(June 7, 2015 at 7:23 pm)Rhythm Wrote: The NWT translation itself a child of necessity and convenience rather than foresight (which, to my mind, is the unfortunate part). People often don't see their faiths for what they are, or for what others see - while they're in them. Classic outsider test needs to be applied, but it rarely is..lol.I don't know how much of it was planned or done on purpose, but it's a pretty smart bit of marketing. If you're going to differentiate yourself from the rest of Christianity, why not mark out some clear boundaries? Thus the differing view of god and the trinity, the extensive use of the name Jehovah in the NT, the claim that Jesus was impaled on a stake and not a cross, the observance of mass once a year, the distinct groups (one with a heavenly future, one earthbound), and so on. As I understand it, the adoption of the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" was at least in part a way to distinguish themselves from the many Millerite and Russellite groups that had formed through its early history. I guess the next natural step was to distinguish themselves from mainstream Christianity.
"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
