Special Issue - September, 2006 Awake! - All 32 Pages Scanned

by daniel-p 40 Replies latest jw friends

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p
    And the "How Would You Answer" page is so kiddie-oriented (even with a Highlights-like "point out the errors in this picture") that I wonder if this is a new "provision" they are giving to the young'uns or if they've had stuff like this in the literature for a while?

    They changed to a new format for the Awake! a few months ago. However, this is a "special issue" of a single theme - they usually stick to the typical mix of rediculous topics (eg: Make Your Own Pita Bread after Should I Have Oral Sex?).

  • grey matters
    grey matters

    Thanks for the post. Great scan!

    I haven't read it yet, but I glanced it over. It is interesting that they interviewed a scientist that they identified as Catholic. But what is really amazing to me is the number of Jehovah's Witnesses who have become scientists working for prestigious institutions without getting a college education. Wow!

  • Kudra
    Kudra

    I didn't catch anything about those scientist's creds- like I could say that I worked doing research in the field of forest dynamics for 4 years buuuuut, what I won't say was that I was just a tech.
    You can "work at a university doing research" and not hold any higher degree than a BA...
    Not to be a nit-picker, but....

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p
    But what is really amazing to me is the number of Jehovah's Witnesses who have become scientists working for prestigious institutions without getting a college education.

    They came into the "truth" after they got their college education. Interesting thing is, they have used almost all these people for articles before; I guess there arn't that many people with this level of education in the organization. The funny thing is that they use their examples as if they represent a well-mixed, comprehensive opinion on the "evidence" for creation when they include engineers and other applied science experts.

    What is also amazing is how they spend 32 pages promoting Creationism without actually talking about evolutionary theory. THe power they have is in obscuring what evolutionary theory actually is. They even fall back on the old "its a theory - not a fact" argument, which I thought would have been below even them.

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p
    I didn't catch anything about those scientist's creds- like I could say that I worked doing research in the field of forest dynamics for 4 years buuuuut, what I won't say was that I was just a tech.

    You can "work at a university doing research" and not hold any higher degree than a BA...

    Not to be a nit-picker, but....

    No, it's a good point. Either (1) they don't trust the average j-dub to recognize words like "professor" or "post-graduate studies" or (2) these people are at worst staff members in science departments or at best part-time instructors. Of course, show them in suits and white lab coats and the j-dubs never know the difference.

  • skeptic2
    skeptic2

    It is interesting that they interviewed a scientist that they identified as Catholic

    Pseudo-scientist would be more apt. The judge of the Dover case on Behe:

    "Consider, to illustrate, that Professor Behe remarkably and unmistakably claims that the plausibility of the argument for ID depends upon the extent to which one believes in the existence of God."

    If there were real evidence for ID, the plausibility of ID would not rest on belief in God.

    "We therefore find that Professor Behe's claim for irreducible complexity has been refuted in peer-reviewed research papers and has been rejected by the scientific community at large."

    "Professor Behe’s concept of irreducible complexity depends on ignoring ways in which evolution is known to occur. Although Professor Behe is adamant in his definition of irreducible complexity when he says a precursor “missing a part is by definition nonfunctional,” what he obviously means is that it will not function in the same way the system functions when all the parts are present. For example in the case of the bacterial flagellum, removal of a part may prevent it from acting as a rotary motor. However, Professor Behe excludes, by definition, the possibility that a precursor to the bacterial flagellum functioned not as a rotary motor, but in some other way, for example as a secretory system."

  • grey matters
    grey matters

    "They came into the "truth" after they got their college education. " (somebody please teach me to use the quote function )

    I'm sure that is the case. But I got real sick of that argument while growing up in a cong. where most of the elders had 4 year degrees and lived in expensive homes. I was expected not to get an education or have a career. If I had, I would have been treated as a "marked" one, not have my face plastered all over the Awake. Sorry, I don't mean to hijack the thread onto a different path. I'll be quiet now. Thanks again for the post.

  • Kudra
    Kudra

    The only "scientist" that has any information on the web is the one from the Max Planck inst. And his webpage was purged from the MPI... wonder if they know about him touting his Max Planck credentials on the pages of a fundy creationist "journal"?
    ***
    Here's an instructive episode from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding [Zuchtungsforschung (MPIZ)] in Cologne, Germany. Wolf-Ekkehard Lonnig, a geneticist at the MPIZ studying tranposable elements, published a paper in the 2002 Annual Reviews of Genetics arguing that neo-Darwinism could not explain the origin of species, and that transposable elements may be "predetermined" to enable groups to give rise to diversity:

    http://www.makeashorterlink.com/?O2DA21897

    In the paper, Lonnig also cited Mike Behe and Bill Dembski, favorably.

    Oops. That's the wrong sort of citation, if you want a nice quiet career in biology.

    This led to Lonnig's webpages being purged from the MPIZ site. The story is here:

    http://www.weloennig.de/internetlibrary.html

    Most of the links are in German, but a couple of articles (e.g., the transcript from Radio Deutsche Welle) are in English.
    ***
    I got that off of this link...
    http://www.arn.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=000721

    -K

  • Elsewhere
    Elsewhere

    The file can also be downloaded from here:

    http://www.reexamine.info/00s/Awake_September_2006.pdf

  • Elsewhere
    Elsewhere
    It is interesting that they interviewed a scientist that they identified as Catholic

    Considering their stance on education, I suspect the WTS would have a very difficult time finding a reputable JW scientist.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit