Posts by serotonin

11

WHOA, MORE evidence for evolution? Whale 'missing link' discovered.

by serotonin_wraith in

jw
friends

examples like this just keep on piling up.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7150627.stm?lsm.

.

serotonin_wraith

Examples like this just keep on piling up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7150627.stm?lsm

10

The Birth Of Jesus

by bite me in

hope everyone is enjoying their time as the holiday season(s) come near.

recently there was a post (a really interesting and well put together post) ; i can't remember who wrote it.

but it was well written, just wanted to let you know that your time in putting that together was awesome.

serotonin_wraith

Not even Christians (well, Anglicans) have to believe the whole story happened to celebrate xmas now...

http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,2051,Three-wise-men-just-legend-archbishop,SMH

110

What if God IS a farce?

by LouBelle in

jw
friends

that would really rock my world as i know it.

after i initially left the jws' i did question the whole "is there a god"" especially when you look around and see all the atrocities - the sick sick things happening in your own back yard.then i put it out of my mind and carried on believing in a god.. right now i choose to believe in a god, whether that god be jesus, jehovah, buddha, allah, shiva, it doesn't matter - i'm happy with the idea that there is a spiritual & powerful someone running things.however lately i've been questioning again - so many posters on here that are atheists really make good arguments & i can't reason my way out of it.. why does god keep so quiet?

why not just let us know - tadaaaa i'm here.

serotonin_wraith

LouBelle,

A lot has been said already, so I'll just respond to your first post.

You say

I'm happy with the idea that there is a spiritual & powerful someone running things

yet you also say

you look around and see all the atrocities - the sick sick things happening in your own back yard

so I'm wondering, if there is a powerful being behind the scenes, how can you take comfort knowing it isn't doing anything?

I see many sick things happening too, but because I don't believe in a god, I don't think there's some powerful being that could help out, but chooses not to. That would be a worse feeling in my opinion.

If things are going to change, it will be humans who have to take responsibility for their actions and start to sort themselves out. Instead of praying to a god that doesn't seem to pay any attention anyway, and may aswell not exist for this particular purpose, if indeed it does in the first place.

If you don't have god, what do you have? Well first, just consider what you have when you think you DO have a god. Do you still suffer from time to time? Do close relatives still get sick and die? Are you still at risk of dying in a horrible accident? Sure. So with or without a god, you still go through hardships, as everyone does.

Would you have got that job you always wanted if it wasn't for a god? Would you have still survived an accident? Would you have still found the love of your life? It's so random it doesn't seem to be connected to any god. Everyone has good things happen to them too.

If it was found that only believers found love, or only believers survived natural disasters, then there may be a case worth making. But everyone has the same chances. It's not reliant on any god, it's down to other factors. Where you just happen to be situated in the case of natural disasters.

What you do have is yourself and other humans to help you. Praying to a god for a lucky break may work some of the time, at about the same frequency as good luck coming your way anyway. But if you give yourself a good talking to, motivate yourself, ask others for their help instead of praying for divine help, how much more likely is it that what you want will happen for you? Try it and see.

75

The Biblical Flood Thoroughly Trashed

by Farkel in

there are many new ones on this board who may not have seen this.

my old friend alan feurerbacher who has done an unbelievable amount of scholarly research on many subjects must have spent about two or three thousand years researching virtually every aspect of the biblical flood story, and am providing the link to this subject (together with links to other excellent work by him).

it's long and detailed and definitely not for those who get bored with more than four sentences of information and sound bites.

serotonin_wraith

LouBelle:

I don't know if I'm ready to be an athiest - I like the idea of a God, albeit a quiet god/allah/buddah/shiva.

I like the idea of being rich beyond my wildest dreams, but I don't go believing I am just because I want it to be true. Anyone who did that may need some help.

31

Is the "My Book of Bible Stories" appropriate reading for Little Ones?

by Princess Daisy Boo in

jw
friends

my little boy, aged 4 1/2 loves his bedtime stories, and also loves "jesus stories" as he calls them... .

now, i have never gotten around to going to a book store and actually buying a childrens bible story book from the shops (yes...i still have a bit of a mental block and some deep seated issues about any religious literature).

my mom gave my kids a copy of the bible story book, as well as listening to the great teacher (the new soft cover book - think it is called that?

serotonin_wraith

His curse caused two female bears to descend upon the children. The little dears couldn't believe what was happening and they began screaming and screaming.

alt

The bears slashed at them with their sharp claws and sank their massive jaws into their skin until there was blood everywhere.

The children's parents came rushing out to see what all the horrible screaming was about. When they saw their children being torn apart by the huge bears they could scarcely believe their eyes. Some of the mothers went into hysterics, while other parents tried to make the bears stop. But they were simply helpless against the will of God. When it was all over, there were 42 children that were ripped apart by the bears God had sent through His prophet.

Source:

59

NON-THEISTIC belief systems REQUIRE LOTS of FAITH (e.g. people from FISH)

by hooberus in

i once saw dawkins refer to his views as a "belief system".

indeed, persons who subscribe to a non-theistic belief system* have been generally forced to hold to the following beliefs:.

that life came from non-life.. that people came from fish (fish are in mans actual ancestry in evolutionary phylogenetic trees).

serotonin_wraith

Well I'm a little confused. You mention the idea of life coming from non life without an intelligence behind it, and then your first link is about evolution. You do realise evolution says nothing about life from non life, right? If you didn't know this, then you've just learned something. If you did, maybe you could work on your writing skills. It looks like you're making a link between the origin of life and evolution.

