cofty

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Posts by cofty

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  14

  The Biotic Message, alternative to Evolution

  by hooberus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  lecture by walter remine:.

  https://youtu.be/o2usdd_8eay.

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  cofty

  He is an electrical engineer and his religiously-motivated assertion is 'God did it'.

  The central idea of his book is something he calls 'Message Theory'.

  Hooby could you define message theory please?
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  32

  Johnson and the NHS

  by jhine in

  1. social
  2. current

  we brits are being bombarded with facts and speculation about the horrific consequences of either corbin or johnson getting into power .

  another thread has discussed the anti-semitic leanings ( or not ) of corbin .

  what do people think about the left's claims that boris would sell off the nhs ,only this morning l saw a post on fb saying that " america is demanding full access to nhs records " it has been pointed out by a political reporter on the bbc that the talks that the papers were leaked about happened before johnson became pm and these were just things that have been put on the negotiating table by the usa .

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  cofty

  Corbyn suffers from Oikophobia...

  Noam Chomsky is patient zero.
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  16

  What if .... some thoughts

  by menrov in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ok, to start, i no longer believe the scriptures are inspired.

  may be some writers were influenced but that does not mean all what they wrote was correct.

  does this mean there is no creator?

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  cofty

  Pure evolution (i.e. big bang) would mean that suddenly everything was there in order to develop into a human being without failure or shortcomings and would also be able to reproduce immediately....what are the odds? - menrov

  Hi Menrov. I think your issues with evolution are a result of some misunderstandings.

  The path to modern humans is a massive experiment in failures and trial and error.

  At least six times almost all of live on earth was wiped out in mass extinctions. 99.9% of all the species that ever lived have gone extinct. The ancestors of humans (in fact all mammals) only thrived because a meteor wiped out the dinosaurs leaving a niche for them to thrive.

  Consider that virtually every creature that has ever lived - including 200,000 years of modern humans who suffered and grieved just like us - died of starvation, disease, exposure, parasites, infection or predation.

  The history of life seems perfectly designed to maximise suffering and waste.

  Does this sound anything like a plan of an intelligent - let alone loving - creator?

  P.S. Please tell me some more about your question regarding reproduction.
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  32

  Johnson and the NHS

  by jhine in

  1. social
  2. current

  we brits are being bombarded with facts and speculation about the horrific consequences of either corbin or johnson getting into power .

  another thread has discussed the anti-semitic leanings ( or not ) of corbin .

  what do people think about the left's claims that boris would sell off the nhs ,only this morning l saw a post on fb saying that " america is demanding full access to nhs records " it has been pointed out by a political reporter on the bbc that the talks that the papers were leaked about happened before johnson became pm and these were just things that have been put on the negotiating table by the usa .

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  cofty

  Obesity, hypochondria and binge-drinking are the greatest threat to the NHS.
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  32

  Johnson and the NHS

  by jhine in

  1. social
  2. current

  we brits are being bombarded with facts and speculation about the horrific consequences of either corbin or johnson getting into power .

  another thread has discussed the anti-semitic leanings ( or not ) of corbin .

  what do people think about the left's claims that boris would sell off the nhs ,only this morning l saw a post on fb saying that " america is demanding full access to nhs records " it has been pointed out by a political reporter on the bbc that the talks that the papers were leaked about happened before johnson became pm and these were just things that have been put on the negotiating table by the usa .

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  cofty

  Diog - How would you be in a position to judge whether or not Corbyn has contempt for Jews?

  The evidence is beyond reasonable doubt. I would be happy to set out example after example after example on here every day until the election if you like?

  Here is exhibit 1 - In 2012 the artist Kalen Ockerman painted this mural on a wall in east London. He called it 'Freedom for Humanity'. It portrays Jewish financiers playing Monopoly on a board supported by the backs of the world's oppressed - mostly blacks. It perfectly illustrates Malcolm X's damnation of 'Zionist dollars' bankrolling colonial oppression, am important influence in Jamaica at the time of Corbyn's stay there in the '60s. After a protest Tower Hamlets ordered the mural to be removed.

