by cappytan 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Asked a friend of mine this question the other day. (Of course, I said "we" instead of JW's.)
Here was his answer: "Well, because Paul said, 'all scripture is inspired of god...'"
I said, "Oh okay."
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But seriously, that argument is like saying, "the bible is inspired because it says so!"
Its a never ending loop, like I see from elders and an elder in the family that want to address my doubts, "lets address your doubts about the bible...using the bible..."
I remember the first time I heard the argument that "the Bible is God's Word because it says so"; I was about 12 at the time, and even then, I could tell it was circular reasoning (it was, in fact, the first time I saw an example of circular reasoning).
I remember thinking afterwards, "well, Darwin could've put that in The Origin of Species, but that wouldn't have necessarily made it so..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDp7pkEcJVQ
That was hilarious _Morhpeus
Is the Bible inspired?
When I take a serious look at life and nature I am overwhelmed by its complexity and beauty.
When I take a serious look at the Bible I am perplexed by its childish contradiction and foolishness.
Personally, I have all the proof I need, that the Bible is not inspired by anything other than man's imagination.
Yeah, that was never enough to keep me believing in the bible. What did it for me was that I never bothered to research the evidence that the book of Daniel was a forgery and written much later than most believers will claim. I know that the prophecies in there about cyrus and alexander the great, etc, are what have many of the more intelligent JWs that I know still stuck mentally believing in the bible. I know one elder in particular, who likes to talk about having been agnostic prior to his wife's indoctrination (he joined not long after) and that's always the proof he cites that the bible is god's word.
They like to go on about the advice being timeless and only god could do that, but unfortunately the advice is only timeless when you cherry pick what suits you. When you have a written work the size of the bible, it's not that difficult to find "timeless advice" in there for most situations.
The cult offers so many different (and all inherently flawed) explanations to convince people that the bible is inspired, but it seems most JWs just hold on to whichever one it is that makes sense to them, and dismiss what seems spurious or too complicated. It's the shotgun approach - give 'em 100 reasons and even if they see through 99 of 'em, the one that sticks will keep 'em trapped.
Wouldn't it only be circular reasoning if the Bible were all one book, which it isn't?
Didn't the friend refer to fulfilled prophecies?
