Posts by EdenOne

60

The problem of sex (or why I'm not an atheist)

by EdenOne in

as i write this under the shadow of the walls of saint jorge's castle in lisbon, two very bored jws are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart .... in my journey away from jwism i accepted evolution as a fact.

i also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist.

and, while i lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life.

EdenOne

What does evolution have to do with atheism? Seriously?

Atheism is defined as the absence of belief in deities. The absence of such belief isn't determined by acceptance of evolution; after all, the greek epicureans knew nothing about darwinian evolution and rejected the existence of gods, all the while there are respected evolutionists who accept the existence of the Christian god. However, in cases like mine, I can see how the evolution theory, if taken to its last consequences, lends to a disbelief in deities.

I'm not discussing here how life came to exist in the first place. The problem of sexual reproduction is central to the development of life and it ties inextricably with evolution. And that's where I find the evolutionary theory is seriously lacking an explanation the definitively rules out a supernatural / intelligent intervention.

Although I'm agnostic, I would rather be an atheist. Seriously. Being an agnostic is awkward because, not being sure of God's inexistence, I think that if God exists he/she is a bastard and not someone I would like to have interactions with or have my future dependent on. I would rather have no belief at all and that would be much better.

60

The problem of sex (or why I'm not an atheist)

by EdenOne in

as i write this under the shadow of the walls of saint jorge's castle in lisbon, two very bored jws are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart .... in my journey away from jwism i accepted evolution as a fact.

i also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist.

and, while i lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life.

EdenOne

Nicolau, I'm not "invoking god" or anything. That's a theist apologist thing and I'm not one. I'm just saying that a major difficulty for me to embrace atheism is the inability of the evolutionary theory to explain why sexual reproduction ever came to exist and become the norm among living things.

The article basically sums up my issues with it. Do not pay attention to the messenger - stick to the message.

And thanks for correcting the link. My ipad doesn't like the forum format much.

60

The problem of sex (or why I'm not an atheist)

by EdenOne in

as i write this under the shadow of the walls of saint jorge's castle in lisbon, two very bored jws are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart .... in my journey away from jwism i accepted evolution as a fact.

i also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist.

and, while i lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life.

EdenOne

As I write this under the shadow of the walls of Saint Jorge's Castle in Lisbon, two very bored JWs are standing just five metres away from me with a literature cart ...

In my journey away from JWism I accepted evolution as a fact. I also became anti-religion, agnostic and apatheist. And, while I lean towards the persuasion of the atheist arguments, there are a few reasons that make it difficult for me to completely discard the notion of an intelligent origin of life. One of such reasons is the problem of sexual reproduction and the inability of evolution theory to provide a satisfactory explanation for its existence.

I have found this excellent article that sums up my issue with it. The final paragraph betrays that it was written by a proponent of Intelligent Design, but that shouldn't invalidate the good points that are made regarding the difficulty of darwinian evolutionary theory to explain the process by which sexual reproduction came to exist.

Origins of Sex

Your thoughts?

9

Freedom of Religion vs. Freedom of Worship and Belief (or non-belief)

by EdenOne in

i was just wondering about this:.

the laws of the different western countries offer robust protection to religious practice.

but what is the best term to describe it and why?

EdenOne

It would be a simple matter of having a commission to study if religious groups were offending human rights. Those who would have policies that violate human rights would have their tax exemption status suspended for a period of 5 years. If no changes were brought forth, then the next step would be to strip that religious organization of their official recognition as a religion.

Eden

9

Freedom of Religion vs. Freedom of Worship and Belief (or non-belief)

by EdenOne in

i was just wondering about this:.

the laws of the different western countries offer robust protection to religious practice.

but what is the best term to describe it and why?

EdenOne

I was just wondering about this:

The laws of the different western countries offer robust protection to religious practice. But what is the best term to describe it and why? "Freedom of Religion" versus "Freedom of Worship and Belief (or non-belief)". What should be more protected by the law?

