Posts by Island Man

41

Ayahuasca The Soul Herb

by new boy in

i'm writing this tread for the people out there that are still looking for some kind of answers.

people who feel the void that any organized thought system can produce.

people who know there is more to this life than our daily routine which eventually will end, when we no longer exist.

Oh come on! It's a mind altering drug. It doesn't uncover any truths that lie within. It just warps your thinking and gives you hallucinations. Our "reality" - as we perceive it - is a construct of the mind. Alter the mind with a drug and your perception of reality will obviously change. It's not truths being revealed it's just a medically induced warped perception of reality. At best, it might have some psychological and recreational benefits and maybe stoke your powers of creativity, but it's not some magical doorway to hidden truths. Enough with the mumbo-babel!

Ancient peoples actually believed that they were seeing the spirit world when they had drug-induced hallucinations. They thought hallucinogenic drugs were a doorway to the spirit realm. That's why the greek word for spiritism in the book of Revelation is the same word from which we get prefix pharma used in words pertaining to drugs. Today we know that these drugs are affecting the brain which in turn produces hallucinations. Revelation unwittingly reveals that "spiritism" is all in the mind - drug-altered minds!

315

Flat earth vs round earth

by Jrjw in

my brother has been talking about the earth being flat and some big conspiracy going on to make people beieve otherwise.

what are people's thoughts on this?.

Island Man

Anyone living in 2017 with access to so much information and yet believes the earth is flat, is truly a stupid person - among the most stupid of persons. I don't think it's possible to get any dumber without being certifiably insane. Anyone who says he believes the earth is flat is either trolling or very stupid.

There is just so much scientific evidence proving the earth is spherical, not to mention the actual photographic evidence taken from space. The flat earth conspiracy theorists have to invent all manner of precarious, convoluted explanations to explain away the scientific evidence for a spherical earth. And no one flat-earth model explains away all the compelling evidence for a spherical earth. Flat earthism is basically a crazy contrarian cult for conspiracists.

84

Spirit Channeling at Wallkill's Bethel

by Marie33 in

look what an ex-bethelite has to say about the spirit channeling he saw first hand up at wallkill:.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfmqnzbyrko.

now i believe rayven's story of horror at brooklyn bethel:.

Island Man

There could be a kernel of truth to the story. Alcoholism is endemic in Bethel. Illicit sex happens at Bethel. Every other kind of vice happens at Bethel. Why wouldn't there be incidents of spirit-channelling happening at Bethel? Not that I believe they're actually speaking to any spirits. But look at JW culture - the belief in demons and the belief that dead anointed are in heaven revealing truths to the GB. Isn't it enough to inspire some bethelites to experiment?

I think that's all it is - a few adventurous bethelites experimenting - but this fact is being exaggerated and blown out of proportion and used to accuse the GB of being involved. It's the same with the SI (subliminal images). There were some actual SI in some of the older Watchtower publications like the Live Forever book. This was undoubtedly the work of pranksters in the art dept. But this fact has been blown out of proportion to the point of accusing the GB of being involved in systematically adding SI to the literature. It has gotten to the ridiculous level that many are putting mirror over Watchtower literature to uncover hidden demonic faces - I mean, come on people!

19

Aliens

by Jayk in

i thought i was weird that i believe in aliens.

until i remembered that people believe there is a god..

Island Man

Belief in aliens is not weird. However, belief that UFOs are alien vessels - that is weird. Our own existence creates a plausibility precedent for the existence of life elsewhere in our unimaginably vast universe. It would be weird to think we are all alone in the universe. The fundamental laws of physics conspire with the great distances involved, to make it virtually impossible for alien life to be visiting us in moving spacecraft. Insurmountable distances likely separate us from any other intelligent life.

To me, the footage looks fake. The background around the object seems to be of a different brightness to the background in the rest of the video. This leads me to suspect there's some kind of image manipulation involved.

78

Pacifism is Morally Indefensible

by cofty in

i have been surprised recently to see so much support by ex-jws for the watchtower's refusal to fight and kill.

in my opinion it is a vice masquerading as a virtue.

of course war should always be a last resort but there are occasions that it has to be done.

Island Man

I agree, Cofty.

The very Bible that JWs claim to base their beliefs and morals on, shows that war is justified under certain circumstances. Abraham went to war to free Lot from captivity. Cornelius was an army officer when he was baptized. The Bible uses soldiers as a metaphor for Christians. Why would it do that if the god of the Bible is so opposed to war? Are there any scriptures where Christians are metaphorized by prostitutes, thieves, murderers? No. Only soldiers. That says something. There is no scripture in the NT that categorically condemns war. In the Bible, war is regarded as an unpleasant but necessary evil that god will put an end to in the future. It is noteworthy that while the scripture in Psalms talks about god putting an end to war and destroying weapons of war, it does not say the soldiers will be destroyed because they participated in war. War is only bad in the bible when it is against god's people.

