New Worldly Translation

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Posts by New Worldly Translation

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  12

  The Blind Watchmaker - Dawkins

  by mavie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm about halfway through this book.

  i understand dawkin's general thesis here, and i think it is sound.

  however, i still am having a hard time understanding a couple things..

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  New Worldly Translation

  How a species change can happen though gradual adaptation. My understanding of what constitutes a species revolves around the ability to procreate. Is there a point where offspring cannot procreate with previous generations?

  Yes you're correct that species are generally made distinct in terms of procreation. How evolution has created species is by gradual change over long periods of time. In retrospect we think of changes as big jumps but evolution does this gradually so that every generation can procreate with the previous one and the subsequent one at least. Jump 1000 generations and the first animal in the evolutionary history will not be able to mate with the 1000th generation animal even though they have a genetic history but because each animal only differs slightly from the previous generation and the subsequent one it creates an evolutionary chain link.
  I think it was in one of Dawkins books he mentioned how this has happened in our world today. There are sea birds on one side of the atlantic (I think it was atlantic) who have over time journeyed across via various islands leaving behind breeding colonies every time to the other side of the atlantic. Over time they have become slightly disimilar from the other birds, the most disimilar being those on either side of the atlantic who can't mate with each other. Going along the chain of birds on their islands however reveals that each flock on neighbouring islands can mate with each other even though those far apart geopraphically can't.

  Dawkins mentions that mutations happen on the order of one per thousands of generations. This implies that things with shorter life spans would adapt faster and vice versa. Has the Earth been around long enough for humans to adapt and mutate, one slow adaptation at a time?

  Usually when dawkins is talking about generations he's talking about genes and not organisms. When calculating mutation for organisms you have to factor in the size of the genome, so humans have a massive genome susceptable to mutation. Mutation rates can differ from animal to animal due to environmental variables so I'd assume one per thousand is a mean figure to illustrate levels of mutation for all genes.

  I hope I've explained that correctly.

  Any biology grads can pick me up on what might be wrong.
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  7

  Need Help on New Internet Exploler 7...

  by Confucious in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey,.

  ok... ever since downloading the latest internet explorer version 7,..i've had an annoying problem.

  if i go up to the address bar (where you type in the web address).... i can highlight it (with my curser) but if i go down to file and try to copy it - it doesn't copy.

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  New Worldly Translation

  IE7 has a slightly annoying feature where by default you have to press ALT to display the main menu. If you click off it it autohides. I think I'm right in assuming this is the problem you came across.
  If you want to display the file menu permanently right click on the empty space to the right of the browser tabs and choose Main Menu. The problem then is the wasted space to the right of the menu. What I did was drag my Links Bar to the right of the main menu and then locked the toolbars.

  To be honest I'm not too enamoured with IE7 and only use it for this forum. For everything else I use Opera 9.1
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  9

  YouTube: The Hopeful Atheist - On Happiness

  by seattleniceguy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is a shameless plug for my new video, on happiness.

  check it out!.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=medpqmy90h0.

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  New Worldly Translation

  Great video SNG

  I always appreciate your posts. Looking forward to more of your thoughts in technicolor.
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  7

  1914 and 144,000 questions?

  by changtech in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was wondering if anyone knew some good websites that deal with these issues?

  i am going to be talking with a very knowledgeable witness, who is allowing me to show my points about why i disagree with these topics.. so i need some well researched material to talk about!.

  thank you so much :).

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  New Worldly Translation

  This site has lots of info about JW early history and how 1914 was formulated

  http://www.catholic-forum.com/members/popestleo/jwhistory.html

  As regards the 144,000 one of the arguments I use is that JW's regard Revelation as all symbolic. I asked my parents is the wild beast real or symbolic? Are the 4 horseman real or symbolic? Is the star that falls to earth called wormwood real or symbolic? Are the 144,000 drawn from the tribes of Israel or is that symbolic? Are they all virgins not defiled by women or is that symbolic? Any portion of revelation can suffice as a question. I then asked why out of all the rest of the symbolism of revelation should 144,000 be a real number.
  Of course JW's think the mention of 1000 years in revelation is real as well. In those portions of scripture it also very clearly teaches the torment of hell fire so they should accept that teaching as well.
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  36

  What do you think the biggest danger to the end of mankind or earth is?

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i love watching shows on the history channel, discovery channel and so on.

  they had this program on the other day, on the ten biggest threats to mankind and the planet earth.

  surprisingly, none of the items on the list were god destroying mankind or the earth, so that must be further evidence that the witnesses were wrong, go to college now and retire.

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  New Worldly Translation

  I'm glad nobody said man made black holes cos that's junk science. Black holes could hypothetically be created in the Large Hadron Collider due for launch in 07 but they'd be so short lived due to hawking radiation they would pose no threat at all.

  An interesting hypothesis put forward by Richard Muller and others is Nemesis. The majority of stars in the galaxy are twin stars so statistically the sun should have a twin in orbit, probably a red or brown dwarf beyond the oort cloud. It's orbit would bring it close to the inner solar system at regular intervals and it's gravitational pull would drag comets, asteroids etc with it which would bombard the planets and help explain the intervals of severe impacts followed by calm and the regular occurrences of extinction on earth.
  Some satellites due to launch in the next couple of years should prove or disprove the theory.
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  22

  Do you think Saddam really believed in God?

  by Confession in

  1. social
  2. current

  apparently he repeated the phrase, "god is great," before being executed.

  he also wrote this in his final words to the united states.. could a man such as he really believe in god?

  what do you think?.

