Posts by Mephis

88

What was there before the Big Bang?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpuhj98vjoa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hik8hj0_t9q.

Mephis

Laws are a product of intelligence

Scientific laws describe how things are and how they interact. In fact, scientific laws actually require God not existing because if he did then the laws stop being laws. They're only laws if they work all the time, and God playing about with them kind of messes with that. You can't reliably plan how to send a rocket to the moon if you don't know whether or not God's going to change how gravity works because he's feeling grumpy that day.

So scientific laws say nothing about requiring an intelligence to make them. They just are, in the same way that 2+2 making 4 just 'is'.

4

Every species on the planet has an Adam and Eve

by stillin in

the original "parents" of each species sinned in some way peculiar to their "race.

" this dented the bread pan, thereby causing all offspring to be "dented.

in every case, the "dent" results in a premature death to all descendants.. the languages are "confused" but there will come a messiah in the form of a perfect example of whichever sort of animal it is and all of those animals must recognize the messiah or they will die.

Mephis

So *that's* what happened to the dinosaurs...

22

Russell's chronology was right after all!

by Vanderhoven7 in

the kingdom of god is already begun, which is pointed out in prophecy as due to begin the exercise of power in a.d. 1878, and that the "battle of the great day of god almighty" which will end in 1914 with the complete overthrow of the earth's present rulership, is already commenced.. i just did the math....and russell was right.

christ returned invisibly in 1874 and took rulership (restored kingdom reign) in 1878.. 2520 years minus 607 when jerusalem was destroyed = 1913 (accounting for no year zero) = 1914. that`s 2520 - 607 = 2014. but wait, that`s 2520 prophetic years of 360 days, not solar days of 365.25 days.

to convert to solar days then one must multuiply 2520 x 365.25 which gives us 2,484 actual years.

Mephis

The measurements of the pyramid confirm the date of 1878. We know this because there's a groove cut in one of them which Pastor Russell says is 1878 inches long. How loving of Jehovah to make such an accurate witness to Biblical prophetic truth, and in a unit of measurement which didn't even exist at the time of the pyramid's construction.

3

The religious mind and evolution

by Half banana in

the greatest impediment to clear thinking by people who chose faith above all else is their unsubstantiated belief that the bible is the inerrant word of god.. believers well know about the feeling of certainty when it comes to their religious vision, they love to announce it but they cannot verify it.

it is the cart before the horse.. over the centuries, since roman law mandated its own brand of worship through the religious organ of the catholic church, the idea had been established by universal reckoning... and punishment if denied... that the bible always told the truth.. we, all of us here, would not be taking sides on this issue were it not for this grotesque distortion of reality courtesy of the church of the dark ages.. instead if we had taken evidence from the natural world, all would recognize the plain, coherent and evidential logic of darwin's explanation of how life diversified from a common stock.

one hundred and fifty seven years later after intense scrutiny by hundreds of thousands of scientists, no one has spotted a damning conflict in the theorum nor can they because it is factual.

Mephis

There is evidence to support that some aspects of creationism are a result of how our thinking processes evolved.

eg. an article on this by a lecturer in developmental psychology

https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2016/mar/31/intelligent-design-popular-evolution-creationism

"Developmental psychologists have identified two cognitive biases in very young children that help to explain the popularity of intelligent design. The first is a belief that species are defined by an internal quality that cannot be changed (psychological essentialism). The second is that all things are designed for a purpose (promiscuous teleology). These biases interact with cultural beliefs such as religion but are just as prevalent in children raised in secular societies. Importantly, these beliefs become increasingly entrenched, making formal scientific instruction more and more difficult as children get older."

We're wired to try and make sense of our environment within a comfortable frame of reference and we automatically look for ways to interpret data based upon prior experience. Exceptionally useful a lot of the time, bit of a hindrance at others.

