Posts by cofty

48

Healing & Rebuilding Your Life - Feedback Wanted

by jp1692 in

i have been invited to speak at an international cultic studies association workshop this fall.

i could use your help in focusing on my presentation subject.. these workshops are for former members of any cult or other high-control, authoritarian group, not just jehovah's witnesses.

last year, i spoke at one of their larger conferences in europe.

cofty

I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes. All the best.

18

Personalized Borg Number-plates!!!!

by Disassociated Lady 2 in

last week i was travelling in the u.k. when a car overtook me.

i noticed its numberplate which read 'jw 04 org'!!.

i couldnt believe it, i wonder how much the borg are charging for these?

cofty

The Cult won't make any money from this. Personal plates in the UK are sold by the DVLA.

11

Anti-witnessing mistake by me !

by Phizzy in

a couple of times while i was anti-witnessing i have made a fundamental mistake, which was to try to show the believer that it was neither intellectually nor scientifically necessary for there to be a creator.

the discussion got to this point because i said i was an atheist.. this latest time was talking to a street preacher who was not a j.w, but he did the same thing they do, i.e not really listen to the points i made, tried to rubbish science etc.. i have decided when, (if), this happens again i shall say something along the lines of " whoa there !

you have done a huge leap from talking about your bible god to the matter of a creator, if i concede there was a creator, how can you prove it was your god ?".

cofty

Good point. They are better dealt with as two independent questions.

I find it amusing when theists like Wm Lane Craig — and some of his followers here — try to argue for god from theoretical physics. Even if it could be shown that the universe requires a designer, that still leaves us a million miles away from the 'god and father of Jesus'.

67

Russia Uses Nerve Agent to Assassinate Spy

by cofty in

what started as news of a man and woman being found unconscious on a park bench 12 days ago is escalating into an international incident.. sergei skripal had worked as a double agent for british intelligence mi6 before he was discovered and imprisoned in russia in 2006. he was later flown to england as part of a spy-swap in 2010. on sunday 4th march he was discovered along with his 33 year old daughter yulia close to a shopping centre in salisbury.. since then the story has become increasingly bizarre.

a policeman who was first to attend the scene also became critically ill and remains in hospital.

government scientists at porton down have confirmed that the cause is a russian military-grade nerve agent novichok.

cofty

A coordinated response today from Western governments. The game is up for Putin the Mafia Don...

It's going to get interesting in the USA. The State Dept are on to Putin. Trump refuses to criticise him, for reasons best known to Putin and Trump.

The Netherlands has accused four Russians of plotting to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which had been probing the chemical attack on a Russian ex-spy in the UK

The UK government accused the GRU of being behind four high-profile cyber-attacks, whose targets included firms in Russia and Ukraine; the US Democratic Party; and a small TV network in the UK

The US said its anti-doping agency and the US nuclear energy company Westinghouse were targeted by Russian intelligence

Canada said "with high confidence" that breaches at its centre for ethics in sports and at the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency were carried out by Russian intelligence

Added to this, the Dutch authorities have said a laptop seized from the four suspects in April was found to have been used in Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the Netherlands said, it was used to target the investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 over territory held by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed.

291

Evolution is a Fact #1 - Protein Functional Redundancy

by cofty in

i intend for this to be one of a series of bite-sized ops on the evidence for evolution.. introduction to dna genes are sequences of dna made up of words (codons) each of which are three letters (bases) long.

there are only four letters in the genetic alphabet (acg&t) each word or codon is the recipe for one amino acid.

there are 20 different amino acids in living organisms.

cofty

I just read the Talk Origins article. Yokey's study utterly refutes the creationist case.

291

Evolution is a Fact #1 - Protein Functional Redundancy

by cofty in

i intend for this to be one of a series of bite-sized ops on the evidence for evolution.. introduction to dna genes are sequences of dna made up of words (codons) each of which are three letters (bases) long.

there are only four letters in the genetic alphabet (acg&t) each word or codon is the recipe for one amino acid.

there are 20 different amino acids in living organisms.

cofty

Hooby - I asked you to give me a reference for Yokey. I can't respond to your comments until you do.

