Posts by Midget-Sasquatch

45

crucifixation or upright stake

by cakes in

hi everyone, i'm new :) i know jesus died on an upright stake and not a cross but i don't know where to find the info on where or when the idea of the crucifixation orginated from.

can someone help me on this please?

thanks in advanced :)

Midget-Sasquatch

He invented the name and the policy of making the members of this oddball religion stand out from the crowd with as many contrarian positions as possible.

That's the best explanation for stubbornly going against all the evidence to the contrary. The need to separate the group from the one powerful symbol that would link them to the other christian faiths.

I'd even venture that it would give too much of a focus on Jesus for the Borg's tastes. They want to keep their followers obssessed with the warrior god and his nasty judgement to come, all to keep up their operations.

21

Darwins theory of evolution

by gisburnuk in

hi everyone, i have been attending bible study with one of my jeohavah's witnesses for 4 weeks, and only recently i had attended a sunday meeting with brother michael at our local kindom hall.

i have enjoyed both the time with the bible study (michael teaching quality) and the sunday meeting and have had serious thoughts to altering my life in accordance with jehovah.

but i am rather sceptical about evolution, and whenever i try to read genesis in the bible, darwins theory seems to get in the way.

Midget-Sasquatch

You're actually right hooberus about the a priori stance of methodological naturalism. Any a priori stance runs the risk of overlooking a possible explanation. All of our current theories and views on physics and biology are only imperfect views because we're not at the point of absolute comprehension of any one thing or phenomenon. Many would argue we never can attain such a point. So I could see the point of some that would argue why overlook evidence of a creation?

I guess I would have to say that taking such a stance now is not illogical because the other view was given a fair chance for some time historically speaking. Newton and many other scientists believed in a Creator. They were still practicing the scientific method and it worked very well to increase understanding in the sciences. Many phenomena could be explained without resorting to supernatural causes but God wasn't eliminated from the picture at the very outset. The closer we approach to our day the more could be explained simply by natural causes without the need for divine intervention. So the stance of methodological naturalism has not led us astray and has instead borne out to be a very reliable view to take. We've been gaining vast amounts of knowledge in all fields of research. Why invoke an untestable explanation that yields us practically nothing when the other approach has yielded so much more?

As for the overall picture of the evidence and how its interpreted, I'll just say its the interpretation where we'll disagree. Not because I'm an atheist, (I don't know what I am anymore) but because the evolutionary interpretation is so very powerful in encompassing a broad range of biological information and observations.

21

Darwins theory of evolution

by gisburnuk in

hi everyone, i have been attending bible study with one of my jeohavah's witnesses for 4 weeks, and only recently i had attended a sunday meeting with brother michael at our local kindom hall.

i have enjoyed both the time with the bible study (michael teaching quality) and the sunday meeting and have had serious thoughts to altering my life in accordance with jehovah.

but i am rather sceptical about evolution, and whenever i try to read genesis in the bible, darwins theory seems to get in the way.

Midget-Sasquatch

In regards to a priori positions, hooberus, you said that the mainstream science journals were run by editors who rejected creation outright from the beginning, ergo the need for creationists to setup their own journals.

Don't you think that their stance is a conclusion that was arrived at by logical and objective consideration of all the evidence at hand? In the link you offered on pseudogenes there was an article by Gibson. Even he had to admit (to be intellectually honest) that all the evidence on the eta globulin sequences made a strong case for shared ancestry. Even if some non-coding sequences have been found to have important regulatory functions, such as binding sites for transcription enhancers or suppressors, this doesn't negate the other evidence.

Those creationist links you offered were interesting because I always like to see/hear how the debating side with the difficult to defend stance will argue it. If you truly have no a priori stance, then you can see how descent with modification is the simplest explanation.

45

crucifixation or upright stake

by cakes in

hi everyone, i'm new :) i know jesus died on an upright stake and not a cross but i don't know where to find the info on where or when the idea of the crucifixation orginated from.

can someone help me on this please?

thanks in advanced :)

Midget-Sasquatch

All the mentioned links were fantastic with great archeological info.

Leolaia's earlier posting was very detailed and she mentioned the writings of some early first and second century christians like Barnabas and Justin Martyr.

If you'd like to read what they wrote about this just scroll down towards the bottom of the following webpage:

www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7831/cross.html

32

What do you think is going to happen in the future...

by Country Girl in

our planet is chanigng so much.

there are wars, there is pollution, there is over pupulation.

what do you think is going to happen in the future?

