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September 25, 2006

We Aren't Creationists; We Just Believe in the Bible

I have a troll but not the normal kind. My troll comes to my door rather than my blog and tries to sell religion. Weirdly, he claims that it is not a religion. Religions are bad, even evil, and other people have them. He is a Jehovah's Witness. The first time he dropped by, I ask him if we should throw out beliefs that were contradicted by evidence. He assured me that evidence should drive beliefs and not the other way around. So far, so good. Then I asked if he thought the biological evidence supported evolution. The answer was "no," god created the world and everything in it. Although he did believe god probably did it over a long time rather that in six (or seven) 24 hour days. How long he didn't know. He further told me that Jehovah's Witnesses were not creationists. At this point, I told him that I saw no point in continuing the conversation because either he or I were using the same words in very different ways or there was not a bit of logic in anything he was telling me. I noted that the evidence for gradual biological evolution by natural selection from among random mutations and with common decent was overwhelming. I also noted that it was impossible for me to understand how it was that he was not a creationist and still believed that god created everything. I then invited him to return when he could be coherent on these issues and as I slowly closed the door, I asked him not to disturb my neighbors with this nonsense.

Well a few days later he returned with two tracts, one explaining everything about evolution and the other explaining everything about . . . well, I'm not sure what that one is about.

The tract on evolution is barely another rewrite of Discovery Institute stuff, complete with quotes from Jonathan Wells and an interview with Michael Behe. Behe even tells the interviewer, "Some cells have molecular 'outboard motors' to propel the cells through liquid." He just won't give up on this but the real problem is that the part of the tract that does not depend on theology, depends solely on naive intuitions. Things are just too wonderful and complex not to reflect the hand of a creator.

The funniest part is the explanation of how it is that Jehovah's Witnesses are not really and truly, honest to goodness, creationists. Here is the whole thing for your amusement.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe the creation account as recorded in the Bible book of Genesis. However, Jehovah's Witnesses are not what you might think of as creationists. Why not? First, many creationists believe that the universe and the earth and all life on it were created in six 24-hour days some 10,000 years ago. This however is not what the Bible teaches. Also, creationists have embraced many doctrines that lack support in the Bible. Jehovah's Witnesses base their religious teaching solely on God's Word.

Furthermore, in some lands the term "creationist" is synonymous with Fundamentalist groups that actively engage in politics. These groups attempt to pressure politicians, judges, and educators into adopting laws and teachings that conform to the creationists' religious code.

Jehovah's Witnesses are politically neutral. They respect the right of government to make and enforce laws. (Romans 13:1-7) However, they take seriously Jesus' statement that they are "no part of the world." (John 17:14-16) In their public ministry, they offer people the chance to learn the benefits of living by God's standards. But they do not violate their Christian neutrality by supporting the efforts of Fundamentalist groups that try to establish civil laws that would force others to adopt Bible standards. - John 18:36

Of course, nothing in their Christian neutrality keeps them from giving a platform for those who are trying "to establish civil laws that would force others to adopt" something very much like what the Jehovah's Witnesses believe.

Despite their effort to distance themselves from the very people they use to support their beliefs and while they are not young earth creationists, Jehovah's Witnesses base their "science" squarely on their own interpretations of the Bible. The tract sites Biblical passage after Biblical passage as authoritative in the face of scientific evidence. And if you don't believe the accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 then perhaps you will believe the Christian New Testament,

. . . "Did you not read," said Jesus, "that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his wife, and the two will be one flesh?' So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has yoked together let no man put apart." - Mathew 19:4-6.

Jesus was here quoting from the creation account recorded in Genesis chapter 2. If Jesus believed the first marriage to be a fictional story, would he have made reference to it to support his teaching on the sanctity of marriage? No. Jesus pointed to Genesis account because he knew it to be true history. - John 17-17

This is not by any means a new argument. But citing a 1900-year-old document as proof of the truth of a still older one is why Jehovah's Witnesses are creationists; creationists in the same class as those they find objectionable for other reasons.

Posted by Duane Smith at September 25, 2006 7:27 PM | Read more on Religion |

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Posted by: tim bulkeley at September 27, 2006 12:26 PM

Posted by: Duane at September 27, 2006 1:04 PM

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