Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  18

  Evolution is a Fact #35 - Nature Red in Tooth and Claw

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  genes only get copied to future generations if the bodies they help to build succeed in surviving and reproducing.

  these sort of genes thrive in the gene pool and genes that build unsuccessful bodies don't.

  this blindingly obvious fact is at the very core of understanding evolution by natural selection.. being born, finding food and shelter, escaping predators, fighting opponents, attracting a mate and raising the next generation - the challenges faced by living things are daunting.

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  Half banana

  meant to say...it is an uncomfortable thing to view but a perfect paradigm of evolution.
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  18

  Evolution is a Fact #35 - Nature Red in Tooth and Claw

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  genes only get copied to future generations if the bodies they help to build succeed in surviving and reproducing.

  these sort of genes thrive in the gene pool and genes that build unsuccessful bodies don't.

  this blindingly obvious fact is at the very core of understanding evolution by natural selection.. being born, finding food and shelter, escaping predators, fighting opponents, attracting a mate and raising the next generation - the challenges faced by living things are daunting.

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  Half banana

  The sand tiger shark takes the biscuit in demonstrating the crudest form of survival of the fittest. I am reminded as Xanthippe mentions; Darwin's ichneumon wasp and also I add the critter from Alien.

  Tennyson's line "red in tooth and claw" was carefully used by TH Huxley and as an outstanding marine biologist, wouldn't he just have loved to have discovered the tiger sand sharks unique gestation? It is an uncomfortable to view but perfect paradigm of Evolution.

  Science is about progress and it took until 1948 before intra-womb cannibalism was discovered.

  Devoted parenting can be found but there is no sentimentality in the real scientific world of nature.
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  43

  Evolution is a Fact #34 - Hiccups and Tadpoles

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hiccups are a weird phenomena.

  they are a combination of two involuntary actions - firstly a rapid inhalation of breath followed 35 milliseconds later by the glottis at the back of the throat suddenly closing off our airway.. our normal breathing is controlled by a "central pattern generator" in a small region of the brain stem close to the boundary with the spinal cord.

  a signal is sent along the vagus and phrenic nerves resulting in a rhythmic contraction of muscles in chest, diaphragm and throat.. these nerves branch off right at the top of the spinal cord and follow a convoluted path through the chest cavity.

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  Half banana

  Clearview, as it happens the sun exerts about the same gravitational force on the earth as does the the moon and is therefore about half responsible in influencing the tidal 'pull'.

  But remember that people who would be susceptible to flat-earthism are the same as those convinced by creationism and JW belief... i.e. people with brains stuck at the level of a tadpole.
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  25

  Update - Talk # 6 THE FLOOD OF NOAH’S DAY AND YOU

  by ttdtt in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  instead of scraping this talk they updated it.. so they still try and make this look like it happened, and that there is plenty of evidence.to do that they refer to the (w08 6/1 8) found at http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2008411the main evidence is that floods have happened in the past, including.... geologists studying the landscape of the northwestern united states believe that as many as 100 ancient catastrophic floods once washed over the area.

  one such flood is said to have roared through the region with a wall of water 2,000 feet [600 m] high, traveling at 65 miles an hour [105 km/hr]—a flood of 500 cubic miles [2,000 cu km] of water, weighing more than two trillion tons.

  similar findings have led other scientists to believe that a global flood is a distinct possibility.. i could not find such an event, except for remembering one of those "disaster" shows on discover about that.

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  Half banana

  Here's a classic piece of Watchtower science:

  Similar findings have led other scientists to believe that a global flood is a distinct possibility.

  This unsupported, unattributed and unconvincing assertion by the WT is the sort of 'authority' they claim for defending their literalist position......... It is truly pathetic.

  Wakey wakey Watchtower, the Bible is mainly fiction!
  
  
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  25

  Update - Talk # 6 THE FLOOD OF NOAH’S DAY AND YOU

  by ttdtt in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  instead of scraping this talk they updated it.. so they still try and make this look like it happened, and that there is plenty of evidence.to do that they refer to the (w08 6/1 8) found at http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2008411the main evidence is that floods have happened in the past, including.... geologists studying the landscape of the northwestern united states believe that as many as 100 ancient catastrophic floods once washed over the area.

  one such flood is said to have roared through the region with a wall of water 2,000 feet [600 m] high, traveling at 65 miles an hour [105 km/hr]—a flood of 500 cubic miles [2,000 cu km] of water, weighing more than two trillion tons.

  similar findings have led other scientists to believe that a global flood is a distinct possibility.. i could not find such an event, except for remembering one of those "disaster" shows on discover about that.

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  Half banana

  There will come a time soon, perhaps that time has already arrived, when it will be infantile and laughable to believe the Bible to be literally true.

