Posts by Apognophos

153

If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

by scotoma in

jw
friends

todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

Apognophos

The DNA idea is an example of the minimum a god might want to do and it would have been more convincing than so called pronouncements from human intermediaries.

I don't think that DNA would be more convincing than an intermediary, if the intermediary was one of the prophets as described in the Bible. If someone told us they were speaking for God, and could actually predict events or summon fire from the sky, we'd sure as hell listen to them.

A better question is why God spoke through prophets in the olden days, according to the Bible, but not now. That might seem contradictory, but didn't Paul say that those gifts were passing away, even back in his time?

33

December 15 Watchtower --- A New Low in WT Anti-Intellectualism

by Room 215 in

i wonder whether any of you took note of the article in the 12/15 study edition wt "the simplified watchtower .. why introduced" i couldn't believe they actually had the temerity to put such tripe into print and onto the record.. i was flat-out astonished with its put-down of vocabulary building and self-improvement:.

one egregious example: " the time spent looking up words and explaining expressions (ostensibly from the "smart people's" watchtower) is now spent gaining an understanding of the scriptures and how they fit into the lesson.".

one jw cited in the article actually blames her college education for causing her to fall into the bad habit of "speaking and thinking a way that was more complicated than necessary.

Apognophos

Gerrit Lösch (GB member) stated recently that " pursuing higher education is like putting a gun to your head "

Wow. Can you point me to a source for that quote?

153

If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

by scotoma in

jw
friends

todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

Apognophos

I'd like to provide an alternate answer to your original question, scotoma, in the form of my own question:

Why do you assume that God, if he does exist, wants us to know he exists?

153

If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

by scotoma in

jw
friends

todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

Apognophos

Exactly, it's impossible for us to comprehend either way, at least at the present time.

153

If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

by scotoma in

jw
friends

todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

Apognophos

I'd like to suggest an alternative question, cofty -- why didn't God write his name on the Moon? A big YHWH up there. It would be visible to man throughout all his history, no technology required. But when I asked myself that as a Witness, I always reassured myself that the faith in His existence was what God valued.

160

I've Come To Realize That "Facts" Don't Mean Much If A Person Refuses To Accept Them

by minimus in

jw
friends

...and that applies to religion as well as politics.. if someone simply believes such and such is true, it doesn't really matter whether you "prove" it or not.

people will believe what they want to believe..

Apognophos

Sure, I agree with both of you. But imagine if someone insisted that my experience wasn't scientifically possible, therefore I was wrong. I would rightly be indignant, wouldn't I? It would be hard to get along with someone like that, because I would feel like they were calling me an idiot for saying I experienced something that was impossible. Just speaking hypothetically here.

153

If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

by scotoma in

jw
friends

todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

Apognophos

Why should god value a person's ability to assent to unlikely ideas?

Heh, I'm not sure. But let's not assume that God doesn't value "kindness or compassion or loyalty", it needn't be a case of "one or the other". As a Witness, I believed that God valued faith because at the time of ancient Israel, no one questioned his existence. "Faith" meant "trust in the power of God". Only in modern times has Satan decided to make things more difficult by hiding God using the so-called "age of reason". Now faith is more difficult to have than it used to be, but if we appreciate God's values enough, then we will persist in believing in and worshipping him. Or something like that. Sounds kind of strained, doesn't it?

153

If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

by scotoma in

jw
friends

todays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.

that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.

Apognophos

What would be the point of faith in God if eventually man got to discover some kind of absolute proof like that? Isn't faith valuable to God?

45

Deteriorating content of the WT

by His Excellency in

jw
friends

has anyone noticed the recent deterioration in the quality of wt's contents lately?..

the spiritual food seems to be getting more and more shitty these days.

i have given a thought to what could really be going wrong, and if it is likely that some on the wiriting committee is consciously dishing out those nonsense to facilitate more poeple seeing ttat.

Apognophos

It is hard for people who have never been able to shake of the rules of childhood (i.e., looking to others for orders and accepting punishment from others for messing up) to learn to decide for themselves what is right and wrong and to accept consequences of their actions

I really like your point, Mum. I've felt for a while now that being a Witness is somehow infantilizing, but you summed it up well.

P.S.: You can edit your post to fix typos, at least for half an hour after posting.

160

I've Come To Realize That "Facts" Don't Mean Much If A Person Refuses To Accept Them

by minimus in

jw
friends

...and that applies to religion as well as politics.. if someone simply believes such and such is true, it doesn't really matter whether you "prove" it or not.

people will believe what they want to believe..

Apognophos

Well, I'm sorry if that was a false accusation... perhaps you can tell me what theories you have personally verified?

Perhaps I could. In any event, the point is that were using pejoratives and speaking from ignorance. If you want to know something rather than make claims about things you can't possibly know, you can try asking nicely.

So, let me get this straight, you're so put out by my original assertion that now I have to apologize in order to hear your side of the argument? Sorry, man, it doesn't work that way. Just prove me wrong already and stop stalling. How long does it take one to get off a high horse, anyway?

You missed my point, so let me state it more clearly. I wasn't using science to prove anything. My point was that what I felt (which I haven't described yet, but it was eerie), and how I felt it, was to my knowledge a unique experience.

I didn't miss your point in the least. I was pointing out the irony of you trying to prop up personal experience in a backhanded insult against science-minded people on the forum by pointing that, if it weren't for the very science you were backhanded, you wouldn't understand the personal experience which, btw, isn't unique. Linemen everywhere experience the buzz of electromagnetism. That phenonmena has been well understood for well over 100 years.

It wasn't anything like a "buzz" by any definition of that word. It was, as I indicated before, a sort of paralysis. I could only walk, not run, during the time I was underneath the lines. I was screaming at my body to move faster, and it wouldn't. This has never happened to me before or since. Now, whether science can explain that is so tangential to my point that I could have omitted mentioning the explanation at all and just said, "I have felt things that I would believe in regardless of science's ability to explain them." There's no irony there (if you think so, then I promise you that you missed my point).

Where we get into murky waters is when trying to frame things like assertions, personal experiences and strong beliefs as "facts". I don't know that we can call things "facts" if they cannot be scientifically verified. If they cannot be, then they must fall into some other category. (I'm speaking about universal facts, not facts of law or facts where you have to tell the truth about what did or didn't happen.)

Sure, I agree, although I wasn't trying to frame anything as a fact. My point was simply that people define "fact" differently (regardless of how hard we stab the dictionary definition with our forefinger), and that personal experience tends to trump abstract imparted knowledge in most peoples' minds. So, pretending to follow the only true definition of "fact", while excluding other peoples' "facts", can never lead to a fruitful debate or even a happy coexistence. I should know better than to think I can convince anyone to be less confident of their position, though; it's a fool's errand.