Terry --- Wow, now my brain hurts!! But that really makes one think. I personally believe there is a God-Creator, or Gods-Creators, but something had to have designed all of this, I don't know for what purpose, or why he or they do not interact with us in any way that modern man knows of, and I don't buy the Virgin appearing on water marks nonsense. But really, why do we see in color, why do we smell pleasant smells, why do we feel wonderful sensations, these were not necessary for survival yet without them our life would be very bland, and unexciting. The different trees, the flowers, the animals the medicinal plants to keep us healthy, I cannot believe it all happened by accident, don't get me wrong, I also wonder why he or they do not intervene when horrific tragedy happens, but I won't let this make me bitter, life is too wonderful!
Why do you think these things aren't necessary for survival? If you see in black and white and someone else sees in color, and you both are gathering fruit, who has the advantage? Same for smell. Smell also can warn you when something is dangerous (rotting). Wonderful sensations--again, they are creating motivation for things that are advantages (eg sexual pleasure). Flowers often look bright because bland flowers don't get visited. Medicinal plants? How about poisonous plants. Do those cancel out the good ones? If not, why not? Fruit tastes good because then it gets eaten more, which leads to better seed dispersal. Appreciation for music and art are a little harder to explain, as is possessing a notion of 'fairness'.
You sound reasonable, I recommend 'The Selfish Gene' and 'The Blind Watchmaker' by Dawkins. Natural selection is fascinating stuff, far more so than just saying 'God did it'. There is a mountain of evidence to support it too.
ps. don't use Mozilla to edit messages
julien
JoinedPosts by julien
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47
The most EERIE passage in a Watchtower Publication leads to atheisim
by Terry inthe most eerie and fascinating passage i ever read in any of the jw literature (literature??
) was in the red book, life everlasting in freedom of the sons of god.
i wish i had written the quote down.
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julien
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Peak Oil - a JWs dream?
by julien inhttp://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ .
i was surprised i couldn't find any threads on this topic.
the future is looking very bleak.
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julien
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
I was surprised I couldn't find any threads on this topic. The future is looking very bleak. Between oil, water, the bubble economy and America's out of control energy use, the world is looking to get pretty bad in the coming years. JWs (and other religious groups no doubt) will see this as the great tribulation. Unfortunately as an athiest I don't see any way out. Any thoughts?
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Proof of adultery to get scriptural freedom
by scrubmaster ini am in a situation where my ex-wife left me.
i had survellaince done on her place by two members of my family.
this was done over a several month time frame.
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julien
So they can't remarry because they are still married in god's eyes.. but they also can't have sex even though still being married in god's eyes? Do rank and file JWs not see how illogical this is?
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Proof of adultery to get scriptural freedom
by scrubmaster ini am in a situation where my ex-wife left me.
i had survellaince done on her place by two members of my family.
this was done over a several month time frame.
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julien
Here's a question: If two dubs get a non-scriptural divorce, can they still have sex with each other?
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"Landrew" vs "Borg"
by Stephanus inin classic star trek there was an episode entitled "the return of the archons" where the crew of the enterprise beamed down to a planet where the starship "archon" had last been reported, some time previously.
they found themselves in a stagnated victorian era society of people going mindlessly about their business, rattling off platitudes like "peace be with you, friend" to passers by.
the society turned out to be controlled by a supercomputer which had taken on the name (and projected image) of landrew (or landru), its creator some millennia previously.
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julien
Peace be with you friend.. joy and contentment..
I agree, this thread is not of the body!!
And the OP is right, the Landrew society is more like the JWs.. What about those hooded guys who come to get you when you done wrong?
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Does God Exist?
by Tashawaa ini came across this on a different board.
i haven't taken the time yet to read it, but its being "heralded" by a christian as a debate in which a christian minister won via logic over a minister-turned-athiest on the topic "does god exist".
i'm curious how sound the arguments are, and with some of the sharp minds around here, if an argument is faulty, i'm counting on it being discussed.. http://www.theologyonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=cbb686d85bd2e5fa727074241ddc0181&threadid=7709.
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julien
There are an infinite number of universes where there is nothing. Of course, there is no one there to ask the question. This universe happened to have something, which resulted in us, who eventually asked this question.
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Message for Metatron
by hawkaw inhey .. remember you alerting me to what is on pages 27 and 28 in the august 22, 1967 awake!
rag about a year and a half ago?.
remember maximus assisted in getting me the photocopies and i have posted them everynow and then on the db.. well .... my friend ... hehehehe ... some kind person finally sent me an original rag.. can't thank you enough for alerting me to it.
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julien
Love this logic:
And over the years all these were found to have verbal, mathematical and perceptual capabilities far below those of other children. Implicit in these findings Is that man is advantaged by a greater brain size.
Being undernourished causes smaller brain and weaker mental skills. Therefore smaller brain causes weaker mental skills! That's Watchtower logic for you.
see this link
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DyeHard/dye990602.html
And what about species where the father is completely uninvolved in child rearing. The mother is left to care for them, gather food, hunt, protect etc. Yet you see these mother creatures on NGC and they are very tender with their babies. Yet they can also get violent when protecting them.
The whole article is garbage.
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"Absolutely Fabulous" and my confession
by Bendrr ina show i'm sure you brits are familiar with.
for those of you here in the states, the show is a british sit-com that used to run on comedy central and now runs on oxygen.
yes, your old buddy bendrr actually tuned in to the oxygen channel...only to watch abfab though.. i love that show.
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julien
Count me in as a fan of Julia Sawalha... She is adorable.
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I Need A Witty Caption, WT Pic
by jgnat inplease forgive the poor quality of the shot.
this pic tickled my funnybone.
in case you can not see it clearly, every brother and sister around this table, bethelites all, has a toothy grin as they gleefully study the day's bible text.. i need a better caption than the one supplied.
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julien
Resistance was futile
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Some of my Artworks
by refiners fire in.
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edited by - refiners fire on 29 december 2002 18:28:29.
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julien
Xena,
Yes I used a program called Ultra Fractal to create them.