Posts by cofty

48

RUSSIA: (5 April 2017) Jehovah's Witnesses hearing under way

by jwleaks in

jw
friends

the trial has begun.

the crowd on the street (see photo) is now inside and the gallery is packed.. yesterday jehovah's witnesses presented a written legal argument - "objections to the administrative claim of the ministry of justice of the russian federation" - to the supreme court of russia which, in paragraph 254, argued that if the ministry for justice liquidates and bans the activities of jehovah's witnesses then this will force individual members to renounce or abandon their religion for fear of persecution.. download legal argument (russian).

.

cofty

Is that Paul Gillies left of that picture?

205

Mathematically Measuring Evolution.

by towerwatchman in

mathematically measuring evolution.. when judging relationships in terms of morphological characteristics we will always be bound by the subjective.

morphologically one cannot exactly measure the distance between two organisms strictly in mathematical terms.

using the standard method of taxonomy we cannot quantify the difference between a horse and a mouse, or know which is closer mouse to cat, or mouse to fish.

cofty

TWM has left the building.

98

Evolution Deniers - An Endangered Species

by cofty in

evolution explains how everything descended from a common ancestor over millions of years.

creationists only seem to want to talk about what came before that common ancestor.

just for the sake of discussion let's pretend that the following is true.

cofty

Thought police?

No you can think any bullshit you want. Just stop trashing my threads with it. Last time you posted over 30 pages of this crap.

Start your own thread called "Superstitious Things Roman Catholics Still Believe".

98

Evolution Deniers - An Endangered Species

by cofty in

evolution explains how everything descended from a common ancestor over millions of years.

creationists only seem to want to talk about what came before that common ancestor.

just for the sake of discussion let's pretend that the following is true.

cofty

Seriously ....

98

Evolution Deniers - An Endangered Species

by cofty in

evolution explains how everything descended from a common ancestor over millions of years.

creationists only seem to want to talk about what came before that common ancestor.

just for the sake of discussion let's pretend that the following is true.

cofty

Catholicism says evil ideas (concupiscence) are produced by Satan and good ideas (grace) come from directly God's nature

Please start your own thread if you want to promote Roman Catholic superstitions. You have already trashed at least two of my other threads with this nonsense.

63

Evolution is a Fact #27 - Monkeys, Typewriters, Shakespeare, 747s etc.

by cofty in

most creationist arguments can be summarised as "complexity, complexity, complexity - therefore god".

we have all heard the illustrations about the odds of (insert favourite example) evolving, being less than 10,000 monkeys typing macbeth by pure chance.

evolution is not like that.

cofty

The illustration about the monkeys and the typewriters is an attempt by creationists to mislead the uninformed about how evolution works. It implies that all of the many changes needed to produce complex structures would have to happen all at once through chance.

The illustration is wrong for this reason...

Small changes happen through random chance. I gave an example of such an illustration above where a single point mutation resulted in the ability to detect UV light. Now natural selection comes into play. That lucky individual will have a better than average chance of leaving offspring in the local breeding population, and those offspring will enjoy the same advantage. On average the individuals with the mutation will breed more successfully than those without it. OVER MANY GENERATIONS the percentage of the population with the UV mutation will tend towards 100%.

The creationist's illustration of the monkeys and the typewriters is stupid one. It only makes any sense if you think about natural selection occasionally updating the manuscript on every typewriter.

Evolution is gradual. One individual with a genetic advantage does not result in the elimination of the rest of the population. It just increases their chance of having more descendants.

Meanwhile other individuals in the same breeding population will also be experiencing mutations - some of which are advantageous, and which will also have been spreading in the same gene pool. Sexual reproduction makes it possible for useful combinations of genes to end up in the same individual.

56

"There is evidence of a Creator if you just look for it"

by unsure in

(for the record, i’m agnostic who is earnestly seeking an objective, honest and concrete hope for something greater).

“there is evidence of a creator if you just look for it”.

many of us have heard similar sentences from believers regarding proof of creator, proof that their religion is the correct one, proof that their particular sect is the right one, proof that their individual sects interpretation of a certain religious text is the right one, proof that their own personal interpretation of a certain religious text is the right one; the list goes on.. in one of my previous posts, i shared the following thought of mine:.

cofty

In other words, confirmation bias works.

4

Charity Commision Report to be published "Shortly"..

by Slidin Fast in

dear all,.

it has been a while since my last update and i first of all wanted to reassure you that our inquiry into the watch tower bible and tract society and manchester new moston congregation of jehovah’s witnesses (mnmcjw) are still progressing.

as you can imagine we have gathered a large amount of evidence and we are now focused on analysing this information to ensure that we use it in the most effective way.. this is not to say that we will not accept any new evidence from anyone that wishes to provide it and i would once again like to thank all of you who have helped us in the past for the invaluable information you have provided.. secondly i wish to draw your attention to a press statement we will be making later today.

cofty

Apart from publishing a report will the CC have power to force any changes?

63

Evolution is a Fact #27 - Monkeys, Typewriters, Shakespeare, 747s etc.

by cofty in

most creationist arguments can be summarised as "complexity, complexity, complexity - therefore god".

we have all heard the illustrations about the odds of (insert favourite example) evolving, being less than 10,000 monkeys typing macbeth by pure chance.

evolution is not like that.

cofty

No its not. By perfect selection in one generation I was referring to total selection against all the other types in one generation. Which is what you did in your Monkey scenario. - Hooby

Again - total gibberish.

I have not got a clue what you mean by "perfect selection" and neither have you.

total selection against all the other types in one generation

This doesn't happen.

This stuff is page one of Evolution for Dummies. I have explained multiple times why you are wrong and you just keep re-pasting the same nonsense. Evolution is about changes in the frequency of alleles in a gene pool. Those changes happen gradually over many generations.

17

JW's efforts to block sex abuse inquiry squashed

by darkspilver in

fyi.

the guardian, tuesday 4 april 2017. jehovah’s witnesses congregation's efforts to block inquiry squashed.

tribunal rejects claim investigation into charity’s handling of sexual abuse allegations amounts to religious discrimination.

cofty

What other religious group has the right to NOT report pedophiles under UK law?

All of them. There is no mandatory reporting law in the UK.