I've always thought it was funny that JW's and kindred groups will on one had cite scavengers as evidence of a wise Creator (JW's at one point called them, "Jehovah's natural sanitation squad") while on the other hand insisting that all animals were created as vegetarians.
Proof of Predation 750 000 000 Years Ago
by cofty 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Magnum
TD, similarly, I found it ludicrous when JW publications would praise Jah for magnificent design when discussing features of animals that had to do directly with or at least implied predation.
For example, some years ago, a mag article referred to some birds of prey that have two sets of eyelids. One set is translucent and the birds use it to blink and keep their eyes moist while pursuing prey. They can see their prey through the eyelids and don't see lose sight of it while pursuing it and blinking. The end of the article referred to "marvelous design". I was thinking "so Jah designed these animals to pursue prey? I thought he designed them to be vegetarians."
Another article referred to a bird that stands among reeds and sways with them in the same direction so that it blends in and looks like a reed. It does this to avoid predation. Again, the article referred to "marvelous design". I was thinking "so why would Jah have designed these animals with this defense mechanism if there were originally no predators to worry about?"
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Half banana
How wise of our loving heavenly father to have formed his earthly creation to kill each other for survival... -
Splash
WT says the animals were vegetarian.
*** w94 2/1 p. 31 Questions From Readers ***
...evidence in the Bible points to Adam and Eve’s having been at peace with all animals... Yet, the Bible does not suggest that any of the animals preyed upon other animals or upon humans. Originally, God specifically assigned vegetation as the diet for both animals and humans. That did not change until after the Flood, as Genesis 9:2-5 indicates. -
adjusted knowledge
This is nothing really new. The ongoing theory on how Eukaryotic organisms may have developed organelles is the predatory nature of prokaryotic cells devouring other prokaryotic cells. Endosymbios proposed that through this method mitochondria and chloroplast may have came into existence. -
TD
TD, similarly, I found it ludicrous when JW publications would praise Jah for magnificent design when discussing features of animals that had to do directly with or at least implied predation.
Yes.. Another glaring example is symbiotic relationships, like the shark and the cleaner fish; the sea anemone and the anemone shrimp; the oxpecker bird and various ungulates. The JW's have praised all of these as examples of "instinctive wisdom" and yet they're all based in one way or another on predation...
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cofty
Adjusted Knowledge - that is a really interesting example of how science works.
Lynne Margulies had to work very hard for a lot of years to gather the evidence for her hypothesis of endosymbiosis.
It may be that rather than it being a predatory origin there was a symbiotic relationship that eventually resulted in the ancestor of mitochondria "moving in".
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LoveUniHateExams
Interesting article & photo, Cofty
It’s stupid to make armor unless you’re defending against a predator - indeed. One strand of evidence for T. rex being predators (there are other strands) is the simple observation of armoured genera that lived with it at the same time, in the same place (e.g. Ankylosaurus).