Posts by Island Man

16

Chlostridium difficile infectiion...

by titch in

i suppose that this question falls under the topic of "personal experiences.

" so, i have a question for the members of the site: has anyone had any experience with a malady called "chlostridium dificille infection"?

either yourself personally, or a relative or a friend?

Island Man

Faecal transplant? Is that what it sounds like?

24

Recent WatchTower article about Witch Hunting

by EverApostate in

jw
friends

this is about an article in may 2014 awake that was published about witch hunting.

it is a 2 page article on how evil the catholic and protestant inquision was, how wickedly they killed the witches and so on.. .

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102014166.

Island Man

"...forbid us to kill apostates , even though they be members of our own flesh-and-blood family relationship."

What! Am I seeing correctly, or was that Watchtower acticle not insinuating that those related to apostates would have greater justification/right to kill them?

What a sick, perverted cult!!

128

900 Top Scientists Sign Statement Skeptical of Macro-Evolution

by Perry in

we are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural .

selection to account for the complexity of life.

careful examination of the .

Island Man

cofty:

Serious questions Perry.

How many books writen by pro-evolution scientists have you read? Which ones?

Could you explain natural selection in your own words?

What examples of genetic evidence for evolution can you explain? What are ERVs and how do they provide evidence of common ancestry?

How does human chromosome 2 prove that we share a common ancestor with primates?

Please explain about ALU elements and how they can be used to confirm our species' descent.

What do you know about ubiquitous molecules like Cytochrome C? Can you explain how a comparison of amino acid sequences confirms common descent and realtionships betwene species? Now can you do the same by comparing nucleotide sequences?

Can you name some of the major fossils that demonstrate transitions between major animal groups? What fossils show the development of limbs for example?

Where were the fossil sequences found that display the entire transistion from land mammal to whale?

If you could answer the above succinctly in your own words that would demonstrate you are at least qualified to hold an opinion about evolution.

Ha ha ha! Cofty your questions to Perry are reminiscent of Jehovah's questions to Job at Job 38 and 39! There's a lovely irony to it - an "evolutionist" emulating Jehovah's style of questioning ignorant Job, to show a creationist that he is unqualified to discredit evolution given that he is ignorant of much of the critical information on the subject. Was that deliberate, cofty? It certainly is genious!

Don't feel to badly Perry. I was once like you, ignorant, believing that evolution is "just a theory" for which there is no evidence. I believed that because I listened only to what creationist sources had to say on the subject of evolution - particularly Watchtower. It was only when I made the decision to objectively examine what scientific sources say on the subject of evolution that I came to realize how misled and ignorant I was. I came to see the false reasoning and dishonesty in the arguments of creationist sources. There truly is a lot of evidence in support of evolution. Creationist claims to the contrary are simply false. Most if not all creationist arguments are old and long debunked - but you wouldn't know that if you limit your reading to just creationist sources. Here's some wise advice from the bible that you need to apply to the subject of evolution:

"When anyone is replying to a matter before he hears [it], that is foolishness on his part and a humiliation." - Proverbs 18:13, NWT

When creationists criticize evolution before they hear all the important facts and evidence for it from scientific sources, they show themselves up as being ignorant buffoons criticizing something they know little about.

" The first to plead his case seems right, Until another comes and examines him." - Proverbs 18:17, NASB

To religious people who are first exposed only to the creationist side of the argument, the creationists' anti-evolution position seems legit . . . until someone decides to research the subject of evolution from the evolutionists' standpoint. Then he comes to see that the creationists' position is actually fraught with error and deception - quote mining, fallacious arguments and outright lies.

66

Walking Dead, evidently a hit show

by nonjwspouse in

not my cup o tea for sure, but i found out my nephew is a regular zombie on the show.. anyone here like the show?

i'm kinda afraid to even watch it ...my imagination is a bit to active.. .

.

Island Man

"I Am Legend" with Will Smith is great! It was the first modern Zombie movie I watched while waking up from JW propaganda about demonic movies. The most exciting/frightening part of the film, the first time I watched it, was when his dog ran into the dark building filled with zombies and he went in with his flashlight . . . man, that was an adrenaline high!

