Posts by WhatshallIcallmyself

14

Excuses for God

by xelder in

i am amazed at how people will go to extreme stretches of logic to explain or justify the supposed actions of their god (lower case g intentional, no upper case deserved).

i have seen people with wonderful bullshit detectors in normal life, throw all of that ability away in order to retain their hope of a creator who cares for them.

i am agnostic, certainly not atheistic, since i think atheism is not provable.

WhatshallIcallmyself

"i am agnostic, certainly not atheistic, since i think atheism is not provable" - xelder

Atheism is a position taken in relation to Theism in that it rejects the claims of Theism; therefore there is nothing that needs to be proven. The onus is on the positive claim, i.e. there is a god, to be proven truthful. It would be silly to expect someone to prove beyond all reasonable doubt each and every outlandish claim made, whether that be claims about a god or indeed anything else. The onus of evidence is always on the person making the positive claim. Yes, an "Atheist" may state there is no God but that, of course is a positive claim requiring some evidence.

A JW holds an Atheistic position in regards of the claims of all the other gods of this world. In fact it has been said that the only difference between a Christian and an Atheist is that the Atheist has gone just 1 god further...

44

Evolution is a Fact #36 - Mass Extinctions

by cofty in

250 million years ago a plume of molten basalt gushed up from the earth's core.

it erupted in an area now known as the siberian traps - back then it was part of the supercontinent pangaea.

a curtain of lava a mile high and hundreds of miles long lit up the sky.

WhatshallIcallmyself

Vidiot -

I'm not Cofty but as I am here...

http://www.els.net/WileyCDA/ElsArticle/refId-a0001655.html

44

Evolution is a Fact #36 - Mass Extinctions

by cofty in

250 million years ago a plume of molten basalt gushed up from the earth's core.

it erupted in an area now known as the siberian traps - back then it was part of the supercontinent pangaea.

a curtain of lava a mile high and hundreds of miles long lit up the sky.

WhatshallIcallmyself

The Rebel -

I have here a link to a 2002 paper explaining the answer to your question. However you my need to log in to view that paper.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/296/5574/1846

This is but 1 and there are numerous other papers out there explaining this region and also, very importantly, there are papers explaining radiometric dating methods, their pros and cons and when and where they should be used. If you aren't subscribed to any of these sites then this information is easily accessed through various educational sites as well as from books you can buy...

One of the reasons people like COFTY get annoyed with some posters is their tone of message. In your case you ask a question in a rather snarky way when the information you need is only a few clicks away on the internet. I have studied geology at the undergraduate level and when I think about the amount of information I have had to not only read but to also understand offhand comments like "...but some of this elevated intellectual thinking from scientists, in my opinion is pure ego..." really grates.

15

Higher Education - is it really the end of the WT?

by OutsiderLookingIn in

as a non-jw, before i started looking into things, i must say i only encountered intelligent jws.

so i was quite surprised to read here and in the pew report about their low overall educational achievement.

granted, my exposure was limited (less than a handful of people over a lifetime) but i met two of them in post-college education (graduate school) at a very good school.

WhatshallIcallmyself

Knowledge is power, guard it well

95

Evolution is a Fact #31 - Ten Questions for Creationists

by cofty in

i thought this would be a good time to pose some questions based on the series so far.. if creationism is true these should be easy.

answers that don't involve copy-paste would be really interesting to read.. ... .

1. since some proteins can be assembled in more ways than there are atoms in the universe why do the sequences of amino acids and bases vary between species in exactly the way evolution predicts?

WhatshallIcallmyself

talesin - If what you state here "That was a statement of my opinion" was stated accurately then it does not follow that anything needs to be disproven...

95

Evolution is a Fact #31 - Ten Questions for Creationists

by cofty in

i thought this would be a good time to pose some questions based on the series so far.. if creationism is true these should be easy.

answers that don't involve copy-paste would be really interesting to read.. ... .

1. since some proteins can be assembled in more ways than there are atoms in the universe why do the sequences of amino acids and bases vary between species in exactly the way evolution predicts?

WhatshallIcallmyself

Hoob is yet another candidate for the Dunning-Kruger effect. Although to demonstrate such a low level of understanding in just 2 posts is unusual...

1 - Does not understand what peer review means.

2 - Does not understand what science is and how it works (hence the link to a creationscience site).

3 - Does not understand logical fallacies; confuses constructive criticism with a personal attack.

4 - Uses the term evolutionist...

51

A New Words With Friends Player Just Told Me That She Was a Jehovah's Witness And That's Why She's So Smart!

by minimus in

jw
friends

i saw she went under the handle of lovejahforever.....she said she is very smart and had cleaning jobs and was going in the ministry this morning.. when she told me she looked forward to beating me (she won the first game) she sid she was smart because she's a jehovah's witness.

my response was we will see how smart she is.. what next?

any suggestions??

WhatshallIcallmyself

Sounds like she is suffering the Dunning–Kruger effect.

Or she might just be as smart as she thinks...

4

A lucid dream last night...exposes JW thinking

by HowTheBibleWasCreated in

for anyone who understands lucid dreaming this story will come to no surprise.

if not lucid dreaming is defined as a dream where you know you are dreaming and have control of the dream.. last night during a dream i was at my uncles place for some reason.

my uncle is an elder, raised ia jw, pioneered in quebec in the 60s and is often giving talks at conventions.

WhatshallIcallmyself

fukitol - Whether it is correctly dreaming or not I can vouch for the fact that this phenomenon does exist. I normally experience it as I am falling asleep so I get all the images and whatnot you get with the usual dream state but I am still self aware and know I am "dreaming". The trick is not "waking" yourself up. I usually like to fly (although I lose control and crash if I go too high... - waking up sharpish) or walk through walls and whatnot.

One example I remember vividly from my childhood was walking around my then family home but despite wanting to could not find anyone; there was nothing to be seen outside the windows save a bright light. I started to feel extremely alone and as a result "woke" up. It still gives me the chills now when I think back on it.

150

Evolution: The Deal Breaker

by Hadriel in

first off i do believe there are some evidences of evolution or i should probably say adaptation.

i do believe this exists in various forms.. however the deal breaker for me with evolution is the chick or egg problem.

there are tons of theories that get passed around as proof of evolution however these are usually examples much further down the evolutionary chain.. what i mean is let's start at the beginning!

WhatshallIcallmyself

To those who really want to learn about life's origins:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/abioprob/

The first link (Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics and Probability of Abiogenesis Calculations) has 29 references that link you to actual papers published by scientists on subjects relevant to this discussion thread. In other words, if you want to learn the science then that is a good starting point for you (it was for me 10+ years ago...). You will certainly learn a lot more there than arguing on here when it is clear that the nomenclature is not yet understood by some.

To those who just want a light read:

Light read!

150

Evolution: The Deal Breaker

by Hadriel in

first off i do believe there are some evidences of evolution or i should probably say adaptation.

i do believe this exists in various forms.. however the deal breaker for me with evolution is the chick or egg problem.

there are tons of theories that get passed around as proof of evolution however these are usually examples much further down the evolutionary chain.. what i mean is let's start at the beginning!

WhatshallIcallmyself

"It seems to me, and I got this by skipping through some posts, that there are some disagreements in the Evolution theory camps. Just as there exists in the Creation camps. I'm sure that some would also disagree with what I said." - Quarterback

There are disagreements in science but the theory of evolution via common descent is not in doubt. The doubts are how certain things happen, how much emphasis should be put on certain environmental pressures, how fast things change and so on. There is no doubt that it happened though...