Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Monday, 17 February 2025
The facts
I publish for my readers consideration the full text of the pamphlet a declaration of facts addressed to the state and people of Nazi Germany requesting that Jehovah's servants in Hitler's Germany be left in peace to carry on their preaching and teaching work circa 1933.I've done this so that you can read the document in its entirety and form your own conclusions.
Declaration of Facts
"This company of German people, who are peaceable and law-abiding citizens
representing many others from every part of Germany, all of whom are
earnestly laboring for the highest welfare of the people of this land,
being now duly assembled at Berlin this 25th day of June, AD.. 1933, do
joyfully declare our complete devotion to Jehovah, the Almighty God, and to
his kingdom under Christ Jesus, whose shed blood bought the human race. We
declare that the holy Scriptures set forth in the Bible constitute the Word
of Jehovah God given to men for their guidance in righteousness, and that
the Word of God is the truth, and that it is of greatest importance that
man have a knowledge of his relationship to God. We ask to be judged by the
standard of the Word of God.
"Christ Jesus is Jehovah God's great Witness to the truth, and as his
faithful and devoted followers we are, by His grace, witnesses to the
truth. The purpose of this Declaration is that we may present a true and
faithful witness before rulers and the people as to the name and purpose of
Jehovah God and our relation thereto.
"We are wrongfully charged before the ruling powers of this government and
before the people of this nation; and in order that the name of Jehovah God
may be exalted in the minds of the people, and that his benevolent purposes
be better understood and our position fairly placed before the government,
we do respectfully ask the rulers of the nation and the people to give a
fair and impartial consideration to the statement of facts here made.
"The Scriptures plainly state that the chief opposer of Jehovah God and the
greatest enemy of mankind is Satan the Devil whose name is also that of
Serpent and Dragon. It is written in the Scriptures that Satan, who has
long been the invisible ruler of this world, deceives and blinds the people
to the truth in order that the light of and concerning Jehovah God and
Christ Jesus may not shine into the minds of men. (2 Corinthians 4: 3,4)
Frequently by fraud, subtility [sic]] and deception Satan has induced
honest persons to war with each other, in order that he might turn them all
away from God and destroy them. Above all things, the people need to know
Jehovah God and his gracious provision for their general welfare.
"By the term 'clergy', as used in our literature, reference is made to the
class of professed religious teachers, priests and Jesuits who employ
improper political means to accomplish their ends and pin forces even with
those who deny God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the same class to
whom Jesus referred as his persecutors. We have no criticism of any honest
religious teacher.
"When Jesus went to the Jews to tell them of the truth, it was the Jewish
clergy, that is to say, the Pharisees and priests, that violently opposed
him and persecuted him and caused him to be charged with all manner of
crimes and offenses. They refused to hear the truth, and addressing them
Jesus said: "Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot
hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father
ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of
his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the
truth, ye believe me not.' (John 8: 43-45) Although the Pharisees and
priests then claimed to represent Jehovah God Jesus told them that they
were in fact the representatives of Satan the Devil.
"We have no fight with any persons or religious teachers, but we must call
attention to the fact that it is generally those who claim to represent God
and Christ Jesus who are in fact our persecutors and who misrepresent us
before the governments and nations. As true followers of Christ Jesus we
are to expect such opposition, and we mention it here in explanation of why
we have been misrepresented before the rulers of this nation. To his
faithful followers Jesus said: 'Remember the word I said unto you, The
servant is not greater than his lord. If they [the false religious
teachers] have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also.' (John 15: 20) Furthermore,
Jesus said that this same class of men would cause his true followers to be
wrongfully charged before the ruling powers, his language being: 'But take
heed to yourselves: for they [false religious teachers] shall deliver you
up to councils [police power]; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten;
and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a
testimony against them.' (Mark 13: 9) This explains why Jehovah God now
permits his faithful witnesses to be misrepresented and persecuted, namely,
that those of a wrong spirit may identify themselves as opponents of God
and thus bear witness against themselves. The same materialistic spirit
that caused the persecution of Jesus Christ now exists and is back of the
persecution of us his faithful followers.
"It is falsely charged by our enemies that we have received financial
support for our work from the Jews. Nothing is farther from the truth. Up
to this hour there never has been the slightest bit of money contributed to
our work by Jews. We are the faithful followers of Christ Jesus and believe
upon Him as the Savior of the world, whereas the Jews entirely reject Jesus
Christ and emphatically deny that he is the Savior of the world sent of God
for man's good. This of itself should be sufficient proof to show that we
receive no support from Jews and that therefore the charges against us are
maliciously false and could proceed only from Satan, our great enemy.
"The greatest and most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American
empire. By that is meant the British Empire, of which the United States of
America forms a part. It has been the commercial Jews of the
British-American empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a
means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations. This fact
particularly applies to the cities of London and New York, the stronghold
of Big Business. This fact is so manifest in America that there is a
proverb concerning the city of New York which says: 'The Jews own it, the
Irish Catholics rule it, and the Americans pay the bills.' We have no fight
with any of these persons mentioned, but, as the witnesses for Jehovah and
in obedience to his commandment set forth in the Scriptures, we are
compelled to call attention to the truth concerning the same in order that
the people may be enlightened concerning God and his purpose.