"Is life from non life really backed by evidence? ...Let's look at a site about evolution."

It doesn't go together.

So, SAINT PAUL science. I'm sure that's an unbiased site! There's loads there. Wanna pick out one thing you think debunks evolution? I'd rather not buy a book and give this fool some money.

The RNA site. Looks interesting. A bit over my head though. He may have some good points, he may not. I have no idea. It talks about the origin of life, and as stated already, that's a mystery. It's something that's still being investigated. So when you say scientists say it was definitely a natural event, as far as I'm aware it's not established fact what happened. I've not seen anything about all the details being available. Looks like he thinks life started out small (DNA/RNA/whatever - he just questions how) so I wonder what happened to get life to this point? Evolution perhaps? The author doesn't say.

Last site, another book. *sigh* Just one thing that debunks evolution please. Bacteria evolving is such a straightforward idea. You have a bunch of bacteria, and some is slightly different (mutation). Along come the antibiotics to kill the bacteria, and they get most of it, apart from a few that are resistant (due to their mutation). What's left to carry on the legacy? Why, it's the bacteria that were slightly different, so off they go growing in numbers, passing on the mutated information so that in the end, most have this mutation. In other words, the entire 'family' of bacteria has changed. Evolved. Ta da.

85

So is it Evolution or Creation

by Punk in

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-5521410965822202656 take a look

serotonin_wraith

To anyone who believes in creationism,

I'm guessing you're American. I'm also guessing you're a Christian. Seems to me most people believing in creationism fall into these categories. The rest of the developed world has come to terms with the facts and knows that saying evolution is false is just like saying the Earth is flat. I hope you emerge from your mini dark age one day and join us.

So why don't you trust scientists? You trust that they can make cures for diseases, that your car will work, that your microwave can cook food safely and that any message you post here will be seen in another country. If they tell you how fast light travels, you take their word for it. If they tell you how far away the sun is, you take their word for it.

But when they say evolution is true, you assume you know better. You assume it's a lie. Why? It has nothing to do with looking at opposing 'evidence' or understanding the process better than they do. It has to do with one thing, and one thing only. A book, written a few thousand years ago, which says that a being called God created animals and humans. It has to do with wanting this book to be true, so much in fact that whatever evidence is shown you, you will refuse to look at it objectively.

Some people prefer their little world of ignorance and superstition. As long as we stop them teaching their lies in schools, I can't see what else can be done for these poor people. Trying to get an ignorant creationist to accept reality is like trying to get blood from a stone (or a Jehovah's Witness - joke courtesy of Pat Condell). There's only one thing I can do regarding people who are this closed minded, and it's the same thing I'd do to someone who still believed the world was flat. Laugh at their stupid ideas.

8

So then what exactly is the "Holy Spirit"? (the JW version)

by VoidEater in

is it kinda like god's rc [radio controlled] racer?.

is it like magnetism or electricity?.

is it like email?.

serotonin_wraith

Isn't it flames on people's heads like in that yellow Bible Stories book?

When it's Jehovah's birthday, he just puts a bunch of those people on his cake. Or that's the way I used to think when I was a kid.

67

Advocating Destruction of Religion Hate Speech?

by writetoknow in

introduction.

in 1942, the supreme court sustained the conviction of a jehovah's witness who addressed a police officer as a "god dammed racketeer" and "a damned facist" (chaplinksy v. new hampshire).

the court's opinion in the case stated that there was a category of face-to-face epithets, or "fighting words," that was wholly outside of the protection of the first amendment: those words "which by their very utterance inflict injury" and which "are no essential part of any exposition of ideas.".

serotonin_wraith

writetoknow's profile says he used to be an elder, so it must be the language thing.

If disrespect is so great why are you upset?

I'm not. You're not disrespecting me if YOU don't understand something.

Now if people don't want their beliefs respected then why all the killings in the name of respect?

I know people want their beliefs respected and will kill for it. So? It doesn't mean the beliefs SHOULD be respected. If they deserved respect they'd have respect. They wouldn't have to threaten people to get it.

So how about treating others as you wish to be treated and perhaps these super complex subjects would just vanish.

I am. If I was being completely irrational and basing my life on nonsense I hope someone would tell me.

Now when you advocate something higher then what has been happeing on this earh since the start of the history of man we will move forward.

Start of history lol. Sure, if you now believe all the other gods worshipped before Yahweh were real!

how a group or person can advocate destruction of religion and it not be the same old hate speech regilion and other groups have uses to destroy nations, perople and groups?

This isn't the same because there is no force involved. If you don't like atheists speaking up, go do some worshipping and ignore us. You won't have your Bible confiscated or your church closed down.

67

Advocating Destruction of Religion Hate Speech?

by writetoknow in

introduction.

in 1942, the supreme court sustained the conviction of a jehovah's witness who addressed a police officer as a "god dammed racketeer" and "a damned facist" (chaplinksy v. new hampshire).

the court's opinion in the case stated that there was a category of face-to-face epithets, or "fighting words," that was wholly outside of the protection of the first amendment: those words "which by their very utterance inflict injury" and which "are no essential part of any exposition of ideas.".

serotonin_wraith

Moreover, I am against labeling ithat is sterotyping and demeaning a group or person without knowing the person. We all want other to respect our beliefs rather they agree or not with them that is part of being a human that brings people up not down.

For the millionth time, disrespecting a person's beliefs is NOT the same as disrespecting the person. Why can't you understand that?

serotonin_wraith

Posts by serotonin_wraith