Posts by kwintestal

203

Opinion peice on Athiests

by SickofLies in

jw
friends

there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

kwintestal

Well that just proves my point doesn't it?

No actually it doesn't. The report is found at the link I posted. What it shows is that if a religious person gets more money, they give more and it's directly tied to tithing, which goes to the church. It doesn't say that after a religious person starts making more money the group as a whole give more, the results of the study are stll the same, overall there is no difference.

religious charities feed clothe heal and shelter a lot of people!

Not around here, and I live in Canada's Bible Belt. The only ones that you can see what they do are the Salvation Army, which is the only religious group I would personally give to, and have given to as you can SEE that they're giving what they're taking.

Feeding someone while you're preaching to them is a recruitment tactic, and an investment. MLM's do it all the time. I could live forever on timeshare "charity" moving from one resort to another, living for free the whole time. Fact of the matter is the only reason they're doing it is to get my to buy into what they're selling. It's an investment.

Kwin

203

Opinion peice on Athiests

by SickofLies in

jw
friends

there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

kwintestal

http://nvs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/33/2/271

Giving to Secular Causes by the Religious and Nonreligious: An Experimental Test of the Responsiveness of Giving to Subsidies
Catherine C. Eckel
Virginia Tech
Philip J. Grossman
Saint Cloud State University
Although evidence indicates that religious persons are moregenerous on average than nonreligious persons, little work hasbeen done to determine if this greater generosity is a generalpattern or is, rather, specific to church-based institutions.Limited research addresses if, or how, religious and nonreligiousgivers respond to subsidies. This article uses experimentaldata to examine differences in the amount and pattern of givingto secular charities in response to subsidies by self-identifiedreligious and nonreligious participants. The results indicateno significant difference in either the amount or pattern ofgiving or in the response to subsidies by religious and nonreligiousparticipants; however, giving by religious participants is significantlymore responsive to income changes than giving by nonreligiousparticipants.
The study states that the last line (in red) is due to church's practice/encouragement of tithing.

Kwin

203

Opinion peice on Athiests

by SickofLies in

jw
friends

there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

kwintestal

I have already provided two (2) sources. The burden is on you.

I'm sorry, I missed that the first one was done by the University of Syracuse. I thought they were the same one. Let me look at it again.

Kwin

203

Opinion peice on Athiests

by SickofLies in

jw
friends

there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

kwintestal

Even secular charities benefit more from donors who have a religious faith than they do from secular donors. Religious people are 10 percent more likely to give to secular causes than secular people, he said.

A couple things I wanted to point out about this is that I didn't get this from reading the study. I obviously didn't anylize all the data, however I didn't see it stated throughout, and I also didn't see it in the conclusion. The study also didn't mention the margin for error.

The other thing was this study was sponsored by the Fetzer Institute, a religious institute which makes me question the study's possible bias. The way questions are worded and candidates selected can often times create a biased poll. Do you know any other studies?

Kwin

203

Opinion peice on Athiests

by SickofLies in

jw
friends

there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

kwintestal

Thats why there are so many Atheist hospitals and charities!!

I would say this is because of the Atheist's lack of organization. I recently read, although I can't remember for sure where but it may be in Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation a study that was done where they found that most "charitable" deeds and donations done by religious folks are done to directly support the church. Can you dispute that BTS? If that is the case, that would punch quite a hole in your theory.

Kwin

38

Why have things changed?

by nvrgnbk in

jw
friends

according to the old testament, yahweh/jehovah regularly and violently made himself manifest.. according to the new testament, there were miraculous works performed to prove that the messiah was who he said he was and that his followers were authentic.. why are there no such public manifestations of jehovah/yahweh/jesus/holy spirit today?

i say public because some individuals describe very personal experiences detailing some sort of miracle or divine intervention in their lives, most often at a low or desperate point.

i have no interest in discounting such personal experiences.

kwintestal

He's too busy planning the end of the world to be worried about trivial stuff like whether you beleive or not.

Kwin

203

Opinion peice on Athiests

by SickofLies in

jw
friends

there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

kwintestal

I’d like the opportunity to debate Dawkins. I think I can vindicate a rational and scientific argument for religion against his irrational and unscientific prejudice. When I wrote Dawkins to propose such a debate, however, Dawkins said that “upon reflection” he decided against it. He didn’t give a reason, and there is no reason.

I think Dawkins reply to this would be (I've read this before), "That'll look awfully good on your resume, not so good on mine."

Kwin

22

New Facebook Group Just for JWD Members (find each other quickly!)

by Mincan in

jw
friends

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6590530417.

"members of jwd".

you can post events there (apostafests), find other members of jwd (if you want to be found), and get to know each other better.

kwintestal

I'm on it.

Bobbi ... sorry to hear that people are saying that. I hope all works out.

Kwin

20

Disfellowshipped without knowing

by faundy in

is this allowed?

i am being ignored by my neighbours and have been gingerly waved to by an elder.

now i haven't heard anything from anyone but is it possible to be disfellowshipped without my knowing?

kwintestal

YES. I was a couple years ago without them saying a single word to me. AFTER the announcement was read and I heard about it, I appealed the decision and it WAS reversed making the elders look like huge asses when they announced that they mistakenly announced that I was "no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses when the announcement should have read that I WAS one of Jehovah's Witnesses."

Kwin

39

Why Do Atheists Get So Angry?

by serotonin_wraith in

http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2007/10/atheists-and-an.html.

.

kwintestal

All that anger will kill you.

That's OK. God's going to kill us anyway, so why not have a little rage in the meantime.

I'd say that atheists are angry because we have to live in a society that doesn't afford us the same rights to opinion and freedom to not have others beliefs pushed on us, socially and politically. It's happened in the past with other minorities and worked well for them, so we're giving it a shot.

Atheist Power!!!

Kwin