cofty

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Posts by cofty

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  46

  Bumped Into One Of My Best Friends On The Carts This Morning

  by pale.emperor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so this morning i'm walking to my office and there's the jws on their carts outside as usual.

  and old sister, a brother in his 20s and an elder i instantly recognized from my jw days.

  one of my best friends of about 20 years.. i genuinely just wanted to say hi as i havent seen him in 3 years.

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  cofty

  And you know it's the truth

  That phrase 'the Truth' exerts a lot of control on JW minds.

  Well done on how you handled that.
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  59

  Cognitive Dissonace on full display at JWtalk over evolution research

  by Sanchy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a user over on the jwtalk forum recently shared a warning over his research on evolution in preparation for an assigned talk.

  after detailing a couple of the tidbits that he learned of during his research, he went on to say:.

  this i found to be useful especially when talking ot others in the ministry.. but and it is a big but.....

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  cofty

  I didn't say evolution has no direction. On the other hand it is misleading to say that it does without taking great care to define what is meant by that.

  Michael Ruse's article looks at different ways in which is might be said that evolution has 'direction'.There is no intentionality or teleology in evolution.
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  59

  Cognitive Dissonace on full display at JWtalk over evolution research

  by Sanchy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a user over on the jwtalk forum recently shared a warning over his research on evolution in preparation for an assigned talk.

  after detailing a couple of the tidbits that he learned of during his research, he went on to say:.

  this i found to be useful especially when talking ot others in the ministry.. but and it is a big but.....

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  cofty

  'Predicted' should read predicated.

  There are 2 misconceptions that turn up repeatedly.

  1 - Evolution does not have any intention or forward planning. Sometimes this error is referred to as the teleological fallacy. We see it when creationists ask things like, 'how did a creature who couldn't see know to evolve eyes?'

  2 - No individual creature ever adapted to their environment. Evolution happens to a population as favourable genetic changes accumulate through mechanisms such as natural selection.

  If creationists would just read even one basic textbook they would be able to understand why these are errors and then they could stop attacking a straw man. My first ever book on evolution after leaving the cult was a short work called 'Evolution Made Simple'. I quickly realised the depth of my ignorance.
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  59

  Cognitive Dissonace on full display at JWtalk over evolution research

  by Sanchy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a user over on the jwtalk forum recently shared a warning over his research on evolution in preparation for an assigned talk.

  after detailing a couple of the tidbits that he learned of during his research, he went on to say:.

  this i found to be useful especially when talking ot others in the ministry.. but and it is a big but.....

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  cofty

  EccentricM wrote: ... no mid-species transitions were ever found, only full species. As such they made the erronous claim that "certain species were the missing links"(?) despite having no evidence that was even the case, but said it was anyway.

  This could not possibly be more wrong. It is a classic case of creationist ignorance. The fossil record contains an embarrassment of riches of transitional species. Two of the best examples are the transition from lobe-finned fish to tetrapods and the journey of land mammals to whales.

  The transition from reptiles to mammals is also very well documented in the fossil record.

  For hundreds of other examples see Prothero - 'Evolution, What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters'.

  Later with genetics they found.. oh, all life shares DNA, and so they say "aha, that confirms it, it's all true". What they did not consider is that we are all simply made.. from the same materials, hence, DNA (ingrediants) being the same, but no "lineage" like in direct human ancestry has ever been detected or studied. 

  Again the ignorance (and spelling) is painful.

  If we did not have a single fossil the comparison of DNA would prove common ancestry. The evidence has nothing to do with the fact that all living things share a common code, it is the specific similarities, differences and common errors that matter.

  Imagine you are a teacher correcting the homework of a group of students. If they all wrote that the Battle of Hastings happened in 1066 that would only suggest they all properly read the same textbook. There is only one way to get the answer right but there are an infinite number of ways to get it wrong. If 3 pupils all said that the answer was 1977 then you would have very strong evidence of copying. If you found many such identical errors in the same 3 papers you have proof. DNA comparison is a bit like this.

  Cytochrome C comparison is one very good example (which many creationists wilfully misunderstand)

  If you bring up the current state of "statis of evolution" as well as living fossils as an argument, they shall say "not all life forms evolve if they don’t need to, hence why we have “living fossils”, life forms that have not changed at all for billions of years, and we have many of them". This idea I think seems to contradict evolution. Why? Because something does not change if it does not need to, it only adapts to it’s needs to survive.

  Nothing in the history of life EVER adapted. NEVER. NOTHING. NOT EVEN ONCE.

  If a species exists in a stable environment then there is no selective pressure and mutations are not favoured by Natural Selection. This does not contradict evolution, it is precisely what evolution predicts. It does contradict a common creationist misunderstanding of evolution.