I need to see exactly what Yokey said in context. Do you have a copy of the source you are talking about? Your obfuscation is tedious.

All of this is a distraction from the main point of the thread. Only evolution can account for the phylogeny of ubiquitous proteins such as cytochrome c.

291

Evolution is a Fact #1 - Protein Functional Redundancy

by cofty in

i intend for this to be one of a series of bite-sized ops on the evidence for evolution.. introduction to dna genes are sequences of dna made up of words (codons) each of which are three letters (bases) long.

there are only four letters in the genetic alphabet (acg&t) each word or codon is the recipe for one amino acid.

there are 20 different amino acids in living organisms.

cofty

You still have all your work to do to explain this from a creationist perspective...

291

Evolution is a Fact #1 - Protein Functional Redundancy

by cofty in

i intend for this to be one of a series of bite-sized ops on the evidence for evolution.. introduction to dna genes are sequences of dna made up of words (codons) each of which are three letters (bases) long.

there are only four letters in the genetic alphabet (acg&t) each word or codon is the recipe for one amino acid.

there are 20 different amino acids in living organisms.

cofty

The calculations by Yockey were not just for optimum sequences but for all possible functional sequences.

No it wasn't. You can't even understand the creationist arguments AGAINST the science. How on earth are you going to understand the hard stuff?

Please provide a specific reference and quotation with context.

You have ignored every word of my detailed answer. Are you just trolling or are you trying to genuinely understand the science?

Is there a pre-existing evolutionary predicting this?

That isn't even a sentence.

Yeast, insect, a fish, a bird, and a mammal all have approximately the same number of Cytochrome C differences relative to a bacteria.

I have challenged you FIVE times to work out why this is exactly what evolution predicts.

1st clue - Think about the relative timescales involved.
2nd clue - Cladograms

Come on you can do it.

37

WATCHTOWER Is Trying To Put Cameras In All of Their Kingdom Halls

by minimus in

jw
friends

one of my best friends is in the security business.

he told me the other day of how the watch tower has been in contact with his good friend and business associate.

evidently they are inquiring about putting cameras into every kh so that they can do 24 hour monitoring.

cofty

Crazyguy don't you think that's the sort of reckless comment that undermines valid criticism of the cult?

291

Evolution is a Fact #1 - Protein Functional Redundancy

by cofty in

i intend for this to be one of a series of bite-sized ops on the evidence for evolution.. introduction to dna genes are sequences of dna made up of words (codons) each of which are three letters (bases) long.

there are only four letters in the genetic alphabet (acg&t) each word or codon is the recipe for one amino acid.

there are 20 different amino acids in living organisms.

cofty

The odds of obtaining even one of these by chance is 2.0 x 10 -44 - Hooby

This is a distraction from the topic but let's get it out the way.

There are perhaps 20,000 different proteins in human cells. The average number of amino acids in these proteins is around 400 or so. That makes Cytochrome C a relatively small molecule at just 104 amino acids. Not one of evolution's biggest achievements.

Your challenge seems to be that evolution could never come up with any protein because 'chance'.

The answer to your question is to be found in chapter one of every basic textbook on evolution. It was the great discovery of Charles Darwin. EVOLUTION is NOT ABOUT CHANCE.

Life doesn't have to wait for its lottery numbers to come up - natural selection is a chance accumulator.

The crucial thing about a protein is its physical shape. Amino acids join together in random ways like oddly shaped magnets combining to make larger shapes with all sorts of bumps and crevices. Something that is approximately the correct shape will give its host an advantage.

The number of sequences that will produce something 'good enough' is orders of magnitude greater than the - astonishingly massive - number of sequences that result in the optimum version.

It arrives at its final form as a result of natural selection that favours any small improvement. After that, any future changes will be selected for if and only if they don't negatively affect the efficiency of its function.

Artificial Intelligence and engineering are using versions of natural selection to optimise design.