Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  24

  The Jehovah’s Witness bagged themselves a Big One when they got Professor Raj Kalaria, to speak about his belief

  by Watchtower-Free in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  uk scientist helps christian cult to promote creationism.

  the jehovah’s witness bagged themselves a big one when they got professor raj kalaria, above, to speak about his belief in creationism in a new video posted online by the cult.. keralia is currently a deputy director of the newcastle centre for brain ageing and vitality, newcastle, and a professor of neuropathology at newcastle university, uk.. when ex-jehovah’s witness lloyd evans, who runs jwsurvey, discovered that an april 2016 jw broadcasting episode featured keralia, he decided to:.

  reach out to newcastle university to find out whether it endorses the academic’s stance on evolution, and found myself in a rather frustrating email exchange with helen rae, the media relations manager at the university’s faculty of medical sciences .. after much to-ing and fro-ing, an official statement was finally forthcoming ….

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  Half banana

  It sounds to me that this man is not a very objective scientist to draw this conclusion:

  "after reading the Bible, (I) decided that there could only be One True God, and this was the one that created things as complex as the human brain."

  He decided on the basis of reading the Bible (which was polytheistic in its early texts) that there must be one god and not myriads. Where does he supply evidence for monotheism? Does it follow that the human brain was created by this one god? Not at all, it is just a belief.

  In other words it is merely his opinion since he gives no solid basis for it. For example, the notion that a god exists is the same premise for all believers and yet it has to be agreed there is no concrete evidence for god and equally no evidence that he does not exist. This balance does not make a god more likely. Unless evidence could be found no one should proceed on the basis of belief. If he uses mere belief in his professional life of old age related care he would be dismissed.

  It is here where the friction lies and the JW org takes advantage of it; where a scientist gives personal opinions which are sanctioned as acceptable only on the basis of his or her academic status.

  Fortunately the scientific world attracts fewer believers these days but those who are can be pounced on for theist quotes.
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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

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  Half banana

  Kaik, I'm curious as to where you live, is it the Czeck Republic? The reason I ask is because crepe myrtles don't flourish well in the UK because they need a lot of strong sunlight to flower. If your mountain laurel has died and rhododendron is not doing well; is your soil acid enough?
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  42

  What Are the Top JW Issues That Just Burn Your Buns the Most?

  by Wild_Thing in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  which ones make you the maddest?

  covering up of abuse, shunning, failed end of world predictions?.

  my list is long and heavy, but the top 3 that set me off the most are:.

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  Half banana

  The pathologically held belief that God is directing the WTBTS when the evidence is that they have never got anything right in 137 years.
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  43

  I was disfellowshipped because of Satan

  by elbib in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  during co visit, i took him for a bible study i was conducting.

  during the session, the householder said he believed satan was not a person, but personification of evil within us.

  i left co to handle householder’s doubt.

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  Half banana

  How interesting Elbib, I hope you always stick to good reasoning and the strength of your convictions.

  I was a JW for 25 years and during all that time I held the same viewpoint as you and the householder did, even though I wasted my time as a pioneer I could not see Satan as a creature or person but as a personification.

  From your experience it looks like they now have a religious police mentality to stifle any clear reasoning among the rank and file to maintain doctrinal purity.

  The GB say we are the bosses who make up the doctrines and it's your job to just obey...

  I hope you feel comfortable with your new found freedom.
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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?