How does the WTS view 'ancient humans' (i.e. fossils assigned to the genus Homo)?

by LoveUniHateExams 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  bro_strangelove

  The WTS has expressed some opinions in print on the matter.

  Most recently, they ran a blurb in the "Watching the World" of 11/11 Awake that clearly implies the writers believe Neanderthals were human, a belief that dates back to earlier publications. This follows the relatively recent Origin of Life brochure, which only mentions Neanderthals and cites a source to the effect that they were 'a true human race.' Presumably because they are too difficult to address in a short brochure, it doesn't even touch the rest of the genus Homo. But, the old Creation book gives a few more clues to their thoughts on the matter:
  

  *** ce chap. 7 pp. 94-95 pars. 32-33 “Ape-Men”—What Were They? ***
  32 If any australopithecines were found alive today, they would be put in zoos with other apes. No one would call them “ape-men.” The same is true of other fossil “cousins” that resemble it, such as a smaller type of australopithecine called “Lucy.” Of it Robert Jastrow says: “This brain was not large in absolute size; it was a third the size of a human brain.”48 Obviously, it too was simply an “ape.” In fact, New Scientist said that “Lucy” had a skull “very like a chimpanzee’s.”49

  
  33 Another fossil type is called Homo erectus—upright man. Its brain size and shape do fall into the lower range of modern man’s. Also, the Encyclopædia Britannica observed that “the limb bones thus far discovered have been indistinguishable from those of H[omo] sapiens.”50 However, it is unclear whether it was human or not. If so, then it was merely a branch of the human family and died off.
  

  The Human Family

  34 Neanderthal man (named after the Neander district in Germany where the first fossil was found) was undoubtedly human. ...
  

  So "Lucy" is an ape and Homo erectus could fall either way. They say Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons are human, but that is their only logical option without significantly rethinking their views of Genesis since Europeans carry Neanderthal DNA and Cro-Magnons really are just humans.

  I suppose a Witness who cared could make they're own judgement on the rest of the fossils, but that is an area few dare to tread. That, and scientists generally believe Neanderthals died out before the time WTS says they must have been created. Cro-Magnons are older than dirt too.
  
• 

  mana11

  Growing up in the truth i had an interest in collecting fossils.

  One day the PO came visiting our house for the evening, he noted my fossil collection and began asking very pointed questions.

  He was such a moron with a nasty streak, He simply could not comprehend that these could not be a mere 6000 years old.

  In the end he had a private talk with my parents, they then called me quietly and told me that i would have to agree with him that these were formed within a 6000 year period or we were going to have problems.

  I went back out and later that evening he began the same conversation, I just simply became a yes, so correct, johova is amazing, answer to everything as, "i didnt want my family having problems". This was one occasion that woke me up to the scam the society forces on followers as to science, a lack of reality to facts, and a FORCED acceptance of what i didn't want to accept.

  I saw this image on https://twitter.com/JWorg_InfoLinks

  
  
  

  IT WAS A JOKE RELIGION THEN, it IS A JOKE RELIGION NOW.

  

  This Makes me remember all those Elders whom gave me crap growing up in the truth.

  Just look at the elders giving evidence at the Royal commission in Australia, Too "Dumb" to realize they are on TV making fools of themselves.
  
• 

  Vidiot

  konceptual999 - "The result? One slightly stumped Witness. "

  "...that-does-not-compute..."

  x

  konceptual999 - "It was clear to me that the organisation did not have a rebuttal. They had zero information to build a credible defence of a claim that man was created 6000 years ago. So they were ignoring it."

  Reading that post was like reading a personal diary I never actually wrote.

  BTW, it was also quite a paradigm shift when I realized that virtually all the arguments the WTS uses to try and refute evolution had been cribbed from "worldy" creationists.

  Once again, for the newbies, lurkers, and trolls...

  x

  ...if you have to cheat to defend your beliefs, your beliefs don't deserve to be defended.
• 

  Vidiot

  @ strangelove...

  I had minor issues with the WT's stand on blood transfusions, sexuality, shunning, the "Creative Day" lengths, etc., but I actually credit the Neanderthal Genome Project from the early 00's with my first significant step towards waking up.

  It's kind of a funny story, actually...

  ...the preliminary findings (approximately halfway through) had suggested that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons didn't actually have enough genetic commonalities to interbreed, therefore Neanderthals had to have been a completely separate and independent species.

  Yet the WTS had, in a recent publication, already acknowledged that they were human.

  The quandary I was faced with was the question, "how can more than one species of human fit into the Genesis creation account?"

  The answer was, of course, that it couldn't...

  ...leading me to the inescapable conclusion that it was impossible for the Eden narrative to be literal history. It was either that, or reject genetic science all together, which I simply had too much intellectual integrity to do. This, in turn, helped me give myself permission to see what evolutionary biologists actually said (as opposed to what creationists said they said) and learning about the subject more objectively (this was where I'd figured out that the WTS had been cribbing from other creationist sources).

  Needless to say, I was thoroughly convinced, which created yet another quandary...

  ...I realized almost immediately that JWs as a whole, could never, ever budge on evolution, because the Genesis-as-literal-history concept was simply far too tightly interwoven with WT theology. That very realization, however, led me to the inevitable conclusion that WT theology was, therefore, inherently and irrevocably flawed, and - more importantly - could not be reformed; they'd painted themselves far too snugly into an ideological corner.

  ...which also helped me give myself permission to deconstruct other aspects of WT ideology, and my fade kicked into full gear.

  Imagine my surprise, when, a few years later, the Neanderthal Genome Project reversed those preliminary findings and concluded that these guys had, in fact, interbred with the immediate ancestors of modern man.

  Too late, though; I was already mentally out.

  "Food at the proper time", I guess?