Races - where do they come from?

by googlemagoogle 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  stevenyc

  leolaia

  You said erectus, hee hee snigger snigger etc..

  steve
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  bebu

  This thread's title sounds like the title of a WT article!
  

  bebu

  Edited to add: I am sure it wasn't intentional.
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  FairMind

  another question would be: do we all originate from the same animal that lived a few hundret thousand years ago, or did evolution towards humankind take place several times and got all mixed along the way

  The former. The animal was God's creation and was different from all other animals in that he had certain godly characteristics. Can't believe in evolution because something can't come from nothing.
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  Leolaia

  Can't believe in evolution because something can't come from nothing.

  But isn't creation mostly making things "from nothing?" BTW, this topic is on the role of evolutionary processes (e.g. adaptation) in creating intraspecial variation, not biogenesis which is a very different subject. It would seem that in the case of man, it is creation that proposes the derivation of man "from nothing" (Adam < the dust of the earth), not evolution which straightforwardly traces modern H. sapiens sapiens to his earlier homonid ancestors. The question raised by googlemagoogle most definitely assumes "something" that modern man comes from.
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  Abaddon

  If something can't come from nothing, where did god come from?
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  frankiespeakin

  Races - where do they come from?

  ,, races comes from our attention to things that standout as different only very superficially, to which we are preconditioned to notice which is a very very little. I think soon because of rapid travel and communication, the internet, and god knows what else this race concept thing will just go down the tubes as will all these neurosis that some people have of those not of thier "kind" or race.
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  M.J.

  This thread's title sounds like the title of a WT article!

  Actually an Awake! article! Why not turn to God's channel for the answer? Here it is!

  *** Awake! 1982 February 8 p.14-15 The Races—What Is Their Origin? ***

  Have the churches of Christendom always treated "everyone on the same basis"? Consider how the Catholic and Lutheran Churches supported Hitler's scheme to produce a "master race." And for centuries the Catholic Church taught that Negroes were a cursed race. John F. Maxwell states in his book Slavery and the Catholic Church that this view "apparently survived until 1873 when Pope Pius IX attached an indulgence to a prayer for the 'wretched Ethiopians in Central Africa that almighty God may at length remove the curse of Cham [Ham] from their hearts.'" (Italics ours) And even to this day some church organizations openly practice racial discrimination.

  Regardless of how politicians and religionists view the matter, the Bible and science indicate that all races are equal and descend from a common source. Interestingly, The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1970, Vol. 2, page 149, refers to the "scientific concept of the equality of the races" and admits the "scientific validation" of humanity's single origin.

  Oh by the way this is how they used to explain racial development:

  *** The Watchtower Reprints, July 15, 1902, p. 3043 ***

  Suppose a missionary and his wife removed to China; not only would the influence of the climate and soil be manifested upon themselves, but the same would be still more manifested in their children. Whoever will give careful attention to this matter will notice that each succeeding child born in that foreign country will have increasingly resemblance to the Chinese — the hair, the skin, the shape of the eyes, and in general all features will bear closer resemblance with each succeeding child. We can readily suppose that if so much change occurs in a few years, ten or twenty centuries under similar conditions would turn any white people into regular Chinese, even supposing there were no intermarrying.

  With the exception of one race...

  *** The Golden Age, July 24, 1929, p. 702 ***

  Question: Is there anything in the Bible that reveals the origin of the Negro? Answer: It is generally believed that the curse which Noah pronounced upon Canaan was the origin of the Black race. Certain it is that when Noah said, 'Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren,' he pictured the future of the Colored race. They have been and are a race of servants, but now in the dawn of the twentieth century, we are all coming to see this matter of service in its true light and to find that the only real joy in life is in serving others; not bossing them. There is no servant in the world as good as a good Colored servant, and the joy that he gets from rendering faithful service is one of the purest joys there is in the world.
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  RichieRich

  I had the #4 part on this.

  According to the Bible (Dubs), people split after the language division at the tower of Babel. Each language grouped together, bred, and the inherant traits grew stonger until they became the identifying factor.

  As an atheist / open minded person who pays attention in Biology class, I know that what has been said already is correct.
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  googlemagoogle

  I am sure it wasn't intentional.
  
  well, kind of ;-)
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  greendawn

  Genetically (DNA) the differences between all humans are very minimal indeed.