I am in favor of a robust protection of the right to belief and worship, but, in view of the fact that many religious organizations act as if they were exempt from obeying the laws of the land, I'm not so strongly in favor of such robust protection of "freedom of religion". What do you think?

218

Debating With Evolution Deniers is Just Like This

by cofty in

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....

EdenOne

Cofty - The atmosphere of the earth 4 billion years ago contained no oxygen therefore the composition of the oceans was also quite different. Modern vents are also teeming with existing lifeforms.Life will not likely arise a second time on earth. However each of the steps to life is being investigated in labs all over the world.

So, in essence (and please bare with me because I'm a layman in these issues) the supposed early pre-conditions for life to appear are now impossible to occur again in nature because life itself has produced new conditions - such as the abundance of oxygen, and therefore, water - that preclude the arise of life again - at least life as we know it?

Eden

218

Debating With Evolution Deniers is Just Like This

by cofty in

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....

EdenOne

The most current hypothesis states that life may have developed around underwater volcanic hydrothermal vents. My question is: Since those hydrothermal vents continue to work, one should expect that life would continue to be formed there on a permanent basis. Has this been observed yet?

Eden

13

“The Jesus-followers’ first 200 years”

by Doug Mason in

the archaeologist digs and then sifts through remnants from the past, assembling the discoveries into patterns so that stories of the past may be brought back to life.. with almost 850 direct quotations from 50 books, my study sifts remnants from the first 200 years of christianity and sorts them into patterns that may help others to assemble a vessel that can hold ideas, or to form a skeleton where muscle and flesh, heart and mind, may be applied.

a comprehensive contents listing is provided at the rear of this study.. my study, “the jesus-followers’ first 200 years” is available at:.

http://www.jwstudies.com/the_jesus-followers__first_200_years.pdf .

EdenOne

Doug, I'm reading your work; started today and already well beyond page 60. Amazing work and I'm thrilled to be reading it. Congratulations! I have a few questions, but I'm holding them until i finish reading it because they may be answered further into the reading. But, let me share this with you: I'm amazed. Great stuff.

Eden

26

Convention

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

gorby is as you know a long time fader.. visited the convention this weekend.. and concluded that samuel herds talk about hope was not so bad at all, it was well balanced.

made some good points.. knowing both sides of the medallion, have to admit he was humble with a focus on hope.. the saturday drama impressed me.

of course, there is a lot to say about the organization, this professional produced movie in a "true story" scenario, gave me the insight that hope is important for suffering people.

EdenOne

Let's say one is sick with a potentially deadly illness.

What "hope" is more heart-warming, or, let's just say, more "effective" (considering that "effectiveness" of hope in this case is enabling you to better cope with your ailment) ?

a) The false hope that a divine being is going to miraculously cure you.

b) The unprovable hope that after you die, your life will carry on on the spiritual domain / you will be resurrected to an earthly paradise.

c) The plausible hope that science may develop some therapy / medicine that will make possible to extend your life with reasonable quality.

d) The real hope that, in the case of your death, your life and example was inspiring to others and your loving memory will live on after you were gone.

What of these "hopes" offers a better ratio between plausibility and "effectiveness"?

67

Recent mistakes of the Governing Body contributing to the decline of JWs

by slimboyfat in

they have made so many strategical mistakes it's hard to keep track.

some changes within the last decade or so that are contributing to declining numbers of jws:.

1. elimination of book study groups, the most informal, enjoyable and sociable of the jw meetings, contributed to loss of sense of community among jws.. 2. policy of consolidating kingdom halls.

EdenOne

Entrenched Christian fundamentalism is hardly a trait of Jehovah's Witnesses. As I was reading an article at Bible Archaeology Review about the Nag Hamadi texts, you should see the kind of fericious comments that were made, from calling those historical documents 'apostate literature' to accusing the author of not believing Christ's divinity and the Virgin Mary and threatening with hellfire those who doubt the Holy Bible. I think that backward-thinking fundamentalist Christianity is becoming more and more fascist out of sheer dispair for the onslaught of reason.

eden