Posts by kid-A

70

DELILAH'S STRANGE EXPERIENCE......

by Mary in

ok, i wasn't sure if i should post this, but was convinced by buttlight someone who shall remain nameless.

i was talking to delilah the other day (she hasn't been posting because their computer broke down a few months ago).

she had a bizzarre experience at work a couple of weeks ago that really freaked her out.. the friday before easter, one of the women who works on her floor, was passing flyers out inviting people to a worship service that weekend.

kid-A

Every person has a unique position of the eyeballs within the orbits of the skull. Depending upon the natural non-dilated state of the pupil, some individuals naturally have very little "white" sclera showing, and when the pupils are dilated, it can appear as though the entire "visible" portion of the eye, has turned completely dark, depending upon the colour of the individuals pupillary pigmentation. Examine the following photo:

This individual shows very little "white" sclera and from a distance of about a meter, the entire sclera would likely not even be visible. Now, imagine this individual had dark brown, rather than blue pigmentation....the ENTIRE eyeball would appear black to the casual observer. I seriously doubt "Delilah" took a magnifying glass, asked the woman to lean back and then performed a thorough examination of this womans entire eyeball. Rather, it appears she simply observed some poor woman with a rather freakish looking pupillary problem, possibly combined with an infection of the surrounding sclera.

19

This Ba$tard Brady......

by Stealth453 in

jw
friends

.....should be given a lesson in real life.. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/articlenews/story/ctvnews/20070416/jehovahs_witnesses_070416/20070416?hub=canada.

kid-A

"Let the idiot rant on-----he's actually doing alot in helping expose the WTS as a cult."

Agreed. I'm actually amazed at what an idiot this guy is. The WTS usually picks slicker lawyers than this. He seems oblivious to the bad press the JWs are getting from this fiasco and this will certainly blow up in their faces with continued media exposure.

Having read many of the discussion pages linked to Canadian papers carrying the story, I would say % 99 of the public opinion is complete disgust towards the Borganization AND the dim-witted, brainwashed JW parents willing to make a media circus out of their childrens lives for the sake of a publishing corporation.

39

Answering an evolutionist argument.

by hooberus in

the world is full of complex biological systems (for one example see below):.

here is a brief overview of the biochemistry of vision.

when light first strikes the retina, a photon interacts with a molecule called 11-cis-retinal, which rearranges within picoseconds to trans-retinal.

kid-A

"Ithinkisee and 2050, I am surprised with what you are saying as far as I have always known evolution is based on random mutations which are based on sheer chance"

> Why is it an inevitable fact that the biggest opponents of evolution are those that understand it the least? Evolution has nothing to do with "sheer chance" ! Random selection is only "random" in so far as unpredictable environmental contingencies act upon existing genetic variation, selecting for genotypic traits that render a reproductive advantage on subsequent generations. Obviously if a given gene confers biological advantages on an individual within a particular set of environmental factors, those genotypic traits will be selected for. The genomes of most organisms are remarkably complex with inherent redundancies upon which environmental pressures may "select" certain genetic factors. Second, as other posters have pointed out to you, what you consider "complex" biological organisms are all, ultimately reducible to simple, component molecular elements.

"if some of these mutations happen to be advantageous the species progresses into something more sophisticated and overall the evolution of life to higher forms including man happened by a long (additive) series of such mutations over billions of years."

> Yes, now you're getting it.....

"I can't imagine this being anything other than a random process driven by chance."

> This sort of statement from "creationists" always boggles my mind. Evolutionary science constantly, on a nearly daily basis, makes new, exciting discoveries at the anatomical, anthropological, and molecular levels of analysis all of which are filling in the evolutionary history of this planet and its lifeforms. There are thousands of tested, proven hypotheses backing the tenets of evolution in addition to hundreds of thousands of pieces of tangible, hard evidence for the evolution of not only hominids, but nearly all multicellular lifeforms on this earth.....

