by cedars 65 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Eternity is like a steel ball the size of the sun being worn down by a fly?
Forgetting that a fly has a lifespan of less than a month so would make zero impact on wearing down a steel ball bearing, let alone a ball the size of the sun, I guess the point is that eternity is a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really long time.
Deep.
After all, it's not fair to only pick on poor old Anthony and not the others!!!
I just say Armageddon..
and..
My Hair Stands Up by Itself..
Garrit Losch
........................... 
...OUTLAW
00DAD - no, that link appears to be the Brazil interpreted talk again.
I'm after the "collector's edition" talk (removed from YouTube) that featured a plagiarised illustration!!
Cedars
Cedars, gotcha. Didn't know which talk you were seeking.
WC: "I'm not trying to sound supportive of the WT or GB in the least, but what exactly is wrong with this analogy? It DOES give you a sense of how long eternity would be, and it WOULD only just be the beginning."
First, I'd say that his analogy is particularly backward because it isn't that complicated for humans to imagine eternity, particularly if you've already been exposed to most religions that promise immortal life after death. However, his analogy requires you to imagine a steel ball the size of the sun... Then imagine a fly on top... and walking... and wearing down the steel ball. The requirements to visualize and conceptualize what he describes is far more complex (and distracting to anyone with a concept of the physics of gravity, friction, the exceptionally short lifespan of a fly, and what does he mean "suppose we take a steel ball the size of the sun...", take it where?). The point of an illustration is to simplify something complex or describe something vague in more concrete terms. His illustration did the opposite, taking a straightforward concept of unending time and complicating it with a bunch of nonsense.
The second problem with his analogy is that it really has no purpose. It proved nothing. Comprehending eternity doesn't "finish the devil". Most every religion already believes in some kind of immortal life after death. If he's gonna believe the story of the naked lady and talking snake, it was Satan who promised that they wouldn't die. So if you promise eternal life, it's the same thing Satan was talking about... so God would be finished. "What fool turns their back on that?" Umm. He gave a dumb illustration that proved nothing and didn't read any scriptures to really support that God has made a promise any more valid than Satan. Tony the Turd has provided absolutely no evidence that the WT promise of eternal life is any more valid than any other religion that's selling salvation. So, what fool would be convinced by his bad illustration to start treating a boring janitor like him as if he's some kind of a prophet?
I'm after the "collector's edition" talk (removed from YouTube) that featured a plagiarised illustration!!
The video is gone, but for those wondering, the plagiarized illustration had a parakeet carrying a grain of sand to a distant location until an impossibly huge task was completed.
Lett's version :
The parakeet traveled from a Florida beach with one grain of sand and dropped it in the Grand Canyon every 10,000 years until the GC was full, and that's the beginning of eternity.
“Have you ever really wondered how long forever is? Let me just give you a little illustration to help us appreciate how long forever is, which is the prize for those that do jehovah's will. Now you've got to have a lot of imagination for this. I want you to imagine the Grand Canyon. Huge, vast. You walk to the edge, it makes you dizzy. You look down, the Colorado River looks like a little trickle going through there, but really it's a big, rushing, rolling river. You're so far away that it looks small in the distance. Now imagine that a little tiny parakeet goes to a beach in Florida and gets one tiny individual grain of sand in its beak. He flies back over the middle of the Grand Canyon and drops it in the Grand Canyon. Now another parakeet does this, ten thousand years later... takes a piece of sand and drops it in the Grand Canyon. This process is repeated over and over again... one grain of sand every ten thousand years. Now you can imagine how long it would take to fill up a teaspoon. But when that process is repeated over and over again, until the Grand Canyon is totally filled... in fact, it's not only filled... there are huge mountains where the Grand Canyon used to be. There's snow in the top of these mountains. People are skiing out of the top of these mountains. (Audience laughs.) When that happens... forever has just barely begun. (Laughter.) Now I probably gave you a headache. (More laughter.) But don't miss that prize of everlasting life.”
John Ankerberg's version (TV evangelist):
A parakeet repeatedly traveled to the moon, a trip requiring 1 million years in each direction, to deposit one grain of sand until all the beaches and deserts of the earth were devoid of sand, and that's the beginning of eternity.
"John Ankerberg illustrates eternity by comparing it to the efforts of a parakeet to move sand!. Let's say you commanded a parakeet to pick up a single grain of sand in its beak, fly to the moon, and drop it off. Let's say it takes one million years for the parakeet to get to the moon. He puts the grain of sand down and flies back to earth. It takes a million years for him to get back. Let's say that the little bird systematically transferred one grain at a time all the sand from the beaches and deserts of all the earth until there was not even one grain of sand left on the earth. If you could add up all of the millions of years it had taken to remove all of the sand from all of those places, eternity would just be beginning.'"
For anyone wanting to read more, the JWN thread, from which the above quotes are taken, is here,
The Lett/Ankerberg parakeet analogy along with Anthony Morris' fly illustration shows the GB has a fascination with tiny creatures doing impossible tasks. Their approach seems to suggest that eternity itself is impossible. Otherwise why use such silly illustrations?
Not the first time a jw speaker has appropriated an analogy or illustration from a BTG (Babylon the Great) source.
He makes eternity sound mighty boring.
The question is was it his illustration or a plagiarized one?
Here is my version:
Imagine a fly walking around your d***. How long it will take you to ....
a fly walking around your dinner?
