scotoma

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Posts by scotoma

• 
  153

  If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

  that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

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  scotoma

  APOG: Why do you assume that God, if he does exist, wants us to know he exists?

  It is a natural question that emerges from institutional religion.

  The Christian God (Islam and Jews also) supposedly wrote books or inspired men to proclaim revealed "truth".

  The DNA idea is an example of the minimum a god might want to do and it would have been more convincing than so called pronouncements from human intermediaries.

  Of course there is so much more that a loving god might do to make his "children" secure. Frequent open forums with regular visits by actual materialized angels might be one. You could list thousands of things an almighty being could do that would persuade humans to carry out justice.
• 
  153

  If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

  that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

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  scotoma

  I never thought this pathetic post would get this much traction.

  The fact is that no designer has inserted an unambiguous signature into human DNA (yet).

  There is no God except by definition. And by definition evolution is god.

  You've never met evolution. Evolution is still an unsolved mystery as is most of the universe. Evolution reveals some of it's information. It seems to be mirauclous in its effects. Evolution doesn't literally speak audible words but it has an active force that resonnates with anyone devoted to the scientific method. Evolution has a prophetic function. Evolution teaches us how to behave based on what works. Evolution helps people who help themselves. If you want to pray to evolution you can. You can beseech evolution. You can set up tests to discover its intentions. Evolution talks through petri dishes to those who have learned how to read them. The results it gives forth may puzzle you at times. But you can have faith to keep searching knowing the reward is often great. Evolution cures some of the sick but not all. Evolution is teaching us how to build organs from stem cells. Evolution tells us how to deal with evolving viruses. Our brains and thought processes are tiny worlds of evolution following a path of billions of little trial and error experiments.

  But don't insult evolution by thinking it is a person. God of religion is by definition a person (personality). You ought to expect something a little more personal from "a person". Person's have a social environment held together with audible voice, visible smiles, angry glares, kisses and hugs on a continuing basis. This is what is called the "social fabric". God of religion does not participate in society. He doesn't even text us. And when I say "us" I mean our social milieu. Those who have conditioned themselves to think that god communicates telepathically are simply crazy. Such a god is defined by the egotism of the person who believes they are so "special".

  I am convinced that the only thing that can settle this is for God to actually appear.

  Or else aliens will finally arrive here through some as yet unknown physical law and announce to mankind that most advanced civilizations gave up a belief in God several million years ago.
• 
  153

  If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

  that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

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  scotoma

  God and Religious Experience
  There are theists who say they do not need to offer arguments for God's existence because they
  experience Him directly. What precisely is meant by this "experience"? It is either similar to ordinary
  sense experience (i.e., seeing, hearing, and the like) or it is not. Let us consider first the possibility that it
  resembles ordinary sense experience. This would be the strongest position for the theist to take because
  we generally trust our senses. Let us suppose there is an isolated group of people who occasionally
  experience a feeling which they describe as "a devil hitting the inside of my head." Would this experience
  tend to prove that there were in fact devils inside their heads? Or does the phrase 'a devil hitting the inside
  of my head' simply describe a feeling that could just as easily have been described by the word
  'headache'? This example demonstrates the problems we encounter in ascribing otherwise unverifiable
  causes to experiences which are private to each individual.
  In response to the above example, a theist might point out that we would normally believe a
  friend's claim that he had seen a wolf in the woods. Therefore, we should believe him if he claims to have
  encountered God. Of course, his claim to have seen a wolf would be based on his eyesight - and we
  would first have to know if his eyesight is reliable. We would not want to believe an eyewitness's visual
  report if we knew him to be nearly blind. Furthermore, our person who says he saw the wolf should be able
  to tell the difference between photographs of dogs and those of wolves. We would not trust someone's
  report if he could not tell a wolf from a dog. If the theist's experience of God is like sense experience, then
  how do we know that the theist is not like a nearly blind man who is unable to distinguish wolves from
  dogs? To know that the religious sense is reliable, we would have to test it to see if it could be used to tell
  the difference between gods and other types of things a theist might be sensing instead. The reliability of
  our eyesight is tested every day. If we do not walk into walls or over furniture, and if we are capable of
  distinguishing one person from another, then our eyesight is considered reliable. But how do we test this
  supposed religious sense? We would have to already know that God exists before we could find that the
  religious sense was reliable in detecting him. This is because a test would consist of discovering whether
  God was in fact near when a theist sensed His presence. And to know this we would have to have some
  independent means of knowing that God exists.
  Now let us consider the possibility that religious experience is not like ordinary sense experience.
  We know the conditions under which ordinary sense experience is considered reliable. But how do we
  know that God-experiences are at least as reliable as these sense experiences? We have no way of
  knowing that an "intuition" of God accurately confirms His existence. To test such an intuitive "sense" we
  would have to demonstrate that whenever we have an intuition of God's existence, God in fact does exist.
  But in order to show this, we would have to have an additional intuition. A further, independent intuition of
  His existence could not serve to confirm the accuracy of the first kind of intuition because it too would
  have to be confirmed for exactly the same reasons.
  In summary, either religious experience is like ordinary sense experience or else it is not. If it is
  not, we have no way to test whether it is as reliable as sense experience. If it is like ordinary sense
  experience, then we have no way of testing its accuracy without assuming God's existence independently
  of the evidence.
  
