Posts by Anders Andersen

75

Evolution and Atheism - please help

by Fernando in

not being familiar with either, my question is:.

what is the relationship between evolution and atheism?.

i'd love to hear from anyone and everyone, and also from any perspective.. without limiting the conversation in any way, i would of course also appreciate comments that are simple, clear, direct and correct (as i don't have the capacity to do a phd in evolution or atheism)..

Anders Andersen

@David_Jay,

Good points, as always :-)

75

Evolution and Atheism - please help

by Fernando in

not being familiar with either, my question is:.

what is the relationship between evolution and atheism?.

i'd love to hear from anyone and everyone, and also from any perspective.. without limiting the conversation in any way, i would of course also appreciate comments that are simple, clear, direct and correct (as i don't have the capacity to do a phd in evolution or atheism)..

Anders Andersen

My stepping stones:

My reason to believe in God: Rom 1:20, Rev.4:11: creation exists, is complex, thus God diddit.
Then I read something quite logic:
If you argue humans/earth/universe must have been created because they are so complex, then the Creator, who is also complex, must have been created too.
If you make an exception for God, you should also accept the possibility of other complex thing/beings coming into existence without being created.
So, my main reasons to believe in God were not so logical.
I set out to prove to myself:
* God exists.
* Bible is true.
* JW are true religion.
Started with investigating age of humans on earth (there should be no evidence of humans existing before 4026BCE, right?).
Found that JW explanation/beliefs don't make sense, and JW literature is very dishonest in quoting sources.
Continued to prove to myself evolution is false, creation is true by investigating claims and evidence for both sides.
I started with the 5-question brochure.
My conclusion after really studying that rag:
* JW are very dishonest liars, taking almost any quote out of context to support their beliefs.
* Apparently no decent scholars can be found that really argue against evolution.
* Reading the source materials mentioned in the brochure I actually found evolution makes sense.
* No evidence for creation presented at all.
Prayed many times to Jehovah for a (specific) sign: somewhere in next 4 weeks, let any random bro in the kh make an random remark to me about the beauty of creation.
No answer.
Guess he was to busy making experiences for the yearbook.
Or he doesn't care about me.
Or he doesn't exist?
So by now I found no evidence for (or against) God's existence, Genesis should not be taken literally, JWorg are liars, and evidence for evolution is overwhelming (as opposed to evidence for creation, which doesn't exist).
Continued investigating Noah's flood myth....also very funny.
If Adam & Eve, Eden, the Flood didn't really happen like described, why did Jesus act as if it did?
What's left of any theology without those stories? No original sin? No need for salvation?
Now without my JW or Bible glasses on, I read about history of the Bible, history of religion, etc.
Basically that lead my to conclude that Jehovah is not a bit different from all the Baals the Bible condemns.
The Israelites believed they were all real gods; nobody would worship a god unless they think it exists.
Any argument that anyone present that Jehovah must exist, can just as well be used to support Wodan, Zeus or FSM. How would I even know which God(s) really exist?
And the Bible is a nice collection of myths, stories and folk wisdom, like many other religious (and sometimes older) texts.
My conclusion: if any God or gods exist, they are hiding quite well.
They are not revealed through the Bible or any other human sacred text.
I see no evidence whatsoever to believe in any God(s).
Yes, I would like for any God to solve all our problems. Yes, I would like to live forever in health and happiness. Yes, I would like to be a millionaire.
But wanting something doesn't make it true...

And just as much as I do not believe in unicorns (while also an attractive concept) for lack of evidence, I do not believe in God(s) anymore, for lack of evidence.

So, try it for yourself. Pray!
Come one, ask God for a sign.
But be specific, ask for something easy yet quite unlikely, and set a time limit.
'God, please give me a sign' will just make your confirmation bias kick in, and you'll consider any random event as a sign.
You'll get your anwer one way or the other (Mt 7:9-11; Jas 1:5, 17, 1 Joh 3:22)

This is very easy to do, no need for any PhD.

For those saying "that is not how God works"....just show me a way that your God does work....relying on random events and then saying "God answered my prayer", or "God knows what's best for me" or "It's not God's time"...
Have you seen my dog? He always listens to me. When I say "come here", sometimes he comes. Sometimes he doesn't, but that's because it was not his time to act. Sometimes he even runs away when I say "come here", but that's because he listens in mysterious way. But, he always listens!"

I have received my answer.
And until very clear evidence pops up that any God(s) exist, I do not believe they do.

Nobody wonders if New York City really exists. We know. We have evidence. No question about that.
Why should we wonder about Gods(s) if they really exist?

53

QUICK! Questions to ask MARK SANDERSON!!!!!!!

by TeenageInsider in

quickly!!.

mark sanderson at a regional assembly.. i will find him and ask him questings.. please quickly leave questions you want me to ask.. i will record and post updates!!!!.

hurry..

Anders Andersen

What do you think of Jackson's testimony before ARC?
Does Jackson really know nothing about anything as he claimed there? What about you and the others?
Why are you begging for money while claiming we have no shortage?
How is the money spent, if not on literature, special pioneers, bethelites, or new KHs?
Why are all quotes in 5-questions brochure taken out of context?
Why are white blood cells a no no, but we can drink milk that contains them?

