Posts by cofty

it's been nearly 4 years now since i completely woke up to the watchtower lies.. thinking back on my jw life, during the time i believed, the organization truly did teach us to hate all beliefs that were contrary to the watchtower's.. i hated "false" religion.. so, when i finally woke up and applied critical thinking to my beliefs, i just went on hating religion in general...only this time i added jw's to that list.. a few months of waking up, i decided to base my beliefs on evidence.

i didn't want to have a set of beliefs unless there was some logic or evidence behind it.

so, now i consider myself an atheist.. and i kept on hating religion.. within the last six months or so, something has changed.

cofty

I have sympathy with your position with a few provisos.

I feel no need to back off in challenging factual claims made by religion. If somebody wants to argue that religion might be/has been useful even though it is not objectively true I can live with that. When fundies want to argue that the bible is inspired or that god heals the sick or that creationism is scientifically credible then I am your opponent.

I still have no tolerance of Islam. It is the slow kid in the class. If it ever catches up in terms of personal freedoms then and only then will I give it a break.

Having said all that, I still have concerns that religion was a force for intra-group and national cohesion and its demise is not an unmitigated good.

Many liberal xtians and reformed Jews have found a way to hold on to religion as a social influence while avoiding inter-group animosity and without lying to themselves about what is true. Maybe there is something to be said for that.

47

I Ain't Got No Religion No More ... (But I Like to Get Myself Some Gospel Music)

by Simon in

i love gospel music.

i don't feel like i need to believe in "jebus" to appreciate the music.

i can't go into a gospel church because i might just get religion again - that or i'll be grabbing the mic on be on the stage waving my hands and praising the lord.. i particularly like dylan's gospel period.

cofty

Van Morrison - Have I told You Lately That I Love You?

Sounds like an ordinary love song but it's actually a gospel song.

...

20

Are you Enjoying the World Cup?

by snugglebunny in

great to see such an eager young team.

harry kane is incredible.

oops..you'll have to click on the play on youtube link below.

cofty

who really cares - ah? - stillMS

I care, very much. I have spent a considerable amount of time studying Russian history this past year. I despise Putin. He used the FSB to kill Russian civilians in order to provoke a war with Chechnya and then had Litvinenko murdered for talking about it. He is a moral monster.

I am certain he bribed FIFA to get the rights to the World Cup. I wish it was being played elsewhere but it isn't.

I am capable of enjoying the sport regardless.

20

Are you Enjoying the World Cup?

by snugglebunny in

great to see such an eager young team.

harry kane is incredible.

oops..you'll have to click on the play on youtube link below.

cofty

StillMS - Putin is as legitimate, and as ethical as a Mafia Don. We know that.

I don't care where the games are being played. Chill out.

Can't wait to see replay of Germany v South Korea later. Love watching crying Germans.

20

Are you Enjoying the World Cup?

by snugglebunny in

great to see such an eager young team.

harry kane is incredible.

oops..you'll have to click on the play on youtube link below.

cofty

Loving it.

Bye bye Germany.

15

Race are we biased here is a fun quiz to self evaluate ourselves

by recovering in

http://www.playbuzz.com/sammccarty10/are-you-actually-racially-biased.

try it it is fun.

cofty

Like everybody else here I scored little or no bias but really why does it matter?

It's how we act that matters not any subconscious bias that we might have.

14

The Telephone we take for granted!

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

march 10, 1876: “mr.

watson —come here—i want to see you” the voice of alexander graham bell is transmitted.

he wasn't the first to invent it but the first to own a patent.. in 1910 telephone "subscribers" had 4 digit telephone numbers.soon, larger cities had 5 digit numbers.mark twain was one of the first to have a phone in his home.. the first phones had no dials or buttons.

cofty

Interesting fact. With the old analogue exchanges if the dial of a public telephone was broken - as they often were - you could dial by tapping the switches that the handset rested on at approx 10 pulses per second.

The dial worked by simply interrupting the power at that rate - 6 times for a number 6 for example. That lifted the switch in the exchange that number of levels. In the days before mobile phones I called home from Glasgow a few times like that.