Posts by gaiagirl

20

The Greatest lies of the Truth........do you know some ?

by Handsome Dan in

i was just reading some of the topics in the forum and i was just pondering on how many lies and devious half truths the wts.

put forth and marketed to .

the general public, it certainly is a huge pot of some of the biggest lies and deceiving statements that men have ever derived from the holiest book the bible.. .

gaiagirl

That humans are somehow unrelated to and separate from the entire rest of the natural world, and that in a world where all living things eventually die, only humans were not intended to die, but die anyway because a human ancestor disobeyed and was NOT forgiven by God.

4

Why believe Hebrew mythology but not Greek, Babylonian, etc?

by gaiagirl in

if one reads myths and legends of ancient cultures, it becomes apparant that most have stories which explain the origin of the planet, of humans, why there is suffering, the relationship between gods and humans, natural phenomena, etc.

for example, the hebrews (and jws) claim that the rainbow was a sign given at the end of the deluge as a promise that god wouldn't flood the planet again.

older accounts from babylon and assyria say that the flood was caused by one of the gods, but ended by his wife (ishtar or innana), and the rainbow was her necklace which she placed in the sky.

gaiagirl

If one reads myths and legends of ancient cultures, it becomes apparant that most have stories which explain the origin of the planet, of humans, why there is suffering, the relationship between gods and humans, natural phenomena, etc. For example, the Hebrews (and JWs) claim that the rainbow was a sign given at the end of the Deluge as a promise that God wouldn't flood the planet again. Older accounts from Babylon and Assyria say that the flood was caused by one of the gods, but ended by his wife (Ishtar or Innana), and the rainbow was her necklace which she placed in the sky. The Hebrews say the human race was started by the first man, Adam, who was a direct construction by YHWH. However, the Greeks say that humans were created by one of the Titans, Prometheus, and his brother Epimetheus, under Zeus orders to see to repopulation of the Earth after most living creatures perished in earlier battles between the Gods (mass extinctions?). Prometheus created new animals to replace those which had been wiped out, and modeled humans after the gods (in the image of the gods), and distributed gifts to each of the species. However, humans were the last created, and most of the good gifts had been already given to animals, better vision, hearing, and smelling, faster speed and greater strength and endurance, plus fur which kept them warm and protected their skin from the sun. Prometheus felt pity for humans, so asked Zeus if he could give the humans fire. Zeus refused, reserving fire for the gods alone. Rather than allow humans to suffer, he decided to steal fire from Olympus and give it to the humans. Now humans didn't shiver in the cold, and animals did not attack them. As humans watched the smoke from their fires rise toward heavens, their thoughts turned toward the heavens and those who dwelled there in gratitude. They began to wonder and think, and built temples to honor the gods. The result was the beginning of human civilization, leading eventually to science, and technology. Zeus could see the fires flickering on Earth, and was furious at Prometheus, so had him chained to a peak in the Caucasus Mountains, where a great eagle came and ate his liver each day (being an immortal god, he couldn't die, but his liver regrew each night). So, why do you think that people came to prefer the Hebrew myths over the Babylonian and Greek myths? In what way if any, do the Hebrew myths seem "inspired" and the others not inspired? Why do many believe one set of myths as literal truth, and others as childrens stories?

66

DNA & SOFT TISSUE CONFIRMED IN 68 "MILLION" YEAR T-REX !

by Perry in

press release 07-038 .

ancient t. rex and mastodon protein fragments discovered, sequenced.

68-million-year-old t. rex proteins are oldest ever sequenced.

gaiagirl

In regard to the Glen Rose/Paluxy River tracks, I've been there and viewed them myself personally. There are no human tracks present, only several species of dinosaur, notably a sauropod, and a much lighter weight theropod which appears to have been tracking the sauropod. It is these theropod footprints which creationists sometimes claim to be human, however close inspection reveals that many of the prints in this trail clearly show the characteristic "three-toe" pattern. In some of the other theropod prints, erosion has softened the outline and those particular prints are sometimes touted as "human", albeit a very, very, large human with a foot approximately 18 inches long. Other alleged "human" prints in the area were revealed to have been faked as long ago as the 1930's. It seems that creationists will stop at nothing to "prove" the Genesis account is somehow true. The following link is an overview of what is known about the prints in the area. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/paluxy/mantrack.html

8

A proessor's interesing theory on Jesus's resurrection.

by badboy in

jw
friends

professor frank tipler believes that jesus's body decayed into neutrinos and antineutrinos,which then converted ito atoms to make up the resurrected jesus.

gaiagirl

I partly agree with Tipler, Jesus body decayed...as to the end product, I'd apply Occam's Razor to decide.

