Midget-Sasquatch

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Posts by Midget-Sasquatch

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  21

  What the Bleep Do We Know!? Movie

  by Sailor Ripley in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was just introduced to a new flick and thought that you might want to check it out.

  i'll not give any review as i don't want to sway your interpretation.

  i will say that i found it interesting and could be appropriate based on some postings i've read here.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  The movie had some valid bits of neurobiology and quantum physics. But what it claimed we can derive from them, ranged from the "No $hit Sherlock" to "I think you may need some help if you're following talking bunnies down rabbit holes."

  That marshalling our thoughts to think in certain ways and avoiding others eventually leads to a desired state of mind is ancient knowledge. They take interesting phenomena on the quantum level (like an observer collapsing the wave function) but then apply it without basis to speculations on how we can actually control and determine the reality that will arise. Yeah right.
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  17

  I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  by morty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  finally got a new computer and my old password back, and i am sooooo excited to be back here....many thanks to((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( scully)))))))))))))))))).

  so, whats new and exciting???

  have i missed anything???.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Welcome Back Morty! (I'm always late in finding these sorts of threads)
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  12

  You will be able to see Mars on 8/27/06

  by Nowman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i received an email that confirmed the following:.

  this month and next, earth is catching up with mars in an encounter that will culminate in the cloest approach between the the two planets in recorded history.

  the next time mars will come this close is 2287. the encounter will culminate on 8/27/06 when mars comes within 34,649,589 miles of earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Okay, I figure this is the most relevant thread for me to ask this question. What type of telescope do any of you into sky gazing prefer to use? Reflector or refractor? I'm seriously considering restarting the hobby of star gazing after a first bum attempt when I was younger. My parents bought me a refractor that claimed some incredibly high powers of magnification but whose images were cruddy. I think it was a 60mm.
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  113

  if an atheist does something good...

  by DannyBloem in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

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  if an atheist leads good life with high moral standards, because he choice to do so and thinks for logic it is a good thing, does it not mean much more then when a theist does the same, because his gods tells him to do it?

  what's your thoughs on this?

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Nicely expressed FunkyDerek. Differential reproduction (or "survival of the fittest") very likely helped in establishing our cooperative behaviours etc. But its not the "code" by which we all make choices and decisions.

  I think its important to help people understand the distinctions you made. No one is advocating social darwinism here.
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  113

  if an atheist does something good...

  by DannyBloem in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  .

  if an atheist leads good life with high moral standards, because he choice to do so and thinks for logic it is a good thing, does it not mean much more then when a theist does the same, because his gods tells him to do it?

  what's your thoughs on this?

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  I disagree with Evanescence's take that morality has to be given to us by god. And while I don't completely agree will her following statement -

  As a previous poster joked before "they will do good if it is for survival" that is exactly the atheist worldview, "survival of the fittest"

  I don't think the following counterpoint is fully convincing:

  Nonsense. Survival of the fittest is a maxim relating to Darwinian evolution. It is not in any way a moral imperative.

  I agree with the main point here. But juxtapose that statement with the following:

  That's obviously not true. Good and bad do not depend on mythology. Something is bad if it is detrimental to the lives of sentient beings, and good if beneficial to them.(Those definitions can obviously be examined and explored in more detail.)

  Here's my minor quibble. Evolutionary psychology argues that this very same principle was crucial in the evolution of our morality. So in a sense I can't dispute with Evanescence that "survival" had something to do with "good" behaviour early on (and its presently in our wiring). But that goes for ALL of us.

  I agree with FunkyDerek, that in the here and now, as sentient beings, we can rise above non-sentient selective pressures, and now rationally look at our codes and adapt them to new ethical situations as they arise in our evolving society. Hopefully that may help her to see where some of us relative moralists are coming from.
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  25

  For Higher Critics-Why does NT have a TRINITARIAN slant so foreign to OT

  by jwfacts in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the old testament yhwh was a simple solo god almighty.

  in the new testament the nature of god becomes quite confusing based on some expressions of jesus and the nt writers.

  from a higher critic point of view, why did the nt writers introduce such confusion?.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  (We confuse ourselves if we think the operative cult of monotheism represents ALL the people. That can be a trap set by the redactors of scripture to paint a lovely picture of a chosen people.)

  Like Ezra did? To legitimize and get the Jews to invest in the Establishment of the period?

  I may have been hoodwinked by Nehemiah.
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  25

  For Higher Critics-Why does NT have a TRINITARIAN slant so foreign to OT

  by jwfacts in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the old testament yhwh was a simple solo god almighty.

  in the new testament the nature of god becomes quite confusing based on some expressions of jesus and the nt writers.

  from a higher critic point of view, why did the nt writers introduce such confusion?.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  I can see henotheistic and ditheistic trends continuing within the diaspora (the inclusive theism makes for better integration). I can also see how there was still some form of henotheism among the post-exile community in Judah with many having Moabite wives. I was under the impression that around that time, exclusivism was being reinforced in the community along with the notion that there was only one true God. But is that a bias I'm picking up by how the NWT translates Nehemiah? In several places, it inserts the word "true" to make the phrase "the [true] God" as opposed to "the God".
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  113

  if an atheist does something good...

  by DannyBloem in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  .

  if an atheist leads good life with high moral standards, because he choice to do so and thinks for logic it is a good thing, does it not mean much more then when a theist does the same, because his gods tells him to do it?

  what's your thoughs on this?

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  I would also ask how adultery, theft, and murder "harm" the society? Actually, each of these things, however immoral they are, could actually benefit society in some physical or material way in a certain circumstance. However, whether each instance "harms" society or not, they are morally wrong, and we know this because God says so. The "morality" of these things cannot be based solely on whether or not they "harm" society, because sometimes their only harm is "moral" in nature.

  Theft and murder would destroy the trust and so the cohesion/chances of survival of the group. The impact would be more devastating to the relatively smaller bands and tribes. So from just a utilitarian prospective, its possible to imagine the development and evolution of these particular moral codes.
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  4

  More Cayman News - Jesus/Michael/Jesus - bible based?

  by Will Power in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://www.caymannetnews.com/cgi-script/csarticles/articles/000039/003943.htm .

  letter to the editor .

  the watch towers teachings are convoluted .

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Yep thats exactly what they teach about Jesus. I'll also add that they believe that all of Jesus' memories - Pre-Earth/in Heaven - weren't accessible to him as a human until he was baptised. Then it all supposedly came back to him. Rather curious on how that would work from their purely materialistic outlook on human beings? How do you put all those millenia (if not eternity) of memories into a finite mind?
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  38

  Were your parents a different religion before JDubism?

  by Crumpet in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i know an awful lot here are 3rd and 4th generation - but were there any who's parents become dubs as adults?

  i'd be interested to here what it was that made an adult become a jw when not brought up that way?.

  i'll relate my parents experience shortly...but its something i;ve been thinking about a lot.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Both my parents were Roman Catholic. Although my father was only nominally. In fact alot of his antipathy for the church was instilled into him by my grandfather. Grandpa evidently was heavily swayed from the communist movement in Italy after WW2 (although both he and my dad still believed in god). So my Dad was searching and well primed to swallow the JW rhetoric.

  My mother became a jw decades after my father.