RE: The Bible and earlier Christians
July 16, 2014 at 6:09 am
(This post was last modified: July 16, 2014 at 6:10 am by Tonus.)
The JWs use Proverbs 4:18 ("But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day") to support something that they call "progressive revelation." The idea is that god reveals the truth of the Bible gradually and allows humanity to remain in the dark about certain things until the right time. It is a very convenient device which allows them to admit that they were wrong about something while claiming that the fact that they were wrong is proof that they are god's chosen people! It allows for continual re-interpretation of scripture without concern over why people with direct support from god and the holy spirit would have gotten it wrong in the first place. And if you happen to wonder why god deemed it necessary to hide the truth from people who lived hundreds of years ago, there's always the "mysterious ways" excuse.
If your worldview depends on the existence of a particular god then no contortion is too painful (and no rationalization too nonsensical) if it keeps your beliefs intact. Why didn't those men interpret the Bible correctly? Because it wasn't the right time for it. Why would a god for whom it is "impossible to lie" hide the true interpretation of his "good news" for thousands of years and allow his followers to fragment into factions that at times massacred one another recklessly? Because, um... *runs away*
If your worldview depends on the existence of a particular god then no contortion is too painful (and no rationalization too nonsensical) if it keeps your beliefs intact. Why didn't those men interpret the Bible correctly? Because it wasn't the right time for it. Why would a god for whom it is "impossible to lie" hide the true interpretation of his "good news" for thousands of years and allow his followers to fragment into factions that at times massacred one another recklessly? Because, um... *runs away*
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