I think there is something about Zombies that touch the human psyche in a very deep visceral way. I think it has to do with a combination of the human fascination with death and dead bodies and the depiction of the human body as a gruesome, unthinking, uncaring, feral danger. It combines death with dehumanization to create a monster that challenges our notion of what is to be expected of a human form.

9

Why do I keep reading here about a new "10 Hour Pioneer" arrangement?

by RubaDub in

there seems to be several discussions about a new 10 hour pioneer arrangement that was susposedly announced at the 2014 annual meeting.. i even called a couple who usually get invited each year and they said that there was nothing like that mentioned.

they just mentioned the "new" stuff had to do with the jw tv thing, the language app, the changes regarding gog of magog, the talents, the virgins, etc.

but absolutely nothing about 10 hour pioneers.. rub a dub.

Island Man

I think it's possible that the 10-hour pioneer rumor was deliberately leaked by the governing body. Maybe they want to run the idea by JWs unofficially to see what the rank and file think about it before deciding if to implement it.

66

Walking Dead, evidently a hit show

by nonjwspouse in

not my cup o tea for sure, but i found out my nephew is a regular zombie on the show.. anyone here like the show?

i'm kinda afraid to even watch it ...my imagination is a bit to active.. .

.

Island Man

The Walking Dead is great! But you need to start from the beginning. Yes, it does have some gore but you do get used to it. I think the zombies on The Walking Dead are probably the best ever to grace the screen. Not only do they look dreadful, they also make a dreadful gasping gutteral sound. George Romero must be so jealous.

It might help if you watched another less gory zombie movie first, like the original 1968 version of 'Night of the living dead'. Then you can watch 'Dawn of the Dead' (2005 version). Then you can Watch '28 weeks later' which has unconventional running zombies.

But hey, I'm a fan of zombie movies - good ones. There's something about them that I find intriguing - the mindless, hideous look of the zombies; the suspenseful peril that the characters are in when a horde of zombies are surrounding them; the sudden, frightful introduction of a zombie in a scene with the character(s) having to desperately fight to survive; the threat of infection from a single zombie bite; the dark, post-apocalyptic atmosphere they're usually set in, etc. Other horror movies just can't compare.

4

Where and How HIV infections (Aids) spread to Humans

by fulltimestudent in

from the time that hiv infections came to the notice of the medical community, scientists have been attempting to trace its origins.. .

an electron microscope scan of a huv-1 virion budding from a cultured lymphocyte.

if the above process was occurring in your body, you would be in for a lot of problems.. the latest research conclusions are that the first cases occurred around the year 1920, in the african city of kinshasa, now captital of the democratic republic of congo.. scientists have been able to track at least 13 transmissions from apes to humans, but only one transmision involved the hiv-1 virus group that has resulted in some 75 million human infections to this time.. the team of scientists involved in this study see the following factors being involved in the development of the pandemic.

Island Man

Same place that gave us Ebola too?

Damn.

Yes. And also the same place that has given us the most evil scourge to wreak havoc on the face of the earth - Humans.

I suppose the very rich bio-diversity of the forests of Africa also means a rich bio-diversity of viruses meaning there are bound to be a number of deadly viruses lurking there as well.

23

NWT departure from greek meaning

by aintenoughwiskey in

the new jw library app includes the kingdom interlinear.

just by looking up the scriptures at the meeting when i went, revealed the following "departures" from the other translations:.

rev 5:10 "over the earth" vs "upon the earth".

Island Man

"which leaves the question of why the word of God got these Christians executed. It can only be because they were speaking about it, can't it?"

No, there are clearly other possibilities apart from speaking about the bible or speaking about God. It could also be becaue of:

~ obeying the word of God above and in defiance of what the government or apostate religious authorities say.

~ translating the word of God to make it available to all, in defiance of apostate church authorities.

So given that these other possibilities exist, it is wrong to take a very vague verse that simply says "the word of God" and make it very specific to "speaking about God" when that is only one of several possible reasons as to why they were killed for "the word of God".