  Corbyn admitted looking at a picture of the mural and protested its removal. He even wrote to the artist - 'you're in good company' and referred to the removal of another mural by Diego Rivera in New York in 1934. 'Rockerfeller [sic] destroyed Viera's [sic] mural because it includes a picture of Lenin'.

  
  
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  32

  Johnson and the NHS

  by jhine in

  1. social
  2. current

  we brits are being bombarded with facts and speculation about the horrific consequences of either corbin or johnson getting into power .

  another thread has discussed the anti-semitic leanings ( or not ) of corbin .

  what do people think about the left's claims that boris would sell off the nhs ,only this morning l saw a post on fb saying that " america is demanding full access to nhs records " it has been pointed out by a political reporter on the bbc that the talks that the papers were leaked about happened before johnson became pm and these were just things that have been put on the negotiating table by the usa .

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  cofty

  I also did some research on Corbyn's gang of four unelected advisors, Karie Murphy, Seumas Milne, Andrew Murray and Len McCluskey.

  Wow!
• 
  32

  Johnson and the NHS

  by jhine in

  1. social
  2. current

  we brits are being bombarded with facts and speculation about the horrific consequences of either corbin or johnson getting into power .

  another thread has discussed the anti-semitic leanings ( or not ) of corbin .

  what do people think about the left's claims that boris would sell off the nhs ,only this morning l saw a post on fb saying that " america is demanding full access to nhs records " it has been pointed out by a political reporter on the bbc that the talks that the papers were leaked about happened before johnson became pm and these were just things that have been put on the negotiating table by the usa .

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  cofty

  probably you will say "Well, not Labour because ......", whatever your "becauses" are, do some real research, and see if they are true - Phizzy

  I did. They were worse than most people fear.

  I read - Dangerous Hero by Tom Bower that exposed Corbyn's long history of Trotskyist ideology, incompetence in Islington, contempt for the British state and support for our enemies.

  Then I read What's Left by Nick Cohen that describes how Labour values have been decimated by Corbyn's far left wing of the movement.

  Finally I read The Left's Jewish Problem - Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti-Semitism by Dave Rich. If you have the slightest doubt about the reality of the left's hatred for Jews and Corbyn's complicity you need to read it too.

  So yes, Boris is duplicitous but Corbyn is an enemy of everything I hold dear.
  
  
• 
  32

  Johnson and the NHS

  by jhine in

  1. social
  2. current

  we brits are being bombarded with facts and speculation about the horrific consequences of either corbin or johnson getting into power .

  another thread has discussed the anti-semitic leanings ( or not ) of corbin .

  what do people think about the left's claims that boris would sell off the nhs ,only this morning l saw a post on fb saying that " america is demanding full access to nhs records " it has been pointed out by a political reporter on the bbc that the talks that the papers were leaked about happened before johnson became pm and these were just things that have been put on the negotiating table by the usa .

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  cofty

  It's all fear mongering.

  Governments want to survive in the long term. Any government that sold out the NHS would be wiped out for a generation.

  The NHS buys lots of stuff. It is a huge marketplace and of course drugs companies want to sell us stuff. But as a massive customer we have the power to negotiate the best deals.

  I actually have no problems with some NHS services being privatised. Last time I had an MRI scan the radiologist explained how much better it is working for a private company than when he used to do the same job for the NHS directly. Two people ran the suite efficiently whereas it used to have five people, three of which did practically nothing.

  It also now offers appointments at evenings and weekends.

  As long as it remains free at the point of delivery I'm happy.

  If people didn't get fat, drunk and high, and behave like hypochondriacs the NHS would be in good shape.
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  78

  What The Fossils Say

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the old creation book had a lot to say about the fossil record.

  if i remember correctly it was some lie about all the fossils ever found would fit on a single table.

  the reality is that there is an embarrassment of riches illustrating the evolution of life.

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  cofty

  No SBF the fossils will always say that extant species evolved from earlier, now extinct ones. The precise details of taxonomy will have been refined but paleontology and genetics will still prove common ancestry beyond all doubt. Even in a million years that will still be true. And the earth still won't be flat and rocks still won't be conscious.
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  78

  What The Fossils Say

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the old creation book had a lot to say about the fossil record.

  if i remember correctly it was some lie about all the fossils ever found would fit on a single table.

  the reality is that there is an embarrassment of riches illustrating the evolution of life.