Our Literature
"It is said that our books and like literature, when circulated amongst the
people, constitute a danger to the peace and safety of the nation. We are
certain that this conclusion is due to the fact that our books and other
literature have not been carefully examined by the rulers and hence are not
properly understood. We respectfully call attention to the fact that these
books and other literature were written originally in America and the
language therein used has been adapted to the American style of plainness
of speech and, when translated into German, the same appears to be harsh.
We admit that the same truths might be stated in a less blunt and more
pleasing phrase, and yet the language of these books follows closely the
language of the Bible.
"It should be borne in mind that in the British Empire and in America the
common people have suffered and are now suffering greatly because of the
misrule of Big Business and conscienceless politicians, which misrule has
been and is supported by political religionists, and hence the
writers of our books or literature have endeavored to employ plain
language to convey to the people the proper thought or understanding. The
language used, however, is not as strong or emphatic as that used by Jesus
Christ in denouncing the oppressors and false teachers of his time.
"The present government of Germany has declared emphatically against Big
Business oppressors and in opposition to the wrongful religious influence
in the political affairs of the nation. Such is exactly our position; and
we further state in our literature the reason for the existence of
oppressive Big Business and the wrongful political religious influence,
because the Holy Scriptures plainly declare that these oppressive
instruments proceed from the Devil, and that the complete relief therefrom
is God's kingdom under Christ. It is therefore impossible for our
literature or our work to in any wise be a danger or a menace to the peace
and safety of the state.
"Our organization is not political in any sense. We only insist on teaching
the Word of Jehovah God to the people, and that without hindrance. We do
not object or try to hinder anyone's teaching or believing what he desires,
but we only ask the freedom to believe and teach what we conceive the bible
to teach, and then let the people decide which they wish to believe.
"To know Jehovah God and his gracious provision for mankind is of most
vital importance to all persons, because God has declared in His Word that
where there is no vision or understanding of his Word the people perish.
(Proverbs 29: 18) We have devoted our lives and our material substance to
the work of enabling the people to gain a vision or understanding of God's
Word, and therefore it is impossible for our literature and our work to be
a menace to the peace and safety of the nation. Instead of being against
the principles advocated by the government of Germany, we stand squarely
for such principles, and point out that Jehovah God through Christ Jesus
will bring about the full realization of these principles and will give to
the people peace and prosperity and the greatest desire of every honest
heart.
"Our organization seeks neither money nor members, but we are a company or
organized body of Christian people engaged solely in the benevolent work of
teaching the Word of God to the people at the least possible cost to them.
Our organization was originally incorporated in the United States of
America in 1884 under the name of the WATCH TOWER BIBLE 15r TRACT SOCIETY,
and in 1914 incorporated under the laws of Great Britain by the name of the
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION. These are merely the corporate
names of our organization for legally carrying forward its work. The
Scriptural name by which we are known is 'Jehovah's witnesses'. We are
engaged solely in a benevolent work. The purpose of our organization is to
aid the people to understand the Bible, which discloses the only possible way
for the complete relief and blessing for mankind. Our organization has
extended its work throughout the earth. The education, culture and
upbuilding of the people must and will come through the agency of God's
kingdom concerning which we teach as set forth in the Bible. The salvation
of the people depends upon the true knowledge of and obedience to Jehovah
God and his righteous ways.
"The people are in great distress and in need of help to understand the
reason for their unhappy condition and what is the means of relief. The
Scriptures, when understood, make this matter clear. Instead of collecting
money from the people and using the same to erect great buildings and to
support men in luxury, we print the gospel message of God's kingdom and
carry it to the homes of the people that they may, at the least
inconvenience to themselves, gain a knowledge of God's purposes concerning
them.
"A careful examination of our books and literature will disclose the fact
that the very high ideals held and promulgated by the present national
government are set forth in and endorsed and strongly emphasized in our
publications, and show that Jehovah God will see to it that these high
ideals in due time will be attained by all persons who love righteousness
and who obey the Most High. Instead, therefore, of our literature and our
work's being a menace to the principles of the present government we are
the strongest supporters of such high ideals. For this reason Satan, the
enemy of all men who desire righteousness, has sought to misrepresent our
work and prevent us from carrying it on in this land.
"For many years our organization has put forth an unselfish and persistent
effort to do good to the people. Our American brethren have greatly
assisted in the work in Germany, and with money freely contributed, and
that at a time when all Germany was in dire distress. Now because it
appears that Germany may soon be free from oppression and that the people
may be lifted up, Satan, the great enemy, puts forth his endeavours to
destroy that benevolent work in this land.
League of Nations
"The language in our books or literature concerning the League of Nations
has been seized upon as a reason for prohibiting our work and the
distribution of our books. Let us remind the government and the people of
Germany that it was the League of Nations compact that laid upon the
shoulders of the German people the great unjust and unbearable burdens.
