Posts by Max Divergent

11

Shock at the Doctor's office...

by Odrade in

i had a routine doctor visit this morning with a primary care.

she happens to be someone i saw once about 9 years ago during a brief swap in insurance providers.

shortly after that visit, our insurance changed and the doctor was no longer on the "approved" list.

Max Divergent

As a JW I never felt right about having that 'chat' to my doctor and never ever did, it seemed like something a freak would do. So I ignored the suggestion and just talked to the doc about medical things.

I had a blood card in my wallet, but I always hated it being there: it did two things, 1) make me look like a freak to any non-JW who saw it, and 2) protect me from questioning from JW's who might notice its absence if I didn't have one. Oh, yeah, and put my life at risk too. On balance I thought it was better to have one for JWs to see.

But I seem to have a vauge memory, and this may be a wishful one, that as I got closer to leaving that there were a couple of shortcomings in how it was filled out: like undated, or unwitnessed or somthing, and that I was quite content with that. Or maybe it was blank? I can't quite remember. Or maybe each year it just got less complete. I do remember my wife chiding me about it though. And my book study conductor suggesting he have a look at it for some reason one day and that I had to make an excuse: he didn't persue it.

Once Mrs Divergent saw through it all too, we had a little ceremony burning our cards in the backyard. Happy day.

34

Former COs that Become Inactive

by Bob_NC in

some long years ago a circuit overseer told me that the area he was from had several former cos that had "left the road" as they call it and were just sitting on their laurels.

he said that they don't pioneer and some were irregular publishers.

a different co made a remark to the effect of "you think that servants or pioneers live a restricted life, cos are under the supervision of the service dept.

Max Divergent

(or Slaman? - he was of Iranian or Iraqi origin I believe) yadda

I think might have spelt it Sleiman (?) and called himself 'Persian' which probably means Iranian in modern terms.

I still remember ... how impressive he was as a speaker ... I wonder what happened to Joe and where he is now yadda

He was brilliant. I heard he was living in NSW and happy and well.

I also remember Carl as a substitute CO in WA... I kept clear of him... Jaidubdub

Very wise. I tried to, and sometimes suceeded. Usually failed. I went into his house once: he had big white leather couches. He was hard work. So was Pam. He was an ultra conservative.

Joe was still a JW when he left WA Jaidubdud

How the memory condences things! He couldn't have stayed in for long after WA though.

261

Evolution is Crap, there I said it!

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

ok i started another thread and every one jumped on me because i was trying to take the theory of evolution out of the mix and most here seem to believe in it so i will just say it.

the theory of major evolution is crap!

the theory is falling apart.

Max Divergent

Last but not least evolutionist can not explain how the laws of physics came about under the evolutionist theory.

Crazyguy was, of course, right about that in his OP.

I think cosmology includes the study of how the universe came to be the way it is, including the laws of physics. Evolution is possible because the laws of physics work they way they do: they did not evolve. I think physical laws came to be just after the big bang, but I stand to be corrected.

If there are other universes (as the multiverse hypothosis allows), I understand different laws of physics may apply in other universes. And that's nothing to do with evolution either.

But, either way, evolution works in accord with the laws of physics and is not an explanation for them.

34

Former COs that Become Inactive

by Bob_NC in

some long years ago a circuit overseer told me that the area he was from had several former cos that had "left the road" as they call it and were just sitting on their laurels.

he said that they don't pioneer and some were irregular publishers.

a different co made a remark to the effect of "you think that servants or pioneers live a restricted life, cos are under the supervision of the service dept.

Max Divergent

Joe Sleighman was a DO in Western Australia (WA), or maybe had just left WA (in Australia, not Washington state), when he departed the JWs. I understood him to have just stopped attending and to have 'gone apostate', but never got the full details. I really liked Joe. That was mid 1990s.

As I remember it, he was the first of three consecutive overseers to go from the same circut (Joe being the DO for that circut) in Perth, WA. I won't introduce anyone else's full name, but Alan H and Phil T were the COs who were subsequently DFd. I never knew what happened to Alan, but he and his wife seemed good company. They had a flash car (a gold Holden Calais I think it was) and he and his brother, so the story went, had made some money in business before both went onto the circut. I remember having lunch with Joe and Alan and their wives about that time. None of them wanted to talk JW stuff, and Joe spent most of his lunch reading The Australian (the local serious broardsheet. I reckoned that was cool).

The next one was Phil T from Queensland. He was a great guy, and looked just like Dr Phil. He had some marital issues and ended up DF as a result, but so far as I know he remained loyal.

The next CO they sent in was a corporate arsehole who made Ghengis Khan look soft and indulgent. They also had Carl O, ex-bethel, as a substitute inbetween times. He was never fun. Before them there was an old guy who just kept saying things like 'and where were you in 1952?'. He was a bit dottty, I think.

