cofty

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Posts by cofty

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  60

  The problem of sex (or why I'm not an atheist)

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as i write this under the shadow of the walls of saint jorge's castle in lisbon, two very bored jws are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart .... in my journey away from jwism i accepted evolution as a fact.

  i also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist.

  and, while i lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life.

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  cofty

  Cofty how tiring is it to have to go over this stuff like every day - ttdtt

  Very.

  I am starting to think there is a balance to be struck between being helpful and encouraging laziness.
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  60

  The problem of sex (or why I'm not an atheist)

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as i write this under the shadow of the walls of saint jorge's castle in lisbon, two very bored jws are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart .... in my journey away from jwism i accepted evolution as a fact.

  i also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist.

  and, while i lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life.

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  cofty

  I'm yet to read evidence of HOW organisms went from asexual reproduction to sexual

  Eden I don't have time right now - and you should be doing your own research anyway - but sex as we know it today did not happen all at once. (potential for double-entendre is exceptional in this thread).

  I think you are asking about how rather than why. Here is a brief summary.

  For 2 billion years life was prokaryotic - bacteria and archaea. They don't have sex but they do swap genes around very promiscuously.

  Eukaryotic cells - the stuff oak trees, yeast, rabbits and humans are made of - arose as a result of a single event around 2 billion years ago when a bacteria that could produce energy using oxygen found itself prospering inside an archaea that couldn't. As a consequence of this event complexity became possible for reasons I'm not going to describe right now. The bacteria became the ancestor of the mitochondria that we have hundreds of in every cell producing energy through aerobic respiration. Sex began in these early eukaryotic cells.

  The early stages of sexual reproduction did not involve internal fertilisation or external genitalia or porn videos. All of that took a long time to evolve. The road to proper sex - as opposed to lateral gene transfer - has to do with the relationship between mitochondria - who still retain some of their own ancient genome - and their hosts who hold most of the DNA in a nucleus.

  There are three basic elements to sex. Not the ones you are probably thinking about right now.

  1. Cell fusion
  Mitochondria benefited from cell fusion which gave them new hosts in which to multiply. With the loss of the prokaryotic cell wall fusion was simple. Jumping genes that originated in the bacterial symbionts would likely be the driving force to induce cell fusion just as they are in some simple eukaryotes today.

  2. Segregation
  Meiosis begins with the doubling up of chromosomes before dividing into four daughter cells. Mitosis, simple cell division, also begins with doubling up of chromosomes. Only one key change is necessary to convert mitosis into meiosis - a failure to digest all the cohesion proteins or "glue" holding the chromosomes together. This confuses the cell into thinking it is primed for the next round of chromosome segregation before it has completed the first round. Voila - gametes!

  3. Recombination
  All the machinery required to recombination was already present in bacteria. The precise method of recombination is identical in bacteria and eukaryotes. Bacteria take up packets of genes all the time from their environment and incorporate them into their genome. In this way they can maintain small genomes and acquire other genes when needed.

  Once endosymbiosis had occurred sex was not only mechanistically simple it was inevitable.

  There is a lot more I could tell you - like why and how two sexes - but that will hopefully give you a hint that the authors of your article are dullards who have no interest in discovering answers to questions that seem to support their superstitions.

  For more detail see "The Vital Question" by Nick Lane chapter 6 and "Life Ascending" chapter 5 by the same author.

  
  
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  60

  The problem of sex (or why I'm not an atheist)

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as i write this under the shadow of the walls of saint jorge's castle in lisbon, two very bored jws are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart .... in my journey away from jwism i accepted evolution as a fact.

  i also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist.

  and, while i lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life.

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  2. 
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  cofty

  when faced with something that science can't explain... - Eden

  Why would you start there when there are volumes of information about the evolution of sex that you have not even began to explore?

  Your article is full of out-of-date and biased misinformation.
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  57

  How do we know JWs are wrong and how do we convince others JWs are wrong: logic versus persuasion

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  we like to think we are logical and have good reasons for for our beliefs.

  no more so than when it comes to our reasons for rejecting the truth claims of jws.

  we reject their version of history, such as the date of the fall of jerusalem, because it doesn't agree with the historical evidence.

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  cofty

  Not to be rude but my impression of people who believe they have left JWs for purely doctrinal reasons is that they are a bit unreflective, not to say enamoured by an idealised version of themselves and motivations. - SBF

  Yeah right, not to be rude or anything. Arrogance of the highest order.