That League of Nations compact was not brought forth by the friends of
Germany. In America at one time the public press announced
that 140,000 clergymen had set aside a certain period of time in which a
concerted movement was to be made, and which was made, to induce the
American people to fully endorse the League of Nations. It was the
Federation of Churches in America that issued a manifesto stating that the
'League of Nations is the political expression of God's kingdom on earth',
and which by them was substituted in the place and stead of God's kingdom
under Christ. It was in America that our organization under the visible
leadership of its president pointed out emphatically that the League of
Nations is not an institution of Jehovah God, because it is oppressive and
unfair. It was that condition, existing at the time, which called forth
language that appears in our books concerning the League of Nations and
also calling attention to the fact that such League of Nations compact can
never bring about the relief and blessing of the people, because such
relief and blessing can come by adhering strictly to the principles laid
down in God's Word and in the manner which Jehovah has pointed out.
"For almost half a century our strictly Christian organization has carried
on its work in various parts of the earth. Its books are published in more
than 50 languages, and upward of 140 million of these books are in the
hands of the people. For more than thirty years our books and literature
have been distributed throughout Germany, and millions of these are now in
the hands of the German people and are read by the people, all of whom will
bear testimony to the fact that these books, based strictly on the Bible,
are of great help to them and upbuild them and give them hope for a
realization of the blessings which JEHOVAH God long ago promised. In all
these years of our work, and in the wide distribution of our books and
literature, not one instance can be truthfully cited wherein our work or
literature has been a menace to the government or has in any wise
endangered the peace and safety of the nations.
"The endeavors of our organization being exclusively confined to bearing
testimony to the name and Word of JEHOVAH God, it would be entirely
inconsistent for us to attempt to exert any political influence in the
governments of this world or to do anything that would endanger the peace
and safety of the nation. We have no desire nor inclination to do anything
except to carry out our divinely given commission to proclaim the Word of
JEHOVAH God.
"In America, Canada and other parts of the British Empire the political
clergy, priests and Jesuits have persistently persecuted and continue to
persecute those of our organization, and without just cause or excuse; and
we have every reason to believe that a like influence has been subtly
[sic] employed by the great enemy Satan to misrepresent us and our work in
Germany. We remind you that in the years past the political clergymen have
brought more sorrow upon the German people than probably any other class of
men. We have no desire to fight with the clergymen, but we do ask that the
ruling powers of the nation judge us not by the misrepresentation of such
men, but that we be judged according to the Word of God and the work we are
doing consistent therewith. Jehovah God persecutes no one, but permits each
one to choose his own course, holding him responsible for his acts
according to knowledge. Jehovah God has emphatically expressed his anger
against those who do persecute others who are trying to serve him; and this
proves that those who persecute us do not represent God, but that they are
incited so to do by the enemy of God and man.-Psalm 72:4
Great Truths
"The Holy Scriptures, viewed in the light of present-day events which are
in fulfilment of divine prophecy, disclose that: The time has arrived when
Jehovah will make his name known to all creation and vindicate his name and
clear it from the defamation which Satan has placed against that holy name.
(Psalm 83: 18) When Jesus Christ, the Vindicator, ascended into heaven
Jehovah commanded him to wait until his due time to put the enemy down.
That period of waiting has now come to an end and God has sent forth his
beloved Son to oust the enemy and rule in righteousness. (Psalm 110: 14;
Hebrews 10: 12,13) The world, or uninterrupted rule, of Satan has ended,
and this began to be evidenced by the World War in 1914, and since then
until now is the time when the gospel of the Kingdom must be told to the
people. (Matthew 24: 3,14) Satan has now been cast out of heaven and down
to the earth and now confines his operations to the earth in an endeavor to
blind the people to the truth and destroy them, and that is the reason for
the present-day sufferings of humanity. The prophetic words of Jesus now
apply: 'Woe to the inhabiters [the rulers] of the earth, and of the sea
[the people in general]! for the devil is come down unto you, having great
wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.'-Revelation 12:12
"The people of Germany have suffered great misery since 1914 and have been
the victims of much injustice practiced upon them by others. The
nationalists have declared themselves against all such unrighteousness and
announced that 'Our relationship to God is high and holy'. Since our
organization fully endorses these righteous principles and is engaged
solely in carrying forth the work of enlightening the people concerning the
Word of Jehovah God, Satan by subtlety [sic] endeavors to set the
government against our work and destroy it because we magnify the
importance of knowing and serving God. Instead of our organization's being
a menace to the peace and safety of the government, it is the one
organization standing for the peace and safety of this land .
We beg to remind all that the great crisis is upon the world because the
transition period from bad to good is at hand, and the hope of the world is
God's kingdom under Christ, for which Jesus taught his followers to
constantly pray: 'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is
done in heaven.'
"The power of Jehovah God is supreme and there is no power that can
successfully resist him. His time to exercise his power in the interest of
humanity and to the vindication of his great name is here. In this
connection we respectfully call attention to the admonition and warning of
Jehovah God, both to the rulers and to the people, which applies to this
very hour, wherein he says: "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of
Zion.... Be wise now, therefor, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but
a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.'-Psalm 2: 6,
10-12.
'"The present government having declared adherence to the aforementioned
high ideals, we are persuaded that the rulers do not desire to knowingly
resist the progressive witness work to the name of Jehovah God and his
kingdom which we are now carrying forward. If our work is merely that of
men, it will fall of its own weight. If it is of Jehovah God and being
carried forward in obedience to his commandment, then to resist it means to
fight against God.-Acts 5: 39.