Now, what does a "creationist" bring to the table? Lets see......an ancient, poorly translated book of legends and myths written by wandering desert nomads 2000 years ago that modern, scientifically advanced humans are expected to take as a "factual" history of life on this planet. Constante "special pleading" arguments based purely on the emotional need to believe in a "sky-daddy" that somehow, for no apparent reason, decided to wave his magic wand, and create an "Adam and Eve" in a magical "garden", replete with talking snakes. This is in addition to a complete and utter lack of ANY tangible evidence (outside of the literary world) for the existence of ANY god in the universe.....

In summary, my only conclusion is that in the face of incontrovertible, hard evidence for evolution, Greendawn persists in the "belief" that there is a far greater "probability" that some undefinable, omnipotent god creature floating in the sky, who somehow, did not himself require a "designer" or "creator", one day, out of universal boredom, decides to create organic life-forms on some random planet in the cosmos so that he could have an "audience" to worship his supreme ego for all eternity. Yup, makes sense to me!!! LOL......

20

Count-Down 7: Self Awareness and the Soul

by Amazing in

jw
friends

no one has ever been able to explain to me just how we, as products of evolution, can possibly have sentience and self awareness.

(i understand and accept that humans evolved.

how come i am aware that i am jim whitney, a middle aged male, instead of being a young female named sarah smith?

kid-A

In one case, the person is born healthy and placed into a family that is well off and in a nice environment. In another case, one is born with serious physical or mental defects and may not be in a nice environment ... and there are countless combinatioins and possibilities that exist. This view resolves the sentient, self-aware question, but creates a whole new set of more disturbing questions and challenges to my faith.

And it should challenge your faith. How could an ethical human choose to worship a deity willing to play such cruel games of chance with the lives of sentient beings?

I would further add, what evidence do you have that sentience is reponsible for ones sense of self? Many other animals such as great apes and dolphins display rudimentary evidence of "self-awareness" yet are not classified as "sentient". Even cats and dogs display profoundly unique individual personalities in the absence of so-called "sentience". It is likely that sentience and human consciousness is merely an emergent property of a highly evolved cerebral cortex. One has no need to invoke supernatural explanations for neuronally explicable traits in humans.

Finally, if humans do possess some entity called a "soul" that is produced by supernatural forces, how is it possible that such a "soul" could be vulnerable to physical damage? One need only examine case studies of people that have suffered strokes, head trauma, etc etc to see how irreparably altered and "changed" a human personality can become following some "physical" trauma. Often times, the person is no longer even recognizable as the same "persona" to those who once knew him or her. How could the "supernatural" be subject to the limitations of "natural" biological factors?

29

Norway

by InquiryMan in

in norway, the ombudsman of children s welfare intervened and a lot of fuss were made when it was made clear that jws endorsed corporal punishment in their publications even though it was banned by law.

it was even mentioned in the national news.

the coordinator was even interviewed on tv and the day after it was proven from the wt indexes that he had been lying.... i remember it was very embarrassing.

kid-A

There were 4 or 5 regular child beaters in my old hall growing up. One of these dim-witted morons ended up having 7 kids, most of whom were beaten at pretty much every meeting. The oldest son used to have bruises. The BOE "counselled" the father once I think, but of course, never reported him to police. The kid ended up in prison for a few years after growing into a psychopath, understandably so.

Beating children was certainly part of the "Kingdom Hall" culture in the late 70s, and 80s. I dont know how much it has changed as I have not been to a hall in 10 years. However, given the overall economic and educational levels of the vast majority of dubs, combined with a GB sanctioned "Jehovah loves a good beating" philosophy, I would not be surprised if JWs in general had much higher levels of child abuse then other sects. I have never witnessed children being beaten at ANY other religious service, outside a kingdumb hall.

69

Final Thought About Atheism

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

final thought about atheismafter having reviewed the last thread about atheism, i have decided there.

exists a common theme among the postings.

the themes surrounding the .

kid-A

"I know there will be ridicule, however, this is a good start and it disproves "kid-A's" prior claims."

No, you have not disproved my "claims", which in fact, were not "claims", they were the ACTUAL links to the psychology departments in question which unequivocally demonstrated that NEITHER possesses a program or "school" of Parapsychology as you claimed.

