Island Man

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Posts by Island Man

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  10

  Evolution is a Fact #31 - Micky Mouse

  by GodZoo in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  yep folks.. it's established scientific fact that micky mouse is the result of natural selection and colouring pencils... .

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow79mksodjs.

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  Island Man

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFxu7NEoKC8
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  29

  Is Reading/Writing about Mythologies bad?

  by Messhy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as the topic title says, is reading/writing about mythologies bad?

  i read alot of mythologies and enjoy it.

  should i stop?.

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  Island Man

  No. I think mythologies are actually a good way to write about sensitive social issues without offending the audience. For example, imagine you're trying to teach Palestinians and Israelis about the need to stop the attacks and reprisals.

  If you do a movie about Palestinians and Israelis then one or both sides in the real life conflict might accuse you of supporting the other side and not take your movie seriously at all or take offense at it.

  But if you do a mythological story about two alien clans fighting for control of a particular planet ...

  So mythology can serve as a means of teaching important lessons that address real-world sensitive issues, without directly referencing the those involved and offending them.
  
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  6

  Evolution is a Fact #30 - Your Third Eyelid

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  fish, reptiles, birds and some mammals have an additional eyelid that is called a nictitating membrane.

  it is more or less transparent and unlike our eyelids it moves sideways across the eye.

  as well as protecting the eye it also helps with cleaning and lubrication.. a falcon diving at 200mph has good reason to want to want a pair of goggles to protect its eyes from insects and debris.

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  Island Man

  And don't forget ring species.
  
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  19

  Never Allowed to be Myself

  by NeverAllowestobeMyself in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so my handle has a typo, it is supposed to be never allowed to be myself but i'm okay with that because it is kind of symbolic of my situation.

  as a born-in i have always had expectations forced on me, this is what you are to think, feel and do as a jehovah's witness.

  my earliest memories involve being upset that i would die at armageddon because i was bad.

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  Island Man

  "So my handle has a typo..."

  Is it now? And here I thought it was a creative way of illustrating the point that you're not allowed to be yourself - not even to have your own name the exact way you want it. It's a nice artistic typo, if I may say so.
  
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  13

  making memorial bread parties

  by wannaexit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i though i'd heard and seen it all.

  i guess i was mistaken.

  i saw from various social media the the witnesses are holding parties to  make memorial bread.

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  Island Man

  I think we're seeing the religion attempting to go mainstream from the rank and file level. The GB have instituted some cosmetic changes in a bid to make the religion more appealing to young people - Kaleb and Sofia cartoons for the kids; encouraging the use of electronic devices at the meetings; soft-rock and pop music videos on JW broadcast, ...

  Many JWs are as a result pushing the envelope in terms of engaging in more liberal behavior that would have been frowned upon decades ago. More and more dubs are taking the religion less religiously and more socially. Memorial bread parties are symptomatic of the phenomenon.

  One of two things is going to happen soon:

  • The GB is going to do a 180 turn and tighten the reins a bit to squelch growing trends toward watering down and liberalizing the religion.

  • The GB is going to allow the liberalizing to continue and JWism will slowly water down more and more into a social club until eventually it loses it's extremist flavor altogether and become like the Catholic church.
    
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  32

  Self-Driving vehicles and delivery robots - why?

  by FadeToBlack in

  1. social
  2. current

  i saw a 'news' article today about pizza hut (i think) delivering pizzas via a robotic vehicle in nz.

  also another article headline saying it is not a question of if, but when.

  my immediate thought was, why?

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  Island Man

  I will say this however. When it comes to artificial intelligence, I believe that such beings should not be physically enabled. They should just be a brain in a box, able only to give information but not perform any physical actions or physically control other systems. Great care needs to be exercised with AI. We already know what humans are capable of. it would be foolish to develop super-smart AIs with free will to act. Just as there is separation for church and state in America, there should be separation of brain and actuation when we're dealing with Artificial Intelligence.

  And when I speak of artificial intelligence, I'm not speaking about the illusion of artificial intelligence. I'm speaking of actual Artificial intelligence, as in self-conscious, self-willed intelligent beings.
  
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  32

  Self-Driving vehicles and delivery robots - why?

  by FadeToBlack in

  1. social
  2. current

  i saw a 'news' article today about pizza hut (i think) delivering pizzas via a robotic vehicle in nz.

  also another article headline saying it is not a question of if, but when.

  my immediate thought was, why?