  So… why evolve in the first place? Was the first micro-organism in danger? Could it not survive in the sea by staying at it was?

  Again this is predicted on the error that individuals adapt to circumstances by evolving. There is no intention in evolution. Random changes are selected if they give an advantage to the individual that hosts it. If resources are scarce then individuals who are better equipped to survive AND reproduce will leave more copies of their genes in the gene pool. If resources are plentiful selection pressure is less or even non-existent.

  Evolving means to adapt and change in accordance to one’s enviroment,

  No it doesn't. Repeating this trope doesn't make it true. Nothing adapts to its environment.

  but if all life came from a single cell, which includes said enviroment, that means there was nothing to adapt or respond to in the first place, which should incur stasis.

  If anybody can explain this sentence I will be happy to comment.
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  14

  Morphs law

  by _Morpheus in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  regarding morphs laws and its simple expression: its a direct parallel to godwins law on internet debates.

  goodwins law states:.

  as an online discussion grows longer, the greater the probability of a comparison involving hitler approaches.

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  cofty

  This exact same idea was in use for a while as Cofty's Law 6 years ago.

  The difference is I didn't propose it or try to name it after myself.
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  59

  Cognitive Dissonace on full display at JWtalk over evolution research

  by Sanchy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a user over on the jwtalk forum recently shared a warning over his research on evolution in preparation for an assigned talk.

  after detailing a couple of the tidbits that he learned of during his research, he went on to say:.

  this i found to be useful especially when talking ot others in the ministry.. but and it is a big but.....

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  cofty

  If Jesus is real and in an invisible Heaven, he is invisible, thus, making an invisible return acceptable

  An invisible return is an oxymoron.

  Jesus said 'I am with you always until the end of the age'. So what did it mean to return exactly?
  
  
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  30

  I sent off my application to study Palaeobiology (MSc) at Bristol uni and ...

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ... they've accepted me!

  finance is already sorted - they're waiting for me to give them my new student number so that they can start paying me.

  just need to formally accept bristol's offer and sort out accommodation.. accommodation should be ok - i've been told priority is given to new students, plus i'm enrolling onto a program for a real degree as a postgraduate - i won't be studying gender studies or some crap like that.

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  cofty

  Outstanding!

  Good luck and please share the interesting stuff.
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  59

  Cognitive Dissonace on full display at JWtalk over evolution research

  by Sanchy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a user over on the jwtalk forum recently shared a warning over his research on evolution in preparation for an assigned talk.

  after detailing a couple of the tidbits that he learned of during his research, he went on to say:.

  this i found to be useful especially when talking ot others in the ministry.. but and it is a big but.....

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  2. 
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  cofty

  'Darwin's Dangerous Idea'

  Exposing your mind to evidence and following it wherever it leads is worth more than all the empty promises of paradise and everlasting life.
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  6

  Intellectual Diversity > Cultural, Ethnic & Linguistic Diversity

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. current

  yeah, this thread's title is self-explanatory and self-evident: intellectual diversity is greater than all other types of diversity combined.. when i was a uni student i noticed posters that were put up all over my uni.

  they said embrace diversity, with the context clearly being cultural and racial.. obviously there's nothing wrong with people coming from different backgrounds and i said this to my colleagues.. but what's better than all that is intellectual diversity.

  i said to my colleagues that, as uni students, we should discuss and evaluate diversity rather than blindly embrace it.. i wish i'd have added that intellectual diversity trumps all other kinds..

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  cofty

  I have a feeling that people's intellectual abilities and intellectual progress are mainly affected by their environment - Phizzy

  The evidence from twin studies show that our intellectual capacity is predominately nature rather than nurture.

  Of course it almost goes without saying that a genetically gifted child needs the opportunity to realise their potential.

  For details see 'The Blank Slate' by Pinker and 'Nature Via Nurture' by Matt Ridley.

  LUHE - I agree. I assume you didn't so much mean diversity in intellectual ability but in opinions and perspectives? Jonathan Haidt has written about this. He started a project called the Heterodox Academy to encourage diversity among university academics.
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  77

  Creation, evolution, ???

  by Freedom rocks in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  was on the bus today and got into a discussion somehow with the driver and ok be ood his work colleagues about whether there's life in other planets, evolution and creation.

  the driver believes there must be other life out there, i agree with him that life can't be unique to this planet out of the billions that exist.

  his colleague who i think might be a jw by his attitude and reasoning skills thinks we're the only planet with life on it and it was made perfect and exact purposely for humans.

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  cofty

  Dino Blood Redux..

  I will explain the 'Tree of Life' issues tomorrow.