The best you have provided is a link to a student "club", which is simply one of likely hundreds of student organizations within Penn. This does not mean the University "sanctions" the activities or pursuits of said "club". Neither Oxford NOR Penn has any official program, research department or official inter-disciplinary program that studies the "paranormal" or "parapsychology". This leaves two possibilities, 1) you received false information about this and decided to post these claims to bolster your argument without checking your sources, or 2) you randomly selected what you thought were two prominent universities and fabricated some stories about their research programs in parapsychology. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume option 1. In any case, I hope you will have enough class to admit you were wrong about Penn and Oxford.

61

Did God ever Exist?

by found-my-way in

reading so many posts on atheism which is the belief that there is no god, and reading comments from creationists made me ponder if there was an alternate reason for our existence.. if god is up there, why does he permit suffering?

if i were god, i wouldn't of let it happen in the first place, these are my children, why would i let them suffer?

maybe i am influenced by my creationist upbringing and beliefs while a jw, because i find it hard to wrap my brain around the idea that everything came from nothing.

kid-A

...(Perry clears the smoke filled invective from the room with a wave and taps the bar for all the atheists to 'simmer down now')

Dont flatter yourself Perry, we're laughing at you, not with you......

Your christian fundie "Fatwas" have about as much real significance as that parrot sh*tting on your shoulder......

55

Why are people so afraid to question the authenticity of the Bible...

by zeroday in

jw
friends

for thousands of years people have taken the bible as the word of god.

what would you do if you found out that it was not.

how would your outlook on the world change.. .

kid-A

"Whether or not the Bible is God's word, the fact of
the matter is that it still carries practical guidance
on everyday living."

> Moot point. As others have pointed out, I would challenge you to provide a single example of some edict, advice or suggestion contained exclusively within the bible, that you could not just as easily find browsing through the self-help section at Barnes & Noble, or even within the pages of the great authors such as Dickens, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky.

"The book of proverbs for instance carries sound advice
and guidance if an individual is willing to apply it
in their lives."

> For example? I doubt there contains any advice within "Proverbs" that any normal individual raised within a civilised culture would not simply pick up with life experience. And moreover, should we follow the other examples of barbarism in the old testament, such as "stoning" disobedient children?

"In addition, governments such as the United States and
Great Britian have inpart used the Bible as a foundation
or cornerstone for making laws."

> Most civilized countries have abandoned capital punishment, which is really the most obvious "biblically" derived "law of the state".....Pretty much everything else, such as the legal ban on abortion, treating women like second class citizens (which is most certainly a common theme in the old testament), etc etc have been abandoned by most industrialized, modern nations.

Even more remarkably, most civilized countries have modified or adopted "Charters of Rights and Freedoms" that explicitely CONTRADICT the ancient laws and moral codes promoted by this ancient book. Many countries now have legalized marriage and/or civil rights for gay people, protection of minorities, laws regarding gender equality, choice for safe, legal abortions, etc etc.

In summary, if you really want to view what a society following ancient morality written thousands of years ago would look like, take a trip to Afghanistan and spend a few weeks in a "Taliban" controlled village for a real taste of that "old time religion"......

24

GOD CREATED THE EARTH FOR, ummm, MAN, ummm, DINOSAURS!!

by Terry in

is there any sensible reply from inerrency addicts concerning the earth being created for man when there is such overwhelming evidence that dinosaurs had the earth to themselves for millions of years?.

my son is 16 years old.

he has a teacher at school who tells him god created the earth already "old" and with buried dinosuar bones to test the faith of believers.. this is the demonstration of a crippled intellect!.

kid-A

"He has a teacher at school who tells him God created the earth already "old" and with buried dinosuar bones TO TEST THE FAITH of believers."

I think I can top that....my JW mother told me Jehoobie created the dinosaurs in order to "cultivate and break up" the soil for the coming of man....

I guess Jehoobie used dinosaur sh*t to fertilize the "garden of eden".......

17

I graduated!

by Dawn in

jw
friends

it's been a while since i've posted - been busy with family, work and school.

missed a lot of you - see a lot of new faces!

just had to get on tonight and let you old timers know that i finally did it - i graduated with my bs in computer science.

kid-A

Well done!