Posts by gravedancer

98

Why is Hope a good quality?

by Bleep in

looks like someone on this forum hates this word hope.

hope is a great thing to have for all christain.. it is one of the best things a true christain can have.. the bible gives us alot of hope.. lets use it in our everyday lives.

we have bible understanding threw research do we not?

gravedancer

Good post, jgnat.

I totally agree that hope is a GOOD thing. As I wrote even a false hope that nevers fails (by PROVING false) is better than NO hope.

Lack of hope is one of the issues I have to deal with at the current stage in my life. To be honest I preferred having a hope in the Paradise and the Resurrection than the lack of hope I experience. I would rather live believeing totally in that false hope (until such time as I died) than live with the concept that if one of my kids died that it is the END and its all over with NO hope of seeing them again.

This is one of the reasons why I have not tried to convince my parents that the dubs are all wet. They are in their twiglight years....why destroy their hope? That is a worse alternative than being right.

This is just my opinion and I am of course mentally unbalanced, crazy and over-sensitive.

GD

51

About privacy on the forum

by Simon in

jw
friends

kent and his merry followers seem to have made privacy their latest crusade and unfortunately they have decided to act in a completely irresponsible manner imho.. the forum software uses cookies to remember a users login details and can also be useful for identifying duplicate accounts.

it is not used for anything sinister and cannot be used to identify someone - all it gives is an indication that a computer is being used by more than one username and has been invaluable in identifying trouble makers like mario kempes / yo yo mama / sexy teen / help others (asking for money) and many others.

i believe that this is a good thing to do as i do not believe it compromises anyones privacy and does help prevent everyone wasting their time responding to people who are just "yanking our chain".. apart from the accounts that you have seen and know there are many more that you may not be aware of.

gravedancer

Without trying to think I can mindread and know the intent of Kent's post I concur that anyone with half an ounce of savvy can find out about web privacy - just go to Google and do a search on "web privacy"....it is not rocket science or brain surgery. In fact you will then find out far more details than what Kent posted in about 3 minutes....

Sites like Yahoo force you to accept cookies and turn on Javascript if you want to use them. It is quite easy for Simon to do the same. Any web programmer knows how to do that - and Simon is a pretty sharp "cookie"...oops forgive the slip.

While there are some other obvious ways to circumvent detection or other obvious ways to detect duplicate ids, that is Simon's cross to bear. Simon, when you come back in 3 days can you please turn some more water into wine.....

GD

38

Evolution & Beck_Melborne

by Francois in

jw
friends

know that evolution thread?

it's buried now somewhere around page 8 or 9 and still getting posts.

however not as many as one would expect given its initial popularity.

gravedancer

Frank,

Quantum and the other fundies proved evolution true. They evolved from humans into primates. Now they spout their juvenile attempts at quoting scripture.

If there is one thing that irritates me more than JWs its damn Fundies....

SIMON WHERE IS THE IGNORE FEATURE.......Or the terminate and rapture feature? Our thread was hijacked by them :-(

98

Why is Hope a good quality?

by Bleep in

looks like someone on this forum hates this word hope.

hope is a great thing to have for all christain.. it is one of the best things a true christain can have.. the bible gives us alot of hope.. lets use it in our everyday lives.

we have bible understanding threw research do we not?

gravedancer

Hate to splice words here...but I feel I have to ask an obvious (to me anyway) question:

Is hope a QUALITY?
Or is it a mental state?
Is it a reliance on something unprovable?

Before I can agree that it is a good quality I need to understand the question. Too often (IMO) people think HOPE is a QUALITY....

Do I think HOPE is a good "thing"? That all depends....the goodness is relative to me finding out that it is a VAIN HOPE? Some have false or vain hopes and it enables them to get through tough times....and endure till the end of their lives.

Shattered hope on the other hand (false hope that one finds out is false) can be very damaging.

163

Anti-Evolutionists Wanted !!!!

by Francois in

jw
friends

there is an evolution question bubbling up down the threads a little way, and it minded me to try to really get to the nub of the opposition to the technique.. i would like to pose very serious questions, and i hope they attracts serious, considered responses - once and for all.. why is it impossible, in the minds of anti-evolutionists, that god did indeed create us, the earth, the sun, and everything around us including the entire physical universe, and that evolution was his technique; evolution as a divine technique?

how do you know, how are you so certain that's not the case?

how would you explain your opposition to god if he told you personally that, yep, that's the way he did it alright?.

gravedancer

Come on, GD, don't leave us. Your elan is an organic part of our little discussion and we need you here. Think about it at least overnight will you?

Frank,

I am more than happy to stay...if it comes down to a debate over a book which I do not believe has authority then for the best of everyone it is better that I have no part as it is meaningless to me. I have enjoyed the discussion up to now, do not want to be seen as one throwing tantrums but its just honesty....quoting Genesis or other Bible accounts or the Koran or other Holy works leave me cold....