We therefore appeal to the high sense of justice of the government and
nation and respectfully ask that the order of prohibition against our work
and our literature be set aside, and the opportunity be given us to have a
fair hearing before we are judged. We respectfully ask that the government
appoint a committee of impartial men to hold conference with a committee of
our organization and that a fair and impartial examination of our
literature and our work be made, to the end that all misunderstanding may
be removed and that we may without hindrance obey Jehovah God's commandment
now applying to us, to wit: 'Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye
the way of the people; cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up
a standard for the people.'-Isaiah 62: 10.
"The peoples of Germany are a God-fearing people and should not be deprived
of an opportunity to learn of Jehovah God and of his gracious provision to
bring lasting peace, prosperity, liberty and everlasting life on earth to
all those who know and obey him. Let all who love God work together to the
honor and vindication of his name. All who take a
contrary course must take responsibility before God; but as for us we will
serve Jehovah forever.
"RESOLVED, That copies of this Declaration be respectfully delivered to
high officials of the government and that the same be given wide
publication to the people, that the name of Jehovah may be further known."
Ps.The two world wars remain an enormous embarrassment for Christendom the spectre of supposed Christians indulging in the most unchristian mass fratricide on an industrial scale has certainly called the west's Christian credentials into question especially WWII the co-operation of the Protestant,Catholic and evangelical churches with both sides of what still holds the record as the most lethal international conflict of all time has left a particularly stubborn stain.The most notable exception to this failure to adhere to the christian principle of unarmed and pacific neutrality re:The national/political conflicts of the present civilisation (see Matthew26:52,Revelation13:10) has been Jehovah's servants in the twentieth and twenty first centuries.For their steadfasness in obeying God and Christ in this regard they have had to endure all manner of ill treatment at the hands of the political powers of this world with the full support of their religious confederates.
While no apology has ever been given by this civilisation's politicised religions for the ungodly hostility in which they have participated in against Jehovah's people their representatives have been quite busy spreading all manner of libellous distortions half-truths and outright lies about us.
My aim in publishing in full the Watchtower Society's 1933 declaration to the German state and people is to counter one particularly egregious revision of the historical facts by anti-JW propagandists.The steadfastness of German servants of Jehovah in refusing to give any political/military co-operation to the Nazi state or even to so much as say "heil Hitler" is a matter historical record as is the suffering they willingly endured as a result.
Alas anti-JW propagandists aren't the sort to let a little thing like the facts get in the way of their mission thus some have quote mined the above document in an attempt to support the claim that the society proposed some kind of political compromise with the German state.
By way of providing some background at the time the Nazi party had just ascended to power as part of a coalition a mere three months before so the concentration camps,the final solution were yet ahead and like all entities indulging in electoral politics there was much rhetoric uttered about standing up for the common man against the elite,restoring or extending national greatness,supporting the family as the basic unit of the society and other platitudes with which no sane person would/could take issue.
The lawless dead vs. Eternal torture.
Roman ch.7:1NIV"Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?"
At death law ends and hence sin ends and sanction for sin ends.
Romans ch.6:7NIV"because anyone who has died has been set free from sin."
These facts are key to understanding how Christ substitutionary atonement works.
If it is not literally the case that no further penalty can be exacted from the dead as the transition from living to dead is itself a plenary payment of the Divine sanction Christ death and resurrection does not constitute a legal substitution for anyone.
So the claim of some kind of additional post mortem penalty is irrational.
For the defence
An unabridged excerpt of Bill davidson's article in the Nov.2nd 1946 edition of Collier's Entitled:Jehovah's travelling salesmen:P.75
"because of the obviously huge income from the millions of publications every year the board of directors have often been accused of using Jehovah's Witnesses as a personal racket.
There is no evidence to support these charges.The leaders actually live in lower middle class simplicity,and the first president of the Society,Charles Taze Russel,left exactly $200 in his will when he died in 1916.He had been the owner of a chain of haberdashery stores and a very wealthy man at one time.The same thing is true of Judge Joseph F.Rutherford,the second president.A few years ago,Roger baldwin of the American civil liberties union became one of the few men outside of the board of directors to get some official notion of the organisations finances.Baldwin is convinced that the million dollar profit of that particular year was almost completely eaten up by foreign publication losses,administration expenses and the tremendous legal expenses necessary to defend the witnesses in courtrooms."
Page 4 paragraph 1 Watchtower society's charter."It does not contemplate pecuniary gain or profit,incidentally or otherwise,to its members,directors or officers.Its members shall be only men who are mature,active and faithful witnesses of Jehovah devoting full time to performance of one or more of its chartered purposes under its direction and by its authority,or such men who are devoting part time as active presiding ministers or servants of congregations of Jehovah's witnesses."
Sunday, 16 February 2025
The supremacy of the God and Father of Jesus is common sense itself.
Luke Ch.1:32NIV"He will be great and will be called the Son of the MOST HIGH. The LORD God will give him the throne of his father David,"
John Ch.10:29NIV"My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than ALL c ; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. "
The God and Father of Jesus christ is the MOST HIGH God and thus is co equal to no one.
John Ch.8:54NIV"Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. "
According to Jesus his God and Father is the one and only God of Israel . By common consent the God and Father of Jesus is not triune. Therefore the one and only God of Israel is not triune.
