Posts by Pika

6

Do they still require that GB members be of the anointed?

by IsaacJ22 in

i was wondering if i'm remembering a change correctly, especially since it happened long after i stopped attending meetings.. i seem to remember that the society began to change its position on the anointed holding top level posts within the org because they were running out of anointed ones.

apparently, anointed members were being used with higher level positions, like running committees and all that, but the society announced somewhere that they would start using other people in some of those positions too.

does that ring a bell with anyone?.

Pika_Chu

@Isaac: hi, atheist geek. Love your blog. I'm "Sleepy", by the way.

63

Can you answer: What is "The Truth"?

by serenitynow! in

i mean can someone, preferably an active jw, explain in 5 sentences or less what that really means?.

i ask because of the long post that "20571..." made on another thread about how "the truth" is better than this, that and the other thing.. what does it really mean?.

Pika_Chu

Truth is that which like-minded people agree on, but no one can prove definitively. I prefer the truth which is at least the thoughts free from logical fallacies and the things we can verify with repeatability. Even then, I no nothing with certainty and neither does anyone else.

32

WITNESSES- WHAT PROOF DO YOU HAVE THAT YOU ARE THE TRUE RELIGION?

by mrquik in

Pika_Chu

Raptor Jesus is the one true saviour.

62

Real Jehovah's Witnesses (djeggnog, StandFirm, etc), I'm trying to understand you.

by pirata in

jw
friends

i'm an active jehovah's witness.

i've obviously lost my faith, that's why i don't feel bad posting here anymore.

i'd probably be disfellowshipped as a division causing, teaching, apostate, faster than you can say "maher-shalal-hash-baz" (isaiah 8:1), should it be found out that i was posting here and did not repent of the things i've said and stop participating in this forum.

Pika_Chu

@pnt: if God's word is so clear about things, why do you have to explain things to us?

328

A few Dawkins quotes to think about.

by AK - Jeff in

jw
friends

"faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.

faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.".

"my last vestige of "hands off religion" respect disappeared in the smoke and choking dust of september 11th 2001, followed by the "national day of prayer," when prelates and pastors did their tremulous martin luther king impersonations and urged people of mutually incompatible faiths to hold hands, united in homage to the very force that caused the problem in the first place.".

Pika_Chu

@Tammy: I think the whole chaos/order thing depends on what level of nature we are talking about. The universe as a whole doesn't seem to be very structured, but when we look closer at our galaxy and solar system, we see structure. We see a little disorder too, rocks flying around, stars blowing up, potential black holes swallowing everything around and all...and then, on Earth, it's kind of a toss-up between order and disorder as well. Then, we look at the divisions and levels of life (this, in itself, we can argue is rather sturctured)--environments to communities to populations to organisms to organ systems to organs to tissues to cells to organelles--then we end up at the molecular level, VERY structured, Atomic level is structured....subatomic...getting strange and beautiful--actual quark names, oddly enough :). Then there's the wonderful, chaotic world of quantum mechanics...a crazy, crazy level indeed, yet from all the disorder at the bottom of the hour-glass shape of organization (I made that up!), we see a point in the middle where there is a high level of organizational structure, and then we get Uber-Macro and look at the universe (we can even contemplate and include the multiverse), and, well, everything gets crazy again.

Not sure why I said all that...guess I just like to hear myself type in a British accent.

328

A few Dawkins quotes to think about.

by AK - Jeff in

jw
friends

"faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.

faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.".

"my last vestige of "hands off religion" respect disappeared in the smoke and choking dust of september 11th 2001, followed by the "national day of prayer," when prelates and pastors did their tremulous martin luther king impersonations and urged people of mutually incompatible faiths to hold hands, united in homage to the very force that caused the problem in the first place.".

Pika_Chu

Ninja! Just dropping by to let you all know Raptor Jesus is coming in October to bring all of us atheists to this cool alternate dimension! (It's WAY better than heaven!!!)

103

How the WTBTS creates atheists

by Nickolas in

i am an atheist.

i arrived at this juncture in my life despite not wanting to.

when i first met the witnesses at 22 i was a seeker looking for answers to the question of life - in other words, prime cult target material.

Pika_Chu

@Tammy: I define religion as belief in God (personal or impersonal), along with a set of rules, regulations, and rituals. I was thinking along the lines of how difficult it would be for someone to have something like that WITHOUT God, but it depended on my definition anyway.

10

Microevolution vs Macroevolution (NOT an evolution vs creation debate)

by pirata in

jw
friends

i've heard the distinction between microevolution and macroevolution a lot, especially from intelligent design arguments.

microevolution being defined as changes or adaption within a species, and macroevolution being changes from one species to another.

my impression is that there really is no such meaningfule distinction between macro and micro in the modern scientific sense of evolutionary theory.

Pika_Chu

@Pirata: that is correct. Whenever speciation occurs, it is macro. Anything smaller is micro. The accumulation of small changes with time may eventually lead to macro (speciation), but it isn't a necessity (unless environmental pressures push it).

109

Could Christians please respond; Is there a penalty for rejecting Jesus?

by nicolaou in

.

hell is pretty much out of vogue these days so if this rabid atheist decidedly turns his back on god and/or christ what will become of me?.

Pika_Chu

@PSac: I didn't say it was invalid, I just said I would scrutinize such a phenomenon.

109

Could Christians please respond; Is there a penalty for rejecting Jesus?

by nicolaou in

.

hell is pretty much out of vogue these days so if this rabid atheist decidedly turns his back on god and/or christ what will become of me?.

Pika_Chu

@godrulz: you are backing your case up with more assumptions. Prove to me plate tectonics is evidence of creation. Oh yeah, and if something can't come from nothing, then I guess God can't make anything either. What do YOU think he made the universe out of? Nothing? Were the materials already there? One more thing: please distinguish between macro and micro evolution. Please let me know YOUR definition of those two things, so I can be sure we are on the same page.

@Psac: yes, we ask for it as proof, because we do NOT believe god has revealed himself to humanity. Not through his "creation," not through writings, and certainly not through his silence. When all that fails, what else can one look forward to from god, if he exists?

Pika_Chu

Posts by Pika_Chu