Disproving one verse of the Bible means proving another verse!

by Ireneus 10 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Ireneus

  Last week’s Newsweek magazine (February 10, 2018) made a surgical strike on JWs teaching that soul is something that can be “destroyed” (Mathew 10:28) and man is ‘dust unto which he would return’ (Genesis 3:19) when its article (The Increasing Signs That Human Consciousness Remains After Death) made this conclusion: Soul “does not become annihilated just because we’ve crossed the threshold of death.” (http://www.newsweek.com/where-do-you-go-when-you-die-increasing-signs-human-consciousness-after-death-800443) Interestingly, Bible also contains verses that show man has an eternal aspect (Eccl 3:5; 12:7).
  

  Science is now in the right direction in line with the prediction Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the double-helix DNA, made: “It is not true that mere firing of neurons in the brain could indicate consciousness…. Physics has yet to explain how consciousness could come about through firing of neuron in the brain.”

  This also explains why some of the gospels were not included in the canon. The best argument that we have an immaterial part (called Spirit/Soul) came from Jesus Christ. However, it is recorded in the Gospel of Thomas (not in the Traditional four Gospels). Jesus says: ‘If the flesh came into existence because of the Spirit, it is a marvel. But if the spirit arose from the flesh, it is a marvel of marvels.’ (Gospel of Thomas Saying 29)

  In other words, what he means is that:

  ‘If the boat came into existence because of the boat-man, it is understandable.

  But if the boat-man emerged from the boat, it defies all the known logic!’
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  Earnest

  Ireneus : Last week’s Newsweek magazine (February 10, 2018) made a surgical strike on JWs teaching that soul is something that can be “destroyed” ... when its article made this conclusion: Soul “does not become annihilated just because we’ve crossed the threshold of death.”

  The article is not talking about the soul surviving death but that it takes time for all the cells in the body to die. It says :

  Over the last few years, though, scientists have seen repeated evidence that once you die, your brain cells take days, potentially longer, to reach the point past which they’ve degraded too far to ever be viable again.

  This is not news.

  
  
• 

  Ireneus

  Earnest,

  Here are the last two paragraphs of the article:

  How these patients were able describe objective events that took place while they were dead, we’re not exactly sure, just as we’re not exactly sure why certain parts of us appear to withstand death even as it takes hold of everything else. But it does seem to suggest that when our brains and bodies die, our consciousness may not, or at least not right away.

  “I don’t mean that people have their eyes open or that their brain’s working after they die,” Parnia said. “That petrifies people. I’m saying we have a consciousness that makes up who we are—our selves, thoughts, feelings, emotions—and that entity, it seems, does not become annihilated just because we’ve crossed the threshold of death; it appears to keep functioning and not dissipate. How long it lingers, we can’t say.”
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  steve2

  You have drawn an extremely long bow from the article.
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  Crazyguy

  What’s even more interesting is the ancient Egyptians had these ideas even before Christianity or jesus ever existed.
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  cofty

  Ireneaus - As Earnest said correctly the article is reporting on recent discoveries about the process of death - it is not an instantaneous event.

  The last paragraphs of the article are not reporting on any scientific findings but on unsubstantiated rumours, at least some of which have proven to be fraudulent.

  Your comment that, 'Science is now in the right direction in line with the prediction Francis Crick', is unwarranted. There is no scientific support for consciousness after death. On the contrary everything that neuroscience has discovered in recent years supports the conclusion that we are our brains.
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  arover

  There's a difference between soul and spirit. The Bible doesn't teach that our spirit is destroyed - the body goes to the ground, the spirit returns to God.
  

  Ecclesiastes 12:7 New International Version (NIV)7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
  and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

  
  
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  cofty

  arover - How would you define that difference exactly?
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  DATA-DOG

  According to the Bible, a body and a life-force is a soul. A physical body and spirit is a soul. According to Paul, once the physical body “dies” like a seed being planted, the consciousness receives a spiritual body. A spiritual body and the life-force is still a soul according to the scriptures.

  Interestingly, Paul used the example of a seed, knowing that dead seeds don’t produce plants. His audience would have been well aware of this. He was simply trying to convey the idea that once the physical body dies, the Xian immediately receives a new body in the blink of an eye. There’s no death according to the Bible, at least not for Xians...

  I’m not sure what that has to do with the price of tea in China...

  DD

  DD
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  Ireneus

  I am into my final year of MoN; hence I know among neuroscientists many believe in soul and others not which means many want to take their own conclusion from the findings of neuroscience.

  Science has almost entered the domain of metaphysics and beyond which is inevitable because science is search of truth whereas the hard materialism now has to start softening with the concept of macro-universe of relativity and mass-energy dualism of Albert Einstein, the subatomic wave-particle equation of Erwin Schrodinger, the probability wave concept of Max Born and the Uncertainty Principle of Werner Heisenberg….. Modern physics has turned from the properties of Nature to the essence of it, the ultimate reality, thus is on the path to the divine destination through methodical explorations into the layers of matter, leading to consciousness. Let science take its own time. I don’t wait for endorsement of science for vital subject such as soul for which I have found proof my own way. When I was reading the Newsweek magazine last week in the College Library, I never thought of posting something in JW.net. But yesterday I was posting the same in my dream. When I got up, I thought ‘wow’ it is a good idea—I will post this. This simple thing is more than enough for me to know something immaterial within my body is always working even when my body is resting.