John ch.20:17NIV"Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”"
The God and Father of Jesus is not triune by common consent . The God and Father of Jesus is also the God and Father of Jesus' disciples . Therefore the God and Father of Jesus' disciples is not triune.
Matthew Ch.24:36NIV"“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, f but ONLY the Father. "
ONLY the God and Father of Jesus Christ is omniscient thus only the God and Father of Jesus Christ is the MOST HIGH God.
Roman's Ch.1:9EHV"To be sure, (the)God, whom I serve with my spirit by proclaiming the gospel of his Son, is my witness to how constantly I make mention of you. In all my prayers, "
Roman's Ch.3:30NIV"since there is only ONE(Grk.eis) God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. "
Paul was an actual monotheist and thus rendered exclusive sacred service to one most high God. Whom he clearly identifies as the God and Father of Jesus Christ.
Matthew Ch.16:16NKJV"Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”" not merely the living Father but the living God to whom all believers owe EXCLUSIVE Devotion/Sacred Service.
Malachi Ch.2:10NIV"Do we not all have one Father b ? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?"
The God and Father of Jesus Christ is the only true God.
On recognizing JEHOVAH’S Signature.
Richard Dawkins, the Koala, and the Giraffe
Editor’s note: We are pleased to offer this Abstract from Part I of a new paper by Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig, “Richard Dawkins, the Koala, and the Giraffe: How Evolutionists Overlook Signatures of Design, Part I.”
Abstract: Key Points of the Contents
Referring to science broadcaster Robyn Williams (Australia), Richard Dawkins believes that the koala’s pouch opens downwards due to its ancestry from a wombat-like animal instead of upwards as in the kangaroo — “a legacy in history.” A similar legacy, he assumes, also accounts for the recurrent laryngeal nerve in the giraffe.
The Australian Koala Foundation contradicts him on this: The pouch “faces straight outwards rather than backwards” (emphasis added). The IFAW (Australia) agrees that, as compared with kangaroos, koalas “have a more centrally located opening.” And that is for good reasons: “The pouch protects young koalas, called joeys, from injury while the mother climbs among trees.”
Now, Darwin correctly observed that “false facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often long endure.” I consider the statement about the backwards opening pouch of the koalas to be “a false fact” to bolster neo-Darwinism — a false fact still widely repeated in many public statements. Check Google on the pouch of the koala.
A series of links to videos and pictures shows the enormous differences between koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) and wombat (Vombatus ursinus) babies emerging from their pouches. This is likewise for good reasons: koalas are fully arboreal whereas wombats live on the ground and especially underground.
As for the recurrent laryngeal nerve of the giraffe, see here.
I remind the reader of a massive contradiction within the theory of evolution itself: “The genetic message, the program of the present-day organism…resembles a text without an author, that a proof-reader has been correcting for more than two billion years, continually improving, refining and completing it, gradually eliminating all imperfections” (Nobel laureate Francois Jacob). I give similar assertions by other authors in the text. And now, as a result of limitless, omniscient, and omnipotent natural selection over millions of years, “gradually eliminating all imperfections,” how are we to account for the koala’s imperfection, a pouch that “opens downwards, instead of upwards as in a kangaroo,” or an entirely superfluous long detour of the recurrent laryngeal nerve in the giraffe?
I cite thirty special adaptations in the arboreal/tree-living koala. Most of them are problematic from the perspective of gradual evolution, but, according to Dawkins, “evolution not only is a gradual process as a matter of fact; it has to be gradual if it is to do any explanatory work.” I subsume the overall system of synorganizations (the term used by evolutionist A. Remane), or “co-adaptations,” under the subheading “Signatures of Design in the Koala.”
Applying neo-Darwinism to the koala’s “two thumb adaptation” is shows — when starting with a hand/front paw like that of the wombat — the following result: After discussing several presuppositions and implications of gradualism, thousands of steps in millions of years would be necessary for the specific adaptation of the koala’s hand alone. And, just to emphasize the point: according to population genetics, here also “each new successful evolutionary step would imply the substitution of an entire Phascoarctos-like population.”
In summary: According to evolutionary biologist Danielle Clode in her book about the koala (2023), “Koalas are singular creatures: idiosyncratic and inimitable. They are sometimes described as being ‘like bears,’ ‘like wombats,’ ‘like sloths,’ or ‘like pandas.’ They share some parallels, some traits with these creatures, but they are not in any way ‘like’ them. Koalas are simply unlike anything else we know of”
Photo: the koala’s hand in action grasping a twig, by W.-E. L.
Now, if one is free to break away from the prohibitions of materialistic philosophy, one could, for example, accept the following reasoning. According to Austrian cell physiologist Siegfried Strugger, professor of botany at the University of Münster: “In comparison to the cell, all automation of human technology is only a primitive beginning of man in principle to arrive at a biotechnology.” Well, if the first steps on the path to the ingenious level of cybernetic complexities of the cell, i.e., the “primitive beginning” in Strugger’s formulation, demands conscious action, imagination, perception, intelligence, wisdom, mental concepts, spirit and mind — all being absolutely necessary for the basic start — how much more so does this have to apply to the origin of the thousand times more complex cybernetic systems of the many complex life forms themselves. And those include the specified and irreducibly complex structures inescapably necessary for the koala and countless other organisms
Saturday, 15 February 2025
Friday, 14 February 2025
Thursday, 13 February 2025
Recognizing JEHOVAH'S Signature?
