Nevermind, it will pass.
In the meanwhile...
Nevermind, it will pass.
In the meanwhile...
so we were talking about noah for our family worship tonight and it ended with a little debate between me and my parents about how the flood was possible.
you know, where did the water come from, how did all the animals fit, etc.
of course it led nowhere and my parents came up with some strange theories like that there was "an expanse of water in the sky" and that's where all the water came from.
Ahh, good to read the link again that Wizzstick mentioned ( Letters to and From the Watchtower Society Concerning Noah's Flood). LOVE IT!
Those letters may have been the very first seeds of doubt to me. I wasn't even seriously thinking about the possibility of TTATT at that moment, but for years I DID secretly believe that the flood could have been local instead of global, since early humanity probably inhabited just parts of Europe, Asia and Africa centered around the middle-east. Apart from all the biological/psychical objections it was the strong logic from that 2nd letter to the Watchtower regarding the Hebrew word for 'earth' that touched me most and fuelled my personal intuition that the WT teaching was too dogmatic in this matter. A gem and personal favourite from that 2nd letter:
The book of Genesis states that the flood was earth wide. The Hebrew word for ‘earth’ is ‘erets’. Other occurrences of erets include:
Exodus 9:33: this verse states that the “rain did not pour down on the earth”. Here, the word earth must be understood to mean only in the area of Egypt.
2 Chronicles 36:23: here, Cyrus’ empire is said to include “all the kingdoms of the earth”. But surely this scripture is not meant to include empires in the Far East, Africa or in the Americas. At other times, the word erets is not even translated as earth, making it even more obvious that the word does not necessarily imply the entire physical globe. Examples of this include:
Genesis 12:1. That reads: "Go your way out of your country...to the country that I shall show you".
Genesis 19:31: here Lot’s daughter’s state that there is “not a man in the land (earth, King James version) to have relations with us”. Obviously, they are not referring to the entire physical globe, only the general area in which they live.
And Genesis 20:1 states "Abraham journeyed from there to the land of the Negeb”.
Thus, it appears as though the word erets can be translated as earth, land or country.
arguing with those who reject scientific evidence can be like arguing about football; just as angry and passionate, but the goalposts keep moving, and one team doesn't exist.. read more here....
how the hell do you turn a jellyfish into a fish with a skull, brains, eyes, backbone, gills etc.
You don't. Neither do you turn an octopus into a rabbit or a Kangaroo into a polar bear.
Cofty, I understand your point but the animals you mentioned are in a completely different place in the tree of life and in order to understand universal common descent we must look at what happened during those early stages of evolution with less phyla. You know, from multicellular to sponges to jellyfish to early fish.
Are there intermediates between jellyfish and jawless fish?
If you are really interested in the evolution of tetrapods from fish read this...
I am, and I've read them, and I see some problems with tiktaalik and whale evolution too, but that's for later. These earlier (less complex) stages should be easier to explain, but I can't find any information about the transition from jellyfish to fish. Am I missing some intermediates here?
arguing with those who reject scientific evidence can be like arguing about football; just as angry and passionate, but the goalposts keep moving, and one team doesn't exist.. read more here....
What a childish attitude.
This is precisely why evolution deniers are mocked.
wizzstick (this reply was supposed to be posted much earlier, but it somehow delayed), why do call that childish? Isn't vidqun just describing evolution in a nuttshell? I don't deny evolution as observed, but how the hell do you turn a jellyfish into a fish with a skull, brains, eyes, backbone, gills etc.?
don't worry, i'm taking the piss.
it's just another jw.org video promoting one of their own who had the benefit of a university education and medical training before they became a witness and letting him try and debunk years of research with an appeal to emotion about the placenta.
https://tv.jw.org/#en/video/vodintexp/pub-jwbiv_201608_1_video.
Why is it that a lot of these JW scientists still keep referring to this "Life - How did it get here? By evolution or creation?"- book (published 1985)?
We probably will never hear or read in the magazines about colleagues finding out about the infamous misquotations and intellectual dishonesty (remember the Rama Singh debacle in Awake! of january 2015? ), but why would any JW scientist take the risk to be put to shame in his field of science? Did these JW scientists ever do some fact-checking for themselves and if so, did they ignore the intellectual dishonesty in favor of WT creation stories? I used to enjoy these stories while still in the Borg, but now I find these one sided personal stories at least suspicious.
hoping this is the right section..... my story so far,,,.
hello everyone, i have been reading a lot on what most jws would say apostate websites, but i have been asking myself, how much of this s true and considering a lot of these are run by ex jw elders, bethalites and one who was with the gb at one stage, overseers and the like.
i was an unbaptized publisher many years ago but never got to the point of baptism as i fell into sin, that pretty much ended my attending meetings again.
Welcome Mozzie,
what a story, good to let off some steam!
Your wrote:
i believe in God, Jesus and the Bible
Why not leave it that way? I respect your religious feelings, but don't let organised religion, which is about power, money and indoctrination, become a millstone around your neck and dictate your life. There is no proof the last days started in 1914 (see jwfacts.com and ad1914.com), but if you still believe in some judgement/the big A etc., just wait for God himself to send a true prophet or prophets who will never, ever have to use such constant flow of unfathomable new light that contradicts the old light and even the bible.
That pioneer probably thinks he has all the answers, but he probably will not be prepared for someone that dares to question the answers. Give him hell!
very strange behavior by the attendants and elders after the duluth, ga, rc.
on the first link the attendants start to exit the arena, then line up and turn their backs on the street preachers.
(around the 6:00 mark).. elders and attendants after duluth rc.
a new 2,500 seater assembly hall in the netherlands - which expands to 3,500 seats for the annual conventions - is being dedicated on saturday 17 september 2016.. the existing hall on the site is converted into a venue for the wt schools - lecture room with ancillary accomodation - bedrooms, kitchen, canteen, study areas etc etc.
background information:.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/261089/big-jw-changes-netherlands-holland.
Thanks for the update darkspilver.
So glad I got out in time. I'll never set a foot in that building.
arguing with those who reject scientific evidence can be like arguing about football; just as angry and passionate, but the goalposts keep moving, and one team doesn't exist.. read more here....
Vidqun, "Is a genome a Codeword of an Error-Correcting Code?" was a fascinating read, thanks for sharing.
There are immense functional similarities between the body cell’s error correction mechanisms and the error correction techniques used in telecommunications
"Repair"
"Correction"
"Monitoring"
"Identification"
Many of these words in the article. How have mindless cells ever developed the ability to "learn" these techniques? Although "cancers are caused by errors (mutations) in the DNA sequence that cannot be detected or corrected by the body’s repair mechanisms", biomimetics, which (according to wiki) is the imitation of models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems, thrives on the intelligence of these biological designs.
If they succeed to improve genome editing techniques, cancer may hopefully be history! I remember that "promise" already from the 90's, but hey...it's 2016 folks. Still some time in this present system of things!
now this is a church an athiest would be really happy with.
hilarious!.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/flying_spaghetti_monster.
I prefer Chinese food...still hoping for a splinter group.