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  cofty

  One of the biggest gulfs that life has had to cross was the transition from sea to dry land.

  Fish have conical shaped heads, reptiles have flat heads. Fish have no necks; their heads are attached to their shoulders by a series of bony plates. Land-dwelling animals all have necks; their heads can move independently of their shoulders. Fish have scales and fins, land animals have limbs with fingers, toes wrists and ankles. Fish use gills to breathe under water, land-living animals have lungs to breathe air.

  These sound like insurmountable problems, but if evolution is true there must have been creatures that made the leap successfully. In 2004 Neil Shubin and his team set themselves the challenge of finding exactly this transitional fossil. What they discovered was astonishing.

  Their success was not entirely down to good luck. The critical time period was already known. Fossils from rocks 385 million years old all look like fish, younger rocks dated at 365 million years old reveal fossils that are all recognisably amphibian or reptile. To find a relative of the transitional species between fish and land-dwelling animals Shubin knew he had to concentrate on rocks that were 375 million years old, preferably laid down in an ancient river or stream and which were now exposed on the surface.

  Initially Shubin and his colleague Ted Daeschler were looking at Alaska and the Yukon as a potential site but when Daeschler examined a geological map he came across a diagram that that in Shubin’s words took their breath away. It showed a region in of the Canadian Arctic that fulfilled all the criteria they were looking for. It had a large layer of exposed Late Devonian rock of exactly the right age. The rock had been formed in a freshwater delta and even better it was previously unexplored by vertebrate paleontologists.

  In the end it took four expeditions to Ellesmere Island over a period of six years to find what they were looking for, but when they did it exceeded all expectations. It would hardly be possible to make up a fossil more perfect as a transition between fish and land-living animals than Tiktaalik.

  Like a fish it has scales on its back, gills and fins with webbing for paddling. Unlike any fish it has a flat head with eyes on top like a crocodile as well as sharp teeth and well developed jaws. It also has ribs, lungs enabling it to breathe out of water as well as a neck that allowing it to move its head independently of its shoulders.

  The most interesting feature of Tiktaalik is in the bones inside its front fins. As well as fish-like ray bones it has an arrangement of sturdy bones that you would recognise from any tetrapod alive today. Think about the bones of your limbs, we have a large bone – humerus or femur; two smaller bones – radius and ulna or tibia and fibula; a collection of smaller bones – carpals or tarsals and then our digits – fingers or toes. All limbed creatures from whales to penguin to birds and horses have variations of the same basic arrangement. Here, 375 million years ago was a descendant of a fish that had already evolved this body plan. The joints are all there too with a shoulder, elbow and wrist.

  
  .....

  When the details were studied more closely something astonishing was discovered. The structure of the bones in Tiktaalik’s wrist indicated that he could do push-ups. The elbow was capable of bending like ours and the wrist could bend so the lower end of the limb was flat on the ground. Close examination of the shoulder bones and the underside of the upper arm revealed massive crests and scars where large pectoral muscles attached.

  Imagine Tiktaalik, up to 9 feet long in shallow pools surrounded by even bigger predators. It was a fish-eat-fish world. One survival strategy was to get bigger and get armour, Tiktaalik stumbled on an alternative – get out the water.

  Look at your hand, open and close your fingers, flex your wrist back and forward. You are using joints that first appeared inside the fins of a fish like Tiktaalik.

  This is only one story about transitional species - there are plenty more. The lineages leading to modern whales and horses are particularly rich in transitional forms. What makes this story so amazing is that Shubin and his team didn’t just stumble on Tiktaalik. They used what was already known about evolution and geology to make a prediction. They knew that the transition from fish to land happened 375 million years ago. They knew where rocks of this age were to be found and they went to that place and found precisely what they predicted must exist.

  Contrary to creationist claims there is an embarrassment of riches of fossils but Tiktaalik ranks as an A-List celebrity in the zoo of ancient creatures.