Island Man

Joined

• started 138 topics
• posted 2,374 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Island Man

• 
  44

  Proof the earth can be flat

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "our perception of reality has more to do with what is going on in here (our brain) than what's going on out there (in the world).".

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03g221y.

  is it a dark square or a light square?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  Our knowing the shape of the earth is not based solely on visual perception. The spheroid shape of the earth can be proven by other means. So no, the earth can't be flat.
  
• 
  24

  Theism is a Fact #1

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  nope sorry i got nothing.. wouldn't it be really interesting though if somewhere there was a theist who could challenge unbelievers with facts and evidence?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  Theism IS a fact!

  Note Google's definition of the word:

  belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief in one god as creator of the universe, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to his creatures.

  Is it not a fact, Cofty, that there exists the belief in the existence of a god or gods? Therefore theism is a fact. It is a fact that people believe in the existence of god(s)

  However, as for the actual existence of god(s) - That's not a fact, only a belief, and an unfounded one at that.
  
• 
  73

  Witnesses killed my friend today.

  by WasOnceBlind in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  today has been a horrible day.

  what began as a day of joy finding out that one of my lifelong friends had her baby, turned into a nightmare when her brother called me to let me know she had passed away after birth.

  i was in shock and didn't ask how.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  Cofty: I have not the slightest doubt the leadership no longer have faith in their own blood policy. They are murderers.

  Those sick bastards are probably reasoning to themselves:

  We do not cause the death of anyone who refuse blood transfusions. We only allow it by not issuing new light overturning the ban on transfusions. There is a big difference between causing something and allowing it. For example Jehovah allows suffering but he does not cause it. See the chapter on God in the bible teach book.
  
• 
  11

  Are you related to me?

  by Coded Logic in

  1. social
  2. current

  the chances that anyone on this forum is my biological brother or sister, purely from a statistical point of view, is rather low.

  but how many generations back would we have to go to have a fair chance that one of my ancestors married one of your ancestors (or procreated anyway)?.

  i was born in 1985. less than 20 years before my birth my two parents were being conceived by a combined 4 parents of their own.. and if we go back even further, to 40 years before my birth, then i'll find an additional 8 ancestors.. around the 60 year mark i have another 16 ancestors.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  If you're human then yes, I'm sure we're related.
  
• 
  26

  Evolution is a Fact #7 - Human Egg Yolk Gene

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  exploring the human genome is like roaming around an historic town.

  some places are pristine and obviously still in everyday use.

  others have been unused for a while and starting to show signs of decay and if you look carefully there are relics of buildings that were abandoned long ago.. in this post we are going to look at a gene that we still carry in every cell in our body but which fell into disuse 10s of millions of years ago.. humans are placental mammals.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  "Are we (modern technological culture) effecting an eventual biological change, by rejecting 'nature' and turning to substitution for mother's milk? In other words, will we 'lose' the ability to lactate, as more generations of babies are not fed from the breast? In effect, 'use it or lose it'?"

  That is a very good question talesin. It's the kind of question that reveals you have an understanding of how evolution works. What you're asking seems like a biologically plausible possibility but might require some other conditions for it to become a reality. Maybe if the human population got decimated and became very small and those who did not breastfeed had a survival and reproductive advantage over those that did, then yes it could happen.

  Somewhat related to your question, it might interest you to know that there is a high incidence of lactose intolerance among East Asians. The reason for this is that they stopped drinking milk regularly like western cultures do and as a result, when a gene required to produce lactase - the enzyme used to digest lactose - became damaged, because there was no selective pressure to keep the healthy genome, the damaged genome became pervasive. There may have even been selective pressures to keep the lactase-deficient genome. For example, herding milk-producing cattle, might have slowed down a nomadic tribe fleeing from murderous pillagers or owning milk-producing cattle may have made the tribe targets of pillaging.

  However, people in the west continued to rely on milk so there was a selective pressure to keep preserve the healthy gene and weed out defective versions that popped up.
  
• 
  22

  Swearing on the bible

  by Lost and adrift in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  on the subject of truth.

  ..... i was always under the impression that one of the reasons jws couldn't do jury duty or go to court etc was that we were not allowed to swear on the bible.

  ..as in i swear to tell the truth the whole truth etc etc .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  If I'm not mistaken Watchtower at one time taught that it was wrong to swear.
  