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  Island Man

  History has shown that there will always be work for humans. So I don't worry about the fears of automation taking away all our jobs. As fast as automation takes over human jobs, brand new fields of work are opening up which require human labor. The day when robots take over all our work - will that be such a bad day? Would it be such a bad thing to live in a world where production is increasing with limited or no human labor? Imagine if we spent all our free time with family and fiends, going to the beach, hiking, learning - lifelong learning! Maybe human labor will be reduced to political decision making, scientific research and managing of robotic resources. Think about how many new inventions will come about with everyone involved in lifelong continuing education and research and inventions because all the more menial jobs are taken by robots!
  
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  32

  Self-Driving vehicles and delivery robots - why?

  by FadeToBlack in

  1. social
  2. current

  i saw a 'news' article today about pizza hut (i think) delivering pizzas via a robotic vehicle in nz.

  also another article headline saying it is not a question of if, but when.

  my immediate thought was, why?

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  Island Man

  Why?

  1. Greater safety. Most accidents are caused by human error. Remove the human from behind the wheel and you remove - or at least drastically reduce - human error
  

  2. More free time to do other things. Think of the office workers who have long hour long commutes. That hour long drive behind the wheel could be spent doing something else like - working or power napping or something else, while the car drives itself to your destination.

  3. Cheaper and more flexible access to transportation. With self driving cars you don't need to know how to drive to own a car or use one by yourself. In fact, owning a car becomes less of a necessity and more of a luxury. How so? Well taxis would become more available and more affordable because there's no human taxi-driver to be paid. Removing the labor cost involved in public transportation would significantly reduce the cost. The cost of insurance will also drop once it becomes obvious that automated self-driven cars are safer. This too will further reduce cost. And because these cars aren't driven by humans you can have 24-hour access to transportation even in countries that don't have 24-hour working days!

  When you combine self-driving cars with improvements in GPS technology, a tourist can go to a foreign country and literally go anywhere at anytime without fear of getting lost! Every location will have a GPS address - even homes, and maybe even mail! No more hassles trying to give a taxi driver confusing or complicated directions on how to get to a person's private home. If someone gives you their GPS address, you don't have to worry about how to get there - the GPS-enabled self-driving car will figure it all out. You don't ever have to worry about getting lost! Think of the freedom of travel that opens up for the tourist!
  
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  16

  My life as a fundamentalist

  by joey jojo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  as a born-in jw, i never considered myself to be a fundamentalist.

  i always thought we were enlightened, progressive and not 'stuck in darkness' like all the other religions.. i was totally wrong.. as far as fundamentalists go, jw's are probably right up there amongst the front-runners.

  no, they do not stone people to death or go on religion-fuelled violent rampages but that's not what i'm talking about.

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  Island Man

  JWs are self-loathing fundamentalists. By that I mean they are fundamentalists who try to put up a front of moderation and pretend that they are reasonable.

  This is clearly seen in their view of the word "Creationist." They scorn the folly of young earth creationists and hide from the reproach and shame of creationism by dishonestly denying that they too are creationists.

  To hide from the fact that they too are creationists who believe the equally foolish idea that humans have only been around for 6000 years, they dishonestly play the word game of redefining the word creationist to refer exclusively to young earth creationists.

  It's a fundamentalist cult that works hard to present a public image of being balanced and reasonable. They even trick themselves into thinking that they are balanced and reasonable! And it's all done by the use of deceitful linguistics and crafty fallacious reasoning. Example:
  

  "Oh we don't shun members who leave! We just don't associate with them as much because we don't share common interests. They are the ones shunning us! They are the ones who wrote a letter saying they don't want anything to do with us!"
  
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  31

  "Ones"

  by Joe Grundy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  (i never was a dub).. this is something which has intrigued me for a while.

  i don't know whether it's dub-speak, or us-speak.. it's the use of the word 'ones' as in 'interested ones', 'worldly ones', 'disfellowshipped ones' and so on and so on.. in the 'normal world' we would probably use the word 'people'.. thoughts?.

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  Island Man

  I think we should look at the literature. It may just be that the term was used by one of the more prolific writers in the writing department and so it entered the JW culture in that way. I don't think there's anything ulterior behind its use. I think it's just a word that has become part of JW culture.