Excellent information, Thirdson!
Proplog, the WTS likely printed the article to assuage the fears of many JWs who wrote in wondering about the accuracy of dating of the Ice Man.
AlanF
The Iceman and the Flood
by Thirdson 12 Replies latest jw friends
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Moxy
naturally, the WT cannot afford to really even mention C14 dating nowadays. simply ignoring it seems to work fine for the typical demographic that make up modern JWs. a disparaging remark every few years is plenty.
interesting point on the 'founders' of the pre-noachian era. never thought about that.
that article was very unusual for an awake. it was one of the first cover articles i remember that really positioned itself as a scientific story with no biblical overtones at all. of course, you're right, it was certainly skewed to favor WT chronology, but not overtly. in fact, it seemed to go pretty much over the heads of most r&f. our CO made a point of mentioning the iceman's support for the idea of civilization being older than previously thought. this was support for genesis' picture of a literate, complex society at an early age, he explained.
mox
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proplog2
If you get into an argument over carbon-14 dating and potassium argon dating this is what you tell JW's.
JW: Radioactive decay dating is not 100% accurate.
WP (worldly person) Yes it is true that the various radioactive dating methods are not 100% accurate. Do you know how accurate these dates really are?
JW: Not really. I just know that they make mistakes.
WP: Well, they are about 95% accurate. The 5% inaccurate dates are explained thoroughly by the ones doing the research - the scientists. Don't you think you ought to give them credit for explaining THEIR mistakes. You will find ample evidence in the 95% accurate dates that the flood never happened and that life has been around 100's of millions of years. Are clocks 100% accurate?
JW: No, I guess they aren't.
WP: Do you throw away ALL timekeeping devices because some are wrong?
JW: No, but when it comes to science or the Bible I will believe the Bible.