God's channel withholding information

ballistic

Over the history of the Watchtower society, they have published numerous medical articles with warnings of dangerous substances such as aluminium and others promoting quack medicines which never worked.

Is it not strange, that the people choosen as "God's channel" would get these things wrong? Even stranger is the lack of information on truly dangerous substances. Why, when they believe they are being given priviliged information, did God fail to warn them about asbestos or phalidamide? And why did the witnesses wait for smoking to be deemed dangerous by mere earthly scientists before they banned it?

You may or may not be aware of the current news about the cancer-causing chemical acrylamide which

hmmmm, what's this all about then?

Ballistic

forms when food reaches temperatures much higher than 100C during cooking. It is supposedly ther most important discovery in the cancer story so far and possibly the most important discovery of the century.

It seems that the way modern humans have learnt to cook their food, either by frying, grilling, microwaving (or any means other than simply boiling at 100 C) is flooding our digestive system with a dangerous chemical.

My question is: when the witnesses feel they have a direct channel to God and his wisdom and while they do indeed publish medical / scientific information (remember the miracle wheat?), why has God not told them "through his channel" this simple piece of information about how to prepare food without increasing the risk of cancer?

Edited by - ballistic on 24 August 2002 6:38:35

Wolfgirl

You mean you don't know?! *incredulous look* It's because the light is getting brighter. Duh. ;)

Matty

Very good point ballistic, thank you for that.

..matt is getting boring these days, perhaps he needs to get laid...

Ballistic

I was always told that God's commandments to the Israelites were testament to Jehovah's knowledge of bacteria and the benefits of cleanliness. Thousands of years before medical science learned how disease spreads, the Bible seems to prescribe reasonable preventive measures as a safeguard against disease.

This argument seems pretty rational taken in isolation, however it would be reasonable to think that God's modern-day chosen channel of communication would be vindicated when they come up with an off-the-wall medical stance. A strong argument that convinced me that there was something to the bible being the word of God, was that it contains statements that not only are scientifically sound but also flatly contradict the accepted opinions of the day. I am still reevaluating the validity of that view though. I wonder how other people here feel about this stance?

The Watchtower and Awake however, go with any crazy idea that's knocking around at the time, or anything that slots into their view of the world and they later look like complete fools because of it.

A Paduan

How come other people see the light first ? Could be a "magi" thing - you know how "evil" they are.

paduan

sleepy

Is God's channel withholding information?

Yes, they're a bunch of Farts.

cellomould

Matty,

While it is true that there were societies back then (around the time of Mosaic Law) that were entirely ignorant of hygiene, etc., it is a gross misrepresentation to say that all societies were equally ignorant. See for example Hammurabi's code of laws:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html

(If you are ever in Paris, you can see this for yourself at the Louvre Museum.)

Another important fact to mention is that large civilizations, like Babylon or Egypt, could not have achieved high population densities without consideration of hygiene and disease management. Both Babylon and Egypt had civilizations predating the Mosaic Law code, of course (...by the way, circumcision was practiced in ancient Egypt.)

So the key issue is not divine intervention, but rather, pragmatism. For example, a child is more likely to die if his foreskin is cut too early. You would have to expect some bleeding (not to mention gangrene and casualties) when you are using flint or crude iron blades. Eventually, you learn to cut the foreskins on or after the 8th day, when it is most likely the child will survive.

I wrote a post a while back about building roads (why different parts of the world used the same methods); I had discovered a common sense reason for this:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=22681&site=3&page=2

I am jealous, by the way, since there are people who e-mail you with brain-dead letters asking why you question things. I have never received such an e-mail. <huffs and puffs> I have been publicly turning the bible on its head for 8 months now. Maybe today will be my lucky day!

cellmould

Matty

I think because I often mention that I am an active witness (Doh! there I go again!), I get some lurking JWs riled. I guess they consider that you are beyond redemption, but maybe they think that they might be able to rescue me from the flame, I don't know!

Many many thanks for that information, that's invaluable. I may still come up with more watchtower stock arguments on occasion!

Gopher

Is it not strange, that the people choosen as "God's channel" would get these things wrong?

No, it's really that Jehovah keeps changing his mind! He keeps switching sides, and by some miracle the Governing Body is able to follow that celestial chariot!!

ballistic

Matty, have you got a major in flow of mail then? I just got the standard ones from Bobby You know and one from someone else.

Don't we all Matty, don't we all...

Ballistic

minimus

What does this question have to do with the most important life-saving work od disciple making???

God's channel withholding information

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