Posts by Midget-Sasquatch

52

For non theists: Stages of evolution, can we develop wings?

by cyberjesus in

if the evolution of life is defined by adapting to a need and life develops as it is needed.

what if decide to live in trees and jumping from them everytime.

does it mean that we could eventually develop wings?

Midget-Sasquatch

Villabolo,

Yeah, those cattle ranchers would probably also like to vent their frustrations on us cud chewers since the demand for their products would likely drop.

Then again maybe them texans would find it more sporting to have flying targets. Its in their interests to push for wing evolution.

Seriously though, I'd think being less dependent on certain agricultural products, could mean less land devoted to such, which could translate to an ecologically smaller footprint. So it could be an evolutionary move that would be a plus for us and the rest of the biosphere.

Leo,

Should I let myself be beguiled by your posts? Or should I stick to holy writ? Intelligent women using Italian words versus the GB and their literal readings of Genesis. Conundrum.

52

For non theists: Stages of evolution, can we develop wings?

by cyberjesus in

if the evolution of life is defined by adapting to a need and life develops as it is needed.

what if decide to live in trees and jumping from them everytime.

does it mean that we could eventually develop wings?

Midget-Sasquatch

Excluding any extensive genetic engineering, and just considering breeding for the feature, I'd imagine it would still take vastly long periods of time for humans to even just evolve into gliders. Doable, but for true flight, like TD already mentioned, there are substantial changes needed to our anatomy to make it feasible and efficient. It would have to be deliverate and artificial selection as well, since our creativity allows for other ways to meet environmental challenges instead of permanently physically changing ourselves.

Wouldnt it be more of a selective advantage for us as a species to rework the appendix back to something that could house bacteria that would allow us to extract nutrition from wild grasses? That would be a game changer in alot of ways.

68

Watchtower cleans out Kingdom Hall Library's ...

by RR in

last night i got a call from a chap in the uk, who recently left the jw's.

he wanted to compare notes with his us counterparts.. he said that a few years ago, (i think about 2 years ago) the society cleaned out all the literature from every kingdom hall, particularly russell and rutherford books and anything prior to 1950. giving each hall a computer with the watchtower cd rom for them to use for research.

he wanted to know if the same was done in the states.

Midget-Sasquatch

I remember being in my teens and having the enlightening experience of reading the Studies in the Scriptures because it was readily available in the joint KH library. Growing up in a foreign language congregation, that older stuff was completely unknown to me. Had to love those older english speaking dubs who donated all that material to that KH and at that time the elders and publishers loved to see a younger one delving into the books.

But I can corroborate that at least in South Western Ontario, several congregations in the Golden Horseshoe have purged the library of the Studies in the Scriptures and many of Rutherford's Rainbow of books. They only offered up to publishers to take home, if they wanted, duplicate copies of cruddy stuff like bound volumes of the WT post 1950, and AW post 1970. Not the damning material. I really wanted those. The library still kept a copy of the photodrama of creation. Now the elders (at the KH I'm officially shackled to least) view you with suspicion, if you spend alot of time looking through the library. They looked more than once when I'd use the New Jerusalem Bible from their library in the meetings instead of the NWT.

Its a sad/disturbing but very telling change.

7

A "new" tablet double dated that refuted the idea of a co-regency between Darius I and Xerxes

by chasson in

i have found by inadvertance a tablet that confirm that there never had a co-regency between darius i and xerxes in a french's website "achemenet.net".. it is important, because i have never seen before a double-dated tablet between this two kings, and rolf furuli, as gerard gertoux a french jw, has tried (in accordance with the book "insight" of the watchtower) to prove a co-regency between the two king in the final goal to have the 20th years of the king artaxerxes in -455. this date is important for the jw's calculation of the prophecy of daniel 9, concerning the 70 weeks.. if there is no co-regency so the reign of artaxerxes has really start in -465 (and note -475 like the jw's theory) and the interpretation of the 70 weeks of daniel by jw is false.. here is the translation in english of this tablet, that carl olof jonnson has provided to me, after i have contacted him concerning this tablet.

.

Midget-Sasquatch

Chasson: Thanks for this interesting find.

AnnOMaly: You cleared that up wonderfully. Much appreciated

Cadellin: Thanx for asking. I think quite a few of us needed the extra info.

32

Pedophiles should have the death penalty

by Leprechaun in

pedophiles should have the death penalty .

too many, wonderful children are being wasted by these filthy low life sobs, why are these pigs from hell not put on death row in this country i will never know.

shame shame shame!.

Midget-Sasquatch

Chemical Castration after the second offense. One has to give the criminal at least one opportunity to try and see if they can restrain their sick impulses.

