have you ever come across words that resonate with you?
it doesn't have to be a great gem of wisdom, just something that is meaningful to you.. please share, and if you want to, tell us why it's meaningful to you.. here is something that made me nod when i first read it.... .
"fortunate are those who have learned to see, in the wild things of nature, something to be loved, something to be wondered at, something to be reverenced, for they have found the key to a never-failing source of recreation and refreshment".
"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
Marcus Aurelius
(a chinese newspaper).. wilkerson was colin powell's chief of staff, and in case you never ever heard of him, here's a potted bio taken from wikipedia.. .
lawrence b.
"larry" wilkerson (born 15 june 1945) is a retired united states army colonel and former chief of staff to united states secretary of state colin powell.
Fantastic interview, thanks for sharing it.
today's high school students in the usa:.
less than 1/2 of them cannot identify the century when our civil war happened.. one in four thought columbus discovered america sometime after 1750.. one in three cannot name one right enumerated in the bill of rights.. three out of four cannot name the first us president.. two out of three do not know the length of term of a member of the house of representatives.. half cannot find britain on a map.. one out of four cannot find america on a map.. when my oldest daughter, who is now a physician was in 9th grade in this once-great state of california, i asked her about the three branches of our federal government.
she was clueless and told me she would take civics in her junior year in high school.
It's pretty apparent that the average American today is more educated than in the past few decades, as demonstrated by the increase in the percentage of citizens with high school diplomas and college degrees. If you want to stick to your guns, and maintain the belief that education has gone to hell since the "glory days" of your high school years, that's fine. And if you can find any actual scientific evidence to support that belief, I'd be more than happy to look at it.
and anecdotal or not
Just so there's no confusion, your experiences with the graduates that worked for you is most definitely anecdotal. And while I do find your experiences entertaining and amusing, it would be misguided to draw some sort of conclusion about the general population based on your reports. Especially in light of the fact that we have verifiable scientific data that allows us to compare education levels throughout US history.
today's high school students in the usa:.
less than 1/2 of them cannot identify the century when our civil war happened.. one in four thought columbus discovered america sometime after 1750.. one in three cannot name one right enumerated in the bill of rights.. three out of four cannot name the first us president.. two out of three do not know the length of term of a member of the house of representatives.. half cannot find britain on a map.. one out of four cannot find america on a map.. when my oldest daughter, who is now a physician was in 9th grade in this once-great state of california, i asked her about the three branches of our federal government.
she was clueless and told me she would take civics in her junior year in high school.
That assumes a college education implies graduates are better educated than children in my generation who merely graduated from High School... It does not necessarily mean they are better educated than those of a few generations back, though, as you implied using your citation.
Are you seriously implying that the average college graduate today with a bachelor's degree is less educated than the average high school graduate in your generation? What decade did you graduate from high school? I'm just curious when this "golden age" of education occurred.
To be fair, several decades ago I took a test that was given in the late 1800's which was given to 8th or 9th graders and which must be passed in order for them to get their diplomas. I failed miserably!
Are you aware of the fact that only about 7% of young adults graduated with high school diplomas in the late 1800s?
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf
Based on that historical fact it's clear that the average young adult today has a vastly superior education compared to someone in the late 1800s. As to why you failed miserably on the test, did it ever dawn on you that perhaps it's because you're simply not as intelligent as you thought?
i was telling my jw friend about the condi law suit.
the first thing she asked was how did i even hear about it because it was news to her .
( i was 't expecting that reaction.
I am still trying to get out of the mindset that only WT has Jehovahs backing.....what if they're don't?........my brain is hurting............recalculating..............
Miss.Fit. I think it would very beneficial for you to read the book Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steven Hassan. You can get it used off Amazon for a very reasonable price. It helped me see things so much clearer.
Edit: I'm not sure if forum rules allow me to post that link. I'm in no way affiliated with Amazon or Steven Hassan.
i was telling my jw friend about the condi law suit.
the first thing she asked was how did i even hear about it because it was news to her .
( i was 't expecting that reaction.
But in order for Jehovah to protect me I need his spirit which is found at the meetings.
Act 17:24-25 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Corinthians 3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?
i was telling my jw friend about the condi law suit.
the first thing she asked was how did i even hear about it because it was news to her .