Intelligent Design in Action: DNA Cryptography
Twelve years ago, in a series on Intelligent Design in Action, I discussed the science of cryptology as an example. A review of terms is in order; what is the difference between cryptology and cryptography? Basically, it’s theory vs application.
Merriam-Webster defines cryptology as “the scientific study of cryptography and cryptanalysis.” Cryptography is the process of writing or reading secret messages in code. Cryptanalysis involves the theory of solving cryptographic systems. There’s a Journal of Cryptology. There are professors of cryptology. Cryptology involves theories, data, experimentation, and testing. It has all the accouterments of science — and is entirely based on intelligent design principles. Which makes sense. It takes a mind to encode a message, and mind to decode it.
If cryptology is an example of ID in action, how much more when it involves biologically coded information? Such is a new application of cryptology discussed in The Scientist. Dr. Danielle Gerhard explained why “DNA Cryptography” represents a cutting-edge technique to reduce biosecurity risks.
Over the last two decades, synthesizing DNA has become faster and easier, but researchers worry that this will make it easier for people to access potentially dangerous products. While many experts call for more federal guidance and regulation over the production of synthetic nucleic acid sequences, others have drawn focus to biosecurity concerns that are a little closer to home: in research labs. Jean Peccoud, a synthetic biologist at Colorado State University, and Casey-Tyler Berezin, a molecular biologist on Peccoud’s team, discussed the biggest biosecurity issue facing research, approaches for encrypting messages into DNA sequences, and the importance of sequencing technologies for mitigating biosecurity risks.
Sequencing: that word rings a bell. Doug Axe in his book Undeniable, and Stephen Meyer in Signature in the Cell, explained that the carrier of information in biomolecules is not the building blocks but the sequence in which they are arranged. In The Design Inference 2.0, Dembski and Ewert expanded their earlier concept of complex specified information, showing that “short description length” is sufficient to identify design. A sequence of ones and zeroes that looks random might only be describable by repeating the whole sequence, unless a pattern like “the series of prime numbers” were found in it. That would shorten the description and identify the product of a mind.
How does this relate to the new science of DNA Crytography? Similar to a series of numbers, DNA consists of building blocks or “letters” whose sequence can—and does—convey information. As we know from genetics, DNA conveysfunctional information when it codes for proteins. It can also, as discussed here, convey non-biological information in human language. Craig Venter’s team, for instance, embedded their own watermark in DNA when completing their “synthetic cell” project. A highly versatile molecule, DNA has also been used to encode music, art, and even movies
Biosecurity with DNA
Dr. Gerhard writes that “Hidden Messages in DNA Could Reduce Biosecurity Risks.” The reason is that DNA is a good substrate for digital information. The subtitle says, “To improve traceability and enable authentication of synthetic nucleic acid sequences, researchers are embedding digital signatures into DNA.” Her article includes a transcript of a recording between Jean Peccoud, a synthetic biologist at Colorado State University, and Casey-Tyler Berezin, a molecular biologist on Peccoud’s team.
Peccoud highlights a big risk that till recently was thought impractical: sending text messages across international borders that could be translated into DNA sequences for biological warfare. “How do we know that what we have in our labs is what we think it is?” Peccoud asks. Digital signatures — encoded strings difficult to crack — could provide needed assurance. Digital signatures have long been used in business and government to authenticate messages. If DNA is a form of text, it can be used in a similar way.
For example, every research sample, such as a tube with a DNA plasmid, has two facets: a computer record that contains information about the sequence or provides a plasmid map and then there’s the content of the tube. When the two don’t match, there are all sorts of potential problems that arise. This may not be a biosecurity problem in the regular sense because you’re not dealing with infectious agents, but people are spending millions of dollars on research that they cannot reproduce because they don’t know what they have in their flasks. It’s a security problem that comes from the fact that what you’re working with is not what you think it is.
This risk is not science fiction. “That’s something that is happening in every lab, every day, and we have very few tools to figure out what’s going on in our own lab,” he adds. Berezin shows why the time has come for DNA Cryptography.
I became interested in the topic when I joined Peccoud’s synthetic biology team. I realized that a lot of the methods that we’re using, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and bacterial transformations, are methods I had used before but never wondered where the DNA sequences came from or how I would know if something had changed in the sequences. This is the status quo — we work with DNA and take for granted that it’s going to be what we think it is. Once you are aware of the biosecurity issues, it’s something you can’t turn your back on. Now, I see those issues everywhere.
DNA Cryptography mirrors existing methods to authenticate digital messages in communication channels. When sequences of code transfer across the internet, how does a receiver know that the message has not been corrupted by noise or malware? A system at the receiving end, such as a router, can recalculate the digital signature, often reduced to a string by a hashing algorithm, to find out. If not validated, the receiver can ask for a retransmission. This way, a human or software system at the end of the line can have confidence in the message.
Similarly, digital signatures in DNA can authenticate a product from a sender or warn the receiver if mutations in the DNA have corrupted it. DNA Cryptography reduces uncertainty.
