TD, I highly respect the research you put into your posts and the large amount of background study you do. I have found your posts have really made me think, especially the discussion we had on blood several years ago. However, in this case I do think you are being pedantic. The main point about the spring equinox is that the first full moon after that marks Nisan 14. Whether or not night and day are exactly equal is immaterial.
JW Science Quote (1-15)
by TD 13 Replies latest jw friends
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DT
"Whether or not night and day are exactly equal is immaterial."
I agree it isn't too important unless someone says it while claiming to be God's "channel of communication", or they kill thousands of trees to distribute these kinds of inaccuracies, or they use slave labor to distribute this silly information, or they teach this while at the same time discouraging college where you might find out they don't know what they are talking about, or they threaten shunning towards anyone who is critical of what they say. Otherwise, I don't think its really that big of a deal.
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TD
Hiya Earnest,
Your point is well taken. If the kind and humble Lutheran minister who used to live across the street from me had committed a faux pas of this type, I would simply have ignored it. As you point out, from the standpoint of Christian doctrine, it doesn't matter whether you fully understand the terms or not.
However, unlike this Lutheran minister, JW leaders, writers and policy makers don't hesitate to pick a fight with any expert on any subject regardless of how technical or esoteric it might be. Evolutionary biology, Neo-Babylonian archeaology, Medicine, Bible translation, and Jewish Law are some of the more common areas in JW literature where this occurs, but you can pretty much name the discipline and JW's are supremely confident that they know more than anyone else.
This fusion of ignorance and religious superiorty is the reason why JW's believe they can set the date for Passover more accurately than modern Judaism can. It's the same attitude that produced the whole mess with transfusion medicine we have today. I'm not deliberately trying to be pedantic, (Even if that is the end result) I'm trying to point out the symptoms of a larger problem.
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JWoods
Excellent point on the hypocrisy of the WT in having to be "exactly right" on the day, yet not really understanding the science.
It is interesting to note that a Jewish poster said in another thread that his passover started the day before the JW memorial -
So, once again - the JWs have to be "just a little different" from everybody else.