  ____Atheist Debaters Handbook
• 
  153

  If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

  that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

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  scotoma

  Faith is a place holder for knowledge.

  If you have the knowledge then you can use faith for obtaining more knowledge.

  Do you want a Doctor that you can have faith in or do you want to get cured of your disease.
• 
  153

  If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

  that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

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  scotoma

  Jehovah is occult - hidden.

  The Bible is full of possibilities where Jehovah could have done things more intelligently.

  Why have the Israelites die while fighting their enemies when a single angel could kill 185,000 in one night?

  Why have the trauma of killing men women and children with the sword as was done to the Amorites?

  Why weren't the Israelites given a command to boil the water?

  Why not cure a stadium full of down syndrome children and couple that with a pronouncement of some sort?

  Since his prime objective is to make his name known throughout the earth couldn't he have found amazing ways to accomplish this?
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  153

  If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

  that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  Todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into DNA.

  Why couldn't Jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "Human by YHWH"?

  That would have answered a lot of questions.

  He could have even included a model number Human2.0
• 
  27

  Should you pay the Obamacare penalty or buy health insurance in 2014?

  by moshe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am already reading that some plan to drop their medical insurance coverage on january 1st and just pay the penalty-.

  an individual with $30,000 annual income would pay a $300 penalty in 2014, $600 in 2015 and $750 in 2016.. an individual with $50,000 annual income would pay a $500 penalty in 2014, $1,000 in 2015 and $1,250 in 2016.. an individual earning $100,000 a year would pay a $1,000 penalty in 2014, $2,000 in 2015 and $2,500 in 2016.. here is your insurance subsidy calculator-.

  http://healthreform.kff.org/subsidycalculator.aspx#incomeagetables.

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  scotoma

  Wha Happened..

  You have to be a licensed physician to handle primary care. That means obscene amount of education by AMA certified institutions. 12 years schooling and residency requirements means you think you deserve at least 200,000 income.

  Currently all the idiots are certified physicians and they cost a lot of money. And I mean IDIOTS. An auto repair technician is better qualified. At least he jumps in with diagnostic equipment and does some tests.

  The AMA seems to be a union people are willing to put up with.
• 
  27

  Should you pay the Obamacare penalty or buy health insurance in 2014?

  by moshe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am already reading that some plan to drop their medical insurance coverage on january 1st and just pay the penalty-.

  an individual with $30,000 annual income would pay a $300 penalty in 2014, $600 in 2015 and $750 in 2016.. an individual with $50,000 annual income would pay a $500 penalty in 2014, $1,000 in 2015 and $1,250 in 2016.. an individual earning $100,000 a year would pay a $1,000 penalty in 2014, $2,000 in 2015 and $2,500 in 2016.. here is your insurance subsidy calculator-.

  http://healthreform.kff.org/subsidycalculator.aspx#incomeagetables.

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  scotoma

  I was for single payer national health care. I am now on medicare.

  My wife can't get medicare for several more years. I won't get the insurance and can't afford the penalty.

  I will just let the money I owe pile up and increase with penalties and interest. There will be enough people in that category that they will probably negotiate an offer in compromise of 10 or 15 cents on a dollar.

  Basically, obama-romney-herritage foundation style health care will fail.

  It will be such a mess that they will have to go to single payer national health insurance like most of the advanced economies in the world.

  The rich will still be able to suplement their health care out of pocket.

  I also see a brisk travel business invovling out of country surgeries.

  I think Obama care was designed to fail. Poor and low income people still won't get decent care. Once it fails we'll have to start from scratch and get it right.

  Any idiot with an expert program and two years technical training could handle all the primary care for 1/4 the cost.
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  23

  What are the things you dislike most about JW's?

  by Chariklo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  top of my list has to be hypocrisy.

  it runs right through, from elders downwards.

  the literature and the gb are bad enough, but the bit that touches ordinary people, householders, students and ordinary rank and file is the false goodness that they put on like a raincoat.

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  scotoma

  I feel about JW's the way I do about all devoutly religious people.

  They are closed minded. Their main contribution to society is their offspring.
• 
  70

  Women: Are they Equal to Men ?

  by villagegirl in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of the hard core doctrines of the wt society, and many other religions, is that women are to be in "subjection" to men.. in the bible, in genisis , it says the domination of women by men came after adam and eve disobeyed god.

  eve was cursed by pain in childbirth and that from then on as a curse: "he shall rule over you " from then on the male was to dominate the female.. but that was not in the original plan.

  this was a reversal of the plan and a curse.

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  scotoma

  My daughter always used to ask why only "brothers" take attendance at the meetings.

  She finally figured it out.

  Sisters don't "count".