slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  21

  Probability of Earth and life being how it is

  by ballistic in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there are some things we don't know about existence and whether the earth is a simulation or even a creation.

  but we can do some statistical analysis on it.. the probability of a planet like earth existing in the goldilocks zone and having a moon that perfectly eclipses the sun is extremely low, but it's not impossible.

  the habitable zone (or goldilocks zone) around a star is the region where a planet could potentially support liquid water on its surface.

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  slimboyfat

  Cause and effect arguments for a God simply end with special pleading in the case of God. Not just God himself but the space/dimension it which that God exists. Which came first the space/dimension in which God exists or God?

  To say that God can’t exist because he would need to have a cause or exist in space or time is really no different than saying that “God can’t exist because God can’t exist”. It’s not an argument it’s an assertion.
  

  God is outside time and space by definition. The point of God is that he doesn’t have a location in space or time and is self-caused. As Aquinas pointed out, causes either proceed in an infinite series or else there is an ultimate cause. Reflection (which is what the five ways call for) leads many, including myself, to conclude that an ultimate cause makes intuitive sense. It’s not a deductive or an inductive argument, but it seems like the best explanation.
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  65

  Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

  by SydBarrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

  that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

  but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

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  slimboyfat

  I don’t think vienne said she left JWs. I think she said she’s never been one but has close family links.
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  65

  Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

  by SydBarrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

  that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

  but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

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  slimboyfat

  It’s difficult to know where aqwebot123 is coming from because it’s not clear which parts of his posts are really him and which parts are outsourced. Sometimes he posts a short reply and has a different tone and even a couple of human-like mistakes here and there.

  Why Justin Peters? I looked him up and if I got the right one he’s Trinitarian, a Bible believer, and he is successful despite lifelong health condition. I guess there must be something that sets him apart but I didn’t look long enough to find it.

  I read Let You Name Be Sanctified a long time ago and I had forgotten that’s where the Elijah/Elisha transition was elaborated. I think the book was good on the divine name and its importance.

  There is no argument that Franz had a ton of whacky ideas and if the board of directors/governing body had more sense they would have reined it in sooner and more effectively than they did. The literature under Rutherford was wacky too but less interesting. I’d rather read a book by Franz than Rutherford.
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  21

  Probability of Earth and life being how it is

  by ballistic in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there are some things we don't know about existence and whether the earth is a simulation or even a creation.

  but we can do some statistical analysis on it.. the probability of a planet like earth existing in the goldilocks zone and having a moon that perfectly eclipses the sun is extremely low, but it's not impossible.

  the habitable zone (or goldilocks zone) around a star is the region where a planet could potentially support liquid water on its surface.

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  slimboyfat

  The moon thing is interesting but I’m not at this point convinced it tells us anything really. If the moon didn’t happen to eclipse the sun would we miss it? It’s just one of those things that could be or could not be. I don’t think we’d be sitting on an earth without the moon thinking we really ought to have a moon that eclipses the sun but since we don’t there’s clearly no design.

  I can’t get my head round the idea that the laws of nature are perfectly calibrated. (The so-called fine tuning argument) Maybe it makes sense or maybe it doesn’t, I just have no intuition on the matter. I heard an interesting take from a woman philosopher that reality is by necessity the way it is and it is not rational to talk about it possibly being otherwise. That seems as plausible to me as fine tuning, but I don’t know either way.

  For me existence itself points to there being a ground of being or God along the lines of Aquinas’ five ways. Natural selection, if it’s true also indicates to me that reality is set up in such a way to produce rational creatures. (As argued by Alvin Plantinga) Again this points to there being a God. Plus the existence of consciousness, I think, is not properly explained on a physical basis and points to mental and spiritual reality beyond the physical.

  For me these are good reasons for believing in God. The moon thing is interesting though and I’d be interested to know more about it. I wouldn’t trust AI for calculations however, because it still gets stuff wrong all the time and the only way to tell a wrong answer from a right answer is if you already know the answer. So it’s pretty useless.
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  65

  Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

  by SydBarrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

  that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

  but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

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  slimboyfat

  How did a question about Fred Franz, Watchtowers' pretend Greek Scholar and 1st year college drop out, become a discussion about the Catholic Church???

  Because aqwebot123 …
  
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  65

  Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

  by SydBarrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

  that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

  but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

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  slimboyfat

  Second, you say that you "read" Hislop’s book "like a historian." Nonsense. Any serious historian — Catholic, Protestant, or secular — recognizes that Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons is a work of fantasy, not credible historical scholarship.

  You are so disagreeable, you’re constantly looking for disagreement even where there is none. I think it’s clear vienne meant she reads Hyslop critically as a historian should. But you pretend she meant the opposite and reads it uncritically in order to justify yet another AI generated rant designed to demonstrate how wrong everybody is who’s not a Catholic.
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  65

  Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

  by SydBarrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

  that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

  but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

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  2. 
  3. 
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  slimboyfat

  I don’t know, Fred Franz seems more likeable than Rutherford to me. Nobody seemed to be sad to see Rutherford go whereas at least some apparently liked and admired Fred Franz. He may have got cantankerous with age, and defensive and more eccentric as a mechanism for coping with the 1975 failure for which he was largely responsible.

  If I recall correctly, Albert Schroeder was critical of Fred Franz over 1975 but he also delivered a sincere eulogy at his funeral. (Available on YouTube) And wasn’t Rutherford even worse over 1925 than Franz on 1975?
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  65

  Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

  by SydBarrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

  that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

  but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

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  2. 
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  slimboyfat

  The generation change was a big wake up call for me too. But apparently not too big a wake up call considering I got baptised two years later!

  The generation change impacted a lot of people including, or perhaps especially very long term members that were hit hard with the realisation that Armageddon was no longer predicted in their lifetime.

  Having said that, it’s sobering to realise that much more than half the current JWs joined the religion or were baptised after 1995. So for most current JWs the generation change had already been made before they decided to commit to the religion. In other words its impact may be receding as (with some irony) on generation now replaces another.
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  13

  Loyalty to the Governing Body? Timeline to Change

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/governing-body.php .

  here is an example how the wts has "adjusted" scripture.

  the governing body has gone as far as to change the text of micah 6:8 in their 2013 new world translation of the holy scriptures (nwt) in order to be able to demand loyalty.

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  slimboyfat

  I think they changed “loving kindness” to “loyal love” throughout the Hebrew Bible, it was not peculiar to this verse. Personally I liked “loving kindness” better but maybe that is just because of familiarity. It was in the kingdom songs and everything: “his loving kindness will follow me”, and so on. I guess they’ve probably changed the lyrics to the songs too.

  What I never realised as a JW is that the phrase “loving kindness” is very prominent in Buddhism. I don’t know if the GB is aware of that or if it played any part in dropping the phrase. Probably not. It seems just an attempt to replace a particlar idiosyncratic translation of Fred Franz with something that is more understandable and perhaps closer to the original meaning.
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  65

  Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

  by SydBarrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

  that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

  but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Have you been to a Christadelphian meeting Wing Commander?