  Why do you imagine you know me better than I know me?
  
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  60

  The problem of sex (or why I'm not an atheist)

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as i write this under the shadow of the walls of saint jorge's castle in lisbon, two very bored jws are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart .... in my journey away from jwism i accepted evolution as a fact.

  i also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist.

  and, while i lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life.

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  2. 
  3. 
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  cofty

  Many here must remember those days

  Oh yes!

  I think I offered you some constructive criticism of your website.
  
  
• 
  60

  The problem of sex (or why I'm not an atheist)

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as i write this under the shadow of the walls of saint jorge's castle in lisbon, two very bored jws are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart .... in my journey away from jwism i accepted evolution as a fact.

  i also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist.

  and, while i lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  cofty

  they still must surmount the enormous hurdle of explaining the origin of the first fully functional female and the first fully functional male necessary to begin the process

  In more ways than one this is bollocks.

  The article was obviously written by somebody who is obsessed with genitalia.

  Think about mitochondria - that's your only clue for now.
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  31

  Latest Metal Detecting Find

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. physical

  now the harvest is underway up north i can get out for a walk with the metal detector in the evening.

  i am lucky to live on a historic rural estate and i have permission from the landowner to detect.. this is a coin that popped up last night.

  it was only about 2 inches deep and had been tumbling around in the plough soil for the last 750 years.. it is a silver penny of king henry iii.

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  cofty

  Very nice results Mandrake.
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  31

  Latest Metal Detecting Find

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. physical

  now the harvest is underway up north i can get out for a walk with the metal detector in the evening.

  i am lucky to live on a historic rural estate and i have permission from the landowner to detect.. this is a coin that popped up last night.

  it was only about 2 inches deep and had been tumbling around in the plough soil for the last 750 years.. it is a silver penny of king henry iii.

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  cofty

  Giles - Yes there was a lot of forgery throughout the history of coinage but it was especially bad in the late 18th century. There was a major - and very expensive - recoinage in 1799. That was a great thing to find by eyes only. Copper coins don't tend to survive very well. I must have over a hundred from around the early 1600s on and only a very few that are in decent condition. I will post a pic of a lovely George III penny that just happened to survive with a nice dark patina.

  LUHE - I am always amazed to think what life was like at the time things I find were lost. I red quite a bit of history to try to get a feel for life at those times. This coin is probably worth about £30. I have never sold one as I enjoy collecting the history.

  I have one coin that I think might have some proper value though. It is a Charles I threepence minted at York a few years before he was executed. It is so exceptional in the detail and the condition. It was made by a French moneyer called Briot. It was one of the last "hammered" coins before the advent of milling. I will post a pic below. I was new to detecting when I found it and had no idea how stunning it was. I will get it valued sometime.

  BW500 - Thanks for the book suggestion. I love historical novels where the author has done their research. I will look out for that one.

  

  The inscription on the reverse is "CHRISTO AVSPICE REGNO" which means "I reign under the auspices of Christ". That was the attitude that got him beheaded!

  The word about the shield is EBOR which is Latin for York.

  The Obverse inscription stands for "Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland". This truly is a stunning hammered silver coin. Once in a lifetime find. I found it about a hundred yards from where I am typing this.

  Edited to add - Here is one with some damage that sold for $295
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  60

  The problem of sex (or why I'm not an atheist)

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as i write this under the shadow of the walls of saint jorge's castle in lisbon, two very bored jws are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart .... in my journey away from jwism i accepted evolution as a fact.

  i also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist.

  and, while i lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  cofty

  Eden please summarise one or two main lines of evidence against the ability of evolution to invent sex. What have you done so far to find answers?

  Have you researched the possible reasons for "the twofold cost of sex"? Do you know why there are 2 sexes for example?

  If a designer was involved why did it take him 2 billion years to invent sex after he invented life?
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  218

  Debating With Evolution Deniers is Just Like This

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  arguing with those who reject scientific evidence can be like arguing about football; just as angry and passionate, but the goalposts keep moving, and one team doesn't exist.. read more here....

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  cofty

  Male and female is from creation and evolution can not produce different sexes.

  Of course it can. Where on earth did you get that strange idea?

  Do you know what the difference is between male and female biologically? Clue - it has nothing to do with plumbing. External genitalia is not an issue for evolution. The difference is far more fundamental.