Posts by DeusMauzzim

The therapy consists of remembering how much time you would spend with JW stuff every week. For me, that was more than I now spend here. Then I consider that this board has a better quality than the asleep(tm), craptower(tm) and the sleepings(tm), and the people are far more interesting So my life is only going uphill, in the positive sense

Deus Mauzzim (of the denying-his-addiction class)

125

?Please explain Evolution to me in simple terms

by Guest with Questions in

and please dont give me links to read.

i dont want a complicated version; just a very simple explanation on the theory of evolution, and if possible, in your own words.

many of us are very ignorant on this subject and it seems that a few here are very knowledgeable so i hope you can help me and others also.. also if you believe in the theory of common descent, could you explain that to me also?

DeusMauzzim

Ok let's go for the 'simplest explanation award' You should understand without the links but they are there for further reading.

Think of evolution as a system with twoparts:

The system itself is the gene pool of a species (this is really just all the inheritable characteristics of a species put together, like blue eyes, black eyes, immunity for this or that etc.) (more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_pool)
Part one is the motor: these are the mutations that occur in the gene pool: these cause different characteristics to appear (like purple eyes, or six fingers for example). Mutations are responsible for the variety in the gene pool
Part two is the regulator: this is natural selection: individuals with harmful or inconvenient characteristics (like very bad sight, or black hair in a region with snow) have a greater chance of being killed by predators. In this way, these harmful characteristics disappear from the gene pool. Individuals with good characteristics (like good sight, or white hair in a region with snow) have a better chance to escape. They live long enough to reproduce, and give their characteristics to their offspring. In this way good characteristics spread in the gene pool, while bad characteristics disappear. Natural selection is just the environment selecting for or against characteristics.

If two groups of the same species become isolated (for example, on two different islands), then you will have two systems, that is two gene pools, each with their own mutations and natural selection. In this way, the groups become so different until eventually they can not reproduce with each other. Then you will have two different species. Repeat this process for 3,5 billion years and you have all the variety of life on earth.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Deus Mauzzim

18

Duality, hierarchy, or permanence: WHAT is the question?

by Narkissos in

jw
friends

while meditating -- in a definitely non-transcendental way -- over the recent "meditation" threads, the following idea came to my mind:.

meditation as often advocated here rightly questions the hierarchical dualities generated by mental activity, such as (or, perhaps, all boiling down to) "good vs. bad" -- hierarchical inasmuch as -- would you have guessed?

-- one is supposed to be better, more valuable than the other; one is definitely to be pursued and the other shunned.

DeusMauzzim

Ok very nice topic! Like you mentioned Hesse will be of use to us here. Some of my preliminary observations:

- The problem you bring up seems to be one of meta-duality: we try to abolish duality in the concept of an enlightened self and by that very action we set up another duality between an enlightened and a fragmented self. Duality indeed has been displaced - to a higher level. What is constructed is a seemingly permanent binary system to abolish the duality inside the system (whether the system works in two or three steps, this is the result)

- What you suggest is to deconstruct the so-called permanence of the system (exactly like Joseph Knecht in Das Glasperlenspiel: The "eternal" glass bead game is set up to abolish all duality of the mind in one perfect language, but this very system creates a duality between spiritual and eternal Castalia that guards the game and the material and historical outside world). This deconstruction results in, exactly, eternal différance (with Derridas word-play): a constant crossing of boundaries.

Now my question: you speak of 'reverting again and again' (fitting, because deconstruction is supposed to reverse dichotomies) - are you not trapped in the same system then? Let's take you by your word and deconstruct 'to reverse' by etymology: < Lat. revertere 'turn back'. Now this movement is the opposite (or reverse :) of différance (constantly going further) - And there we have another dichotomy.

Perhaps it's no coincidence that we talk about the reverse side of a two-sided coin. If you flip/reverse the coin (meta-duality-system) again and again it will still have two sides and two states. It's not that you're creating infinite possibilities.

The answer Hesse seems to give is quite morbid. After 'reversing' his position by 'going back' to the world, Joseph Knecht drowns on his first official day. Only loss of self leads to loss of dichotomies.

At the end of the walk, stern Hegel awaits us again.

Awaiting your synthesis :)

Regards,

Deus Mauzzim

18

Duality, hierarchy, or permanence: WHAT is the question?

by Narkissos in

jw
friends

while meditating -- in a definitely non-transcendental way -- over the recent "meditation" threads, the following idea came to my mind:.

meditation as often advocated here rightly questions the hierarchical dualities generated by mental activity, such as (or, perhaps, all boiling down to) "good vs. bad" -- hierarchical inasmuch as -- would you have guessed?

-- one is supposed to be better, more valuable than the other; one is definitely to be pursued and the other shunned.

DeusMauzzim

I AM meditating on it... let me just finish my Coptic ok?

- Deus Mauzzim

EDIT: First question: Please expand on the structure of three you see in Plato. If you mean ontological, I'm at a loss. If you mean psycho-political (the three parts of the soul and the three corresponding castes of the ideal state), how do you think Plato uses them regarding (meta)duality?

5

Anyone here from...

by DeusMauzzim in

jw
friends

the netherlands?.

regards,.

deus mauzzim.

DeusMauzzim

The Netherlands?

Regards,

Deus Mauzzim

22

Do You Think "God" Cares For You At All?

by minimus in

jw
friends

do you have any relationship with god at all?

do you believe god cares about you?

DeusMauzzim

Do you want the care of a mass murderer?

- Deus Mauzzim

18

"hacking" the wt lib and results

by DeusMauzzim in

i just remembered i found a way to map the citation of bible chapters in the watchtower library (representing 30 years of wt literature).

the results are quite interesting.. higher number means more citations of that chapter in the wt literature of the last 30 years.

as you can see there are a few favorites .

DeusMauzzim

Ef 2 is in the higher range with 1829 citations over the last 30 years

Of course this is still nothing compared to the monstrous 32140 citations of Mat 24

Talk of overkill

- Deus Mauzzim

PS @Nathan: The X axis does not give any information, I just ordered the chapters from left-low to right-high on it. You can find the specific number of citations for each chapter (and the graph) in the excel sheet.

PPS I edited my starting post to give a better link.

18

"hacking" the wt lib and results

by DeusMauzzim in

i just remembered i found a way to map the citation of bible chapters in the watchtower library (representing 30 years of wt literature).

the results are quite interesting.. higher number means more citations of that chapter in the wt literature of the last 30 years.

as you can see there are a few favorites .

DeusMauzzim

Exactly!

- The gospel chapters are there for establishing authority

- Psalm 119 is there to induce loyalty and obedience, as the footnote to Ps 119:176 (at the end of the psalm) in the Study Bible makes all too clear.

- Favorite no.5 is Acts 2 (Han = Acts)

Well, feel free to distribute :)

Deus Mauzzim

18

"hacking" the wt lib and results

by DeusMauzzim in

i just remembered i found a way to map the citation of bible chapters in the watchtower library (representing 30 years of wt literature).

the results are quite interesting.. higher number means more citations of that chapter in the wt literature of the last 30 years.

as you can see there are a few favorites .

DeusMauzzim

I just remembered I found a way to map the citation of bible chapters in the watchtower library (representing 30 years of wt literature). The results are quite interesting.

Higher number means more citations of that chapter in the wt literature of the last 30 years. As you can see there are a few favorites

Regards,

Deus Mauzzim

P.S you can find the excel sheet with the table here: http://www.wikiupload.com/download_page.php?id=180628

EDIT: This link works better: http://files-upload.com/381479/Chapters.xls.html

You just have to wait 30 seconds before you can download.