I spent a horrid overnight at bethel about the same time. It was truly awful. It set me as much on the path to apostacy as anything else. Dozens of married couples on construction sharing this space about the size of two basketball courts with sheets draped over a frame between them for 'privacy'. People wandering about like zombies who had been alive before they went. Spooky magazine art paintings on the walls. Mission brown everything. Bizzare breakfast chatter and frightening 'morning worship'. All the usual stuff in God's house.

The bright spot was a dude in a room by himself with a computer on the internet (it was new at the time) near the printing room. He had this great clip off CNN he just kept watching over and over. He may have been on the way to madness, or apostacy, but he seemed a bright light in a crazy place.

261

Evolution is Crap, there I said it!

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

ok i started another thread and every one jumped on me because i was trying to take the theory of evolution out of the mix and most here seem to believe in it so i will just say it.

the theory of major evolution is crap!

the theory is falling apart.

Max Divergent

I don't see why evolution is assumed to preclude some other, intelligent force. - Julia Orwell

No one can prove a negative, like 'there is no God', so there is no preclusion going on (though assumptions of preclusion might be). He might exist but not have created the life we've seen, thus there is no evidence for Him in the origins or diversity of life.

I think it's more that evolution gives a good enough explanation by itself , thus there is no need for God (or ID) to explain how anything happened and that leaves us no reason to include Him in any explanations.

Absence might seem like preclusion, but really its just absence: absence of Someone for whom there is no other verifiable evidence. There's nothing to give one cause to believe in God apart from faith, and that's down to the individual.

[Thanks cantleave! LOL! Abiogenesis, not evolution, refers to the origin of life. Edit duly made.]

261

Evolution is Crap, there I said it!

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

ok i started another thread and every one jumped on me because i was trying to take the theory of evolution out of the mix and most here seem to believe in it so i will just say it.

the theory of major evolution is crap!

the theory is falling apart.

Max Divergent

I understood the amended post. No sweat.

Ignorance is on the way out. It's just stubborn.

261

Evolution is Crap, there I said it!

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

ok i started another thread and every one jumped on me because i was trying to take the theory of evolution out of the mix and most here seem to believe in it so i will just say it.

the theory of major evolution is crap!

the theory is falling apart.

Max Divergent

There. Happy now?

Not a matter of that. The amended line makes a clearer point, although I think a different point, within the guidelines and removes a repugnent suggestion.

You did the right thing.

261

Evolution is Crap, there I said it!

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

ok i started another thread and every one jumped on me because i was trying to take the theory of evolution out of the mix and most here seem to believe in it so i will just say it.

the theory of major evolution is crap!

the theory is falling apart.

Max Divergent

Shador would be well advised to edit out those comments as they are inappropriate and outside posting guidelines 1 and 3.

261

Evolution is Crap, there I said it!

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

ok i started another thread and every one jumped on me because i was trying to take the theory of evolution out of the mix and most here seem to believe in it so i will just say it.

the theory of major evolution is crap!

the theory is falling apart.

Max Divergent

Well there's this very dense rock , then space, then a massive explosion and bang we have the universe. Awesome great now every one believe it and no one ask' were the rock came from or space or the energy to make the explosion

Crazyguy post 218, emphasis added

No, lots of people have asked that (or a more informed version of the question, anyhow). A potential answer is the multiverse.

You are misrepresenting people and science. Sadly your kind of trolling rot needs to be rebutted on a forum like this becasue of who this forum is for, people indoctrinated in creationism and persuaded not to develop their critical reasoning faculties.

You seem to be a predator predating on vulnerable people with distorted reasoning.

261

Evolution is Crap, there I said it!

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

ok i started another thread and every one jumped on me because i was trying to take the theory of evolution out of the mix and most here seem to believe in it so i will just say it.

the theory of major evolution is crap!

the theory is falling apart.

Max Divergent

...except computer programmers have noted that when code has randoms added the code deteriorates.

Computers are simple, life is complex. That means computers work in one and only one way: that is the code needs to meets certain rules and random changes mess that up. Life can exist in a whole lot of ways and still be life, there're no specific rules for it like there are for computer code. That's the difference between simple (random changes mess things up) against complex (the right random changes stick and make something new).

That is the same argument as in the old blue Creation book where they talked about a wrist watch being put in a box and shaken up for a bllion years of random events (or whatever the exact thing was). They rightly said it'd never make a watch despite all the right pieces being there and being subject to random events. They're right, but that is irrelevent to how random events lead to life becaue life is complex and can go together in lots of ways, but a watch or computer code need to be assembled in a specific order to work.

Thus complex thngs can evolve, simple things have to be made. Sincere enquirers can read Richard Dawkin's The Blind Watchmaker on this point.