Posts by roybatty

62

Bad examples of intelligent design?

by gringojj in

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i am trying to think about examples of animals that would be bad for the intelligent design theory.

i like to use the ostrich because it has wings but doesnt fly.

roybatty

why we don't see species closer to our own level?

what is our level? i look at it like if we're talking about the sense of smell, dogs have us beat hands down. if dogs had the ability to reason on things like a human they may wonder why other animal's sense of smell is so primative compared to theirs. or if we're talking about the ability to breathe underwater, tons of species have us beat.

Which feature would you choose, the ability to have a great sense of smell, breathe underwater or a far superior brain? Which ever a person believe, evolution or creation, everyone has to agree that no other animal even comes close to our level.

62

Bad examples of intelligent design?

by gringojj in

.

i am trying to think about examples of animals that would be bad for the intelligent design theory.

i like to use the ostrich because it has wings but doesnt fly.

roybatty

Tet & Aba,

Thanks for the info.

I do hope I've shown in a nice way you simply need to learn about a subject before you try to disprove it.

My purpose wasn't to disprove it. If that were my intention I would have proposed my beliefs on either creation or evolution. I was simply asking questions.

I will buy into the reasoning that some external forces caused man's brain to grow (i.e. females preference for smarter mates). I also recall reading some article that man's larger brain was the result of our need to better release heat from our bodies. As we were evolving in Africa, the dudes with the larger brains could better dissipate heat, thus allowing them to hunt longer, work longer, etc. Makes sense to me.

But what I still don't understand is how these new feature (however small and however long they take) are introduced into a population and again why we don't see species closer to our own level? Why did neanderthal man and cro-mag man die off (along with all of these other groups they find in Africa) but much lesser primates live on and flurish?

I understand that DNA can mutate, even slightly, and create a new feature. I have read articles how science has simply changed one one portion of an animal's DNA making it 10 times smarter. Is it all a matter of mutation, natual selection and how many offspring one has?

14

Week Starting July 11, 2005 Service Meeting

by TheListener in

song 49.

10 min: local announcements.

selected announcements from our kingdom ministry.

roybatty

15 min: Local needs.

Ah, it was always great getting this assignment and being the asshole elder of the month.

166

MUST READ AlanF's email to Knocking.org

by sf in

this is a must-read that, hopefully, will stay an "active topic" for all seekers and lurkers, by bumping it to the top as often as possible.

alan wrote it in randys {dogpatch} thread regarding knocking.org documentary and in reply to the email mr. engardio sent to barbara anderson.

however, it is so vital a read that it indeed needs its own thread:.

roybatty

Thanks for sharing that letter. Did he ever receive a reponse from the filmakers?

63

PLEASE REPLY ASAP!!! Disfellowshiped without a meeting with elders?!?!?!

by chok in

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i was trying to fade, and thought i had done so successfully for the past 18months.. i have just received a call from my dad saying it will be announced tomorrow that i have been disfellowshipped... can they do this???.

chok.

roybatty

the PO is on the committee!!!!
I guess my time is up, and I have just been pushed off the fence. But as my wise brother said to me, its time to move on and start living now!

Chok,

When the elders have a one of their "after the meeting" get togethers, the PO will inform the other elders that "it has been reported that so & so has....", he'll then "assign" two elders to investigate the matter or he'll state that they need to form a JC. Wheather or not he's on the JC, he's the one to call if you want to "buck the system."

You can call him and mention that you were never contacted, etc...etc. His neck is on the line if it ends up that you are being df'd w/o following procedure should you decide to call the CO or the Society. If you decide to make fight it, it really comes down to how much of a hassle will it all end up being for the elders and if they have the balls to for it.

In my particular case, I had stepped down as an elder (after having a crisis of conscience) and stopped going to the meetings. A year later I was called before a JC because I had joined the YMCA (my JW wife tattled on me). Anyway, I didn't want to be a JW but I wanted to have a little fun with the local elders. To maked a long story short, I enjoyed making the local PO look like a fool in front of the appeals committee. In hindsight, it was childish behavior but at the time, I enjoyed it.

Well, good luck with whatever you decide to do. Something to remember though. A short time from now, you'll look back and see that all of this disfellowshipping business was such a minor part of your life, you'll wonder what the big deal was.

roybatty

63

PLEASE REPLY ASAP!!! Disfellowshiped without a meeting with elders?!?!?!

by chok in

.

i was trying to fade, and thought i had done so successfully for the past 18months.. i have just received a call from my dad saying it will be announced tomorrow that i have been disfellowshipped... can they do this???.

chok.

roybatty

Yes they can. It probably varies from congregation to congregation, but if the elders have made what they believe are fair attempts to contact you in order to either 1) have you meet with two elders who are investingating you or 2) have you meet with a JC and you simply do not call them back, they will df you.

