Posts by cofty

131

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?

by jukief in

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".

cofty

To argue that a god of love is responsible for the pain and suffering from natural causes is less clear. If you believe in the OT view that God causes drought as punishment, he brings the rain, he causes the sun to stay in the sky ... he has a direct hand in natural events then the argument is good. Not everyone who believes in a god of love holds to that view. - Earnest

The god of xtian theism - the NT god and father of Jesus - is in complete control of planet earth. He designed it with moving and sticking tectonic plates. He observed pressure build for centuries prior to December 2004, and when it finally let go he remained in complete control of the consequences.

If a man plants landmines around a village and issues no warnings there would be no ambiguity about his responsibility for the death and injury that ensues.

My own belief, for what it is worth, is that there probably as a first cause which we could call god but everything else about god is a matter of faith.

And here we get to the heart of the problem. I have made it very clear I am discussing the god of xtian theism but you have been defending the couldn't-care-less deity of deism.

6

Suggestions for bookreading

by CitizenofEarth in

i just read the "atheists book of bible stories" by fred titanich, and i rather enjoyed it.

alot indeed.

do you have any suggestions for books that touches the same subject?

cofty

Whose Word is it? by Bart Ehrman is an interesting read.

Also 'God's Problem' by the same author.

131

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?

by jukief in

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".

cofty

How did we get here from the OP question: "Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?

Because Earnest thought he would have a go at the challenge of the tsunami thread on there rather than address it directly over there. Then SBF waded in with bullshit he has already raised over there and had answered in full.

131

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?

by jukief in

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".

cofty

As it happens this friend of cofty and his wife practice BDSM

No you don't get to change the illustration.

The man beats his wife mercilessly against her will. He also beats his children black-and-blue.

This is irreconcilable with the belief that he is a loving husband in exactly the same way that murdering a quarter of a million men, women and children in a tsunami, over which he had complete control, is irreconcilable with being a loving god.

Every possible explanation fails because it contradicts other 'truths' about the god of xtian theism.

As I said apologetics is like the small print in a fraudulent contract. Thanks for demonstrating that.

15

TRUE SCRIPTURE EXISTS, A LIVING ONE

by venus in

i find three categories of people according to the way they display their human qualities—(1) more than humans, (2) less than humans and (3) mixed in those qualities in varying degrees.. when i observe how they are all faring with their choices, it tells me what i should do and what i should not do.

hence my scripture is the mankind and letters are living human beings—present and past.

though it is not possible to see beyond an individual’s birth, i can see the history of nations (collective individuals) beyond their present generation into their past, through many generations which shows how their past deeds contributed to their present reality.

cofty

Mother Teresa was an odious hag.

131

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?

by jukief in

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".

cofty

Even if your facts were true in anything more than the very limited sense

This is exactly why I detest theology. It's like the small print in a dishonest contract.

If I considered a friend to be a loving husband but then I discovered that he repeatedly beat his wife I have a dilemma. I can insist that beating your wife is compatible with being a loving husband, even though I am incapable of offering an explanation, or I can accept that there is an impossible contradiction and revise my opinion about my erstwhile friend.

Only one of these options is not obtuse.

131

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?

by jukief in

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".

cofty

Both arguments are subjective

Not so.

Objective fact 1 = xtians believe that their god is love and that love has to do with actions that promote the well being of others.

Objective fact 2 = xtians believe that their god was in complete control of the tsunami that randomly killed a quarter of a million men, women and children.

These two objective facts are irreconcilable.

Therefore the god of xtian thsim does not exist.

Nothing subjective about that.

131

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?

by jukief in

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".

cofty

I may point out that cofty has often used the argument from incredulity because he cannot believe that a loving God would allow the thousands of deaths caused by the Asian tsunami - Earnest

It's quite depressing that somebody would so egregiously misunderstand my point after the effort I have made to explain it succinctly. But anyway thanks for the opportunity to clarify yet again.

Island Man was spot on, thanks for that.

My argument was NOT incredulity at a god randomly murdering hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. That would be facile.

My point is that god's actions contradict other fundamental facts about god.

If I considered a friend to be a loving husband but then I discovered that he repeatedly beat his wife I have a dilemma. I can insist that beating your wife is compatible with being a loving husband, even though I am incapable of offering an explanation, or I can accept that there is an impossible contradiction and revise my opinion about my erstwhile friend.

THIS is my argument about god. According to xtian theism god is love. Jesus defined and demonstrated the meaning of god's love as actions in the interests of others. Natural evil is contradictory with this claim in the same way that beating your wife is contradictory with being a loving husband.

This contradiction does not prove that god does not exist but it does specifically disprove the god of xtian theism.

My argument has nothing at all to do with incredulity unless you mean I am incredulous how so many believers can live with cognitive dissonance.

12

Display on Computer is Upside Down!

by compound complex in

greetings, techies:.

i'm teaching a class right now and my students' desktop computer is showing microsoft word upside down.

we share documents between our two computers but cannot because of this crazy turn of events.. any ideas?.

cofty

It's a good trick if you want to really annoy somebody!

Is it just Word that is rotated?

131

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?

by jukief in

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".

cofty

This is a disingenuous argument by Behe - no surprise there.

Of course it is conceivable that any example of suboptimal design can be explained away - I actually think a decent case can be made for the way the eye is wired which is why I have never used it in my evolution series. But that is irrelevant.

Evolution rests on a mountain of positive evidence from multiple fields of science. It does not depend even slightly on negative evidence or arguments from incredulity.

On the other hand 'Intelligent Design' has absolutely no evidence to offer and rests entirely on arguments from incredulity.