46

Will Artificial Intellegence Make The Human Race Extinct?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

i think it is inevitable.

i don't worry about it but it just seems that the human race is going down a road that they can't make a turn off.. they are probing/discovering how the human mind works and produces intelligence down to the individual molecule.

now with the invention of the super quantum computer soon we will be able to build even better artificial intelligence greater than our own, so it will be easily able to out smart us because will we be a bunch of dumb apes first discovering how to make fire in it's eyes.. it will have it's own different agendas than us humans.

Island Man

"I believe AI will just do what it is programmed for"

That's just the problem. The kind of AI currently being developed and experimented on, isn't programmed to do a specific task. It learns how to do its task by being fed lots and lots of data. It finds patterns in the data and creates and tweaks its own rules for processing data based on those patterns. It is like a child that learns to talk and learns the meanings of words by listening to others talk and the context in which specific words are used. It's learning the way we learn, albeit in a far more rudimentary way - for now.

A lot of people get hung up on the issue of consciousness and self awareness. But these aren't needed for AI to be a danger. All that's needed is superintelligence. AI has already proven itself superior to us in basic strategic reasoning used in games.

5

Jehovah's Athiest

by stuckinarut2 in

so i found this old video on youtube!

it is the "new" faith called "jehovah's athiests".

enjoy:.

Island Man

Jehovah's Atheists would basically be helping people to reason logically to free themselves from the superstitious belief in, and fear of, Jehovah.

5

Jehovah's Athiest

by stuckinarut2 in

so i found this old video on youtube!

it is the "new" faith called "jehovah's athiests".

enjoy:.

Island Man

How about a presentation like this:

"Hello, my name is [name], and you are?

. . .

Well hello, [householder]. Today we were just asking out neighbors this thought-provoking question and would love to hear your view on it: Is the truth always positive and/or hopeful? Or to put it another way: Can the truth be very negative?

. . .

Well that an interesting viewpoint. Let me give you an example:

A man goes to his doctor for the first time in 10 years after a few years of braving chronic pain. The doctor does his routine checks then something catches the doctor's attention and the doctor sends him to do additional tests. The results come in and the doctor says: 'I'm very sorry, but it doesn't look good. You have very late stage cancer - a particularly aggressive kind of cancer at that. There is nothing we can do for you now except provide palliative care as needed. You have 6 months to live, 1 year if you're exceptionally fortunate - or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it.'

Now what if that man says:

'Doctor, what you're telling me does not provide me with any hope. I want to live to see my granddaughter graduate from college. But according to your diagnosis that's impossible. Therefore I refuse to accept your diagnosis in favor of believing I have severe arthritis because that gives me the hope of seeing my granddaughter graduate.'

Would that be wise reasoning on the man's part? Does the fact that the doctor's diagnosis is very grim and offers no hope, mean that it's not true and should be rejected?

...

Well sir many people today refuse to entertain the the possibility that there is no god. Why? They often reason: 'if there is no god then this life is all there is. If there is no god there is no divine justice for all the oppressors who never faced justice. If there is no god I will never see my deceased mother again. Therefore I refuse to believe that there is no god because I cannot cope with the unpleasant implications of that idea.'

Is that reasoning much different from that given by the man dying from cancer who denies the truth because it's upleasant?

44

Things You Still Agree With The JWs On

by Fred Franztone in

aside from obvious things that most people agree on, like theft being wrong and the importance of family, i can't think of a single thing i agree with the jws on, nothing that's specific to their religion anyway.

do you have any?.

Island Man

Religion is a snare and a racket.

No one should be forced to worship in a way they do not approve of or be made to choose between their beliefs and their family. (However, the strange thing is that JWs don't agree with themselves on this matter. They're hypocrites)

35

Professions in the Paradise

by The Real Edward Gentry in

jw
friends

we know there will be no money in paradise.

but there will almost certainly be jobs to do.

we will be perfect at our jobs but that doesn't mean we will be perfect at every job.

Island Man

There won't be any professions if people lived forever. If you don't have to save for retirement then there's no rush to make as much money as possible to create a nest egg for retirement. If there's no rush to make as much money as possible before retirement then you have a lot more free time on your hand - an eternity. If you have a lot more free time on hand then you can take your time and learn to do anything you want to do so you can do it yourself. There's no rush to do most things because life is very, very, very long, so it will get very, very, very slow-paced to point of being torturously boring.