Just pick one or two....my guess? If you can reach him trough the bodyguards, he will probably 'mishear' your question and run off, or ask you your name and congo...

19

"You wouldn't want to bring reproach on Jehovah's name, would you?"

by Esse quam videri in

what would be your reply?.

my reply: jehovah is big enough to take care of himself.. yours?.

Anders Andersen

"Surely you don't think anything you and I do can bring more reproach upon his name than all the genocide, killing, torturing, raping, human trafficking etc. he committed or ordered himself?

That's like saying a kid getting just a B+ on a test is a disgrace to his father, the convicted murderer-rapist"

31

Midweek meeting

by loneranger in

jw
friends

almost two months into the change in format of the mid week meeting from the school and service meeting format to the christian life and ministry (clam) format.

in my congregation, seems attendance is down 10-15% over the normally low attendance for the mid week meeting before the change.

some indicate that the meeting under the clam format is very "intense"...you really need to study and research to be able to participate or get anything out of the meetings.

Anders Andersen

@ttdtt

Thanks for making me lol :-D

Thank dog my still-in wife is already sleeping or she would be upset about me lolling her precious religion :-/ :-p

75

Evolution and Atheism - please help

by Fernando in

not being familiar with either, my question is:.

what is the relationship between evolution and atheism?.

i'd love to hear from anyone and everyone, and also from any perspective.. without limiting the conversation in any way, i would of course also appreciate comments that are simple, clear, direct and correct (as i don't have the capacity to do a phd in evolution or atheism)..

Anders Andersen

The next statement will probably start a war :-D

The relationship between evolution and atheism is critical thinking.

While I fully agree with everyone stating that

accepting the fact of evolution does not mean you automatically reject the existence of God/gods
believing in God/gods does not mean you must reject evolution

it is my opinion that the ability to critically think about whatever is presented to you and whatever you already believe to be true, and willingness to learn and investigate leads to (amongst other things)

acceptance of evolution given the huge amount of evidence that supports it
seeing that the existence of God/gods is not supported by any (objectively verifiable) evidence, and (almost) anything proposed as evidence is either circular reasoning, or can be explained by natural phenomena, and that evidence proves your own God's existence just as much as any other gods' existences.

Does that mean that I think everyone who believes in any god can't or doesn't think critically? No, absolutely not.

I think they may have a blind spot regarding that belief, or they choose not to apply pure logical thinking to that area of life, like all of us do many times with different areas of our life (such as love, that is not really governed by critical thinking).

14

Evolution is a Fact - Index for Numbers 1 - 20

by cofty in

#1 protein functional redundancycomparing the sequences of amino acids in ubiquitous proteins confirms the relationship between all living things.. #2 dna functional redundancycomparison of the dna that codes for the amino acids of ubiquitous proteins predicts the tree of life with an astonishing degree of accuracy.. #3 ervsendogenous retroviruses that infected our ancestors are found in the same place of the genome of our closest primate cousins.

#4 smelly geneshundreds of broken genes that used to code for olfactory receptors in our ancestors are still found in our genome.. #5 vitamin cwhy humans can no longer make their own vitamin c and what that tells us about our species' history.. #6 human chromosome 2our second biggest chromosome is made up of two of our ancestors' genes stuck end-to-end.. #7 human egg yolk genehumans and our primate cousins have the genes for making vitellogenin and they are all broken in the same way.

#8 jumping genesbits of parasitic code called alu elements prove our common ancestry with primates.

Anders Andersen

Cofty,

Thank you very very much.

In near future I will probably use this as a basis to wake up a dear friend.

32

Karma kind of makes me smile.......am I bad?

by KateWild in

today at work one of the clients that came in for advice was an elder and his wife.

they must be having issues they need help with.

this elder was the elder that told us not to go to a domestic violence shelter or not to go to the police when my daughter got a black eye.. am i bad because i smiled inside that they are having problems?.

Anders Andersen

There also a word in Dutch for Schadenfreude: leedvermaak...meaning basically the same as Schadenfreude in German (suffering-pleasure).

But the German word sounds a lot more evil (like most German words :-p)

4

Evolution #3.1416 - this seems to sum up recent activity on this board

by sir82 in

jw
friends

http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug.

this fits so, so, so perfectly!

.

Anders Andersen

Nice one :-D

70

When is a theory 'just a theory'?

by HB in

the titles of cofty's excellent recent posts are all preceeded by the words "evolution is a fact...".

richard dawkins is encouraging people to use the term 'fact' in relation to evolution, especially when debating with creationists as the word 'theory' is confusing to many, and the latter often takes the discussion off on an often unproductive tangent.

the following may be of interest, it's from the bbc website - part of a regular series of articles called 'the vocabularist', discussing the origin and meaning of words: .

Anders Andersen

So, if I understand correctly...

1 guy who never researched anything related to geology, biology, chemistry, astronomy, etc say: "Nature exists, therefore an invisible person living in the sky must have created it"

is more compelling to you than all the evidence (including visible evidence, and there for everyone to check for themselves) that tens of thousands of people who thoroughly researched their specific fields have discovered?

And is the claim by that ancient person in Rom 1.20 more credible than my following claim?

"Life on earth has been created by 3 invisible, undetectable pink dudes living on Mars. By just looking at their creation their power is shown, and everyone should thank them for that".