. There will be many who will remember the other points in the article and try to suppress the resultant doubts. I know I tried to do that for many years. The doubts seem to disappear but surface periodically. Eventually, when enough doubts start reasserting themselves one either has to face them or start living a double life.
