ha-ha! now I see why the guy kept the "famous Russian scientist and professor" anonymous. His reasoning does not hold water.
Thanks to everybody, I'll keep this information handy in case some JWs comes up with this quote to back up his belief.
Behe
behemot
JoinedPosts by behemot
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November 2010 Awake argument against evolution: does it make sense?
by behemot inthe november 2010 issue of awake (downloadable here: http://www.jw.org/index.html?option=nbzr) contains an article about a czeck scientist (frantisek vyskocil) who became a jw.. he relates that one of the things that made him rethink his position about evolution was something he was told by an unnamed famous russian scientist and professor in the early 1970s.
the argument runs like this:.
simple bacteria can divide about every 20 minutes and have many hundreds of different proteins, each containing 20 types of amino acids arranged in chains that might be several hundred long.
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November 2010 Awake argument against evolution: does it make sense?
by behemot inthe november 2010 issue of awake (downloadable here: http://www.jw.org/index.html?option=nbzr) contains an article about a czeck scientist (frantisek vyskocil) who became a jw.. he relates that one of the things that made him rethink his position about evolution was something he was told by an unnamed famous russian scientist and professor in the early 1970s.
the argument runs like this:.
simple bacteria can divide about every 20 minutes and have many hundreds of different proteins, each containing 20 types of amino acids arranged in chains that might be several hundred long.
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behemot
The November 2010 issue of Awake (downloadable here: http://www.jw.org/index.html?option=nBZR ) contains an article about a Czeck scientist (Frantisek Vyskocil) who became a JW.
He relates that one of the things that made him rethink his position about evolution was something he was told by an unnamed “famous Russian scientist and professor” in the early 1970’s. The argument runs like this:
“Simple bacteria can divide about every 20 minutes and have many hundreds of different proteins, each containing 20 types of amino acids arranged in chains that might be several hundred long. For bacteria to evolve by beneficial mutations one at a time would take much, much longer than three or four billion years, the time that many scientists believe life has existed on earth.”
Not being very good at maths, I’m scratching my head to understand what this means. Could someone smarter please help? What does this argument mean? Does it make sense? How can it be debunked?
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Weirdest apparitions
by behemot inafter jesus being spotted on a dog's bottom (http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/24217-jesus-image-appears-on-dog), a dental x-ray (http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/usworld/news-article.aspx?storyid=28783), a drainpipe (http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/833465-is-this-jesus-christ-on-a-drainpipe-in-coventry), a kit kat bar (http://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/weird/jesus-appears-in-kit-kat-bar/story-e6frep26-1225699253613), a sycamore tree (http://www.damnedct.com/the-jesus-tree-new-haven/), to mention just a few, now it's the turn of the enemy to make his own weird apparition on a bathroom tile:.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3139107/devil-appears-in-bathroom-tile.html.
behemot.
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behemot
After Jesus being spotted on a dog's bottom (http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/24217-jesus-image-appears-on-dog), a dental x-ray (http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/usworld/news-article.aspx?storyid=28783), a drainpipe (http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/833465-is-this-jesus-christ-on-a-drainpipe-in-coventry), a Kit Kat bar (http://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/weird/jesus-appears-in-kit-kat-bar/story-e6frep26-1225699253613), a sycamore tree (http://www.damnedct.com/the-jesus-tree-new-haven/), to mention just a few, now it's the turn of the Enemy to make his own weird apparition on a bathroom tile:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3139107/Devil-appears-in-bathroom-tile.html
Behemot
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JW sex offender can't worship with minors
by behemot inn.h. supreme court title sex offender can't worship with minors subhead religious freedom appeal rejected summary main photo/photogallery by maddie hanna / monitor staffseptember 18, 2010the state supreme court has denied the appeal of a sex offender who wanted to worship with a manchester congregation of jehovah's witnesses after he was released from prison in 2008.. in an opinion issued yesterday, the justices rejected 36-year-old jonathan perfetto's argument that the conditions of his suspended prison sentences - which require he have no contact with minors under age 17 - had violated his right to religious freedom.. "the defendant's freedom of belief has not been restricted," the justices wrote.