Midget-Sasquatch

I'll preface by saying I've never been much of a visionary.

But from the way practically all countries are making weapons grade nuclear material, and seeing as how terrorist groups can now come up with the funds to buy it....

I'd say there will be a limited nuclear strike in a major US city within the next decade. This would be one thing I hope will never happen. So get those blasted borders secure!!!

Canada is useless in this respect. Our spy service CSIS reported there were about 350 active terrorist groups within our 'peaceful' country.

55

VICTORY FOR MY CHILDREN OVER THE JW'S!

by Corvin in

victory!

the court appointed attorney will be recommending to the judge the following at the hearing tomorrow morning.

unsupervised visits with mom at the children?s request only, away from her home and away from stepfather.

Midget-Sasquatch

CONGRATULATIONS Corvin!

I was holding off responding until the judge's decision and I must say I was blown away!!!!

You're children have been really empowered. Now let's see if your ex can muster up even a smidgeon of unconditional, unjudgemental love for them. (Or is she too far gone with the Borg?)

And you can still picket?!!! This is a dream of a ruling. I'd gladly put up with twice all the minor injustices I have put up with so long as the universe balanced things out with justice for those who really needed it.( i.e.Your kids )

Now you can focus on healing.

P.S. I read a bumper sticker that said: I still miss my ex, but my aim is improving .

30

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE DEAD WRONG?

by Terry in

jw
friends

what did you do?how did you handle it?

Midget-Sasquatch

I was driving my mother around for her shopping and she said that there was an odd sound coming from the engine. I pulled over into a lot left the car running and we checked under the hood. Everything looked just fine to me...My mother points to what I eventually learned was the tensioner but I looked at the tension on the belt and brushed it off.

Sure enough about a half hour later I lost all power steering and the tensioner with the belt had actually came off the side of the engine. I think I'm going to get her to check over a car for me from now on before I buy one or take any long trips with it.

45

Do You Feel That Stereotyping Nationalities Is Necessarily Wrong?

by minimus in

jw
friends

politically correct, it isn't----but do you think there's any validity to "stereotyping" people or backgrounds??

?

Midget-Sasquatch

Alot of good points. I can't acknowledge them all without insulting someone I leave out.

I agree there likely is some truth behind stereotypes because our pattern seeking trait actually needs to perceive something before it goes about its business of making connections. And like it was mentioned, one can choose to put a positive or negative slant on the 'patterns' they make out.

I think its wrong to automatically stereotype by nationality because you'll always have individuals within a group that go against the grain to varying degrees and that could be unfair. Also it seems nationality has less of a bearing on how people behave than on other factors like social standing and economic means, so we could be very wrong.

Profiling can be turned into a positive though when it focusses mainly on behaviours and not on what country or race you're from. The stereotypical attributes of serial killers to help zero in on suspects for instance.

21

Darwins theory of evolution

by gisburnuk in

hi everyone, i have been attending bible study with one of my jeohavah's witnesses for 4 weeks, and only recently i had attended a sunday meeting with brother michael at our local kindom hall.

i have enjoyed both the time with the bible study (michael teaching quality) and the sunday meeting and have had serious thoughts to altering my life in accordance with jehovah.

but i am rather sceptical about evolution, and whenever i try to read genesis in the bible, darwins theory seems to get in the way.

Midget-Sasquatch

hooberus,

Those were some interesting creationist links you posted. From the little I glanced through, I'd say Gibson was the most unbiased of the bunch. He still tried to argue from his creationist view but at least he conceded the reality on the overall picture on non-coding dna and how that does favour the current 'shared ancestry' model for now. (Hey, I'd love to see good evidence that would rock the current evolutionary paradigm to keep things interesting)

Gisburnuk,

Here's to looking at both sides of the issue and as Panda wrote making up your own mind!!!

8

Christ returned "invisibly" in 1914. ........ What proof?

by hubert in

the watchtower says christ returned in 1914, but "invisibly".

if so, how do they know he returned?

did christ leave them a note?.

Midget-Sasquatch

Well whatever is being offered up to us as such, should meet this exacting criterion from our former Prime Minister Jean Chretien:

What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven.

Wait a minute... this quote...millions of dollars unaccounted for...Is he a GB/Sith paduan?