DNA is going to mutate. That’s what it likes to do. It likes to replicate and sometimes that doesn’t go perfectly. So even if you might have something safe in a tube in your lab, after you propagate it 100 times or 1,000 times, you might not have what you think you do. Whether that’s dangerous or not really depends on the specific scenario, but that uncertainty of not knowing what you have, is very prevalent across academic research labs.It takes a lot of work on the part of the user to ensure that they’re tracking all the sequences that they have and that they are sequencing their plasmids as they go on.
DNA barcoding is already widespread, Berezin adds. What’s new is creating ciphers in DNA that are secret and difficult to break.
We’re interested in encoding encrypted messages that provide the user with information about the authenticityof the materials they’re working with. For this, our group has been developing a digital signature approach called DNA Identification Number (DIN), which is a more complex cryptography approach that makes it even more difficult for the receiver to open unless they know what they’re looking for.
The national security ramifications of DIN are obvious. Berezin goes on to explain how DINs are created and hashed into standard string lengths, and how techniques are being developed to assist those wishing to use it. From this article, we see several points relevant to ID:
Information is conveyed by the sequence, not the building blocks.
Information can be translated from one medium into another.
Mutations or noise degrade information, contrary to the expectations of Darwinism.
Intelligent design is an integral part of many sciences. Now we see new applications with the building blocks of biomolecules. But what about all those sequences in DNA that were not manipulated by humans? I wonder if some of the non-coding DNA might turn out to include natural hidden messages. Will we find compression algorithms, digital signatures, or steganography in things labeled pseudogenes or junk DNA? Given our experience in artificial cryptography, intelligent design advocates have reason to investigate.
Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Monday, 10 February 2025
Sunday, 9 February 2025
On Norway's crossover to the dark side re:religious liberty
Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway: Why the Oslo District Court Decision Is Wrong
It claims that the practice of shunning illegally prevents adults and minors from leaving the religious organization. This claim is false.
On March 4, 2024, the Oslo District Court ruled against the Jehovah’s Witnesses and upheld the decisions of the government and the State Administrator of Oslo and Viken who denied the Jehovah’s Witnesses the state subsidies they had peacefully received for thirty years based on Section 16 of the Norwegian Constitution (“All religious and philosophical communities must be supported on an equal footing”). Registration as a religious organization of the Norwegian Jehovah’s Witnesses under Law No. 31 of April 24, 2020, was also denied.
The District Court is aware that this was a difficult decision with serious consequences. It observes that at least, under Law No. 31 the lack of registration would not prevent the Norwegian Jehovah’s Witnesses to continue their activities and to teach what they teach everywhere in the world (except in a few totalitarian countries that have banned them, including Russia). The consequences of the non-registration are that they will not be eligible for state subsidies, nor will they be able to celebrate legally valid marriages.
State subsidies in Norway are not a gift. Since the Church of Norway, a Lutheran denomination, is a state church supported by the government with transfers of money proportional to the number of its members, the Constitution mandates that to respect the principle of equality other religions should receive the same proportional subsidies. The judge himself acknowledges that not being able to celebrate legal marriages within one’s religious community may be perceived as discriminatory. He also agrees that the decision may have a broader “stigmatizing effect.”
Yet, the judge believes that all these admittedly important factors “are not weighty enough” when compared to the fact that the Jehovah’s Witnesses, by practicing shunning, violate in his opinion their members’ freedom to change their religion. Shunning is the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ teaching recommending that members do not associate with those who have been disassociated as unrepentant of serious sins or have publicly disassociated themselves from the organization (as opposed to simply becoming inactive). Cohabiting relatives are not shunned, although they are excluded from the family’s religious activities.
Here, I find the decision slightly confusing. At times, it seems that the judge regards the shunning both of adult and minor ex-members as grounds for his decision. In other passages, however, he seems to acknowledge that Law no. 31 includes a note that “if adult members of their own free will follow rules that restrict their rights and freedoms, they cannot be considered violations… Essentially, this also applies even if the obligations can be considered harmful.” In its conclusion, the decision cautiously focuses on the alleged violation of the “right to opt out” of children.
The decision notes that the European Convention on Human Rights also guarantees the right to leave a religious organization. The judge is persuaded that Jehovah’s Witnesses in practice are prevented from leaving since they know that, if they leave, they will be shunned.
As mentioned earlier, it is at times unclear whether in the end the objection only concerns the shunning of minors or also extends to adults. In the second case, the decision is patently absurd and runs counter to dozens of decisions on shunning by jurisdictions in other countries, including supreme courts. They have noted that religious organizations have the right to self-organize themselves as they deem fit. Christian groups also have the right to interpret the Bible in their own way. The interpretation by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in this case is not even particularly original. Clearly, something similar to the shunning they practice today is taught in 1 Corinthians 5:13 (“Expel the wicked person from among you”) and 5:11 (“Do not even eat with such people”), and 2 John 10–11 (“Do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work”). Others may suggest a non-literal interpretation of these passages, but it is not for secular courts of law to second-guess religious organizations on their interpretation of the Bible.
