Cofty I agree. It's been said "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." Dobzhansky's essay (the preceding link) also touches on my point, including the parallels between the heliocentric and evolutionary theories.
cognisonance
JoinedPosts by cognisonance
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Monica Richardson - "[Evolution] was something I never doubted; it was taught as a scientific fact."
by cognisonance inso i found another piece in the no 4.
2017 awake attacking evolution.
wow two attacks in the same article!anyway richardson is a physician the jws are cherry picking to support the idea even intelligent people can think evolution is nonsense.
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Monica Richardson - "[Evolution] was something I never doubted; it was taught as a scientific fact."
by cognisonance inso i found another piece in the no 4.
2017 awake attacking evolution.
wow two attacks in the same article!anyway richardson is a physician the jws are cherry picking to support the idea even intelligent people can think evolution is nonsense.
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cognisonance
So I found another piece in the No 4. 2017 awake attacking evolution. Wow two attacks in the same article!
Anyway Richardson is a physician the JWs are cherry picking to support the idea even intelligent people can think evolution is nonsense. She says something interesting reflecting back to a time when she wasn't a JW:"I believed in evolution because of my education. Everybody did. It was something I never doubted; it was taught as a scientific fact."
I see this claim a lot in articles and videos like this one (also no doubt a subtle attack on higher education too!). What's interesting to me is that I'm taking an astronomy course right now. Early in that course we went over the evidence to support the fact that Earth revolves around the Sun (heliocentrism). Up until now I don't recall ever being exposed to the evidence to support it (maybe I was in grade school but forgot?). Anyway, my sentiment up until this course was similar to her prior view regarding evolution and I might as well use her words and say:
I believed in heliocentrism because of my education. Everybody did. It was something I never doubted; it was taught as a scientific fact
So far so good. The issue here is that I never was previously taught (or retained) the reasons why heliocentrism is a scientific fact. I suspect the same thing happened with Richardson. Had she learned and retained the information about the overwhelming evidence to support evolution, she would still accept evolution today. Learning mere facts is pretty much useless without also learning the evidence that was used to draw the conclusions that we call facts. Being "taught" something is much different in my opinion than "learning" something. Perhaps this is an indictment against the way science is sometimes taught or how students approach classes focusing on memorizing facts to pass an exam instead of actually, you know, trying to learn something?
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No brain, No Life -- says JW Professor Rajesh Kalaria
by cognisonance inso continuing my review of the current bull shit my family in this cult are subjected to i found this article about professor rajesh kalaria, a jw since 1973 and a scientist who has studied the human brain for 40 years (hmm... so he converted into this cult very early in his career it seems).anyway i also found this jw broadcasting piece about him where he says:.
“and brain is what we are; what i am, what you are.
no brain, no life.
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cognisonance
So continuing my review of the current bull shit my family in this cult are subjected to I found this article about Professor Rajesh Kalaria, a JW since 1973 and a scientist who has studied the human brain for 40 years (hmm... so he converted into this cult very early in his career it seems).
Anyway I also found this JW Broadcasting piece about him where he says:“And brain is what we are; what I am, what you are. No brain, no life. It’s as simple as that.”
First, articles like this annoy me. JWs go and cherry pick a few scientists that agree with them, always ones who are JWs themselves which can't get more biased than that! It gives an impression to my family that reasonable scientists can reject evolution and say it doesn't make sense. As a scientist myself, I fear they are subjected to a vary narrow and misleading view, but don't realize the logically fallacious cherry picking going on in articles and videos like this. But I digress... (Another digression: they were not doing these videos when I was a JW. It seems their coercive persuasion techniques have bumped up a notch!).
The point of this post is this JW makes an interesting statement. He says, no brain, no life. The brain is what we are. This being the case how then does he (or the JWs leadership that endorses his view) reconcile that with their belief in a resurrection. If the brain is gone, then the person must be gone, for "the brain is what we are." If they think their god would recreate a perfect copy of their brain upon resurrection, then what would prevent him in theory from creating 2 copies? These would be copies not the original. Thus a resurrected brain would not be you.
I'm amazed that they can't see the paradox here. Such strange beliefs and mental gymnastics required to maintain JW beliefs while knowing that once the brain dies, that's it. The person is gone forever (there can be no resurrection). Their hope they hold on so tightly to is such a flimsy idea if they actually think about it. -
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Watchtower says: if your unbelieving relatives think you are in a cult, try to see things from their point of view
by cognisonance in12 have empathy for unbelieving relatives.
while we may be overjoyed about the bible truths we have learned, our relatives may mistakenly believe that we have been tricked or have become part of a cult.
we should show empathy by trying to see things from their viewpoint and by listening carefully to discern their real concerns.
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cognisonance
Of course speaking of us former-members that same article says:
Respect the discipline of Jehovah. His arrangement can bring the best long-term outcome for all, including the wrongdoer, even though the immediate effect is painful. (Read Hebrews 12:11.) For example, Jehovah instructs us to “stop keeping company” with unrepentant wrongdoers. (1 Cor. 5:11-13) Despite our pain of heart, we must avoid normal contact with a disfellowshipped family member by telephone, text messages, letters, e-mails, or social media.
Hmm... maybe I should try "abnormal" contact, which judging by the list of normal contact in the paragraph must mean, you know, that weird way people communicate... face to face?
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Watchtower says: if your unbelieving relatives think you are in a cult, try to see things from their point of view
by cognisonance in12 have empathy for unbelieving relatives.
while we may be overjoyed about the bible truths we have learned, our relatives may mistakenly believe that we have been tricked or have become part of a cult.
we should show empathy by trying to see things from their viewpoint and by listening carefully to discern their real concerns.