There were a few times when I was an elder in which we called the person a couple of times and left messages and / or stopped by their home. If they didn't contact us, we df'd them. And don't expect any sympathy from the CO or most in the congregation. It ain't coming.

If you want to put up a roadblock, call the PO.

62

Bad examples of intelligent design?

by gringojj in

.

i am trying to think about examples of animals that would be bad for the intelligent design theory.

i like to use the ostrich because it has wings but doesnt fly.

roybatty

hey roy,
I just don't understand why evolution would produce a brain so complex that humans don't even use most of it?

this is not really true. i believe this urban legend that we only use a small portion of our brains, somehow got started in the 1920's and is still around. neuroscience shows that we use all of our brain.

I have thought the same thing, that's it's this "urban legend" (i.e. Einstein only used 10% of his brain...etc..) If this were true, injuries to the brain wouldn't be so devastating.

I still don't accept that females preferred males with larger brains.

but this is exactly what makes so mch sense. why wouldn't a female prefer a smarter man. he would have been better at building tools, understanding his relationship with his environment and others better. he may even have had the ability to understand how to make fire, instead of warring with other tribes to steal it from them. he woulod have understood predators better. she would have felt safer with the paleolithic braniack, and therefore would have bred with him. also, at a certain point in early man's history, the smarter ones would have started to lead the others more efficiently, sharing brain power, and inventing things. so he would have even been more desireable. he would have been able to control the unity of the group by inventing stories for natural phenomenon. in short, it was the brains who invented god, LOL, but i digress.

I guess I'm backing up a little further, before man waged wars or formed tribes. If our brains grew because of natural selection, wouldn't the rest of our body do the same? Wouldn't being faster and stronger also be a huge advantage? Why did we loose it while chimps and gorillas maintained it? And I hate to sound like a certain WT publication, but I still wonder how did we develop larger brains? I know, I know it's a long process but how does it happen? They're even finding out that it isn't just the size of the human brain that makes us differnt from our closest relative, the chimp, but also how our brain is wired. How did our brains become wired in such a way to allow us to use language?

62

Bad examples of intelligent design?

by gringojj in

.

i am trying to think about examples of animals that would be bad for the intelligent design theory.

i like to use the ostrich because it has wings but doesnt fly.

roybatty

Humans took no huge leap forward. Read up on human evolution. Our brains s l o w l y grew to their current size, prehaps in response to the selection pressure I speculate about. Mischaracterising toshe theory doesn't bring you any cler to understanding it.

I'll be the first one to admit I know very little about human evolution, thus my questions. My understanding of natural selection is that a creature with features that help it to survive and procreate have a better chance of passing along those features. I understand that this is a s l o w process. I still don't accept that females preferred males with larger brains. I just don't understand why evolution would produce a brain so complex that humans don't even use most of it? Why produce a brain that can split the atom when chimps and gorillas can survive with something so much less "evolved"?

26

What kind of bird if this?

by shera in

jw
friends

a friend of mine cat,hurt this lil bird today and he brought him over too see if i can help the lil baby.

poor thing,he will probley die but i would like to give him a chance.cat bites are deadly because their saliva is poisonous to birds.so hopefully the cat didn't break the skin.

just hope the bird isn't suffering too much and perhaps i'll call a bird vet to see if they can take him... .

roybatty

A duck! Oh, wait, I thought you asked "what else floats".

62

Bad examples of intelligent design?

by gringojj in

.

i am trying to think about examples of animals that would be bad for the intelligent design theory.

i like to use the ostrich because it has wings but doesnt fly.

roybatty

You see, if we are smart because you NEED to be smart to survive, there would be equivalently smart animals, just as there a lots of animals that use speed, stingers, whatever as a survival startegy. The fact there is no parrallelism indicates another factor lead to the development of human intelligence.

That's my one hang up. They say sharks have been around for millions of years. Shouldn't some type of "smart" shark exist?

Best bets are sexual selection; peacocks have big tails, humans have big brains. The human female showed preference for those with the charcteristics given them by large complex brains.

But how did we get this complex brain? No other animal on the planet even comes close, how did we as humans suddenly take this huge leap forward while no other animal has even come close?