• 
  64

  Would a loving creator give humans the gift of free will?

  by Heisenberg in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  they say ignorance is bliss... well, i wish that god did not give adam free will.

  i am ok to not have free will if it means i will live forever in perfect paradisiac conditions.it has been explained that free will is a gift from god.

  they say 'who would want to live life like a robot?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  Yes a loving creator will give humans the gift of free will.

  What seems odd to me though, is using free will as an explanation for how perfect creatures with perfect minds could ever commit sin.

  The initiation of thoughts in the mind is actually an involuntary occurrence dictated by environmental factors. Yes with some effort you can consciously dismiss an unwholesome thought - but only after it has already arisen in your mind. And herein lies the problem: If God created man perfect why should it be possible for sinful thoughts to involuntarily pop into a perfect mind, presenting the risk of sin? This shows that there is a design flaw.

  Consider this: Does God have free will? JWs and all other theists will say yes he does. Yet the bible says that it is impossible for God to lie or act unjustly - it is impossible for him to sin. Thus God as described in the bible refutes the JW teaching that it is impossible to have free will without the possibility of sin. It also highlights the fact that the God of the bible created Adam with a design flaw. For he could have made Adam to have free will coupled with the same inability to sin that he (God) has.

  If man has to have the ability to sin in order for his choice to love God to have any value, then what does it say about God's love for anyone if God lacks the ability to sin?

  So the arguments that JWs use to explain why free will and love necessitates the freedom to sin - those arguments are refuted by God's nature as described in the bible, a being who has free will yet is unable to sin.
  
• 
  32

  was Darwin an atheist?

  by Ruby456 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  asking this q because my own feeling about this is that he probably believed in god but his evolutionary thesis is used to support atheism.

  how come?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  Evolution does not equate to atheism. Evolution only disproves a literal interpretation of the Genesis account.

  I think the word agnostic is useless because it does not really distinguish anyone as being different from anyone. Everyone is agnostic. No one knows that a God exists. Everyone is without knowledge - agnostic - of God's existence. The difference between atheists and theists is about belief - not knowledge. Theists believe a god exists. Atheists lack belief in a god. But both atheist and theists lack knowledge of God's existence - they're both agnostic, if theists are honest with themselves. So the word agnostic applies to everyone in the set of humans so it is pretty much a useless, superfluous word, being misused for political window dressing.
  
• 
  291

  Evolution is a Fact #1 - Protein Functional Redundancy

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i intend for this to be one of a series of bite-sized ops on the evidence for evolution.. introduction to dna genes are sequences of dna made up of words (codons) each of which are three letters (bases) long.

  there are only four letters in the genetic alphabet (acg&t) each word or codon is the recipe for one amino acid.

  there are 20 different amino acids in living organisms.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  People are still trying to prove evolution. It still hasn't been proven .

  If evolution were true there would be an abundance of evidence.

  Those statements are completely false. Evolution has already been proven and there is an abundance of evidence.

  You obviously know very little to nothing about evolution and are just parroting what you've heard from anti-evolution, pro-creation sources. If you really did look into the subject you would know just how false your statements are and how short-sighted and ignorant your reasoning is.

  I know this because I was once just like you saying very similar and it was due to my ignorance and my assumption that what pro-creation sources - specifically Watchtower - were saying, is true. Boy was I wrong! If you don't research evolution from credited scientific sources and you just accept what anti-evolution, creationist sources say, you're doomed to remaining in complete ignorance and repeating blatant falsehoods, fallacies and miss-characterizations.
  
• 
  28

  There are some real beauties posted here!

  by stillin in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this one is worth repeating.

  it was buried in a thread and u've been thinking about it all day.. a quote from mark twain, one of my all-time heroes.. "it's easier to fool a man than it is to convince him that he has been fooled.".

  isn't that the truth....

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Island Man

  "The wise proclaim their ignorance. The credulous proclaim unproven beliefs as truth; and the stupid reject facts that unsettle their mind" - Island Man.

  "Truth is confident and brave; it does not censor; it does fear dissent; it is open to scrutiny; it stands strong in the face of every challenge; Truth is undeniable, unchangeable reality." - Island Man

  "Untruth is insecure and cowardly; it censors; it fears dissent; it does not tolerant scrutiny; it falls in the face of challenging facts. Untruth is disprovable, transient unreality." - Island Man