by doubtfull1799 10 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
The society loves to talk about how Adam and Eve abused their gift of free will. Doesn't free will mean the freedom to choose? How can exercising that freedom to choose then be classed as abusing the gift? You are simply using the gift in the way it was intended to be used!
The Watchtower this week made there claim they really only had two choices: to obey or not to obey. Only one choice is acceptable, so there is really no choice at all. Some gift when you get punished for using it.
The Society's concept of "free will" is exactly the same as the choice you have wen confronted by a thief who demands "your money or your life!"
Sure, you're "free" to not give him your wallet, but the result if you choose to do so is certain death.
Jehovah, as painted by the WTS, is a common street thug.
Yes Doubtfull1799, everything about this is wrong! It exemplifies the ability of a religious cult to manipulate its followers on the basis of fairy tales not on real life.
Adam and Eve are clearly characters in a creation myth when everything in the garden was lovely! There was no Eden, no talking snake and most importantly there was no fall into imperfection through "abusing free-will" requiring a later human/demigod sacrifice. Also there is no evidence for an invisible deity who never has been detected by anyone's five senses and never could be.
Indeed what sort of “gift” would free will be if you couldn’t exercise it freely without punishment?
The Watchtower is using the fable in an attempt to modify the minds of believers to conform to a mindset which denies a personal responsibility in life and demands abject submission to cult leadership.
The JW cult depends on one false principle: the notion that the Bible (as interpreted by its governing body) is the inerrant word of God and therefore has superior information for mankind. This fiction is the driving force for religious power over people.
Becoming mature and free human beings requires making life decisions without persuasions from magic sources such as the Bible and its “divinely appointed” interpreters.
Your thread reminds me of this great series of 3 videos: ( here is part 1)
The society loves to talk about how Adam and Eve abused their gift of free will. Doesn't free will mean the freedom to choose? How can exercising that freedom to choose then be classed as abusing the gift?
When I was learning TTATT, one thought that kept coming back was that according to them you can choose. Their Jehovah gives you "choices", but kills you if you choose anything other than what the WT says. They always convince people that they have choices but they don't. That's the core of their manipulation.
Hi,
My issue with The WT's take on Adam and Eve is that how did they know bad from good...didn't Jehovah make the earth in 7 days and said....It was good...so regardless of a talking snake, or not, how did Adam and Eve know what bad was....did they see bad....Jehovah said if they eat from this tree they will know good from evil, but did they ever experience evil ? Or did they even know what death was...one of the sisters said, they knew because the animals died, so Adam and Eve witnessed what death was....I don't know about that....
They had free will but as usual, it came with consequences....
If Eve didn't know that a snake don't talk, how would she or Adam know such an intelligent statement as "Free Will"... Adam and Eve didn't abuse their free will, most likely didn't even know they had it, until they lost it...maybe the Adam and Eve story is how God judges us...Some say, don't resurrect them, they are the cause of what we are going through now...some say, go ahead resurrect them, they didn't know any better...give'em a chance...maybe the ones that give Adam and Eve the benefit of the doubt, will go to paradise...
Just a thought,
Tor
I agree with all the posts above. The JW version of "free will" is just ludicrous.
Awhile back I was involved in a conversation where the JW was saying someone was "in trouble" with the brothers for something they'd done. (Not God mind you, but with "the brothers".) The statement was made that this person should have "known better" but they felt they were in the right, and we all have free will. My comment was "yes, but we all know what the real rules are (aka the unwritten ones you know you really have to follow)." This was met with a grumpy silence.
JWs don't have "free will" but they have been brainwashed into thinking they do. How sad is that.
I once brought up this question to a JW. His answer was shocking: "Jehovah gave me free will so I could choose what to have for breakfast and what tie to wear to the meetings."
I swear it, I'm not joking! Right now I'm smiling about it, but back then my jaw just dropped open.
That is cool Rainbow_Troll!
I am not surprised to hear a witness use such an expression! It is "free-will" in anything except the things that really matter...
“Your Liberty To Swing Your Fist Ends Just Where My Nose Begins.” Hence freewill means both—you are free to do things to certain limit, yet not free to limit the freewill of your fellow-humans. When Adam and Eve touched the “tree of good and bad,” they were in fact developing a new awareness of what is good and bad which is the characteristics of ego. It means they fell from greater view into the contraction of me and mine which will definitely hurt another person’s freewill.
