cofty

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Posts by cofty

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  16

  The Threat From Ebola by Somebody Who Discovered It

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  this interview in der spiegel is well worth your time.... peter piot was one of the scientists who discovered ebola in 1976. turns out it was the fault of catholic nuns who coldn't be bothered to sterilise the needles they were using to administer vitamins to pregnant women.. he describes the present outbreak as "a perfect storm" which could claim a frightening number of lives in africa and india.

  he doesn't see it as a serious threat to countries with a modern health care system.. "i still remember exactly: one day in september, a pilot from sabena airlines brought us a shiny blue thermos and a letter from a doctor in kinshasa in what was then zaire...".

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  cofty

  I mean, what's the purpose of those virus? - mikeflood

  A virus has no purpose. Arguably it isn't even 'life', it's just a chunk of DNA (actually RNA in the case of ebola) that gets replicated by hijacking the cellular machinery of its host.

  Just to be killing humans for the sake of killing?

  It lives harmlessly in fruit bats. It transfers to humans through bushmeat after which it becomes lethal and passes on through bodily fluids.

  Could be an evolutionary purpose?

  Human DNA has evolved to maximise its chances of being passed to future generations. But like every organism so has virus DNA. Unfortunately the relationship between our genomes is not symbiotic. Virus DNA/RNA does not intend to kill its host but neither does it care. From the perspective of ebola human death is collateral damage.

  The risk of a global epidemic is real.
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  24

  Can someone please explain James 5:14 for me

  by preymanchis in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i cant seem to understand this text actually, can someone please explain it to me.

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  cofty

  
  
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  24

  Can someone please explain James 5:14 for me

  by preymanchis in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i cant seem to understand this text actually, can someone please explain it to me.

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  cofty

  What of blindness from birth? Was Jesus putting mud on the man's eyes a placebo?

  Myth

  What about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead?

  Didn't happen

  Even today there are miraculous healings that take place because of the faith of those being healed.

  Prove it

  Healings can and do take place in many religions.

  Placebo

  God hates amputees.
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  69

  murders at school

  by zeb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  at a school in santa fe in the us.

  many people killed and wounded.

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  cofty

  More girls play football (soccer) in the USA than in Europe. But in any case how do you see a connection between team sports and mass shootings exactly? Football and other team sports socialise children.
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  97

  Material such as the film at the end of this years convention confirms that I was right to take my kids out the religion

  by jambon1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it’s quite affirming to see the horrific material that they’re serving up at the convention this year.

  aside from blatant homophobia, the scenes at the end of the convention that are discussed on another thread stoop to new levels of fear mongering.

  it seems to occur to nobody inside the organisation that this kind of material could trigger fear, deprsssion, anxiety, stress.

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  cofty

  The siege mentality is clearly being ramped up. It is a common feature of groups who are in trouble to fixate on a real or imagined enemy.

  It was what led to the end game at Wako and at Jonestown. This sort of video contributes to an escalator of paranoia that is likely to end badly. For the first time I actually fear for the future of JWs.
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  7

  Colwell’s Rule must die!

  by Wonderment in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  colwell, a trinitarian methodist, was apparently affected by various translators of his time and before, that were translating john 1:1 differently from the norm: "the word was god.

  " you had moffatt’s version saying "the word was divine" (1922); a french bible, "a divine being" (1928); belsham, "a god" (1808); benjamin wilson: "a god" (1864); robert young: "a god" in his commentary of 1985. colwell likely knew that various french and german bibles were being published challenging the traditional rendering "god" of john 1:1 as well.. so he set out to prove them wrong.

  he began by formulating a "rule" regarding predicate nouns and the greek article, whether they occurred after or before the verb.

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  cofty

  Interesting post Wonderment thanks.
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  15

  The strange death of Europe

  by waton in

  1. social
  2. current

  bbc: polices at airports stop "truant" families .

  with millions of irregular migrants drawing illegally on the public purse, many areas even unsafe for the police to enter, police families in their homes threatened by dissenting mobs, .

  police give tickets to families who leave early for the vacation, to get empty seats at better prices.

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  cofty

  Have you read Douglas Murray's excellent book by this title?
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  69

  murders at school

  by zeb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  at a school in santa fe in the us.

  many people killed and wounded.

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  cofty

  I think the marketing of violence targeted toward impressionable youth has desensitized children

  Violent entertainment is a feature of youth culture in every country. Mass shootings are an American phenomenon.
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  69

  murders at school

  by zeb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  at a school in santa fe in the us.

  many people killed and wounded.

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  cofty

  There are bullies and victims of bullying in every school in the world. There are bad parents in every country without exception. There are few if any mass shootings outside the USA.

  Bullying might be a proximate causes in some cases but it is not the ultimate cause.
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  39

  Neanderthals - Meet Your Ancestors

  by Earnest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  tonight (sunday, 13th may) at 20:00 on bbc 2 ... for neanderthal believers, agnostics and deniers.. this first programme in a two-part series investigates what neanderthals looked like and and how they lived in their ice age world.

  it turns out that almost everything we thought we knew about them is wrong.

  they weren't hunched, grunting, knuckle-dragging ape-men at all.

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  cofty

  EQV - Is THAT your challenge to the science of genetics? Really?

  Home testing for ancestry is bullshit - sorry to all the people above in this thread who shared their 'results'.

  It's almost as silly as people reading their horoscopes and then criticising the Hubble telescope because the predictions didn't come true.

  Read some actual science books FFS. The pride you take in your wilful ignorance is embarrassing.