The main objection is, however, another. All human organizations have what sociologists call exit costs. By leaving a demanding but well-paid job I may gain more freedom but lose a good salary. The loss of the salary is my exit cost. Shunning is a typical exit cost. A spouse that decides unilaterally to divorce and to marry a different partner may be shunned by the abandoned ex-spouse, perhaps even by children. Members of a political party who quit and join a political organization with the opposite ideology may be shunned as traitors by their former comrades. Several religions, including Islam and branches of ultra-orthodox Judaism, treat “apostates” in a less charitable way than the Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Norwegian judge’s argument is that to avoid the exit costs we are compelled to remain in a religious organization we may no longer believe in and are thus denied our right to leave it that is enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. But by applying the same argument, one can argue that marriage or political parties are also institutions that violate the rights of those who want to divorce or change political affiliation, since the exit costs may make them reluctant to leave.
Sociologists know that eliminating exit costs is not possible. They are an unavoidable feature of organized social life. Sometimes, one has the impression that the enemies of the Jehovah’s Witnesses are precisely asking courts of law to compel those who do not want to communicate with their former co-religionists to do it, which is not only unfair but impossible. More often, opponents argue that what they want is that judges would prevent the organization of the Jehovah’s Witnesses from teaching shunning. But that would put the judges in the strange position of interpreting 1 Corinthians and 2 John and substitute their opinion to the one of a religious organization in determining what these venerable Biblical texts “really” mean.
In the end, the Oslo judge found it safer to focus on minors who are first baptized and then, if they become unrepentant sinners, shunned. One can measure the cultural distance of the judge’s own feelings from those of any conservative religious group, not only the Jehovah’s Witnesses, when he wrote that he finds it “reasonable to expect” that most minors would engage in “sexual relations with their boyfriends or girlfriends.” Apart from the cultural problems of the judge in understanding conservative religion, he accepts the opinion of an “apostate” ex-member that minors are baptized and become Jehovah’s Witnesses when they are not mature enough to understand their obligations. But surely this is a drastic conclusion one cannot arrive at on the basis of one witness or a few anecdotical examples. What would be required is a quantitative study of those baptized as minors. Nothing similar is quoted in the decision. Although Norway has introduced a system of “youth punishment” with more lenient penalties for them, minors can be tried from criminal offenses from age 15. If they are mature enough in Norway to stand a trial before a criminal court, perhaps they are also mature enough to make informed religious decisions.
Once they have been baptized, minors run the risk of being shunned. Again, some opponents may have told the judge that this is not rare but among his numerous witnesses he found only one woman, now 40, who was disfellowshipped for a sexual offense and shunned as a minor, when she was 14, thus 26 years ago. She testifies that after a “short time” she was allowed to return to the fold by writing a “letter of regret” and attending a “short meeting.” There is simply no evidence that disfellowshipping minors, with the consequence that they are shunned (but not by cohabiting relatives), is more than a rare occurrence.
It may be objected that a rare injustice would be an injustice, nonetheless. The answer is that, as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stated in cases about the dissolution of organizations of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia in 2010 (Jehovah’s Witnesses of Moscow and Others v. Russia) and 2022 (Taganrog LRO and Others v. Russia), denial or cancellation of registration of a religious organization is a serious measure with dramatic consequences for its members that states can adopt only in case of frequent and obvious crimes or misdemeanors. Shunning minors is not frequent, and the “principle of proportionality” between the fact and the sanction mentioned by the ECHR in its decisions about Russia would not be respected even if this was a crime.
But is it a crime? The judge himself admits that Jehovah’s Witnesses, in good faith, perceive shunning as a “loving and meaningful arrangement,” a painful medicine (painful, it should be added, for those who shun and not only for those who are shunned) that in many cases helps restoring family harmony and morality, as those shunned end up understanding their mistakes and repenting.
According to the decision, the violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child would be in the fact that to minors, just as to adults, would be denied the freedom to “opt out” of the organization. Afraid of being shunned, minors who would want to quit in the end are dissuaded from leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which the judge thinks violates their right to change their religious affiliations. However, if the minors are mature enough to understand their obligations when they are baptized—and no evidence has been offered that this is not the case—they are aware of the exit costs just as the adults are. It is also false that a young boy or girl does not have experience of exit costs: he may decide to break a relation with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, quit a group of friends, leave a sport club, in extreme cases even leave the family and go live elsewhere. All these experiences have painful exit costs.
The decision argues that, because youth are especially fragile, the experience of shunning is more traumatic for them. This is possible, but youths also have greater flexibility in socialization than adults. Young Jehovah’s Witnesses attend public schools, where after disfellowshipping they can continue to attend or newly enter into circles of friends who are not part of their former religion. The judge insists on the pain of not being able to communicate with grandparents who are Jehovah’s Witnesses. However, grandparents may cut ties with their children and grandchildren for a variety of reasons, none of which courts of law can really correct. And even outside the Jehovah’s Witnesses, minors who do something that is perceived by their relatives as a betrayal of the family or an expression of moral corruption may find themselves, for all practical purposes, “shunned.”
It is difficult to disagree with professor of religious history, Dag Øistein Endsjø, who told the leading Norwegian Christian daily newspaper “Vårt Land” that the verdict is against numerous decisions rendered in other countries, as well as against the case law of the European Court of Human Rights where it would have limited chances to survive. It is also against simple logic. Perhaps a higher Norwegian court will acknowledge it even before the court in Strasbourg.
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