"he may still practice his religion in ways that do not violate the condition of his sentences," including the use of books and video and audio recordings.. perfetto could also participate in bible study sessions or meet with congregation elders when children weren't present, the justices said.. and the justices agreed with the state that restrictions prohibiting perfetto's contact with minors were justified if they were reasonable to his rehabilitation and to protecting public safety - rather than the least restrictive conditions possible, as perfetto had argued.. in perfetto's case, the restrictions were reasonable, the justices said.
perfetto pleaded guilty in 2002 to 61 counts of possessing child pornography, and "prohibiting him from having contact with children provides protection to the class of individuals exploited by him and furthers his rehabilitation by limiting the circumstances which could lead to his reoffending," the justices wrote.. the appeal marked the first time the court had considered whether restrictions barring a sex offender from attending religious meetings where children are present violated that person's constitutional rights to freedom of religion.
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behemot
N.H. Supreme court
Sex offender can't worship with minors
Religious freedom appeal rejected By Maddie Hanna / Monitor staff September 18, 2010
The state Supreme Court has denied the appeal of a sex offender who wanted to worship with a Manchester congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses after he was released from prison in 2008.
In an opinion issued yesterday, the justices rejected 36-year-old Jonathan Perfetto's argument that the conditions of his suspended prison sentences - which require he have no contact with minors under age 17 - had violated his right to religious freedom.
"The defendant's freedom of belief has not been restricted," the justices wrote. "He may still practice his religion in ways that do not violate the condition of his sentences," including the use of books and video and audio recordings.
Perfetto could also participate in Bible study sessions or meet with congregation elders when children weren't present, the justices said.
And the justices agreed with the state that restrictions prohibiting Perfetto's contact with minors were justified if they were reasonable to his rehabilitation and to protecting public safety - rather than the least restrictive conditions possible, as Perfetto had argued.
In Perfetto's case, the restrictions were reasonable, the justices said. Perfetto pleaded guilty in 2002 to 61 counts of possessing child pornography, and "prohibiting him from having contact with children provides protection to the class of individuals exploited by him and furthers his rehabilitation by limiting the circumstances which could lead to his reoffending," the justices wrote.
The appeal marked the first time the court had considered whether restrictions barring a sex offender from attending religious meetings where children are present violated that person's constitutional rights to freedom of religion. Barbara Keshen, the staff attorney for the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union who handled Perfetto's appeal, said she wasn't sure what the court's opinion would mean for sex offenders or others on probation.
"The good news about the decision is that the court did find Jonathan was asserting a fundamental right," Keshen said yesterday.
But Keshen said the opinion didn't clearly address whether sex offenders arguing that their constitutional rights had been violated were entitled to have a judge hear those arguments in court.
Perfetto, representing himself, had asked a Hillsborough County judge last year to let him attend meetings of a Manchester congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. He said he would be under the watch of one of the congregation's elders, who had agreed to serve as his chaperone.
But the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office argued that it was unlikely Perfetto would be constantly supervised at the congregation's meetings, and a judge denied Perfetto's request without a hearing.
In addressing Perfetto's argument that his due process rights had been violated because the court never heard testimony about the number of minors in the congregation or Perfetto's chances of reoffending, the justices said Perfetto never raised those arguments in his original motion.
"While the defendant may now point to issues that could have been explored at a hearing, we do not conclude that under these circumstances, due process required a hearing," the justices wrote.
Keshen said she doesn't think she has basis to file a motion to reconsider.
Perfetto, who attracted attention when he lived in a Concord parking garage after finishing a seven-year prison sentence in October 2008, is currently finishing a year-long sentence in the Hillsborough County jail after making a false complaint about his cellmate. He previously served time for molesting a young male relative and for assaulting adult women.
The sentence he received in 2002 for the child pornography convictions included four consecutive 3½- to 7-year sentences, which were suspended under certain conditions, one of which was that Perfetto have no contact with children under 17.
He also isn't allowed to own or access a computer, Keshen said.
source: http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/216837/sex-offender-cant-worship-with-minors
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Moment of madness: A zealots plea for tolerance
by behemot inmoment of madness: a zealots plea for toleranceby andrew mueller.
published: september 17 2010 22:37 | last updated: september 17 2010 22:37. it is passing no judgment on the veracity of religious beliefs to observe that the most enthusiastic adherents of any dogma tend towards the humourless.
the maintenance of faith requires a determination to ignore the contradictions with which life is vexingly replete.