( i was 't expecting that reaction.
Splash brings up an excellent point. Whenever someone starts talking about demonz perhaps it would be wise to direct the conversation back to reality. Your friend sounds extremely superstitious.
I think he must have directed you to that news article because he knows it is your weakness.
Wow, so pedophilia is your weakness? Wouldn't it instead be the weakness of, well, pedophiles? Or in this particular case, the organizations that cover up pedophilia by their members? So Satan was involved with shining light on pedophilia by JWs. But let me guess, your friend probably wouldn't feel the same way about the news exposure of Catholic pedophiles?
So was I directed here? If so by whom? Was it just chance that I found this site right after I was determined to reactivate myself?
I imagine your search engine brought here. That's how they work, they direct you to sites based on the terms you enter into the search bar. It's not magic. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the most likely as well.
i was telling my jw friend about the condi law suit.
the first thing she asked was how did i even hear about it because it was news to her .
( i was 't expecting that reaction.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/calif-jury-awards-28m-in-_n_1602997.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/us/28-million-awarded-in-jehovahs-witnesses-abuse-case.html?_r=0
Take your pick, I'm sure there are many more.
You have to be extremely careful discussing the Conti lawsuit or any other JW pedophile case with an active dub.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists-according-to-analysis-of-scores-of-scientific-studies-stretching-back-over-decades-8758046.html.
study found 'a reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity' in 53 out of 63 studies.
a new review of 63 scientific studies stretching back over decades has concluded that religious people are less intelligent than non-believers.. .
It's quite understandable that religious people will be offended at the results from this meta-analysis.
Surveys are all about taking averages. This meta-analysis is clearly not saying that there are no intelligent people that hold religious beliefs. It would also be naive to draw a conclusion from these studies that all non-religious people are geniuses. However, when we look at the average intelligence of these two populations it seems reasonable to me that we'd see a difference in IQ.
I have no doubt that there are highly intelligent people that would categorize themselves as religious. With that said, those highly intelligent religious people should be able to quickly reason that this meta-analysis is not assailing their particular level of mental astuteness.
today's high school students in the usa:.
less than 1/2 of them cannot identify the century when our civil war happened.. one in four thought columbus discovered america sometime after 1750.. one in three cannot name one right enumerated in the bill of rights.. three out of four cannot name the first us president.. two out of three do not know the length of term of a member of the house of representatives.. half cannot find britain on a map.. one out of four cannot find america on a map.. when my oldest daughter, who is now a physician was in 9th grade in this once-great state of california, i asked her about the three branches of our federal government.
she was clueless and told me she would take civics in her junior year in high school.
Capping this thread off, let the board note that "Resistence is Futile" has proved that it won't respond to FACTS
Specifically what facts are you referring to, and in your opinion what conclusion do those facts support?
Do you know the difference between anecdotal evidence and scientific evidence?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence
"Because of the small sample, there is a larger chance that it [anecdotal evidence] may be unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise non-representative samples of typical cases. Anecdotal evidence is considered dubious support of a claim; it is accepted only in lieu of more solid evidence. This is true regardless of the veracity of individual claims".
"Anecdotal evidence is also frequently misinterpreted via the availability heuristic, which leads to an overestimation of prevalence. Where a cause can be easily linked to an effect, people overestimate the likelihood of the cause having that effect (availability). In particular, vivid, emotionally-charged anecdotes seem more plausible, and are given greater weight. A related issue is that it is usually impossible to assess for every piece of anecdotal evidence, the rate of people not reporting that anecdotal evidence in the population".
You seemed to miss my somewhat crudely made point about your professor friends. Seeing that I've offended your apparently sensitive internet honor, I will apologize. Even if you had made up your "evidence" I should have been a little more tactful in pointing it out. Again it should be said that you missed the larger point I was making, it would be a mistake to draw an inference about the total population of educators based on the informal survey you've conducted of two or three educators. Your survey pretty much tells us nothing due to the woefully inadequate sampling size as well as the bias introduced into the survey (only collecting the opinions of your friends).
Farkel, where did you get the statistics in your opening post from? Was that the complete list of questions included in the survey, or were the questions the students did well on left off your final list?
Is there any particular reason you're refusing to cite the source for the claims made in your opening post?
