Vidqun

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Posts by Vidqun

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  113

  I am deeply ashamed that I didn't accept evolution until a few years ago...

  by ILoveTTATT2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so... i live in mexico and i am helping with an esl class (english as a second language).

  actually, i am helping with two classes.

  i get two days a week in which i just stand there and have a debate with the class, encouraging as many as possible to just talk... in english.. anyways, i like talking about subjects that generate debate.

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  Vidqun

  By illustrating my point, I illustrate your point. Glad to be of service.
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  113

  I am deeply ashamed that I didn't accept evolution until a few years ago...

  by ILoveTTATT2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so... i live in mexico and i am helping with an esl class (english as a second language).

  actually, i am helping with two classes.

  i get two days a week in which i just stand there and have a debate with the class, encouraging as many as possible to just talk... in english.. anyways, i like talking about subjects that generate debate.

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  Vidqun

  By the way, homeobox genes or Hox genes cause mutations in the same species. These don't create new species. I am sure the evolutionists will let us know when they observe the creation of a new species.

  A mutation can only change hereditary information that is already present. Without the DNA information system already in existence, biological evolution cannot get started. Mutation, by definition, is a random process, so in principle it cannot produce new functional systems (e.g., new organs).

  Where did the organisms come from in the first place for mutations and natural selection to take place? That is the big question!
  
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  113

  I am deeply ashamed that I didn't accept evolution until a few years ago...

  by ILoveTTATT2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so... i live in mexico and i am helping with an esl class (english as a second language).

  actually, i am helping with two classes.

  i get two days a week in which i just stand there and have a debate with the class, encouraging as many as possible to just talk... in english.. anyways, i like talking about subjects that generate debate.

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  Vidqun

  Why Cofty, if you believe in the evolutionary myth, ignoring natural laws and the laws of information, then the sky is the limit, is it not? Why not believe in the fish gods, some of them amphibians, no less? It’s not that far off from your constructed reality. Apart from Matsya Avatar of Lord Vishnu, there is the Biblical Dagon. Included here should be Oannes. Berossus, a scholar/priest, living in Babylon in the 3rd century BC, who wrote the history of Babylonia, included a story about him. He had the body of fish, but underneath the figure of a man. Yes, the evolutionary myth gives rise to painful realities, well-documented by screenwriters and Hollywood directors.
  
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  113

  I am deeply ashamed that I didn't accept evolution until a few years ago...

  by ILoveTTATT2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so... i live in mexico and i am helping with an esl class (english as a second language).

  actually, i am helping with two classes.

  i get two days a week in which i just stand there and have a debate with the class, encouraging as many as possible to just talk... in english.. anyways, i like talking about subjects that generate debate.

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  Vidqun

  I call the theory of evolution mutational, inter-species magic. You see it demonstrated and speeded up in Harry Potter-movies. However, it’s not real. I would be ashamed to believe that it was real. Here’s why evolution as such cannot happen. Allow me to explain:

  The universe consists of energy, matter and information. Biological systems consist of energy, organic as well as inorganic matter. These also come with three kinds of information: 1) Structural information. 2) Operating information. 3) Communicative information. These fall under the category of Universal Information (UI). Universal Information or UI, having a sender and receiver, has the following characteristics:

  Statistics. This could point to transmitted signals from the sender or received signals from the receiver (in language this would be the individual letters).
  

  Cosyntics (code + syntax). Code as employed by the sender and understood code by the receiver (in language this would amount to the grammar of a phrase or sentence).

  Semantics. Communicated idea from the sender or understood meaning by the receiver (in language, this would be the idea or meaning of a phrase or sentence).

  Pragmatics. Expected action by the sender and implemented action by the receiver (practical application of material).

  Apobetics. Intended purpose by the sender and achieved result by the receiver.

  As seen, language, computer programs and the activities controlled by the nucleus of living cells, all qualify as UI. A very important prerequisite of UI is the will or volition, i.e., an intelligent sender and/or receiver (UI is not a property of matter, meaning it cannot originate from lifeless matter, organic or inorganic). The source of information is always an intelligent mind.