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behemot
Moment of madness: A zealot’s plea for tolerance
By Andrew Mueller
Published: September 17 2010 22:37 | Last updated: September 17 2010 22:37
It is passing no judgment on the veracity of religious beliefs to observe that the most enthusiastic adherents of any dogma tend towards the humourless. The maintenance of faith requires a determination to ignore the contradictions with which life is vexingly replete. As a result, the line between zealot and buffoon can be perilously slender.
The current issue of Awake!, a magazine published by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, flaunts a cover story considering atheism. Needless to relate, they’re not keen on it. However, the author of this particular tract should probably have paused to contemplate Chapter 6 of Luke and Chapter 7 of Matthew, with specific reference to the virtue of considering the beam in your own eye before you start on the other chap about the mote in his. “They are not content,” harumphs the author of today’s unbelievers, “to keep their views to themselves.”
Even leaving aside the question of why an infidel is any less entitled to express an opinion than anybody else, this displays a troubling lack of self-awareness from a Jehovah’s Witness, of all people. Nobody has ever had their bath ruined by a knock on the door from an atheist.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cca8cd8c-c06b-11df-8a81-00144feab49a.html
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Upcoming conference on geocentrism
by behemot inomg, are they serious???.
http://www.galileowaswrong.com/galileowaswrong/.
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behemot
OMG, are they serious???
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Paedophile "partly blamed his crimes on a strict childhood as a JW"
by behemot inamerican paedophile jailed for yearjohn nicoll was caught with stash of child porn just weeks after moving to scotland.. a paedophile branded a serious danger by a scottish police chief has partly blamed his crimes on a strict childhood as a jehovah's witness in the usa.. .
john nicoll was jailed for a year on monday after he was caught with a huge stash of child pornography on his home computer.
he was also placed on a further six-month supervised release order and banned from working with children or having any solo contact with girls under 16.. .
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behemot
American paedophile jailed for year
John Nicoll was caught with stash of child porn just weeks after moving to Scotland.
A paedophile branded a serious danger by a Scottish police chief has partly blamed his crimes on a strict childhood as a Jehovah's Witness in the USA.
John Nicoll was jailed for a year on Monday after he was caught with a huge stash of child pornography on his home computer. He was also placed on a further six-month supervised release order and banned from working with children or having any solo contact with girls under 16.
Nicoll told social workers that he had reacted against his strict religious upbringing and had slept with more than 40 lovers in the space of a few years.
He also said that he had rebelled against the church's doctrine not to touch himself in a sexual way and had developed a compulsive interest in sickening child pornography.
The American paedophile began downloading pictures and videos of children being sexually abused within days of arriving in Scotland in May 2008, Perth Sheriff Court was told.
He had come to Scotland to stay with his father two years ago after spending nearly two years in an American prison for breaking into a family home and sexually assaulting a ten-year-old girl in her bed.
Solicitor Linda Clark, defending, said: "Mr Nicoll was brought up in a household with a fairly strict religious intervention. Whilst he does not blame that for what he has done he is able to comment that a lot of his behaviour, which would be normal for children or young adults, was not approved of in the household.
"After leaving home and being on his own he developed relationships with 40 women over a very short period. None were lasting and he described them as more or less one night stands.
"He has given an account of how it is that he came to be looking at these items on the internet. First of all it was a curious glance, which seems to have developed into almost a compulsion."
The court was told that Nicoll, 28, had been assessed as posing a "very high risk" to the public by both social workers and psychologists who had worked with him.
Nicoll had been viewing child porn within weeks of arriving in Perth in Scotland. He admitted downloading 1138 images between June 9 2008 and June 9 2009.
Fiscal depute Alan Kempton told the court: "He has no Scottish or British previous convictions. However, in 2004 he was convicted in North Carolina of an offence of indecency.
"It is believed that he resided in the USA and he indicated that he moved to the UK in May 2008. In June 2009, police received information, as a result of which a search warrant was applied for.
"Several computers were recovered. Upon examination, child pornography was recovered from data devices. There were live and deleted video clips and images."
Mr Kempton told the court that the haul included material from each of the five categories, including level five such as children being violently sexually abused.
