Posts by DarioKehl

This YouTuber, Ryan Sutter, can also be heard on the Minnesota Atheists Podcast in the episodes entitled "Faith to Reason" Parts 1 & 2. Excellent podcast in general, but these two episodes focus on Ryan's awakening. "Unintelligent Design" is another title to listen too!

One crucial point is how the bOrg (and theists in general) use the false analogy of a monkey at a keyboard randomly hitting buttons and generating Shakespeare's "Hamlet." LOL! They love using the words "chance" and "random" but interestingly never bother to mention the other half of the equation: selection.

53

Present some evidence for evolution...

by Spade in

there's no evidence that can't be overturned and exposed as deception in the scientific community.

jehovah's witnesses don't stonewall any new findings.

we have degree regarding adaptation.

DarioKehl

you want evidence?

research the following topics:

genetic plagarism: ie vitamin C deficiency = SAME MUTATION in humans, primates and guinea pigs

nested heirarchy of species

see above video about embedded chimp chromosome in human Chx #2

Unintelligent Design of human body: namely, vestigal traits like the appendix, poor hip "design" for upright walking (better for quadropedal movement), sinuses drain "upside down" for upright walkers, correctly if we were quadropeds, and a biggie: the male urethra...any plumber will tell you that sending a soft tube through another container without proper support or insulation would FAIL. Why does the male urethra go through the prostate gland--which can swell with infection and aging--and not have a stiffer supporting wall? Better yet, why doesn't it just wrap around the exterior of the gland entirely? These "design" flaws would FAIL any engineering student if the human body were a project submitted for a grade. If evolution is false, and ID is true, God is a very, very inept designer.

31

Demonstrations From the Platform

by DarioKehl in

good evening, all.... still relatively new here so if i'm posting about a topic that's already been run into the ground, i apologize.

but i just wanted to acknowledge the typical "demo" we all see at meetings, assemblies and conventions.

even back when i was a good-goody teen dub, my brother, friends and i would jokingly refer to demos as "5-minute illustrations on how to say 'no.'".

DarioKehl

You gotta LOVE the demos where a kid comes home from school and wants to do something any normal kid would want to do (sports, dance, trip with worldly kids, buy a specific skirt, accept irresistable scholarship offer). And of course, that instigates the "How to Say 'NO!' In Five Minutes" Demo extravaganza!!!

They all follow the same format:

1.) Discuss the pros (and even throw in some SPIRITUAL-SOUNDING benefits!)

2.) Defend the cons...at FIRST.

3.) Then MmmmmEDITAaaaaaTe on it and express shock, horror, guilt, fear, remorse at yourself for EVER defending the cons.

4.) Sigh loudly, shaking your head and set your thinking straight by OOHH-LWAYS rejecting Satan's crafty distractions!

31

Demonstrations From the Platform

by DarioKehl in

good evening, all.... still relatively new here so if i'm posting about a topic that's already been run into the ground, i apologize.

but i just wanted to acknowledge the typical "demo" we all see at meetings, assemblies and conventions.

even back when i was a good-goody teen dub, my brother, friends and i would jokingly refer to demos as "5-minute illustrations on how to say 'no.'".

DarioKehl

Good evening, all...

Still relatively new here so if I'm posting about a topic that's already been run into the ground, I apologize. But I just wanted to acknowledge the typical "demo" we all see at meetings, assemblies and conventions. Even back when I was a good-goody teen dub, my brother, friends and I would jokingly refer to demos as "5-minute Illustrations on How to Say 'NO.'"

The ones that crack me up most are when a single person walks around with a mic in hand, pondering aloud their internal dialogue. We've all seen it. The last one I recall "looked in" (voyerism? ok!) on a brother who just endured a high-pressure sales pitch for "the latest technological gadget" (an obvious jab at the iPhone4). It went something like this:

"WOW! This device can do literally ANYTHING! I can watch my favorite MOVIES, listen to all my MUSIC without carrying all my bulky CDs around, take PICTURES of our trip to unassigned territory (bing!), EMAIL, TEXT, send VIDEOS!!! Why, I can even DOWNLOAD the Watchtower and AWAKE! magazines in mp3 format RIGHT TO THIS DEVICE so I can be up-to-date on all my reading (bing!)! Huh... Brother Spiritual-Enough has one and HE LOVES IT! (scratches head) And Brother and Sister Missionary would LOVE to stay in touch with all of us after being assigned overseas (bing!). Why, I could INSTANTLY ACCESS THEM through this device to share INSTANT UPDATES, INSTANT PHOTOS AND INSTANT VIDEOS (by this time, he is literally SHOUTING into his mic!!! then...the coached change in volume and pensive chin rub-down) ...but... of course, they'd need one of these devices too. I KNOW! I could send them an INVITATION to my MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORK account! Those are accessible to ANYONE, ANYTIME! ANY WHERE!!! I mean, I know the faithful slave WARNS us of using such sites, but it's ONLY for COMMUNICATING with good, spiritual brothers and sisters about spiritual things! What's the harm in THAT? ...of course, Brother Trying Hard DID have problems when his teenage son was seen engaging in unwholesome messaging on HIS account. And DIDN'T he upload some rather inappropriate pictures from a recent Witness gathering? That sure caused a lot of heartache for Brother Trying Hard... but I'M not going to do THAT stuff! NO WAY! Buuuuut...I wiiiiilll have to figure out how I'm going to PAY for this though. My wife wants to start regular auxillary pioneering next month. Hmmm... I COULD charge it to a CREDIT CARD. Yeah... but THAT would just add more debt to our budget and WE want to eventually pay off ALL debt so we can be like Brother and Sister Missionary! (bing!)

...WOW. (looks down, shakes head) What was I THINKING? How much TIME would I spend on this device? Sure it's convenient, but as SOON as I buy it, there will be an even BETTER model hitting the shelves a day later! (laughter and nudging from the pious in the audience). And what kind of EXAMPLE would I be setting for the YOUNGER ones if I had an active social network account? Why, I may even be sent PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL by mistake!!! I guess I really DO need to re-evaluate my thinking on material things. The amount of money and time lost to a device like this could be put to MUCH BETTER USE in Kingdom Service to Jehovah. That's it, I'm calling my wife (beep beep beep): 'Honey, I'm NOT buying this device.'"

(Thunderous applause)

Please submit YOUR paradies of this style of demonstration! I can't wait to see some creative satire! DAZZLE me

90

Stupid not just once but twice, and it is praised

by therevealer in

jw
friends

12 the watchtower ?

5 what good results there can be when.

children are trained to keep a simple eye!.

DarioKehl

I ~HATE~ stories like that from the platform! There was a sister interviewed at our Special ASS Day last year who turned down a full ride at Harvard to pioneer. FACEPALM.

55

Really annoying christian habbit

by bohm in

i know this is minor, but it bug me and i wonder if any fellow atheists have noticed it to.

im talking about the random capatalization.

like i can understand why you would write god with a big 'g', but whats up with writing he or him or the holy one or lord or whatever?.

DarioKehl

Here's another annoying christian (lowercase) habit:

2 men were turned away at the Creation Museum who wanted to hear the founder speak...and they're not even GAY! Bigotry and homophobia may be allowed at a private couples function after hours at a privately-funded "museum," but they didn't even get their $71.90 admission refunded! That's just wrong!

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/21/2-men-denied-admission-event-creation-museum/?test=latestnews

32

New World Translation into other languages; anyone knows of any critics?

by dgp in

perhaps this is the wrong place to post such a question, but, is anyone aware of any criticism of the new world translation as rendered into other languages, say, spanish, portuguese, french?.

if you open a non-english version of the nwt, you find that they very clearly say you're holding a translation from english into whatever the target language is, only "checking against the hebrew and greek originals".

this is to say, there is a pecking order that begins with the translation from the original languages into english, and then another, from english into all others.

DarioKehl

In the forward to the NWT, they mention that they relied heavily on Westcott and Hort. I have done some research online about Westcott and Hort and was VERY surprised to learn they were both spiritualists. Yikes. Creepy! But, I'll admit, most pages that make this claim are other jesus-freak fundie church pages. Does anyone have any viable information to validate this claim? Were Westcott and Hort occultists?

19

Share Your Tales of Annoying Car Group Advice

by DarioKehl in

jw
friends

ohhhh.... do i ever have loads of these stories!

i pioneered in the mid-90's (mostly out of guilt and fear and hope to pacify my parents before dropping the "i wanna go to college" bombshell on them, but i digress...) and i gotta tell ya, it was the most frustrating 2 years of my life!

at that time, there were over 20 of us as many my age recently graduated high school to "join the ranks" (as the co at the time said).

DarioKehl

The "pink slip" elder sent a poor pioneer home one morning because her clothes "smelled like mildew" and his wife's allergies were acting up. This sister was my age, from a very poor and troubled family and was horrified. She began to cry and he put his hand on her shoulder and said, "If a friend won't tell you, who will?" She's out now. He's a C.O.

39

Have you made MAJOR CHANGES since you started posting here?

by nicolaou in

i ask because i've been posting at jwd/jwn for 10 years now.

i was a rapidly fading jw when i started but still considered myself a christian for a good few years more.

now i've embraced reason and rejected faith i'm a very happy atheist and enjoy learning more about the fact of evolution.. what about you?.

DarioKehl

NO. MORE. PANIC. ATTACKS.