Posts by Jeffro

cuz they feel like they're banging their heads against a wall.. i don't really fall into the category of atheist or believer, but i'll go where the facts lead me.

that generally leads to atheism, and is why atheists end up getting mad and therefore rude at believers: they will lay out facts, raise questions, play devil's advocate, and reason in an evidence-based, structured way.

i've seen it many times before on this forum.

Jeffro

Vidiot:

There was a little Awake! piece that touched on the subject back in the mid-90s, if remember right.

There was an Awake! article about 'cavemen' in 1981 (already quoted above) that briefly dicussed Neanderthals, and Awake! gave Neanderthals a passing mention in a Watching the World segment in 2011.

Nothing in the mid-90s. Maybe you're talking about the subject of evolution more broadly?

85

I'm Returing To Become A Jehovah's Witness Again

by Space Madness in

jw
friends

a little background, i faded in 2007 and have been out ever since.

i started studying at 18 and have no jw realitives.

i'm returing because my life is heading in the wrong direction.

Jeffro

Space Madness:

I left intially because of doctrinal issues. Since I no longer believe in the Bible, those issues no longer matter.

If doctrinal issues don't matter to you, and you want to be part of a group for social reasons and improve your life, you would be better off joining a community group, ideally one that helps others.

If you don't believe in the bible, returning to a high-control religion is not going to make you feel better.

85

I'm Returing To Become A Jehovah's Witness Again

by Space Madness in

jw
friends

a little background, i faded in 2007 and have been out ever since.

i started studying at 18 and have no jw realitives.

i'm returing because my life is heading in the wrong direction.

Jeffro

Space Madness:

Although I no longer believe in the Bible, the atmosphere and positive association will help me become the person I use to be. My life is all negative now and I need something positive to balance it out.

If your life feels 'all negative', it might help to talk to a doctor or counsellor. Assess whether everything really is 'negative', or if you're suffering from depression.

It would be a basic fallacy to assume that 'being a JW' (especially if you realise it's not true) will make you 'happy', and association with JWs is far from the only way to 'balance' your life. There's nothing unique about being a JW that makes people happy, so you should be able to make whatever changes are required without needing that crutch.

Given the peer pressure to conform among JWs, it will almost certainly make you unhappy if you go along with 'preaching' a message you don't believe. JWs tend to focus on all the negative things in 'the world', so associating with them isn't likely to make you feel more positive, especially if you recognise that their only sense of 'hope' is based on lies.

62

Ok, now I know why you atheists get so spittin' mad at some believers.

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

cuz they feel like they're banging their heads against a wall.. i don't really fall into the category of atheist or believer, but i'll go where the facts lead me.

that generally leads to atheism, and is why atheists end up getting mad and therefore rude at believers: they will lay out facts, raise questions, play devil's advocate, and reason in an evidence-based, structured way.

i've seen it many times before on this forum.

Jeffro

jonahstourguide:

I note that in your comment on the question in lf p 28 q 4 you only quote part of the printed answer.

I quoted what was sufficient to make my point about the contrast to the older Awake!

I have not checked the context of the original sources, but whether they were taken out of context is outside the scope of the comparison I provided.

62

Ok, now I know why you atheists get so spittin' mad at some believers.

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

cuz they feel like they're banging their heads against a wall.. i don't really fall into the category of atheist or believer, but i'll go where the facts lead me.

that generally leads to atheism, and is why atheists end up getting mad and therefore rude at believers: they will lay out facts, raise questions, play devil's advocate, and reason in an evidence-based, structured way.

i've seen it many times before on this forum.

Jeffro

Their abysmal Origin of Life brochure (quoted above) is full of terrible 'reasoning'. From just the same chapter as the quote above, they claim (relying on an extremely naive audience with no concept of the periods of time involved) that transitions between species are 'unreliable' because they're 'too close together':

*** lf question 4 p. 23 Has All Life Descended From a Common Ancestor? ***
Let us assume that the estimates of researchers are accurate. In that case, the history of the earth could be represented by a time line that stretches the length of a soccer field (1). At that scale, you would have to walk about seven eighths of the way down the field before you would come to what paleontologists call the Cambrian period (2). During a small segment of that period, the major divisions of animal life show up in the fossil record. How suddenly do they appear? As you walk down the soccer field, all those different creatures pop up in the space of less than one step!

And then, on the next page, they claim that transitions between species are 'unreliable' because they're 'too far apart':

*** lf question 4 p. 24 Has All Life Descended From a Common Ancestor? ***
Specimens placed in the series are often separated by what researchers estimate to be millions of years. Regarding the time spans that separate many of these fossils, zoologist Henry Gee says: “The intervals of time that separate the fossils are so huge that we cannot say anything definite about their possible connection through ancestry and descent.”34

62

Ok, now I know why you atheists get so spittin' mad at some believers.

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

cuz they feel like they're banging their heads against a wall.. i don't really fall into the category of atheist or believer, but i'll go where the facts lead me.

that generally leads to atheism, and is why atheists end up getting mad and therefore rude at believers: they will lay out facts, raise questions, play devil's advocate, and reason in an evidence-based, structured way.

i've seen it many times before on this forum.

Jeffro

The Watch Tower Society doesn't seem very sure what to say about Neanderthals. Neanderthals haven't been mentioned in The Watchtower since 1964!

In other publications, their approach has been to completely ignore the time period of Neanderthals and instead focus on similarities to modern humans.

Even then, they just keep wildly stabbing in the dark.

*** lf Question 4 p. 28 Has All Life Descended From a Common Ancestor? ***
Question: Is brain size a reliable indicator of intelligence?
Answer: No.

*** g81 6/22 pp. 14-15 Were There “Cavemen”? ***
NEANDERTHAL MAN is also one of the better-known parts of the so-called evolutionary chain. When the first skull portion was found one scientist called it the skullcap of an idiot. ... And rather than his being an idiot, it is now admitted that Neanderthal man had a larger brain than most modern men!

32

More failed JW chronology

by Jeffro in

ive just been reviewing my timeline of the divided jewish monarchy and the neo-babylonian period.

i decided to check for correlations of egyptian and assyrian rulers mentioned in the bible that i had not previously considered at all (much less tried to make fit a particular year).

i was happy (though unsurprised) that no adjustments were required.. pharaoh tirhakah (taharqa) (2ki 19:8, 9; isa 37:8, 9) insight (volume 2, page 1109) claims the years assigned to him by historians must be wrong.

Jeffro

The timeline mentioned at the beginning of this thread is now located here.

If you notice any errors, please let me know.

56

This blew me away"The distant between Egypt and the promise land"

by jam in

i was reading a article about a national acclaim charles lummis for.

his poetry.

in 1884, while working at a newspaper in ohio, he was offered.

Jeffro

The story of the Jews leaving Egypt led by Moses is borrowed from earlier Ethiopic (i.e. Cushite Egypt) stories.

Never happened.