  Question is: Does any part of DNA qualify as UI? DNA comprises of “letters,” i.e., adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C). During protein synthesis transcription and translation takes place. By using aminoacids as building blocks, proteins are manufactured. This would be part of the cell's structural information.

  The theory of evolution ignores natural laws as well as the laws of information. What about mutation and natural selection? A mutation can only change hereditary information that is already present. Without the DNA information system already in existence, biological evolution cannot get started. Mutation, by definition, is a random process, so in principle it cannot produce new functional systems (e.g., new organs). The same goes for natural selection. Natural selection favors those organisms more capable of surviving, ensuring that their hereditary material has a better chance of propagating itself. However, this process only sorts or culls information that is already there, neither improving the information nor adding anything new.
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  18

  Genital Warts Because our Ancestors were Banging Neanderthals

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  researchers have found evidence that modern genital warts – otherwise known as the human papillomavirus (hpv) – were sexually transmitted to homo sapiens after our ancestors slept with neanderthals and denisovans roughly around 100,000 years ago.....

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  Vidqun

  We inherited much more than genital warts from Neanderthals: "Our main finding is that Neanderthal DNA does influence clinical traits in modern humans: We discovered associations between Neanderthal DNA and a wide range of traits, including immunological, dermatological, neurological, psychiatric and reproductive diseases," said John Capra, senior author of the paper "The phenotypic legacy of admixture between modern humans and Neanderthals" published in the Feb. 12 issue of the journal Science.

  
  http://phys.org/news/2016-02-neanderthal-dna-subtle-significant-impact.html
  
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  4

  Crystal Lake, Illinois, Goodbye, and Good Luck

  by Phaedra in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i spent the majority of my growing years in the crystal lake area, with a watchful eye under the tutleledge of the grownups whom i thought had it all figured out.

  milkovetch, penkava, redman, gordon, and sterne, before the congregations split into 2 in the late 90s, i was already enamored into the truth with total belief and readying for the revelation book persecution.

  then your families crumbled with red letters surfacing all around.. during and after a storm of controversies, scandals, and the like, i realized all people are people and prone to bad decisions and mistakes.

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  Vidqun

  Hi there. And welcome! Yes I can sympathize with what you are saying. I also looked up at the "big trees" in the congregations and thought I would never be able to measure up. I was constantly reminded of that at meetings and assemblies. It was as though I was moving under a thunder cloud. It took me over thirty years to move out from under it, an uphill battle no less. Now I realize, we're all the same, each with unique talents as well as distinct shortcomings. Unnecessary to say, the thunder cloud has lifted. I can see the sunlight coming through. As you will often read on this forum, it gets better all the time.
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  32

  What would be the perfect song to introduce a JW comedy sketch?

  by usualusername1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have no idea.... .

  any ideas will help.... .

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  Vidqun

  What about the theme of "Jaws" or "Sharknado"?
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  405

  Origin of Life

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

  as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

  there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

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  Vidqun

  The article on Carter's experiments ends by saying: “The study leaves open the question of exactly how those primitive systems managed to replicate themselves — something neither the RNA World hypothesis nor the Peptide-RNA World theory can yet explain. Carter, though, is extending his research to include polymerases — enzymes that actually assemble the RNA molecule. Finding an Urzyme that serves that purpose would help answer that question.”

  I believe it’s an exercise in futility. The distance from amino acid to RNA molecule is huge, even insurmountable. Those enzymes never existed freely in nature. Even if they did, how would they replicate and organize themselves in order to kick-start life? How would primitive life forms then transform into complicated life forms? This is science fiction at its best.
  
