by Doug Mason 5 Replies latest watchtower bible
While the WTS attacks Evolution, it needs to prove its hypothesis that each "Day" of Genesis 1 is actually 7000 years.
At least Evolution has the evidence that enables it to reach the status of a scientific theory, whereas there is no tangible evidence for the WTS to lift its idea above that of a mere hypothesis.
As an aside, it is interesting to note that Lamarck published his Evolutionary Theory in the year that Charles Darwin was born.
Doug
The last mention of 7,000 year "creative days" in WT literature was in 1987. It seems they are trying to let that one fade :-)
Lamarck published his Evolutionary Theory in the year that Charles Darwin was born
Lamark's ideas never did graduate to the status of theory. He believed that life is constantly being spontaneously generated out of mud. He promoted the idea of a "scale of nature" from jellyfish all the way up the ladder to white males. Having emerged lineages progressed up the ladder in successive generations.
He taught that characteristics that were acquired during a lifetime - such as big arms of a blacksmith - could be passed on directly to offspring.
Darwin wasn't the first to propose evolution but it was the mechanism of natural selection that was his genius.
Apprently that's not wholly accurate.
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Although he was not the first thinker to advocate organic evolution, he was the first to develop a truly coherent evolutionary theory. He outlined his theories regarding evolution first in his Floreal lecture of 1800, and then in three later published works:
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That's 2 years before Darwin was born and 45 years before Origin of Species was published.
Even today, not all evolutionists are Darwinian. The WTS is superficial in laying the foundation and execution of Evolution at Darwin's feet.
I simply put it as an aside to show that many others, such as Lamarck, proposed models of Evolution. Charles Darwin had to rush his book into publication in order to beat others to the punch.
Doug
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“In recent times, some fundamentalist religions have put forward creationism as the answer to evolution. But in doing so, they make a claim that is both unscriptural and unbelievable. It is that the heavens, the earth, and everything on the earth were created by God in 6 days of 24 hours each—yes, in just 144 literal hours! This teaching has caused many to ridicule the Bible. But is a “day” in the Bible always 24 hours in length?” (“The Watchtower”, April 1, 1986)
“The Genesis account of creation allows for the earth to be billions of years old and does not limit each creative day to 24 hours.” (“The Watchtower”, Dec. 1, 2000, page 31)
“A study of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and of our location in the stream of time strongly indicate that each of the creative days (Genesis, chapter 1) is 7,000 years long. It is understood that Christ’s reign of a thousand years will bring to a close God’s 7,000-year ‘rest day,’ the last ‘day’ of the creative week. (Revelation 20:6; Genesis 2:2, 3) Based on this reasoning, the entire creative week would be 49,000 years long.” (“The Watchtower”, Jan. 1, 1987, page 30)
“Since the seventh day has been continuing for thousands of years, it may reasonably be concluded that each of the six creative periods, or days, was at least thousands of years in length.” (“Insight on the Scriptures”, Vol. 1, page 545)
“The Bible shows us that God proceeded to rest from his creative works some 6,000 years ago” (“Insight, Vol. 1, page 1129)
“The Bible does not reveal exactly when [God’s rest day] started. It was some time after the creation of Adam’s wife, Eve, about 6,000 years ago.” (“The Watchtower”, Oct 15, 2012, page 22)
“World events as well as Bible chronology indicate that we are now [in 1980] rapidly nearing the time for the thousand-year-long reign of Jesus Christ to start. His reign of a thousand years … will occupy the last thousand years of Jehovah’s rest day or Sabbath day of seven thousand years” (“The Watchtower”, Nov, 15, 1980, page 19)
he was the first to develop a truly coherent evolutionary theory
Perhaps, but it turned out his ideas were 100% wrong. On the other hand Darwin's theory of natural selection has stood up to 150 years of scrutiny.
Darwin had been been researching his theory for 20 years when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him a paper he hd written outlining many of the same ideas. Darwin generously sent Wallace's paper to the Linnean Society along with a precise of his own similar theory.
