How Jehovah Witnesses (JW) emphasize on the 'garden of eden' story of genesis seems to make sense at first. It seems to make sense that originally, God intended people to never get sick, never toil and to never die. He intended them to leave forever in green environment, eating fruits, petting animals, singing, dancing etc. So from the very start we have a propensity to buy into a 'why narrative' that explains to us why all these 'bad things' happens to us. At first, we tend to think that only 'good things' should happen to us, and so there is no need to explain why we are happy, healthy etc. It is just like when we think that everything should fall 'down' whenever nothing is beneath them, we see no need to explain gravity.
Jehovah witnesses takes this opportunity to drive firm the Christian's 'original sin' idea. So all was well until suddenly, human disobeyed God. If God originally intended people to leave forever in an earthly paradise, it makes sense that he will try his best to implement his original plan. Therefore the idea of a future, earthly paradise makes sense in this way.
This seems a very cool plan. But wait a minute,...does the story really make any sense? There are 3 problems I like to point out in this 'earthly paradise' story.
1.)Though yes, we see no reason why we should suffer and eventually die, neither do we see any reason we should be always happy in a never-ending life on earth. Why do I get sick? Why do I enjoy music? Why do I feel pain? Why do I enjoy honey?...bla bla bla,...we see that there is nothing that distinguishes between 'positive' and 'negative' things as far as 'there being a reason' it should happen to us is concerned. Yet we just ask 'why do we get sick'?, 'why do we feel pain'? etc, as if it were obvious that we should always be experiencing the otherwise 'good' things.
If there is no better one of the two questions: 'why do we suffer' and 'why do we enjoy life', there is absolutely no room for a supposed 'better' answer such as 'it all happened because Adam and Eve disobeyed God'. Once we see no need to single out those questions pertaining to why negative things happens to us, we no longer see any reason for such answers as offered by JW etc! No, it is not true that death seems 'out of place', like something that came accidentally. Right from the start, we see living things being born and dieing. Dieing is as normal as getting born!
2.)How can it be said that every human being, every animal etc, all the billions of them (including dynausers, kangaroos etc) all got punished because of a 'sin' of just two people? Is this just? Why isn't everyone given an equal opportunity to 'choose' to or not to eat from a 'tree of life' in a paradise? Shouldn't everyone be born innocent in a paradise where they stay so until they make a personal choice to 'eat from the tree'? Why don't we inherit good things from our ancestors? If you tell a JW that you are righteous because you are a descendant of Noah, who was righteous, he will laugh at you! It is in inheriting good things that he comes to terms with realizing that 'inheriting righteousness' is unjust. Yet he quickly forgets this and next minute he tells you that were it not for that original sin, we would all be living in an earthly paradise, again as if we inherit righteousness of ancestors!
This story seems to be just any other 'why narrative' like those told all around the world. It is just a Jewish version! We are told a story of why tortoises have rough shells. It is as if it were obvious that tortoises should come with smooth shells at the beginning. Who said so? Then one day, the tortoise borrowed feathers from birds. Then he attached them to his legs and voila, he flew! But then he kept flying until he got close to the sun. Then the glue came off, and the feathers fell off. Then the poor tortoise came down falling. Then he hid inside his shell and luckily he hit the rock on the shell and the shell cracked. From then onwards, the shell of the tortoise got rough!
A point worth noting pertaining to what is implied is the way the latter tortoises somehow inherits this rough shell, becoming the perpetual victims of the errors of their ancestor!
3.)If you have seen it, the JW's paradise includes young children, parents etc. There are only two options. Either the children will stay as children forever or they will grow up and too become adult. They don't seem to think that the latter will happen. So the only option is that these children grows up and they too have their children. It is just the usual, normal life but without death! So how can this be possible in this earth? Can people keep giving birth without dieing for ever and ever without filling the earth?
This point should also raise an alarm in the heads of JW. It shows the glaring problem with the assertion that humans were meant to live forever on earth. The population of earth will grow without bound, tending to infinity as the life tends to eternity! The only solution is to maintain that humans, and other living things were meant to die. It was neither an accident nor a punishment. It was part of the plan to ensure that the earth holds more life than it can do it all at once. The earth on its own cannot sustain an eternal life. Eternal life can only happen if such life is lived in endless planets throughout the universe, 'parallel universes', 'planes of realities' and other such things. These are not about sins, rewards, punishments or lessons. It is just the way things are.
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