Hi, my name is Edmonson and I'm new here to the forum and have a question for Jehovah's Witnesses(or for anyone who can answer it). Why did the "Insight on the Scriptures" Bible encyclopedia, which replaced the "Aid to Bible Understanding" encyclopedia, change the Watchtower Society's definition and explanation of the human heart? I remember the old "Aid" book gave a very detailed explanation about how the human heart had all of these intricate nerve connections to human brain and how there was an interplay between the heart and the brain and how the heart was more than just a pump and had emotional capacity associated to it. However, thanks to the wonders of the interenet, I found a website that has a paragraph from the old "Aid" book article about the heart. And here is the paragraph:
"How Is Your Heart? … The heart, nevertheless, is intricately connected with the brain by the nervous system and is well supplied with sensory nerve endings. The sensations of the heart are recorded on the brain. It is here that the heart brings to bear on the mind its desires and its affections in arriving at conclusions having to do with motivations. In reverse flow, the mind feeds the heart with interpretations of the impulses from the senses and with conclusions reached that are based on the knowledge it has received, either at the moment or from the memory. There is a close interrelationship between the heart and the mind, but they are two different faculties, centering in different locations. The heart is a marvelously designed muscular pump, but, more significantly, our emotional and motivating capacities are built within it. Love, hate, desire (good and bad), preference for one thing over another, ambition, fear-in effect, all that serves to motivate us in relationship to our affections and desires springs from the heart. … It is significant that heart-transplant patients, where the nerves connecting the heart and brain are severed, have serious emotional problems after the operation. The new heart is still able to operate as a pump, it having its own power supply and timing mechanism independent of the general nervous system for giving impulse to the heart muscle, but just as it now responds only sluggishly to outside influences, the new heart in turn registers few, if any, clear factors of motivation on the brain. To what extent the nerve endings of the body and the new heart are able to make some connections in time is not clear, but this cannot be ruled out as one of the several factors causing the serious mental aberrations and disorientation that doctors report are observed in heart-transplant patients. These patients have donor-supplied pumps for their blood, but do they now have all the factors needed to say they have a "heart"? One thing is sure, in losing their own hearts, they have had taken away from them the capacities of "heart" built up in them over the years and which contributed to making them who they were as to personality."
(Watchtower, 3/1/1971 p.133-139)
http://www.bible.ca/Jw-changes.htm (From the 11th green subheading starting from the bottom of the page.)
Now of course the artcle "Aid" book article was longer than that and I don't really remember the part about the heart transplant and I don't really agree with that part that says that "just as it now responds only sluggishly to outside influences, the new heart in turn registers few, if any, clear factors of motivation on the brain," however, I do remember the other information in the paragraph. But what I don't understand is why the Watchtower started off with one explanation about the heart, but then in the "Insight" book, they totally eliminated that information and said that the Bible's mention of the heart was only metaphorical. Also, as far as heart transplant patients go, I have read stories and have seen television programs where recipients of heart transplants have acquired characteristics and personality traits(that they didn't have before) from their donors. And below are some links to some articles about this:
http://www.recorder.com/story.cfm?id_no=4877260 http://www.sfms.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&SECTION=Article_Archives&CONTENTID=1540&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfmhttp://www.news-medical.net/?id=37120http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=18249http://hubpages.com/hub/Cellular-Memories-in-Organ-Transplant-RecipientsAnd of course there are the skeptics:
http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2006/04/heart-transplants-and-cellular-memory.htmlAnd also here's an article with a certain amount of skepticism, but at the same time acknowledges some compelling cases which seem to support that "memories may be stored in the heart":
http://medhum.blogspot.com/2006/06/mindshock-transplanting-memories.htmlBut the reason why I am bring all of this up and asking this question is because not too long ago I was watching James and Betty Robison's television show, called "Life Today":
http://www.lifetoday.org/site/PageServerand on the airing of the show that I saw, they had a guest doctor on the show(I forgot her name) who was discussing the concept of "The Brain in the Heart"(see article below):
http://stanford.wellsphere.com/depression-article/the-brain-in-the-heart/268635But what struck me about what this doctor was discussing on "Life Today" was that what JWs were saying decades ago about the heart seemed to have been correct(and I know that everyone doesn't agree with this), but for some reason JWs did an about face on this. Was it because of criticsm from the medical and scientifice community? Also, do JWs presently have the same belief about the human heart or did they switch back to what they believed in decades ago in the "Aid" book which now seems to have scienticfic data to support that belief?
Dilber MC Theme by HarzeM