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cognisonance
Maybe it will have the effect of some JWs reading "apostate" info they would get from the family that is Terrified they are in a Cult.
That might be a good outcome. Maybe I should share more information with my extended never-been JW family...
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Watchtower says: if your unbelieving relatives think you are in a cult, try to see things from their point of view
by cognisonance in12 have empathy for unbelieving relatives.
while we may be overjoyed about the bible truths we have learned, our relatives may mistakenly believe that we have been tricked or have become part of a cult.
we should show empathy by trying to see things from their viewpoint and by listening carefully to discern their real concerns.
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cognisonance
12 Have empathy for unbelieving relatives. While we may be overjoyed about the Bible truths we have learned, our relatives may mistakenly believe that we have been tricked or have become part of a cult. They may think that we no longer love them because we do not celebrate holidays with them. They may even fear for our eternal welfare. We should show empathy by trying to see things from their viewpoint and by listening carefully to discern their real concerns. (Prov. 20:5) The apostle Paul endeavored to understand “people of all sorts” in order to share the good news with them, and a similar approach can help us as well.
Periodically I look to see what bull shit my family still has to read and found the above.
What? So the Watchtower is advocating our family members still stuck in should be willing to try and see things from our point of view and listen carefully... How can I get my parents, my cousin, my uncles, and other relatives to see my point of view and listen carefully to my concern they are part of a cult.
I suspect this is impossible. The bold sentence above says the aim of seeing their viewpoint is to "discern their real concerns" (as if thinking they are in a cult is not a real concern!?). Further, the last sentence show the ulterior motive, all this listening is with aim to find an angle to spin to try and preach to us unbelievers. And while I view my self as an unbeliever (I'm an atheist), to them I'm a disfellowshipped apostate so I doubt they will listen to me if I tried.
I just find it astonishing the level of disingenuousness the above paragraph contains! Not to mention the implicit duplicity (oh, this idea only applies to group x, but not group y, despite both groups not believing in our teachings).
I also find it appalling the idea of only trying to understand where someone else is coming from without a genuine interest or care in their viewpoint, but only to find a way to argue your case with them. The automatic discounting that their view must be wrong because it isn't your own -- wow, just wow -- no wonder JWs are so ignorant! They have no ability to be open minded about anything as they think they already know it all.
Lastly look at the level of thought control in this paragraph: "we may be overjoyed" (what about the JWs not overjoyed?), "we have learned" (have JWs learned anything or have been told what to believe?), "may mistakenly believe" ( again example of being told what to believe, no JW has "learned" they aren't a cult member -- kind of contradicts the "we have learned" phrase), "We should" (telling what to do again), and "real concerns" (again the cult accusation must not be really the concern).
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Cute: A Goose Quacked And Pecked At A Cop’s Car. When He Followed Her, He Couldn’t Believe What He Saw!
by Hecce inofficer james givens has served with the cincinnati police department for over 26 years, but has never quite experienced anything like this before.
he was sitting in his patrol car in a parking lot when he got an unexpected visitor.
a goose came up to his car and started pecking on the side of it.
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cognisonance
Makes us realize how much a travesty it is that we eat animals. Chickens, cows, pigs, and others are likely just as sentient as the goose in this video. I'm not vegan/vegetarian, but I do eat a lot less meat then I used to. Hopefully one day I can make the full switch. This is another area of cognitive dissonance for me.
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Some Good News About Me (Although Anthony Morris Will Be Furious)
by pale.emperor injust wanted to share with you some good news i'm really excited about.
i have been accepted for university to study psychology and counseling.
my goal is to become a counselor and, in time, to specialize on treating those who have left high control relationships/groups like we all did.. it'll take a few years before im qualified but studying in university has been a dream of mine since i was 12, which was systematically dashed to pieces by watchtower.. .
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cognisonance
Congrats and good luck. You have a lot of work cut out for you, but it'll be worth it. I'm also engaged in university studies. Been at it trying to complete my undergrad part-time for the past 3 years now.
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What a beautiful day for service!
by StephaneLaliberte ini heard this expression very often and even said it often myself.
now that i am out, i realize this isn't always the case.
there were many times i was going out in service saturday morning and couldn't wait for 12:00 to come along so that we could go swimming, bicycling, play basket ball, go to the beach... .
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cognisonance
Not me, I always thought... It's too nice a day to go out in service (and hated going as a result), or it's too bad out to go in service (and hated going as a result). I've always felt that way, never enjoyed field service despite being a pioneer for 5+ years. Life for me was only fun for those fleeting hours on late Saturday afternoons/evenings.
I did not enjoy service, conventions, assemblies, meetings, talks, accounting (was a MS too), and all the other crap we had to do. I was born into this religious cult and thought this was what we were supposed to do, that it was right. Glad I woke up in my late 20s! I wonder how many JWs actually enjoy going out in service? I imagine not many (even among pioneers) unless they have nothing else to live for. -
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Karl Marx Genius Of The Modern World
by Brokeback Watchtower inhe was all for getting rid of religions and their delusions for the betterment of mankind.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mydmc1wio8.
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cognisonance
Stephen Pinker's "The Blank Slate" provides an insurmountable obstacle to Marxism. It isn't written for that purpose but he proves conclusively that we possess an innate human nature. Marxism has to assume that humans are blank slates that can be moulded to act against their own interests.
I've read a bit of Pinker, but not that book. I'll have to check it out sometime.
Even apart from Marxism so much harm has and is being done based on this absurd ideology.
What is the absurd ideology you refer to here? The idea of humans being born with a "blank slate"?