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

Scratchme1010 - This is where I find an issue. The JWs promote this black and white mentality, that if you don't believe their nonsense then you have to believe the opposite. Where does it say anywhere that one has to become an atheist or evolutionist simply because you don't believe in religion or the bible?
Something that I learn was that the WT not only tells people what they are supposed to be, do and believe, but also tells them what they are supposed to be, do and believe if they leave. So, EdenOne, look for how much of your way of thinking may still be influenced by the way the WT promotes that people should think. Your post still resembles that all-or-nothing, black and white mentality. You don't need to be an atheist to believe in evolution, you don't need to believe in evolution to be an atheist, you don't need to constantly look for scientific proof if you truly believe in intelligent design. Your belief is just your choice.

While belief is very often a matter of choice, facts aren't a matter of choice. I have decided to lead my life where evidence takes me. And the Bible simply isn't supported by evidence. Actually, quite the contrary.

You make a lot of assumptions about me, which you wouldn't if you have followed my trajectory on this forum. When I began to realize that JW's weren't "the truth", I tried to savage my faith by doubling down my research of the Bible. I came up with many great 'discoveries' about beliefs, and developed a couple of theological constructs of my own. I published a website with the results of my research into the Bible. Many here must remember those days; it wasn't but a few years ago, perhaps three years ago. I sincerely believed still that there was merit to the Bible and the Christian faith. So, no, it's not true that when one leaves the JWs one necessarily has to believe the opposite of their nonsense.

The WT has no bearing in what I should embrace or not as truth after I left the JW's. It didn't have. I embraced agnosticism after extensive research into the very foundations of the Bible and of Christianity, especially research into the historical Jesus and the movement of Jesus' believers. it all came crashing down in flames.

It was the thorough deception of religious belief that let me to embrace the notion that one should lead life based on facts and evidence, instead of feeble feel-good faith. Wherever that may lead. I still find the Bible a fascinating work and Jesus and his movement a fascinating subject. But I see it from a historian's point of view and not through devotional lenses.

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

Cofty, your questions deserve a more lengthy reply. I'm still working, but I promise to come back to you later on.

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

Giordano, like I pointed out, the article was written by two people who are proponents of Intelligent Design. But, for once, as I also posted, can we forget about the messengers and focus on the message? I'm not advocating ID or theism. I would like to overcome this hurdle that represents the difficulty in coming up with a feasible explanation why evolution dictated the differentiation of sexual genre and sexual reproduction - how come two very different and necessarily interdependent reproductive apparatus have evolved for each species?

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

Island Man, I can see the advantages of a broader pool of genetic material versus a near carbon copy of cloning as produced by asexual reproduction. I'm puzzled as to why the cells replicate by means of mitosis cytokinesis but when it comes to reproduction it's a different process called meiosis cytokinesis. How come some living organisms developed such a differentiated process for reproduction while others kept the earlier and simpler (and more efficient) mechanism of mitosis? The process of meiosis is no simple variation of the process of mitosis. It envolves a very different process that couldn't work as a simple variation of mitosis, and in order to work it would have to start off as a complex process in itself.

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