Descartes uttered the famous dictum: I think therefore I AM.
Thinking, however, is metaphysical and existing is physical.
Now STOP right there!
Let us define our words, shall we?
Physics deals with our sensory proofs of ACTUAL things (Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, Touching, Tasting)
(Don't run screaming from the room yet----it gets better!)
Metaphysics deals with our ideas, notions, intutions, concepts about UNprovable (by the senses, anyway) things.
DON'T GO ANY FURTHER if you don't agree and have that clear.
If you don't experiment with data and try to disprove your conclusions you aren't doing Science.
Metaphysical reality is not THE reality.
The Watchtower does't get that, apparently.
From Pastor Russell until now there has been a confusion of Metaphysics and actual Physics!
Example: Jesus returns "and every eye shall see him." How did the Watchtower explain 1914?
INVISIBLE JESUS! (The "eye" of special knowledge allowed True Believers to "see" the arrival of the new King!)
They confuted actual world events (World War) with metaphysical "events": invisible 2nd coming!
The actual war didn't mean what everybody fighting it thought it meant; IT MEANT what the Watchtower metaphysically said it meant.
STOP!
Did you know those ancient Greek philosophers REFUSED to perform experiments? They thought it was beneath them! It was cheating! You were supposed to work out difficult problems IN YOUR MIND.
Aristotle reasoned that a heavy rock falls faster from a great height than a smaller and lighter rock. Almost 2,000 years went by before Galileo performed THE ACTUAL EXPERIMENT! Guess what, instantly the smartest man in history (Aristotle) was refuted!
STOP!
Yes, Stop the Watchtower by PERFORMING THE EXPERIMENT!
The testing of arguments is what science does best. The result is FACT.
However--Science can only test DEMONSTRATIONS of actual things and NOT metaphysical things.
The Governing Body has found the perfect dodge to escape into the Metaphysical whenever they are refuted in the physical!
MIXING chalk and cheese, as the Brits would say.
How do we prove Santa Claus "exists"?
We point to the wonderful happiness of the children at Christmas time! Their innocent belief has a positive impact on the physical.
However, this is a metaphysical argument! It is not FACT or PROOF. It is "fact" and "proof."
All of the Watchtower "proofs" are metaphysical arguments that do not deal with physical testable reality. They are interpretive "impact statements"
on the physical. Bait and Switch!
Getting believers to stand in a hospital room and allow their child to die rather than accept a life-saving blood transfusion, for example.
Where is the focus? Is it on the innocent child's tragic and unnecessary loss of life? NO! That is physical fact refuting belief.
Instead, the focus is on the profound FAITHFULNESS and TRUST in Jehovah's PROMISE of EVERLASTING LIFE!
A false balance is constructed in which we are supposed to Metaphysically perform an "experiment" in our mind!
On one side of the scale we weigh the natural lifespan of a child who violates God's taboos on blood and on the other side EVERLASTING LIFE in paradise! See which one wins THAT metaphysical demonstration??
The Watchtower
CONFUTE Physics with Metaphysics and get away with it.
Where are the Galileo's of the world who dare to demonstrate that the impeccable Aristotle is wrong??!!
The year Galileo died was the year Isaac Newton was born, 1642. Newton mathematically described why the heavy stone and the light stone fall at the same rate of speed. The birth of modern science (expermentation) was testing the reality with reality.
We must demand of Watchtower Society that they stop mixing metaphysics with physics.
Call them out on it.
Point out that END TIMES is a metaphysical interpretation of physical events. The "End" is always a WRONG and implausible opinion because new events come along and newer ones still ALL FITTING the "signs".
Scripture is a METAPHYSICAL map of our imaginary universe in which we PHYSCIALLY dwell.
STOP and think about how confusing that can be to your mind!
Is Jesus ruling invisibly since 1914? Did Armageddon come in 1975?
Stop confusting Physics with Metaphysics and you'll realize how simple the answers are.
Galileo is perhaps the first to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical. In The Assayer he wrote "Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe ... It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures;...." [ 68 ] His mathematical analyses are a further development of a tradition employed by late scholastic natural philosophers, which Galileo learned when he studied philosophy. [ 69 ] Although he tried to remain loyal to the Catholic Church, his adherence to experimental results, and their most honest interpretation, led to a rejection of blind allegiance to authority, both philosophical and religious, in matters of science. In broader terms, this aided the separation of science from both philosophy and religion; a major development in human thought.
By the standards of his time, Galileo was often willing to change his views in accordance with observation. In order to perform his experiments, Galileo had to set up standards of length and time, so that measurements made on different days and in different laboratories could be compared in a reproducible fashion. This provided a reliable foundation on which to confirm mathematical laws using inductive reasoning.
Galileo showed a remarkably modern appreciation for the proper relationship between mathematics, theoretical physics, and experimental physics.
