Darnit... it's not out here until this Friday...
jstalin
JoinedPosts by jstalin
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18
Gay Cowboy Movie
by joelbear inbrokeback mountain ang lee.. oh man, i am so excited about this movie.
i've read the short story by annie proulx.
it is excellent.. and they aren't dying of aids or dressed up in drag, that is so mmi.
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jstalin
Pg 75:
As expert testimony revealed, the qualification on what is meant by
“irreducible complexity” renders it meaningless as a criticism of evolution. (3:40
(Miller)). In fact, the theory of evolution proffers exaptation as a well-recognized,
well-documented explanation for how systems with multiple parts could have
evolved through natural means. Exaptation means that some precursor of the
subject system had a different, selectable function before experiencing the change
or addition that resulted in the subject system with its present function (16:146-48
(Padian)). For instance, Dr. Padian identified the evolution of the mammalian
middle ear bones from what had been jawbones as an example of this process.
(17:6-17 (Padian)). By defining irreducible complexity in the way that he has,
Professor Behe attempts to exclude the phenomenon of exaptation by definitional
fiat, ignoring as he does so abundant evidence which refutes his argument.
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jstalin
There's some good stuff in that opinion. Page 28:
Moreover, in turning to Defendants’ lead
expert, Professor Behe, his testimony at trial indicated that ID is only a scientific,
as opposed to a religious, project for him; however, considerable evidence was
introduced to refute this claim. Consider, to illustrate, that Professor Behe
remarkably and unmistakably claims that the
plausibility of the argument for ID
depends upon the extent to which one believes in the existence of God
. (P-718 at705) (emphasis added). As no evidence in the record indicates that any other
scientific proposition’s validity rests on belief in God, nor is the Court aware of
any such scientific propositions, Professor Behe’s assertion constitutes substantial
evidence that in his view, as is commensurate with other prominent ID leaders, ID
is a religious and not a scientific proposition.
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jstalin
Here's the ruling:
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22
What are your children doing on the internet?
by TD in---stories like this make my trigger finger twitch.
boy's web cam opens portal to a grim worldby kurt eichenwald the new york times .
monday, december 19, 2005. .
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jstalin
I don't have any kids yet, but when I do, there's no doubt that I'll be tightly controlling internet use.
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97
Does the King Kong movie have racist overtones?
by enlightenedcynic inhey everybody,.
was having a discussion with a co-worker about the new kk movie.
he asked if i saw it already.
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jstalin
I thought the depiction of the natives was potentially more racist than the Kong thing...
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9
Will Jesus return as a man with flesh and blood?
by Star Moore inhope you don't mind if i share a couple of points of why i think jesus is returning as human.
(just my thoughts).
2. his quest "to break kings to pieces, to execute judgement among nations, to break to pieces the head one over a populous land" how can a spirit man execute judgement?.
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jstalin
Revelation 1:7 - Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. Matthew 24:30 - (Jesus says) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Sounds like an invisible second coming to me!
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Some fun w/US Watchtower numbers
by jstalin inbelow is a graph of us wt numbers.
yellow is total annual baptisms, purple is average publishers, and cyan is attrition rate (total people who left the organization each year).
these numbers relate to calendar years, not service years.
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jstalin
Incidentally , it isn't conjecture that most are disfellowshipped for immorality - this has several times been stated in the Watchtower. From local experience , 80% are expelled for this reason. The number disfellowshipped for apostasy is negligible in comparison , despite the best efforts of some.
I wasn't aware of any WT statements on disfellowships. However, I doubt that majority of the attrition is due to disfellowships - I would be willing to guess that more either fade or disassociate than are disfellowshipped.
The WT in the US has become a revolving door.
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Some fun w/US Watchtower numbers
by jstalin inbelow is a graph of us wt numbers.
yellow is total annual baptisms, purple is average publishers, and cyan is attrition rate (total people who left the organization each year).
these numbers relate to calendar years, not service years.
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jstalin
(1) Law of Diminishing Returns ; ; ; Inevitably , growth decreases over time , otherwise all the inhabitants of the USA will become witnesses. The same effect is felt by large companies (Wal-Mart , Shell etc) who find it very difficult to grow year on year.
You're correct, but Wal-Mart's problem is market saturation. JWs number less than 1 million in the United States, a nation with a population approaching 300 million. That's about 0.3% of the population. Saturation could hardly be the problem here. The US is an overwhelmingly Christian nation, so one would think that WT ideology would get more traction, but the cult methods have a limited appeal. So, I think your conclusion of diminishing returns could be correct in a sense - we can guess that 1 million Americans are particularly susceptable to cult membership.
(2) Moral Decline ; ; As the vast majority of JWs are disfellowshipped for immorality , inevitably the increasing "permissive society" has made it more common for people to leave for this reason.
This is pure conjecture. We don't have any info on disfellowships, disassociations, fadings, so we have no idea how many of those who have left the organization are due to moral decline. In the strictest sense, moral decline can only be a guess, based on anecdotal evidence. I don't think we'll ever know the real numbers relating to the attrition rate.
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Did you ever preach door to door on a Christmas day?
by JH in.
i don't know if it's only our congregation or every congregation was the same, but no door to door was organized on christmas day.
that was the only day of the year that the jw's in our area wouldn't go pest people.. wonder why?
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