Their failure to do so, is too damaging though, so we should opt to quickly castrate them rather than after several repeat offenses. Two innocents are already too much and I could care less about all the other side effects to the criminal.

7

Russell endorsed Biological Evolution

by peacefulpete in

jw
friends

i had previously not read of russell's long time endorsement of a evolutionary interpretation of the fossil record.

he and the bible students sought to find some convoluted way to retain their belief in creation while yet appearing modern and scientific.

in brief the doctrine was that god may have in fact used evolution for all but human creation and once the creation was complete he put the brakes on the process.

Midget-Sasquatch

Even the photodrama of creation had a slide that mentioned how all the OTHER forms of earth life may have come about evolution. But they couldn't drop their belief of a literal direct creation of humans and the whole incident in the Garden of Eden.

If that were myth then they'd have to rethink their beliefs on Original Sin, the Ransom and Atonement. The current WTS Teaching committee may at some point revert back to Russel's weak acceptance of evolution but I doubt they have the creative minds to deal with the implications of incorporating human evolution into their dogma.

29

Mitochondrial Eve for dummies

by bohm in

jw
friends

hey!.

introduction.

here is a quote some of you may recognize:.

Midget-Sasquatch

hooberus

Using the human-chimp divergence and the amount of genetic differences between them isn't the only way to get an estimate for the mit DNA mutation rate. I'm not sure if you know this or are just ignoring data that doesn't completely side with your own view.

You can freely read an early paper that also spoke about Mit Eve. Nature325, 31 - 36 (1 January 1987) .

Another way they calculated an average mutation rate for mitochondrial dna was by looking at the genetic data of people (like the Aborigines of Australia) whose ancestors migrated to an area at reasonably well known points in time. So even if we put the human-chimp divergence point method aside, they can get an estimate for the rate.

Lets assume the rate from this method is faster (even ten times faster). It would still mean humans have been here longer than the 6,000 or 7,000 years believed by creationists who adhere to a literal reading of Genesis.

49

My name was brought up last night in the elders meeting !!!

by elder-schmelder in

i was just told by my dad that my name was brought up last night in the elders meeting.. my dad (is or was) an elder, and he told me that the elders are going to be giving me a call.

they have heard rumors that i am an apostate !!.

he said that the elders received a call from another hall that heard that i was an apostate and 1 local brother also turned me in.. does this mean that they have 2 witness to my sin and that they can df me without a jc?.

Midget-Sasquatch

If having any smidgeon of a relationship with your JW family is important to you, then you've got no other choice but to lie

through your teeth about what you believe or doubt. Yeah, not noble but I found it works.

No point in trying to avoid them. They'll keep trying to talk with you because the accusation has been made and they can't let it drop.

Many congregation BOEs are being urged to clean up house of possible apostates.

And truth is, they secretly love the witch-hunts. They have nothing more meaningful in their enslaved lives

and its play-time for their sanctimonious half-brains. Can you tell I'm bitter?

.....I had a sheperding call just this last Saturday.

70

Does anyone here believe that Jesus never existed?

by Newborn in

jw
friends

if so...why?.

i don't know what i believe so i'm just curious.

/newborn.

Midget-Sasquatch

There are a small number of details included in the gospels, that I find more plausibly explained by there being some real Jesus rather than being entirely mythical. Why have the "superior" Jesus be baptized by the "inferior" John the Baptist? Unless there is some real memory of this Jesus being associated with John and possibly once his follower. Why have two separate stories trying to explain how he was born in Bethlehem but actually came to grow up in the areas around Galilee, unless he actually was from that area? You can also throw in a handful of statements that don't really mesh all that well with the later portrayals of Jesus.

The above material seems like living memories that they had to address rather than material one would incorporate into a developing myth.

For the record: I am inclined to think that most of the details are legends/myth. Alot of the earliest material seems to be apocalyptic in tone, with similarities to Essene ideas though. So I don't find it implausible to think there was a Jesus from Galilee influenced by this stream, and took it upon himself to spread the word. He got a little too zealous in Jerusalem though at the Temple and paid dearly for it.

35

New Understanding of "This Generation"

by snowbird in

am i dreaming this, or is the wt teaching "the generation that will not pass away" to be those who knew some of the anointed of 1914?.

are they crazy?

(not a rhetorical question).. sylvia.

Midget-Sasquatch

As I understand it, "this generation" still simply refers to those who are anointed regardless of when they live in time. So it includes Jesus' apostles and the faithful 1st century christians as well as those of the "anointed" today. Now because of the new younger anointed GB members brought in at the end of 1999, they later had to say that the sealing didn't appear to have finished in 1935. They're once again trying to get people excited by saying The End will come before all the anointed die off. But since the lives of individual anointed can overlap that means that the End is still indeterminate.