Can anyone explain to me why Jehova's witness dont accept blood transfusions even if it is to prevent certain death? I know it is apart of the religion or something but really? Why does it matter so much?
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Can anyone explain to me why Jehova's witness dont accept blood transfusions even if it is to prevent certain death? I know it is apart of the religion or something but really? Why does it matter so much?
Quoted from Wikipedia:
"Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions, which they consider a violation of God's law based on their interpretation of Acts 15:28, 29 and other scriptures. Since 1961 the acceptance of a blood transfusion has been grounds for expulsion from the religion. Watch Tower Society literature directs Witnesses to refuse blood transfusions, even in "a life-or-death situation". Jehovah's Witnesses accept non-blood alternatives, and other medical procedures, in lieu of blood transfusions.
Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept red cells, white cells, platelets or plasma, though they may accept fractions made from these components at their own discretion. The Watch Tower Society provides pre-formatted Power of Attorney documents prohibiting major components, in which members can specify which allowable fractions and treatments they will personally accept. If a fraction "makes up a significant portion of that component" or "carries out the key function of a primary component", it may be objectionable to some, but is permissible. Jehovah's Witnesses have established Hospital Liaison Committees as a cooperative arrangement between individual Jehovah's Witnesses and medical professionals and hospitals."
There you go.
If you believe in something so much, you would be willing to die to show your faith.
Yeah, I was just trying to prove a point. Change what I said to something not suicidal but obviously going to kill you, or whatever.
One law in the 1800's that always made me confused was: If you are found trying to commit suicide and fail then it will be punishable by death. Surely that would be a good thing for some one who wants to commit suicide, wouldn't it?
True but surely the people who want to commit suicide would get what they wanted in the first place. I think that the Catholic Church made it a sin because people who believe in heaven may just want to get there without the long wait of a long life. What do you guys think?
Well.. no. They believed suicide, and punished to death cases ended up in hell. Up in the North (Denmark and Sweden. Not Norway in this cause) a number of child murders appeared. The new technique to get to heaven and die quickly. They murdered a child, they were pure and safe to get to heaven, and they could also apologize AND die. They killed a child, they got to heaven.
Back to the OP, the Bible specifically forbids the consumption of blood. This is why "kosher" meat is bled out before butchering. Most Christians quite simply define "consumption" as the eating of blood by way of their mouth and digestive tract....heck, most Christians don't abide by that particular tenet anymore. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that taking that blood into yourself in any way counts as the consumption of blood and that it violates a key set of laws handed down from God.
Any time X (O rly?)
Commandment V: Thou shalt not kill.
However, I think that rule is taken lightly considering Northern Ireland, The '93 WTC bombings, The Crusades, The Spanish Inquisition, 9/11, and all of the other religious acts of murder that have been committed over the past 2000 years.
The real issue about Jenova's Witnesses is why do they always have to come to your house in those little suits when you are in the shower or cooking dinner
If you invite them in, offer them refreshments, ask lots of awkward questions that they can't answer, and get at least one of them to start thinking for himself and questioning his beliefs, they must put a hobo mark on your house or something because they never come back and you have to move to get them to start visiting again.
This guy I knew thought it would be funny to answer the door totally naked smeared in peanut butter and jelly mixture while twitching and muttering incomprehensibly
Best IRL troll i ever met
? just had to lol massivly at that!
To the original post.
The "consumption" of blood isn't Kosher. Furthermore, in some faiths, the body is considered a "Holy temple". Fouling it up with someone else's blood or alcohol is strictly forbidden as are unclean thoughts etc.
In response to suicide being a sin, the answer is yes. In fact in Catholic traditions its a Mortal Sin, which means that regardless of when your last confession was you are going to Hell specifically if you are old school Catholic, you would be sent to the 7th ring of Hell the middle level. The ring of "Violence against self". The idea being that you destroyed something that (again if you are christian, or catholic) g/God/s lovingly created.
Personally I think that suicide is simply an extension of Darwinism, and will happen when and where its needed to remove the people who are too weak to struggle on with life.
I'll even engage in a little de-railment here, but what of assisted suicide? Is it suicide or murder?
P.S.
Ever since my Step mom walked up and leaned out the window cleaning her pistol while the dog barked and growled at the door, they have yet to come back to our house...
Ohhh, I can't answer that from a religious point-of-view seeing as how I have discarded all the dogma. I look at it from a compassionate point of view. Look, I just had to put down one of our new kittens. The poor thing was gasping for every breathe, couldn't eat or drink or stand, was clearly suffering, and there was no hope of recovery. The only kind thing to do was gently ease its passing.
If we can be kind to animals this way, why are we so cruel to humans? Is their suffering less valid? Do they feel less pain? Is their own hopelessness less depressing? One of the greatest things to come about in medicine in the past few decades is the concept of hospice. Allowing someone to die naturally, in dignity and comfort, surrounded by those who care. The natural extension, in my opinion, is to let them choose the time and manner of their own passing so as to avoid prolonged suffering when there is no longer hope for recovery.
Humans have free will...yet we choose to forbid ourselves from exercising it in the most important matter of all: do we have to keep living when we no longer wish to do so? I don't think we should have to. Helping someone to commit suicide in a responsible and caring manner is neither murder nor suicide in my eyes. It is logical and compassionate and HUMAN.
Actually, I think one of the problems with allowing humans this is that it is actually open to much abuse. A corrupt doctor could, say, kill a patient, and later claim with impunity (as the only other witness is dead) that the patient was dying and requested it of him. We allow people to "put down" their pets because humans, on average, care about those animals less. We don't really care if an animal is killed when it isn't suffering. (Yet again, on average. I realize there are certainly individuals who would care, me being one of them, but anyway...)
Point is, murder could go undetected under that allowance.