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  New Worldly Translation

  Sorry, but God's character doesn't relish in killing the innocent, literally destroying people's lives and oppressing people.

  I suggest you re-read the old testament.

  In regards to Saddam I think the term secular has to be taken in context. Saddam didn't run Iraq as a theocracy and the government was non-fundamentalist but although secular compared to the region it was still Islamic in tone. Most commentators described Saddam as a religious muslim though less than orthodox, although he often became more openly devout when it suited him politically.
  I have little doubt that his more openly Islamic views since 2003 were a calculated move. His statements on the way to the gallows were done to ingratiate himself to the religious uprisers and portray himself as a muslim martyr.
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  15

  unexplained biblical wierdness...

  by LtCmd.Lore in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a recent post about moses got me thinking about all the wierd things in the bible that are just stated, but never explained.

  sure different religions make up excuses for these things, but for some reason god and/or the bible writers, didn't find it neccesary to explain it.. here's one of my favorites, it's the one with the talking donkey: .

  22 and the anger of god began to blaze because he was going; and jehovahs angel proceeded to station himself in the road to resist him.

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  New Worldly Translation

  I think the story of Noah takes the biscuit as the most provable nonsense in the bible. The only way apologetics for the story explain it is by having god use his powers to gather the animals, stop the animals eating and pooping, keep alive fresh water and salt water fish, transport the animals across the continents after the water subsides and group those that live in symbiotic relationships, alter the geological structure of the earth etc etc etc
  The question therefore is why would god send a global flood when there were 100 easier ways to accomplish his task.

  The story of god halting the sun and moon in the sky for Joshua to finish his murderous rampage is a ludicrous story too. The moon seems somewhat superfluous to requirements but I suppose because the ancients thought everything revolved around the earth, stopping the heavens necessarily meant the sun and moon stopped together.

  The story of Lot and his daughters getting him horny in his sleep and getting jiggy is funny. Actually the adventures of Lot are pretty risqué, there's incest, sodomites, raping of virgins, murder.

  I'm sure someone will have posted a link to this before but it's a pretty cool site for weird stuff in the bible

  http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com
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  101

  Saddam executed

  by frozen one in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  now what'll happen?.

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  New Worldly Translation

  I don't think Saddam's execution will make much difference to the situation. While lots of Iraqi's will be glad he's dead this demonstration of justice will do nothing to bolster their opinion of the Iraqi government as they have no real power, only what's given to them.
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  20

  What is the deal with Moses? A rant on absurdity in the Bible.

  by Morocco in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the other day i was reading about moses and i came to the very popular part of the golden calf.

  but now, with a little maturity and freedom from the clutches of witness thought i can see some terrible problems with the bible.

  in the beginning of exodus 32 god is talking to moses and sees that the israelites have made a calf out of gold and they are using it as their god.

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  New Worldly Translation

  Plus, it was Satan who instigated David into doing it.

  What you have to understand is that the modern concept of Satan as the devil or a fallen angel is nowhere mentioned in the OT. That view of Satan didn't materialise until the NT.
  In the OT Satan can only use his power to the extent to which Jahveh allows him to or instigates him to.
  The seeming discrepancy between Samuel 24, where god tells David to take the census, and Chronicles 21, where satan tells him to do it can then be understood.
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  20

  What is the deal with Moses? A rant on absurdity in the Bible.

  by Morocco in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the other day i was reading about moses and i came to the very popular part of the golden calf.

  but now, with a little maturity and freedom from the clutches of witness thought i can see some terrible problems with the bible.

  in the beginning of exodus 32 god is talking to moses and sees that the israelites have made a calf out of gold and they are using it as their god.

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  New Worldly Translation

  Someone else also mentioned that the people were wrongly punished because they hadn't been given the tablet with the commandments so they didn't know it was wrong to make a false god. But Ex. 20:3 says: You must not have any other gods against my face. True. The people hadn't received the tablets yet but they had been already told the Ten Commandments. They knew not to do that yet they did.

  You're quite incorrect. If you read chapter 20 and the previous chapter you'll see that it's a seperate commentary of the same incident of Moses receiving the commandments. The Israelites had only been out of Egypt a few months when this incident allegedly occurred and had no idea about the standards of their new god. Chapter 32 is kind of funny actually because it has Moses up and down the mountain like an olympic athlete.

  I'm afraid you're one of those sort of people who read the bible in a pick 'n' mix fashion and don't actually study it in a scholarly way. When I first started to really study the bible I took every page of the bible out of the binding, cut out every seperate commentary or incident, put everything in chronological order and grouped seperate chapters describing the same story together. If you've got too much time on your hands like I had you could try it. It gives a totally new view on the scriptures.

  As regards Aaron and the Levites being spared during the golden calf incident it was to be expected. Through the whole history of the Israelites during the Exodus and some time after it was a priest run civilization. You could say the priestly families had a pretty good racket going as they held the coffers, were the best fed, dressed and protected and all because they had a mystical special relationship with the almighty that the ordinary people couldn't attain to. Only they could assuage god's anger, impart his commandments or execute his wrath and so the people were held in their thrall.