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  405

  Origin of Life

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

  as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

  there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

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  Vidqun

  Cofty, for ordinary folk like us, it's good to visualize what is being said. It's a good teaching aid. Amino acid > peptide > enzyme > protein > (RNA > protein: self-replicating). According to Carter: “In this “Peptide-RNA World” scenario, RNA would have contained the instructions for life while peptides would have accelerated key chemical reactions to carry out those instructions.” So there we have the recipe for LUCA, now just to prove it in real life. Their findings are illustrated as follows:

  
  

  Schematic diagram of likely peptide participation with RNA in the origin and evolution of codon-directed protein synthesis. Credit: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology et al. J. Biol. Chem. 2013;288:26864.
  
• 
  405

  Origin of Life

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

  as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

  there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

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  Vidqun

  Here's a second theoretical option:

  “The RNA world hypothesis is extremely unlikely,” said Charles W. Carter Jr. “It would take forever.” Moreover, there’s no proof that such ribozymes even existed billions of years ago. To buttress the RNA World hypothesis, scientists use 21st century technology to create ribozymes that serve as catalysts. “But most of those synthetic ribozymes,” Carter said, “bear little resemblance to anything anyone has ever isolated from a living system… The collaboration between RNA and peptides was likely necessary for the spontaneous emergence of complexity,” Carter added. “In our view, it was a peptide-RNA world, not an RNA-only world.”

  
  Our genetic code is translated by two super-families of modern-day enzymes. Carter’s research team created and superimposed digital three-dimensional versions of the two super-families to see how their structures aligned. Carter found that all the enzymes have virtually identical cores that can be extracted to produce “molecular fossils” he calls Urzymes — Ur meaning earliest or original. The other parts, he said, are variations that were introduced later, as evolution unfolded. These two Urzymes are as close as scientists have gotten to the actual ancient enzymes that would have populated the Earth billions of years ago. “To think that these two Urzymes might have launched protein synthesis before there was life on Earth is totally electrifying,” Carter said. “I can’t imagine a much more exciting result to be working on, if one is interested in the origin of life.” The study leaves open the question of exactly how those primitive systems managed to replicate themselves — something neither the RNA World hypothesis nor the Peptide-RNA World theory can yet explain. Carter, though, is extending his research to include polymerases — enzymes that actually assemble the RNA molecule. Finding an Urzyme that serves that purpose would help answer that question.

  Publication: Li L, Francklyn C, Carter CW Jr., “Aminoacylating Urzymes Challenge the RNA World Hypothesis,” 2013, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 288, 26864; doi:10.1074/jbc.M113.496125

  To visualize the problem, in your hydrothermal alkaline vents we should start off with something like this, perhaps in a more simplified form (something like the RNA of viruses, perhaps?):

  
  

  According to Carter, the Ur-enzymes "launched protein synthesis before there was life on Earth." So, proteins were manufactured before cells saw the light of day. However, absolutely necessary for protein synthesis to succeed are the group II introns to edit and splice. Again we have the chicken or egg problem, for the cell or organism ribosome, with group II intron, to manufacture "just the right protein the organism requires at any given time." So, here a protein factory would have to start producing proteins before the factory has been built. This magical process has to spontaneously perpetuate and improve over the millenia until we end with something like this, the working of which is explained by the following article:

  
  

  A major function of RNA is copying all genetic information and making it readable by the cellular protein factories, the ribosomes. But RNA needs to be edited, and an early step in the editing process is splicing. Splicing consists of breaking apart the RNA and recombining its pieces in ways that produce just the right protein the organism requires at any given time. In many organisms this vital cut-and-paste action is sometimes self-catalyzed by intrinsic RNA components called group II introns. In more complex organisms, including humans, the process is performed by a similar yet more sophisticated machinery, the spliceosome, which has evolved from and works like the group II introns. “Splicing is a very basic phase of gene expression,” said Pyle, who is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “Whenever splicing gets messed up, you’ll find a disease that results. Until now we haven’t really understood the splicing reaction chemically.” The researchers said RNA may perform more functions than previously thought. “RNA is revealing its ability to utilize metals in the environment to do its chemical transformations,” Pyle said. “RNA can do complex chemistry, just like a protein can.”

  The article is titled “Visualizing group II intron catalysis through the stages of splicing.”