44

Evolution is a Fact #36 - Mass Extinctions

by cofty in

250 million years ago a plume of molten basalt gushed up from the earth's core.

it erupted in an area now known as the siberian traps - back then it was part of the supercontinent pangaea.

a curtain of lava a mile high and hundreds of miles long lit up the sky.

Mephis

I don't think one can reconcile it with much other than a creator who kickstarted evolution and then walked away. Although a God who likes making stuff just to destroy it is kind of biblical in its own way. As flies to wanton boys...

28

NEW PEW Research data on Jehovah's Witnesses just released

by Balaamsass2 in

i was expecting people who "identified" as jws to follow watchtower beliefs more closely than these pollsters report.. .

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/26/a-closer-look-at-jehovahs-witnesses-living-in-the-u-s/.

Mephis

Pew's sample size for JWs is small so unexpected results popping up become more likely. The way the questions are phrased seem also to cause current JWs problems. Whether it's asking one whether they're an evangelical christian or not, or, in this case, whether they believe in heaven or hell. Actually, no, it's not the way the questions are phrased which causes problems but the WT filter which gets applied to any answer given.

150

Evolution: The Deal Breaker

by Hadriel in

first off i do believe there are some evidences of evolution or i should probably say adaptation.

i do believe this exists in various forms.. however the deal breaker for me with evolution is the chick or egg problem.

there are tons of theories that get passed around as proof of evolution however these are usually examples much further down the evolutionary chain.. what i mean is let's start at the beginning!

Mephis

I am waiting for Cofty to explain how evolution produced the following :

So you're asking how human evolution resulted in things which allow for socially cohesive groups to form in a species which relies upon socially cohesive groups to flourish? I'm sure the answer may be in the question.

66

Prince is dead.

by DATA-DOG in

has anyone heard about this?

that really sucks.

lots of dubs are talking.

Mephis

Little genius of a man. I really hope that there's nothing to prevent them releasing his version of Purple Haze. Which is in the vault Kevin Smith is on about there actually.

But some of the magic stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsQtHeFe15Y

And dropping the mic on a Clapton guitar solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7INsVaR-S-w

150

Evolution: The Deal Breaker

by Hadriel in

first off i do believe there are some evidences of evolution or i should probably say adaptation.

i do believe this exists in various forms.. however the deal breaker for me with evolution is the chick or egg problem.

there are tons of theories that get passed around as proof of evolution however these are usually examples much further down the evolutionary chain.. what i mean is let's start at the beginning!

Mephis

Just so you guys know I believe it to be rather convenient to not want to concede that because you can't explain the driver or abiogenesis that somehow it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter to evolution, the subject you started a thread on. It's a fascinating topic in its own right all the same.

Science doesn't work like a religion. Saying 'don't know' is the driver to try and find out. What's at the bottom of a black hole? We don't know. Therefore black holes don't exist? Or reason to fund research into finding out?

22

UK: Would anyone like to attend Frank Otuo's next hearing against the Watchtower? Or send him your support?

by defender of truth in

www.standard.co.uk/news/jehovahs-witness-sues-for-150000-after-church-snubbed-him-over-fraud-claims-9750062.htmlfrank otuo is suing the watchtower for disfellowshipping him and causing the loss of his family and his friends, after being disfellowshipped based on a false accusation of fraud.on friday may 13th 2016, a hearing will take place to decide whether the watchtower's defence will be thrown out.otuo is confident that it will be.

;)would anyone like to be there on the day, to see what happens and maybe even report back and tell us what you saw?.

otuo would like it if some people could be there to cheer him on, as it were.

Mephis

If he had committed fraud, then there is a very simple defence of it being true which the WBTS could use to rebut the slander allegation at least. But they don't seem to have done that.

Obviously, we cannot know the rights and wrongs of what happened with his business dealings. But can you imagine a business relationship going bad like this leading to similar sanctions outside of the JW bubble? Or having men, totally unqualified to listen to the information put in front of them, deciding on whether or not you'd committed fraud and whether or not you could have a normal family life?