When a bible verse is vague or lacking in detail and multiple specific interpretations are possible, the translator should preserve the verse's vagueness and leave it up to the reader to discern the multiple possible specific meanings. It is in my opinion, dishonest to mislead trusting bible readers into thinking the bible says something specific when it really does not.

A faithful translator sticks as closely as possible to the text and should not inject his personal speculations or explanations into the text. Who is he to correct the word of God? Did God make a mistake by not causing the inspired writers to be more specific? Did God appoint the translator to edit his word for him? Is the translator inspired? Contrast the great care that scribes took in copying the scriptures letter by letter, with the liberties that Watchtower and other sloppy translators are taking with the text. What Watchtower and others are doing is clearly wrong.

23

NWT departure from greek meaning

by aintenoughwiskey in

the new jw library app includes the kingdom interlinear.

just by looking up the scriptures at the meeting when i went, revealed the following "departures" from the other translations:.

rev 5:10 "over the earth" vs "upon the earth".

Island Man

1. Compare the NWT's rendering of Hebrews 4:12 and Revelation 6:9 with Revelation 20:4.

Hebrews 4:12 and Revelation 20:4 accurately translates a Greek phrase as "the word of God". But for some strange reason, the same Greek phrase used at Revelation 20:4 is rendered as "speaking about God". There is definitely something wrong or at the very least, suspiciously inconsistent, with their translation of this Greek phrase in Revelation 20:4. "speaking about God" is clearly not the same as "the word of God". Can you imagine Hebrews 4:12 being rendered as: "for the speaking about God is alive and exerts power..."? "Speaking about God" is telling of an action. "The word of God" is telling of an object - a noun. They are not the same.

2. The NWT's rendering of Matthew 24:39 says that the people of Noah's day "took no note". But the Greek actually says that they "did not know".

From the context, it is clear that Jesus was actually drawing a comparison between people not knowing the day of his presence and the people of Noah's day not knowing in advance the day of the flood. Watchtower evidently translates it as "they took no note" to insinuate that the people were not paying heed to the signs of the times nor to Noah's preaching. But that is clearly not the point that Jesus was making as he was expanding on the point of no one knowing the day of his presence. (Matthew 24:36) Also, there is another Greek word that pertains to taking note. So both the Greek word and the context disagrees with the rendering "they took no note".

3. The NWT's rendering of 2 Peter 2:11 spuriously adds the phrase "not doing so out of respect for Jehovah". That entire phrase cannot be found in the Greek text!

4. The NWT's rendering of Romans 14:8 is corrupt. It replaces kurios ("Lord") with "Jehovah". But what is said in the very next verse (Romans 14:9) makes it very clear that "kurios" referenced in at Romans 14:8 is Jesus and not Jehovah.

Also in the same chapter, their rendering of verse 6 seems questionable to me. In the NWT, Paul speaks of "Jehovah" and "God" as if these are two different persons.

"He who observes the day observes it to Jehovah. Also, he who eats, eats to Jehovah, for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat does not eat to Jehovah, and yet gives thanks to God."

Why would Paul be using "Jehovah" and "God" in such an awkward way as if speaking about two different people, rather than more naturally using only one of these together with the pronoun "him", like so:

"He who observes the day observes it to Jehovah. Also, he who eats, eats to Jehovah, for he gives thanks to him; and he who does not eat does not eat to Jehovah, and yet gives thanks to him."

So I believe Paul was in fact using "Kurios" to refer to Jesus and God to refer to Jehovah. But Watchtower foolishly renders Kurios as "Jehovah" and making Paul out to be an awkward writer instead realizing that he's in fact refering to two different people - Jesus and Jehovah.

49

Terminology the Society Hates?

by toweragent in

in my most recent talk, i got counseled for using some terms that were not prefered.

for example i said "new testament" rather than "the christian greek scriptures".

i also used the term "gospel", but even worse, i made reference to the "synoptic gospels" and the "gnostic gospel".. i guess i never thought of it before, but when i looked at the societies information on the matter they always say things like, "the so-called new testament..." or "the so-called synoptic gospels..." why with all the "so-called?".

Island Man

Don't wish someone 'good luck'.