106

Witchcraft - Would you use it?

by Sirona in

jw
friends

would you ever use witchcraft?.

do you think witchcraft is dangerous?.

do you think witchcraft is just a set of delusions based on ancient superstition?.

gaiagirl

I see witchcraft as a manipulation of natural energies and forces, such as gravity, sunlight, wind, etc, to accomplish a desired result. To my way of thinking, this is a form of science or possibly, a technology. So, yes, I'd use witchcraft if I felt I needed to in order to achieve some desired end.

7

carbon dating

by bluebell in

just wondering and not wanting to take over perrys thread re: dinosaur dna.

i know the dubs poo poo the idea of carbon dating saying that it's all wrong and that the human and animal remains are not millions of years old because according to them mankind is 6,000 years oldish, is there anywhere where they contradict themselves on this, so that they accept carbon dating on some things and not on others?.

gaiagirl

I seem to recall JWs accepting some comparitively recent carbon dates such as artifacts from the ruins of Jericho or something similar. When dates are applied to anything older than their date for the Flood, they become increasingly skeptical, because in their minds, the presence of the water canopy would dramatically alter all radiation levels before that time (a premise not supported by any science, sort of like saying fossils of fish from the ocean depths should appear much older than fossils of animals living in the mountains) Also, note that carbon dating is only ONE method of radiometric dating, and only accurate for once-living things less than 100,000 years or so. This is because the half-life of carbon 14 is comparitively short, about 5730 years, so by the time a sample has experienced radioactive decay for 10 or so half-lives, the amount remaining is so small, it is difficult to detect. So, no dinosaur sample could be CARBON dated, because after 60,000,000 or so years, there would be so little carbon 14 remaining. However, there are OTHER radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium, polonium, radium, even an isotope of lead, which occur naturally in rocks, and which have much longer half-lives. These elements CAN be used to accurately date rocks older than 4 billion years, even after such a long time, the remaining amount of isotope is still sufficiently large to be detectable and accurately measured.

64

Are Interracial RelationshipsA Taboo Subject?

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

are interracial relationshipsa taboo subject?the exposure to individuals of other racial backgrounds was helpful in my past .

jehovahs witness life to see past racial prejudice.

i am grateful for the exposure.

gaiagirl

I have been in relationships with members of other races, which lasted for varying lengths of time, and in those specific instances, found it to be not worth the additional work required. While there were some good points, overall, the "return" measured in satisfaction, was not sufficiently great to be worth the higher expenditure of effort in order to make things work. Having actually tried such an arrangement, I can say without prejudice - Making a relationship work is sufficiently difficult as it is, I can't think why one would make a choice which is likely to make it even MORE difficult.

40

The world IS getting worse!!

by themonster123 in

jw
friends

i'm telling you- i honestly think people are getting more immoral!!

i saw something on the news last night where some bicycler got hit in the middle of the road in the middle of a huge intersection and people were slowing down to go around him.

that was at some urban centre in tel aviv, israel.

gaiagirl

I second what Greendawn said, the world is FAR better overall now than at any time in the past. The reason the story about the bicyclist made the news is that it IS so unusual for such a thing to happen. And we do have a very efficient media in place for collecting and distributing news of such things when they DO occur. Finally, the media only publishes the stories they believe will generate revenue, and stories about healthy puppies licking the faces of smiling children don't sell newspapers or ad time on network television. What happened to the bicyclist WAS bad, no doubt about it, but if he had lived in Bible times, the driver of the car (wagon? chariot?) would probably have stopped, gotten out and robbed him, then killed him. And much, much, worse if he had been so unfortunate as to be a woman.

14

Describe how you will not die

by darth frosty in

jw
friends

i was just looking at terry's thread and as i read the responses the only thing that came to my mind was the ways i know i will not die.

i know i will not die in a car accident or by drowning.

i have already faced death (or you could say cheated) in those situations.

gaiagirl

I will not die from being chewed upon by a dinosaur, or stepping on the spines of a trilobite. I will not die from negative gravity propelling me into the vacuum of space. I will not die from the Sun suddenly going nova, although others may at some point in the distant future. I will not die from encountering a bit of antimatter. I will not die from zombies eating my flesh, vampires drinking my blood, or incubus stealing my soul

13

No more fiendish punishment could be devised

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

no more fiendish punishment could be devised, if such a thing were physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutely unnoticed by all the members thereof.

if no one turned around when we entered, answered when we spoke, or minded what we did, but if every person we met cut us dead and acted as if we were nonexistent things, a kind of rage and impotent despair would before long well up in us, from which the cruelest bodily torture would be a relief.

- william james, the principles of psychology.

gaiagirl

In the book "Clan Of The Cave Bear", a orphaned Cro-Magnon woman named Ayla is raised by a tribe of Neanderthals. When someone seriously breaks one of their rules, they punish them by pronouncing them "dead" and completely ignoring them. Many who are punished in this way begin to see themselves as dead, and die for real. I found it very perceptive of the author to show how, mmmm, "unevolved" the practice of "shunning" really is.