Nicoll was born to Scottish parents in Germany in March 1982, and the family moved to North Carolina the following year. In 2003 his parents split up and his father returned to live in Scotland, while Nicoll remained in Wake County, North Carolina, with his mother.
On March 15 2005 Nicoll was convicted on a charge of "indecent liberties with a child" at Raleigh Superior Court in his home state and was sent to a period of imprisonment between 19 and 23 months.
During the night of 28 August 2004 Nicol - under the cover of darkness - broke into a private house and went into a child's bedroom. While her parents were in another room, Nicoll sexually assaulted a ten-year-old girl while she was lying sleeping in her bed.
His prison sentence was initially suspended and he was placed on probation and ordered to reside at a state-run specialist residential unit for a 12-month period. He was also ordered to serve 60 days in the custody of the sheriff of Wake County and undergo psychiatric and psychological evaluation and treatment.
However, Nicoll failed to comply with one of the conditions of the probation and he was sent to prison to serve out the full term of his original 19-23 month sentence.source: http://news.stv.tv/scotland/193405-american-paedophile-jailed-for-year/
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behemot
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/us-soldiers-punished-for-_b_687051.html
For the past several years, two U.S. Army posts in Virginia, Fort Eustis and Fort Lee, have been putting on a series of what are called Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts. As I've written in a number of other posts, "spiritual fitness" is just the military's new term for promoting religion, particularly evangelical Christianity. And this concert series is no different.
On May 13, 2010, about eighty soldiers, stationed at Fort Eustis while attending a training course, were punished for opting out of attending one of these Christian concerts. The headliner at this concert was a Christian rock band called BarlowGirl, a band that describes itself as taking "an aggressive, almost warrior-like stance when it comes to spreading the gospel and serving God."
Any doubt that this was an evangelical Christian event was cleared up by the Army post's newspaper, the Fort Eustis Wheel, which ran an article after the concert that began:
Following the Apostle Paul's message to the Ephesians in the Bible, Christian rock music's edgy, all-girl band BarlowGirl brought the armor of God to the warriors and families of Fort Eustis during another installment of the Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert Series May 13 at Jacobs Theater.
The father of the three Barlow sisters who make up the band was also quoted in the article, saying, "We really believe that to be a Christian in today's world, you have to be a warrior, and we feel very blessed and privileged that God has given us the tool to deliver His message and arm His army."
A few days later, some of the soldiers punished for choosing not to attend this concert contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). The following is from the account sent by one of those soldiers to MRFF, detailing what transpired that night.
The week prior to the event the [unit name and NCO's name withheld] informed us of a Christian rock event that was about to take place on Thursday the 13th.
"On Thursday 13th at 1730 we were informed that instead of being dismissed for the day, the entire company (about 250 soldiers) would march as a whole to the event. Not only that, but to make sure that everyone is present we were prohibited from going back to the barracks (to eliminate the off chance that some might "hide" in their rooms and not come back down).
We were marched as a whole to chow and were instructed to reform outside the dining facility. A number of soldiers were disappointed and restless. Several of us were of different faith or belief. A couple were particularly offended (being of Muslim faith) and started considering to disobey the order.
From the dining facility we were marched back to the company area. There was a rumor circulating that we may be given a choice later on to fall out or attend. Though it was only a rumor it was also a small hope enough to allow us to follow along a little longer before choosing to become disobedient. We were marched back to the company area. To our dismay there was still no sign of us having a choice.
We started marching to the theater. At that point two Muslim soldiers fell out of formation on their own. Student leadership tried to convince them to fall back in and that a choice will be presented to us once we reach the theater.
At the theater we were instructed to split in two groups; those that want to attend versus those that don't. At that point what crossed my mind is the fact that being given an option so late in the game implies that the leadership is attempting to make a point about its intention. The "body language" was suggesting that "we marched you here as a group to give you a clue that we really want you to attend (we tilt the table and expect you to roll in our direction), now we give you the choice to either satisfy us or disappoint us." A number of soldiers seemed to notice these clues and sullenly volunteered for the concert in fear of possible consequences.
