"You cannot add meaning to the meaningless"

A few weeks ago, a young man knocked on my door. He asked me what I thought about current events in the world. He was taken by surprise at the sheer venom I was spitting. Indeed, he looked almost scared. I kept him talking for half an hour before he revealed why he had actually come to my door. He was a Jehovah's Witness. JW's are a strange bunch, which I admittedly do not truly know a lot about. A faction of Christianity, they are true bible students, unlike any other I have ever encountered.

These guys know what they're talking about when they refer to the bible. Unlike catholic priests or methodist ministers who simply read from a big book in an old building every sunday, JW's know all the bible stories and can instantly skim through to the correct book, chapter and verse when looking for a particular passage. Unfortunately, such is their infatuation with the bible that they believe it to be the true word of God. To sum it up simply, "If it ain't in the bible, it ain't true."

That is not to say the Jehovah's Witnesses take the bible literally. If a modern scientific discovery does not directly contradict the bible, then it is accepted by the JW's. In this way, theories involving black holes and the like are perfectly acceptable as the bible describes "Creatures which are powerful, but cannot be seen" tenuous perhaps, but there are some even worse instances. For instance, Moses makes no account of the existance of dinosaurs in the book of Genesis because "The people he was explaining it to would not have understood." Right.

Anyway, the conversation went on, until we got onto a favourite subject of mine, the creation/evolution argument. I said that evolution made sense, although I didn't think we had it quite right yet. And this guy, like most religious types, seemed to think that the ideas of creation and evolution were mutually exclusive. I don't see why. I mean, if a god, goddess, whatever, creates life and then lets it evolve into more advanced forms, perhaps, guiding it along the way in places, it would make sense surely? In typical zealous manner, he was unwilling to accept that with which he had been indoctrinated.

The conversation developed further and I started talking about science as a religion. After all, science is simply a number of laws invented by man to explain the world around him, in exactly the same way as any other religion. I explained how I did not have as much faith in science as I used to, and how the true language of the universe was Mathematics. he informed me that he thought physics was the the true language of the universe and Mathematics was the constuct. I laughed out loud and asked him for some evidence to back things up. All the physical equations in the universe could not help, because they all rely on the fact that matter and energy behave the same everywhere as they do here on earth. At present, the physical laws work, but what happens when some event occurs that breaks the mould? (I have written a previous column on this subject, so I won't digress here; check the archives if you're interested). True, physics does have a strong base in Mathematics, but it is not as pure.

After a while we got back onto the subject of the bible, and prophecies. "These prophecies came true hundreds of years after they were written, so they must have been penned by some divine hand." Perhaps, but what proof is there that the prophecies were not written after the event? If the prophecies were written before the event, is it not possible that the people fulfilling the prophecy were deliberately doing so? Jesus deliberately exploited Jewish prophecies to gain a position of power. All this "poor carpenter's son" dross was, simply, bollocks. But the JW's, catholics, whatever will not believe this. Why? because they believe the bible to be the only historical source.

Every historian knows that to get an accurate depiction of past events, one must compare information from a number of sources, and assess the veracity of each source. The main problems with the bible are: Firstly, it has been translated numerous times, undoubtedly losing something in translation. Secondly, many of the books would not have been written down at first. They would have been passed on through word of mouth, which often leads to much exaggeration and distortion of the facts. The most blinding problem with the bible is that it is incomplete. The new testament contains four gospels. There were originally many more written, but these were excluded by the Vatican so as to appease the roman powers at the time, and also because they put into question many of the "divine" acts of Jesus. Bear in mind that the four existing gospels were heavily edited and you are left with a somewhat unreliable account. (for an interesting account of this, read the books "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" and "The Messianic Legacy" by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln)

It became apparent somewhere during this conversation that the idea of combining science with religion was an interesting concept to me. the JW told me that he ahd a book that he's like to lend me, which covered that very subject. Sounded good to me, so I agreed to read it. When the JW returned with the "book" I was somewhat disappointed. It was more like a pamphlet. A mere 183 pages, published by "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania" Still, I said I would read it, so I began. As I read, my disappointment grew. Whenever the book provided a reference to bible material (which was always regarded as irrefutable truth) it quoted the exact book, chapter and verse. However,m when the book debunked some scientific evidence, it provided little or no reference as to where that information had come from. About halfway through the book it became clear that it was little more than a recruitment tool. As I had told the JW from that start that I would not be "converted", I was somewhat saddened and have now formulated a plan.

When the Jehovah's Witness returns to "discuss the book" with me, I will be ready to point out its shortcomings, and will offer to return the favour by lending him a book of my own. I won't try to convert him to any other religion, but if I can just make him stop and think for a second and formulate his own beliefs before swallowing someone else's then I will feel fulfilled.