Posts by Island Man

2

Similarities with North Korean leadership

by stillin in

jw
friends

i wonder whether nk leader un has even seen this movie, "the interview.

" he might even get a laugh out of it.

but the censorship is so similar to the censorship found among jw's!

Island Man

It's all over the news that NK is verbally attacking the US because of that very said movie. Trust me, Un has seen the movie! LOL

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/26/world/asia/north-korea-the-interview-reaction/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

13

just a heads-up / status update - i'm still working on the issues so please don't think i've abandoned you if you still can't sign in and i haven't replied to your email.. i will get things sorted out and then we'll have the old gang back together.. thanks again to you all for your patience and perseverance while the teething problems are being ironed out.

Island Man

We know you're working hard to resolve issues, Simon.

Even with the minor issues like having to sign in each time I visit the site in a new browsing session, despite having checked the option to remember me, the new site is still an improvement from the previous one.

I personally appreciate the readability of the posts. I can now zoom the page and still comfortably read entire lines in a post without having to scroll horizontally.

Good work Simon!

7

JW Doctor mis-Illustrates a Blood Doctrine

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

today i added a new article to my blog addressing an article written by a jw medical doctor in a regional medical journal.

it's part of an initiative giving attention to how licensed medical professionals among jws have dealt with the blood transfusion subject.

what they say, how they say it, and what they don't say are all very telling.

Island Man

His abstain from penicillin fallacy illustration is just another version of the JWs' abstain from alcohol fallacy illustration. As you rightfully pointed out the very critical difference between the why of abstention from blood and the why of abstention from penicillin, is conveniently omitted because those very critical differences in the whys causes the comparison to fall flat on its face for the fallacy that it is.

Another interesting point is this: JWs apply the command to abstain from blood to blood transfusions by equating a blood transfusion with the eating of blood. What's their basis for equating the two? Since feeding can be done intravenously as in the case of very ill patients, they reason, then the administering of blood can be compared to such feeding since it too is done intravenously. I don't know the technical term for this kind of fallacy, but it's basically the fallacy of equating two practices (transfusions and feeding) based on the fact that they share a common action (intravenous administration of a substance).

This is a very interesting fallacy that makes hypocrites out of the JWs. Why? Because if they apply this flawed reasoning consistently, they should also be abstaining from invasive gynecological examinations. You see, Acts 15 also says to "abstain from ... fornication" - a practice which often involves inserting an object into the vagina. So by the JWs' fallacy of equating two practices based on a common action, both practices (fornication and invasive gynecological exams) share the common action of inserting an object into the vagina. Therefore Watchtower should regard such gyn exams as a form of fornication and instruct JWs to refuse them.

Of course, if you tell a JW that abstaining from fornication should apply to gyn exams based on their own fallacy of equating two practices based on a common action, the JW would be quick to say you're being ridiculous and proceed to show you how the two are not the same. He might point out the different motives and objectives between the two actions ... and then you can take his own reasoning and turn it around to the blood issue to show him how the organization's position of equating blood transfusions with the eating of blood is just as ridiculous.

3

Why the -2 shown for my In Box?

by Marvin Shilmer in

on this new version of jwn my inbox notification icon has the little mailbox emblem and next to it a -2. what is that all about?

.

Island Man

I'm getting it 2.

25

Public Speaker Training stifled by wt, it's new 'school' programme.

by prologos in

the 2015 school setup, discussed this week eliminates the last "school talk" by brothers in favour of 'demonstartions" (a la sisters conversations) of family worship sessions and the like.. is this not a shift away from encouraging bright young ones to hone their (under-estimated) speaker skills ---to.

now using more of the die-hard, org-bound, --even elders in indoctrination demonstrations?.

do you see this trend?

Island Man

Well in case you haven't noticed, the members of the governing body are not impressive public speakers at all, compared to many "rank and file" elders who give public talks.

They clearly don't pay too much attention to their own art of public speaking so why should it be surprising that they would vote to cut out public speaking training parts from the TMS?

180

Please post new forum feedback or questions here

by Simon in

well, the switchover happened - there were a couple of things i had to fix which meant the posting was disabled for longer than i planned but it's now enabled and some people have already posted.. if you have any questions about the new format or suggestions on how to improve it, please post them here.. if you are having trouble signing in or posting then you'll need to email me instead.. many thanks to everyone for their patience during the changeover !.

Island Man

Thanks Simon.

180

Please post new forum feedback or questions here

by Simon in

well, the switchover happened - there were a couple of things i had to fix which meant the posting was disabled for longer than i planned but it's now enabled and some people have already posted.. if you have any questions about the new format or suggestions on how to improve it, please post them here.. if you are having trouble signing in or posting then you'll need to email me instead.. many thanks to everyone for their patience during the changeover !.

Island Man

Are we going to have a button for emoticons or is that feature gone or do we have to write it out in code form like ;) ?

8

Welcome to the new forum!

by Simon in

if you are reading this then you are on the new site :).

posting is disabled until i check everything is working correctly.. please standby ....

Island Man

Are we having emoticons or are they gone?

8

Welcome to the new forum!

by Simon in

if you are reading this then you are on the new site :).

posting is disabled until i check everything is working correctly.. please standby ....

Island Man

Sweet!

52

Steve Pinker ... evidence on the surprising decline in violence

by digderidoo in

jw
friends

this is an interesting lecture.

one that flies in the face of current jw and i assume most non jw thinking.

evidence shows that when examining history mankind was more violent over the centuries than they were during the 20th and 21st century.

Island Man

One example of the utterly fallacious reasoning used to prove the inspiration of the bible is the internal harmony of all the books written by different authors. I find it surprising that theists can't see through this ruse. Given that the bible was written by different authors who lived at different times wrote their books years apart isn't it very likely that the authors of later bible books would have had access to and read the earlier bible books? For example, isn't it likely that the author of Revelation would have had access to and read Genesis? And having been educated by what he read in Genesis and believing it to be true, should it be surprising that the author of Revelation would think and write Revelation in a manner consistent with the "education" he received from Genesis and pre-existing bible books? So it's to be expected that each bible writer who would have read and believed what was written in the preceding bible books would have had their minds shaped by that information and would only naturally write their own books in a manner consistent with thinking shaped by preceding books.

By way of an example, a person who has studied the subject of evolution and believes it, would go on to write a book that is in harmony with current scientific thoughts on the subject of evolution. If you were to pick up that person's book and compare what it says with what is said in other scientific books on the subject of evolution, you would notice harmony. Are you to conclude from that the all those books were inspired by the same divine author because that's the only explanation for the harmony despite there being different writers? Of course not! How ridiculous!

For the internal harmony argument to have any merit, this is what would have had to have happened: All the bible writers would have had to write their books at the same time in different locations and not being aware of the contents of each other's books at the time of writing their own books. If that were the case then we could give merit to the internal harmony argument being evidence of divine inspiration - but not when writers wrote their books years apart and would have had access to preceding books, so as to make any harmony be explanable by purely natural means.