Those of us that chose not to attend (about 80, or a little less that half) were marched back to the company area. At that point the NCO issued us a punishment. We were to be on lock-down in the company (not released from duty), could not go anywhere on post (no PX, no library, etc). We were to go to strictly to the barracks and contact maintenance. If we were caught sitting in our rooms, in our beds, or having/handling electronics (cell phones, laptops, games) and doing anything other than maintenance, we would further have our weekend passes revoked and continue barracks maintenance for the entirety of the weekend. At that point the implied message was clear in my mind "we gave you a choice to either satisfy us or disappoint us. Since you chose to disappoint us you will now have your freedoms suspended and contact chores while the rest of your buddies are enjoying a concert."
At that evening, nine of us chose to pursue an EO complaint. I was surprised to find out that a couple of the most offended soldiers were actually Christian themselves (Catholic). One of them was grown as a child in Cuba and this incident enraged him particularly as it brought memories of oppression.
The account of another soldier who did not attend the concert, which relates the same sequence of events and punishment that occurred, also adds that some of the soldiers who did decide to attend only did so due to pressure from their superiors and fear of repercussions.
At the theater is the first time our options were presented to us. And they were presented to us in a way that seemed harmless, we could either go to the show, or go to the barracks. But at that point, I felt pressured. As a person, I know that I can't be pressured into anything, I'm much stronger than that. But I also know that a lot of people aren't that strong, and that pressure was present. I could hear people saying, "I don't know about going back to the barracks, that sounds suspicious, I'm going to go ahead and go to the show" and many things that sounded a lot like that. Now, like I said, I don't get pressured into things, but I also don't think that anybody should have to feel that kind of pressure. Making somebody feel that pressure is a violation of human rights, we are allowed to think what we want about religion and not have to feel pressured into doing things, and at that moment there was definitely pressure to go to that concert simply because people don't want to have their free time taken away.
The Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert Series was the brainchild of Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers, who, according to an article on the Army.mil website, "was reborn as a Christian" at the age of sixteen. According to the article, Chambers held the first concert at Fort Lee within a month of becoming the commanding general of the Combined Arms Support Command and Fort Lee in June 2008. But he had already started the series at Fort Eustis, as the previous commanding general there. The concerts have continued at Fort Eustis under the new commanding general, as well as spreading to Fort Lee under Maj. Gen. Chambers. The concerts are also promoted to the airmen on Langley Air Force Base, which is now part of Joint Base Langley-Eustis.
In the Army.mil article, Maj. Gen. Chambers was quoted as saying, "The idea is not to be a proponent for any one religion. It's to have a mix of different performers with different religious backgrounds." But there has been no "mix of different performers with different religious backgrounds" at these concerts. Every one of them has had evangelical Christian performers, who typically not only perform their music but give their Christian testimony and read from the Bible in between songs.
Another problem with these concerts, besides the issues like soldiers being punished for choosing not to attend them, is that they are run by the commanders, and not the chaplains' offices. It is absolutely permissible for a chaplain's office to put on a Christian concert. It is not permissible for the command to put on a Christian concert, or any other religious event. Having a religious concert series that is actually called and promoted as a Commanding General's Concert Series is completely over the top.
And then there's the cost. These concerts aren't just small events with local Christian bands. We're talking about the top, nationally-known, award-winning Christian artists, with headline acts costing anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000, and even many of the opening acts being in the $10,000 range.
The cost of these concerts led MRFF's research department to start looking at some of the DoD contracts for other "spiritual fitness" events and programs, and what we found was astounding. One contract, for example, awarded to an outside consulting firm to provide "spiritual fitness" services, was for $3.5 million.
MRFF was already aware that exorbitant amounts of DoD funding were going to the hiring of civilian religious employees by military installations, the expenses of religious (almost exclusively evangelical Christian) programs, and extravagant religious facilities, but the extent of this spending goes far beyond what we had initially thought it amounted to. Therefore, MRFF has decided to launch an investigation into exactly how much the military is spending on promoting religion.
Do the recently announced plans of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to trim defense spending include any trimming of the military's outrageous spending on the promoting of religion and evangelizing of our troops? This alone could save the DoD untold millions every year, and go a long way towards upholding our Constitution at the same time.
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Whats the shortest time someone has been an M.S or Elder??
by karter inwe has one guy who kissed every avalable arse to become an elder only to be remover 3 months latter..
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behemot
and it still makes the holy spirit 'holy horse shit'!
Amen, mate!
Behe