Posts by JeffT

a old thread was bumped recently in which posters from 9 years ago raised objections to evolution basesd on personal incredulity regarding sexual reproduction.. i remember an elder in one of my old congregations saying something to the effect that "how could evolution be true, if men evolved before women...blah blah" you get the picture.. i have refreshed my memory of a chapter in nick lane's excellent book "life arising - the ten greatest inventions of evolution" and put together a summary.

it would be great if others would add to it - cantleave, adam, tiktaalik, s&r, bohm et al?.

here is my starter focusing on the problem with non-sexual selection.... if the driving force in evolution is the struggle of selfish genes to pass on copies of themselves to future generations, then sex seems counter-productive.

JeffT

Billy, you forgot to include your phone number.

46

Number of anointed partakers in new yearbook?

by JWOP in

i haven't seen the 2014 yearbook on the jw site yet.

i'm looking to see if the number of partakers has increased again (as it has for many years now).

anyone have a scan of it yet?.

JeffT

My money is on a directive from the GB stating that all persons wanting to call themselves "anointed" will have to receive permission from the GB. They already approve other appointments, why not this one. Although that would raise other complications for them - they would not be able to claim they don't know who's annointed if somebody sues the "anointed".

11

HALF AND HALF or 50/50

by Terry in

jw
friends

there are only a thousand people left on earth.. about ten percent of the survivors (of some unnamed disaster) have professional expertise of some kind.. 80 per cent have some education, but not any practical grasp of how things operate.. 10 per cent are extremists of varying kinds; a sort of lunatic fringe with knee-jerk "solutions" they propose to carry out.. a temporary leader/spokesman acts as a referee to sort things out.. a meeting is conducted with all 1000 present.. after much arguing, a vote is conducted.. 51 % want to carry out one set of plans while 49% want know part of it.. the thin majority start doing things their way and the minority get more and more outraged.. what happens next?.

.

JeffT

A friend of mine gave that speech at a college rally in 1969. I think he became a stock broker.

32

When the death penalty should apply.

by smiddy in

these two guys that ran over a man and then hacked him to death , shown on cctv where their is absolutely no doubt as to their involvement ?

they should be taken out and shot , no trial ,end of story.and they admit it , trying to use an excuse of warfare or whatever .kill the bastards.. smiddy.

JeffT

Wow. If you want to understand the mindset of those that hung Black men from trees for looking a white women, just read this thread. Unless you want to live like barbarians, people get trials. And those that think jail is a joke or vaction should spend a couple of days in one.

90

Why do so many think JW Religion is a Cult? (NO APOSTATES PLEASE)

by Brother Mike in

jw
friends

my question is, why do so many think the watchtower bible tract society is a cult?

.

JeffT

An apostate is one who leaves the JW religion and purposely tries to go out of there way to stop others from learning the truth.

That doesn't apply to almost everybody here. We're all going out of our way to make sure that others learn the truth.

20

Five dollars says you can't guess what this is...

by RayPublisher in

i recently heard a very funny story about this strange (and common) plant and did some research on it.

i already knew a little about it like the common name, etc., but what i found amazed me.. .

.

JeffT

Years ago I worked for the Washington State University College of Pharmacy. Mostly I took care of research animals, but we had a green house for growing a number of "interesting" plants. Jimson weed was one of them (I recognized it the second I saw the picture but got here after it was identified). Billy's right the smell is ... unique.

You do NOT want to experiment with this plant. The active drug is scopolamine and related alkaloids. When I was working for WSU an article came out in one of the scientific journals about teenagers in Arizona using Jimson weed to get high. One kid announced at a pool party that he was going hunting for "red-eyed sharks" and dove into the pool. He never came up. Another wandered out into the desert and was found dead three days later.

3

Do you always try to find something to sue for big money?

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

i have no desire to sue anyone.

i was wondering if any of you try to find something to sue for?

.

JeffT

You can't "find" something to sue for, at least you're not likely to have a very good case. To successfully sue somebody you have to have suffered damages of some sort, and be able to show that another person caused that damage through malice or negligence or some other legally identifiable cause.

13

Death Of Print Update

by metatron in

jw
friends

http://gawker.com/new-york-magazine-begins-to-give-up-on-print-1474820408.

little by little....... print media is dying.

i understand the head of buzzfeed asserted that 'there are no new newspaper subscribers being born', statistically speaking.. metatron.

JeffT

Besty, my apologies. It's what I get for trying to post something while getting ready to get out of the house for an appointment. If I ever get published I'll autograph a book for you.