Let's just say I am at fault in that regard - I do not enjoy the flame wars or name calling. If we progress to that (which it looked like we were going to get into) then I will consider ducking out. If we want to look at how evolution fits in with scripture....then thats OK....but one cannot disprove evolution with scripture any more than one can fix ones car by riding next to in on a stationery bicycle.

l8r
GD

163

Anti-Evolutionists Wanted !!!!

by Francois in

jw
friends

there is an evolution question bubbling up down the threads a little way, and it minded me to try to really get to the nub of the opposition to the technique.. i would like to pose very serious questions, and i hope they attracts serious, considered responses - once and for all.. why is it impossible, in the minds of anti-evolutionists, that god did indeed create us, the earth, the sun, and everything around us including the entire physical universe, and that evolution was his technique; evolution as a divine technique?

how do you know, how are you so certain that's not the case?

how would you explain your opposition to god if he told you personally that, yep, that's the way he did it alright?.

gravedancer

We have come down to the usual resort of creationists...quoting scriptures. Therefore, it's time for me to say so long to the thread. When we get into trying to explain some God through something he supposedly inspired through someone....we are so far removed from a point of making sense that its not worth me wasting my time. If we continuie to try and be rational then I am sure we will attract more thinking people to the debate.

If I was just to start quoting from the Koran would you now believe Allah was God and that Allah exists?

As far as the question "what would it take for you to believe God exists"...lets stick with my Allah line of defense...."What would it take for you to believe Allah was God"?

What would it take for you to believe a pink fairy with 3 teeth and hairy armpits exists and created people?

163

Anti-Evolutionists Wanted !!!!

by Francois in

jw
friends

there is an evolution question bubbling up down the threads a little way, and it minded me to try to really get to the nub of the opposition to the technique.. i would like to pose very serious questions, and i hope they attracts serious, considered responses - once and for all.. why is it impossible, in the minds of anti-evolutionists, that god did indeed create us, the earth, the sun, and everything around us including the entire physical universe, and that evolution was his technique; evolution as a divine technique?

how do you know, how are you so certain that's not the case?

how would you explain your opposition to god if he told you personally that, yep, that's the way he did it alright?.

gravedancer

Hanibal

To all skeptics/ athiests, what would need to happen for you to believe in God?

That's a loaded question...because no matter what one would answer your reply would be that we are "looking for the worng thing". So if you were in my shoes what would it take to convinve you to believe in God?

GD

163

Anti-Evolutionists Wanted !!!!

by Francois in

jw
friends

there is an evolution question bubbling up down the threads a little way, and it minded me to try to really get to the nub of the opposition to the technique.. i would like to pose very serious questions, and i hope they attracts serious, considered responses - once and for all.. why is it impossible, in the minds of anti-evolutionists, that god did indeed create us, the earth, the sun, and everything around us including the entire physical universe, and that evolution was his technique; evolution as a divine technique?

how do you know, how are you so certain that's not the case?

how would you explain your opposition to god if he told you personally that, yep, that's the way he did it alright?.

gravedancer

Frank,

The gist of Behe's argument lies in therm "irreducible complexity". Essentially what he tried to do was look at the fact that by means of evolution things evolved from the simplest possible organisms to what we perceive as our living world today. Then he started to point out what he called irreducibly complex systems. In so doing he is trying to show that if an "end result" as we now know it cannot be reduced back to simple organisms then this would argue for a designer/creator.

He does a pretty good job at arguing his point - raises some interesting theories and brings a fresh perspective. However, some have written articles to debunk his arguments.

Here are some links for you to research:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/behe/review.html

http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/mousetrap.html

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/behe.html

http://americanscientist.org/bookshelf/Leads97/Darwin97-09.html

http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/DI/clot/Clotting.html (interesting thoughts from Ken Miller in his book "Finding Darwin's God") Do a search on Kenneth Miller..his work is very interesting. Here is the final chapter from the Miller's book you might enjoy it Frank: http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Brown_Alumni_Magazine/00/11-99/features/darwin.html

163

Anti-Evolutionists Wanted !!!!

by Francois in

jw
friends

there is an evolution question bubbling up down the threads a little way, and it minded me to try to really get to the nub of the opposition to the technique.. i would like to pose very serious questions, and i hope they attracts serious, considered responses - once and for all.. why is it impossible, in the minds of anti-evolutionists, that god did indeed create us, the earth, the sun, and everything around us including the entire physical universe, and that evolution was his technique; evolution as a divine technique?

how do you know, how are you so certain that's not the case?

how would you explain your opposition to god if he told you personally that, yep, that's the way he did it alright?.

gravedancer

Wish Amazing would jump in soon as I know he was a fan of "Darwin's Black Box" from Michael Behe. In the book Behe advocates the possibility of God. I know that there have been counterpoints raised against the work also.

Have you read the book, Frank?

163

Anti-Evolutionists Wanted !!!!

by Francois in

jw
friends

there is an evolution question bubbling up down the threads a little way, and it minded me to try to really get to the nub of the opposition to the technique.. i would like to pose very serious questions, and i hope they attracts serious, considered responses - once and for all.. why is it impossible, in the minds of anti-evolutionists, that god did indeed create us, the earth, the sun, and everything around us including the entire physical universe, and that evolution was his technique; evolution as a divine technique?

how do you know, how are you so certain that's not the case?

how would you explain your opposition to god if he told you personally that, yep, that's the way he did it alright?.

gravedancer

In a recent statement to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John Paul II lent the authority of the Roman Catholic Church to the theory of evolution, saying that ". . . fresh knowledge leads to recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just a hypothesis."

Further remarks seem to indicate that the Pope was espousing "theistic evolution," the theory.

What is interesting is WHY the Catholic church has felt/seen the need to adjust its teaching and adopt Theistic Evolution (which is being argued in favor of in this thread). Did they have a debate such as this one?

Talkorigins has hoisted similar threads such as this one. An example can be found at http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/feedback/mar99.html