slimboyfat

Joined

• started 536 topics
• posted 17,573 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by slimboyfat

• 
  19

  Accounts report at Circuit Assemblies to go away

  by LevelThePlayingField in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was at the regional convention and asked an elder why is that at the assemblies their is an accounts report but not at the conventions?

  he said, well actually they got a letter and in it said that in a little while they will do away with the accounts report stating how much the assembly costs for the weekend and just go to donation basis like at the conventions.. my first thought was, "they will donate even less now.".

  anybody else hear about such a thing?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. This would be madness.

  In which case, yep, I suppose it is something they might do.
• 
  4

  teaching books from 2012

  by pepperheart in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in a city i was in yesterday in all 3 carts i went to they were giving away teaching books that were printed in 2012. what had they been doing with them for six years ?

  ?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Maybe they’ll have a few leaflets, contracted out to someone else. I think they’ll close their own printing fascilities entirely.
• 
  169

  Universal sovereignty on trial

  by Factfulness in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

  they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

  god failed to prove his right to rule.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  How so?

  Well, when we listen to Darwinian accounts of how humans got to stand up and be intelligent, they tend to focus on the proximal causes, like the need to adapt to this or that particular situation, plus sexual selection and so on. But it doesn’t tend to address the mind boggling number of junctures that even allow us to arrive at these crossroads in the first place, involving the precise laws of the universe, the way natural selection itself works, the very idea of selective pressures. Reality seems to be amazingly designed to result in a brain that can perceive the world around it.

  How do we account for this? Some have proposed the idea that there is an infinite number of universes, and we inhabit the one where we can perceive the universe simply because we can’t exist in any of the other universes where such perception is not possible. This is an interesting idea, and not easy to rule out, but isn’t it unnecessarily complicated. Isn’t the simplest explanation for the universe appearing to be geared toward consciousness the idea that it was constructed in that way on purpose? The multiverse idea at least acknowledges that our consciousness is remarkable and requires some sort of remarkable explanation.

  Simon Conway Morris is a scientist who writes on the inevitability of human type consciousness in our universe.
• 
  169

  Universal sovereignty on trial

  by Factfulness in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

  they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

  god failed to prove his right to rule.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Have you read the book?

  Consciousness may be inevitable given the universe as it exists. The remarkable thing, or the mysterious thing, is that the universe exists in such as way that makes it inevitable in the first place. It’s like marvelling at the shape ginger bread come out of the mould. Someone might say: that’s not remarkable at all, of course ginger bread men come out ginger bread men-shaped, because the mould is that shape. But that’s the question. Why is the mould that shape. Why is the universe such that it produces consciousness?
• 
  169

  Universal sovereignty on trial

  by Factfulness in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

  they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

  god failed to prove his right to rule.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Who knows, in twenty years time you may be embarrassed by reductive Darwinian and materialist arguments. Have you read Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel yet? I am reading it again. What a fantastic book, surely ahead of its time.
• 
  169

  Universal sovereignty on trial

  by Factfulness in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

  they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

  god failed to prove his right to rule.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  I didn’t mean to say that God is not immanent or engaged in the world, just that his role in causing the universe is what forces many to believe in him. It’s the starting point, but not the finishing point, for many trying to work out God.

  I can’t see this world without purpose or design. How can we account for a universe that results in consciousness? Just a random accident? It doesn’t even make sense. Like the author of Hebrews says, it’s like saying a house is no reason to believe in a builder or intended habitation. You may say a house is not a living thing. That’s true. But what about the laws that govern natural selection, the universe and how it began? These things are not living things either and didn’t evolve from more primitive forms. The laws that govern the universe is like the house, in my mind, rather than just the physical material.

  I think no one is in any doubt by now that you think the God of the Bible either doesn’t exist or is wicked. Just as you will be in no doubt that many hold the opposite view, and have their own reasons.
• 
  4

  teaching books from 2012

  by pepperheart in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in a city i was in yesterday in all 3 carts i went to they were giving away teaching books that were printed in 2012. what had they been doing with them for six years ?

  ?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  They’re not printing, just getting rid of old stock, as a result of ongoing collapse.
• 
  169

  Universal sovereignty on trial

  by Factfulness in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

  they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

  god failed to prove his right to rule.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  I think the idea is that, everything we observe in the physical universe seems to have cause and effect. So if we trace this back we either have an infinite chain of causes that never ends, or there is an ultimate cause that got the whole thing started. But the idea of an uncaused material cause that started the universe doesn’t seem to make sense since everything that is material has a cause. So maybe the ultimate cause is not material but something else, like consciousness, since we know that consciousness can affect the material world. And if the whole thing was started by a consciousness, then it sounds like what many people mean by God. Further, looking at the constitution of the universe, its laws and patterns, it seems to be the product of an incredible intellect. One that had the purpose of fostering the arrival of conscious creatures in mind. Additionally, there seem to be indications that we are intended to be, not only aware and conscious, but that we should enjoy what we experience. If suffering in the world is supposed to indicate no God, or a bad God, then what does the existence of pleasure in the world indicate? Viewed from this perspective, the idea of biblical God becomes more credible. Jehovah stands outside of space and time and caused the universe and everything and he intends the best for humanity.
• 
  169

  Universal sovereignty on trial

  by Factfulness in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

  they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

  god failed to prove his right to rule.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  You are welcome to your opinion nic. But if I can observe, your conception of what others are able to think or contemplate, without being categorised as ‘taking the piss’ seems to be very narrow indeed. If you think I stand outside the acceptable spectrum of reasonable conversation, then I probably stand in the company of far more than 50% of humanity whose beliefs on God and the supernatural are more exotic and definite than my own. I didn’t ask you to engage with me, but your insistence that I do so on your terms, or be ruled out of order, is an attempt at controlling what it is allowable to think. I’ve made no such restriction on how you should express yourself in order to be worth engaging with.
• 
  169

  Universal sovereignty on trial

  by Factfulness in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just had a thought of clarity regarding the jw explanation for this doctrine.

  they explain that satan challenged god regarding his right to rule.

  god failed to prove his right to rule.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Jehovah stands out because, as Paul says in Ephesians, all families of the earth owe their name to Jehovah.

  Eph 3:14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.