by Bloody Hotdogs! 25 Replies latest watchtower bible
miracles like throwing cargo overboard and have it swallowed by really big fish to save and spit out on the new dry land later.
If they can float an axe head, what is a wooden casket? I can float steel too, a needle orr an old fashioned razor blade!
It gets harder and harder with size.
Most JW's won't pick up on this. I have the feeling it was some awakened writer having a bit of fun.
adamah:
they're actually making the case that Noah's more modest size IS more likely
No, that doesn't work. Their article about Chinese ships says:
Scholars find these figures problematic and hard to verify, in that wooden sailing ships in excess of 300 feet (90 m) in length are structurally unsound.
Yet Insight on the Scriptures (volume 1, page 164) "conservatively" gives the length of the 'ark' as:
437 ft 6 in.
The Chinese vessel supposedly being 2.5 metres longer than the 'ark' hardly makes the ark "more likely" or a "more modest size".
since the 8 are final approving all of this, it is a hidden IQ test for the GB.
Even the GB did not pick up on this.
Fun
funny.
of course the chinese super sailers had twice the beam (width) of the ark. no capsizing there.
Acres of floorspace. not slicing through the waves either
the low boat FROM China. as the song said. .
You're missing the unstated assumption of the article: Noah's ark is DIFFERENT, since it was God's action. Per the WTBTS, 'natural law' doesn't apply to the Genesis Flood account, just to that Chinese dude, since he didn't have YHWH on his side.
Noah's ark account absolutely demands a string of "God Dun It!" miracles (which aren't even stated explicitly as miracles in the account, so Christians will engage in a string of eisegesis and rationalizations when reading the passage, letting their already over-active imaginations fill in the gaps of what is stated). The Flood account requires completely overlooking the usual laws of physics, climatology, biology, physiology, nautical engineeting, etc, but none of those apply, since the entire account can be claimed as a "God Dun It!" miracle.
Sure, nautical engineers understand that wooden vessels are unstable under 'natural' circumstances, and that there's no known wood possessing the buoyancy and resistance to water-logging to float (much less remain afloat for an entire YEAR!): however, the Noah's ark story involves the special pleading requiring use of supernatural miracles anyway, so it's fighting a losing battle arguing against the existence of miracles in an account that requires miracles. Why? If someone already accepts the premise of God's ability to perform miracles, then NO amount of impossiblity under otherwise 'natural' conditions is too outlandish for them to swallow, since they already accept that belief (including YHWH stopping the Earth's rotation to make the daylight last longer during battles, resurrecting the dead, etc). You're trying to break their circular logic via direct attack, where it's impermeable.
That's why it's generally better to stay away from the miraculous claim itself, but to focus on issues RELATED to the account, eg:
1) why does God express regret for making all life on Earth? Isn't he SUPPOSED to know future events?
'Regret' is a human emotion which happens to mortals since we don't KNOW the future, but that shouldn't apply to "all-knowing" God (who gives mortals the miracle of prophecy, foretelling future events). The word 'regret' implies God cannot even predict his OWN future reaction to an action He carried out while on His own, even actions he earlier examined the results of, and declared "it was good". God needs to second-check his quality-control processes, if evil men and animals is his idea of "good".
2) Why didn't God just create a virulent strain of deadly viruses and give Noah and family the vaccine? Less muss and fuss, no need for ark and gathering up the animals, etc. That kind of 'Andromeda-strain' bioengineering SHOULD be absolutely no problem for the 'Intelligent Designer' to pull off: heck, men can do it nowadays, even keeping deadly virulent strains under lock and key in US Army research facilities for use as biological warfare.
3) Why did God FORGET to prohibit murder/manslaughter before the Flood? Why did He wait until AFTER the Flood to say "don't kill each other"?
4) Similarly, why did God wait to give Noah permission to enforce the murder rule until AFTER the Flood, as well? The lack of regulation of behavior and self-governance right after the Flood implies that God forgot to allow men to rule other fellow men BEFORE the Flood, and hence why mankind lived in anarchy (which explains why Cain and Lamech literally got away with murder, without their own life blood being demanded for the crime: God forgot to give mankind that law before the Flood).
THOSE types of questions are a little more cognitive-dissonance inducing in anyone who's at least half-way logical, and they can't simply be dismissed with a "God Dun It!" statement.... Then AFTER they begin to question the truth of the account and Genesis, the belief in supernatural miracles often will just melt away all on it's own.... :)
Adamah
adamah:
You're missing the unstated assumption of the article: Noah's ark is DIFFERENT, since it was God's action.
I'm not missing anything... God did a magic thing... I didn't miss that. It's just stupid.