  How can the JW org live with itself to cavalierly dismiss the scientific evidence and then dishonestly claim science supports their view? They expect their followers to be idiots.

  It is brazen dishonesty to distort evidence... and they will be exposed.... and the JW org like the dinosaur it is; will have to join its kind in extinction.
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  20

  Lurking JWs: Do people really need to know and use the word "Jehovah" or other language equivalents, to truly know God?

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  watchtower puts forth the argument that you can't really know god unless you know and use the appellation "jehovah" or its equivalent in other languages.

  is this really true?

  i say it's not true and i will demonstrate to you why.. god's name is not a mere label that we have to use to communicate with him so that he knows we're talking to him.

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  Half banana

  He needs to become known to us. That is the whole premise of the bible.

  On which evidence did you get that idea from Star Trek Angel?
  
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  20

  Lurking JWs: Do people really need to know and use the word "Jehovah" or other language equivalents, to truly know God?

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  watchtower puts forth the argument that you can't really know god unless you know and use the appellation "jehovah" or its equivalent in other languages.

  is this really true?

  i say it's not true and i will demonstrate to you why.. god's name is not a mere label that we have to use to communicate with him so that he knows we're talking to him.

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  Half banana

  Island man, I know your post is addressed to lurkers but how can anyone "truly know" an invisible spirit. 'Taint possible...
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  20

  Lurking JWs: Do people really need to know and use the word "Jehovah" or other language equivalents, to truly know God?

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  watchtower puts forth the argument that you can't really know god unless you know and use the appellation "jehovah" or its equivalent in other languages.

  is this really true?

  i say it's not true and i will demonstrate to you why.. god's name is not a mere label that we have to use to communicate with him so that he knows we're talking to him.

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  Half banana

  I think it is worth realizing that it is only in fable where the prime characters names have significant meanings. Can you imagine the monarchy in Britain calling their newborn infants Rex or Prince? It is only where there is no legitimacy as in stories where the names of characters require linguistic or semantic clues for reinforcement.
  

  Jehovah is drawn from the Latinized version of YHVH in the English language. In the earliest KJV, the name of this god is rendered Iehovah demonstrating the comparatively recent development of the letter J (in English) arising from a capitalized initial letter 'I'.

  If we trace the history of Jehovah as a divinity, the fact that he began as a Canaanite god, the son of El and brother of Chemosh and sixty eight other brothers...somewhat diminishes the 'almighty-ness' which was later attributed to him. Yahweh is depicted as a cow-horned idol sitting with his female consort Ashera in early stone reliefs from Canaan (but don't tell the JW org!)

  The concept of gods or God constantly evolves since religion is not based on fact but mental constructs i.e. the human imagination. Ideas of greatness and power are borrowed from earlier literature to give weight to the holiness of a religious teaching.

  The JW org has done this very thing by appropriating the name Jehovah and loading it with doomsday connections and power as their own identifying mark.
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  22

  Gut Feelings - The Second Brain

  by Xanthippe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i came across a link on the bbc site this morning to an article in scientific american on gut health claiming that one reason we need to keep our guts healthy with probiotics, a good diet and reducing antibiotics is because there are neurons in our gut that are part of the process to create dopamine and serotonin for the brain.

  yes happy hormones and neurotransmitters!

  amazing article.. 'the enteric nervous system is often referred to as our body’s second brain.

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  Half banana

  Xanthippe, neurons in the gut at first just doesn't sound right but since they are transmitters as well as receivers, the brain needs to communicate with all parts of the body. Thanks for the information.
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  28

  PAINTING THEMSELVES INTO A CORNER or WHY was the "GENERATION" teaching started in the 1st place?

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  setting the scene.

  pastor russell died in 1916. those who had 'followed' him were known pejoratively as russellites.

  you could call it a 'cult of personality' if you wanted to sneer.

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  Half banana

  Terry thanks for the time you have taken to research the laughable inconsistencies of the Watchtower's teaching.

  I think the fatal flaw of the Watchtower is in the two gross assumptions you quote in the Awake Sept 22 1962 p27:

  Since Jesus was foretelling conditions prevailing now at the world's time of the end, the generation now living is the one to which he pointed forward in his prophecy of the last days.

  This is true cult speak.The blindly held assumptions are 1/ that this present generation must be in a "time of the end" and 2/ it is what Jesus was referring to. This is presented to gullible audience without supplying evidence for the statements. Who says that there will be a time of the end in the first place? (The idea was stolen from pagans)

  With fear of repetition; Jesus got it wrong in the first place. Kingdom power did not happen as he promised in the first century. His words were fallible, the Bible is human in origin and prophecy is something only the uneducated believe in.

  No wonder the JW org only want unquestioning idiots in their ranks.