The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

the immortality of the soul lias become s6 prevalentvhen it is so opposed to#he teaching of the Scriptures..It was du?ing the time when people thoughtit their duty to torture others who differed frbmtheni in religious belief that the Church adopted'this teaching of the Greek philosophers: and theydid so becanse it helped to support the doctrine dfeternal torment.'l'he usual a'rgumeni put forward ti support the. theory that the sgul'is immortal is that it is a littlepart of' God'.,Breathed into Adam. If \hose who +theorise in this way would only -reason out theirargument to its legitimate conclusion, they wouldsee .&at ::it .could not possibly be me. They-cntght to +emember that it is not the body but thesoul- whiEli is responsible for sin. If the soul is$little part of God, then this little part of God inman is responsible for sin, and may come underthesentence. of eternal condemnation.' Some, hairlng noticed that ?the statement in -Genesfs 11.) 7, that God breathed the breath (spirit)d life into man's nostrils, differs from the descrip-.tion of the creation of the lower animals,. think thatit is nof"the soul' but tlie 'spirit which is a little 'part of God, and that it is not the soul but thespirit which is, on this accotlnt, immortal. These .fa31 to notice that .in the-seventh. chapter of Genesis,..verse 22, the -lower animals are also said to havethe spirit of life in their nostrils. Those, i-herefor2, -w@o t11u.s seek to prove &at man is immortal, wouldpro-also t11'at':the' lower animals are immortal. The, .- same >argument applies to those who seek to proveman!^ aatuigl immortality from t$e indestruct-ibility of matter, and the conservatioii of energy.If these :*re.$roofs - of the immortality of man,