Posts by DJS

26

Why don't people believe Facts?

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

i have enjoyed some fascinating debates on the forum.

i have found it interesting when" facts" have been presented to support a viewpoint, yet the " facts" have then been rejected.. what does this mean?.

well the " truth" is as a dub, i was often presented with " facts" that the organisation was wrong, yet as this information challenged my belief system i convinced myself the " facts" were either completely wrong or misinterpreted, .

DJS

The Rebel,

Back Story. Experts in these areas suggest that humans have been around in their present form for about 100,000 years. For about 85,000 years our ancestors were hunter/gatherers existing in smallish clans and groups and going where the food was. About 15,000 years ago humans figured out how to plant food and cultivate it. Voila, the farmer was born. Experts suggest the humble farmer was the genesis of modern civilization, as now humans could stay put, grow their food and build communities around them (while still fending off nasty hordes for a long time).

But let's go back to the first 85,000 years. Researchers suggest that the typical humans busied themselves in four pursuits, commonly called the 4 "Fs": Feeding, Fleeing, Fighting and Procreation (you are welcome Simon). During this period, humans who could achieve these tasks at a high level more often survived to pass along their DNA. Rational thought and intelligence obviously were factors along the way, but when the primary issue is to eat or be eaten, kill or be killed, have your way with your women and keeping them away from other males, or get the hell out of Dodge as quickly as possible, those given to quick and powerful emotional reactions to real or perceived threats were often the fittest. There isn't much place for philosophy, altruism, fair play, over analysis or self actualization when the 4 "Fs" occupy your time.

So to be fair to our pathetic species, we are who we are for a reason. Think about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The bottom support for this pyramid is comprised of security and safety - food, covering, etc. Maslow suggested that humans couldn't reach the higher rungs unless and until the bottom rungs were satisfied. This fits perfectly with how we evolved.

Consider the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator. Upwards of 45% of the planet's population is in the Guardian category. Artisans and Idealists follow. Dead last, with only 7% of the population, are the Rationals. The manner in which we evolved helps to explain and understand this.

Although Maslow and MB get some criticism, they are very accurate in explaining human tendencies and personalities.

So to sum it up; we are screwed as a species. It will take generations to begin changing our basic nature through natural selection. Long live nerds and engineers.

26

Why don't people believe Facts?

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

i have enjoyed some fascinating debates on the forum.

i have found it interesting when" facts" have been presented to support a viewpoint, yet the " facts" have then been rejected.. what does this mean?.

well the " truth" is as a dub, i was often presented with " facts" that the organisation was wrong, yet as this information challenged my belief system i convinced myself the " facts" were either completely wrong or misinterpreted, .

DJS

The Rebel,

Because humans are an irrational, un-evolved species typically driven or led by their emotions, and emotions are the lowest rung on our socio-evolutionary ladder. Confirmation bias and pride are two of the primary factors, and both have everything to do with emotions and nothing to do with rational thought.

From Wiki: "Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs (the only thing required to Believe is to Feel - DJS). People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position (i.e. conspiracy theorists - DJS). Biased research, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).

Explanations for the observed biases include wishful thinking and the limited human capacity to process information. Another explanation is that people show confirmation bias because they are weighing up the costs of being wrong (pride/arrogance - DJS), rather than investigating in a neutral, scientific way."

Having said that, most of what we present in debates is more evidence than fact. We all should demand critical analysis of evidence, regardless of the topic. But alas, too many of us dig our furry hooved little feet into the concrete and clinch our tiny fists into balls and dig in for a fight.

29

Why continue to suffer??

by Tigerlove in

jw
friends

i occasionally come on this website because i have my eyes on a particular user.

because of that, i end up reading a lot of people's post.

although very interesting and hurt breaking, a lot of them are very strange.

DJS

@sparrowdown: "Oh come on, you desperados, there are probably enough stalkers to go around. Sheesh!!"

Yeah, but most if not all my stalkers hate me.

29

Why continue to suffer??

by Tigerlove in

jw
friends

i occasionally come on this website because i have my eyes on a particular user.

because of that, i end up reading a lot of people's post.

although very interesting and hurt breaking, a lot of them are very strange.

DJS

Stalker?

Take a number and queue up.

29

Why continue to suffer??

by Tigerlove in

jw
friends

i occasionally come on this website because i have my eyes on a particular user.

because of that, i end up reading a lot of people's post.

although very interesting and hurt breaking, a lot of them are very strange.

DJS

Not me. Not ever.

30

No more reporting time for field service!!!

by Khaleesi in

so at last i am in my next step of my fade, this month is the first month i did not turned in any hours.

i received a text from our group leader an ms & i told him i didn't have any to report, then of course it got bumped up to the elder & i text him back i have no hours to report for december.

i came to this decision when reading many posters here about the yearbook stats, i do not want & refused to contribute to this organization "boosting" numbers for their glorious purposes, after the rc in australia they do not deserve for me to give them a "production" report of what i do for god, no more.

DJS

Khaleesi

It is time to take back what is yours - your life, your freedom of choice, your conscience. Be true to your namesake.

"I am Daenerys Stormborn of the blood of old Valyria and I will take what is mine! With fire and blood, I will take it!"

"When my dragons are grown, we will take back what was stolen from me and destroy those who wronged me! We will lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground!"

43

Evolution is a Fact #3 - ERVs

by cofty in

part 1 - protein functional redundancy.... part 2 - dna functional redundancy.... imagine you are teacher with suspicions that some of your pupils have been copying from each other.

comparing the correct answers in all of their assignments might not provide conclusive evidence.

they could simply claim they had all carefully revised the same textbooks so it shouldn't be surprising that they all gave the same answers.

DJS

CB,

"If the same remnant of a virus was found in exactly the same place in the genome of two different people it would be irrefutable evidence that they both inherited it from a common ancestor."

The smoking gun for evolution it would seem. If we didn't evolve then your god made the same mistake over and over and over and over. He didn't just have a bad day; he had a bad millennium - or thousand.

Someone provide a better explanation. Sometimes theists claim god used both evolution and creation. Try that.

This is also a non-economic forum, a non-military strategy forum, a non-global political forum, a non-relationship forum …… But we talk about all of these things regularly.

Keep talking CB; you are about to make this your greatest hit, surpassing the one where you justified trying to steal an elderly sister's fortune.

43

Evolution is a Fact #3 - ERVs

by cofty in

part 1 - protein functional redundancy.... part 2 - dna functional redundancy.... imagine you are teacher with suspicions that some of your pupils have been copying from each other.

comparing the correct answers in all of their assignments might not provide conclusive evidence.

they could simply claim they had all carefully revised the same textbooks so it shouldn't be surprising that they all gave the same answers.

DJS

Clambake,

There are two acceptable responses in a debate: 1. Refuting the evidence, the manner in which it was collected (by whom - possible bias, whether scientific methods were employed, whether it has withstood peer review, etc.). Please provide counter evidence or refute Cofty's; and 2. the analysis or evaluation of the evidence - Cofty has presented the evidence in a simple manner so that evolution dunces such as me can understand. If you have a problem with his evaluation, please point it out. To this point, you have used the following debating tactics, which are employed by someone who can't do either 1 or 2 above:

Name calling

Questioning the motives of the opponent

Citing irrelevant facts

Sloganeering

Rejecting facts or logic as opinion

Mockery

Innuendo

43

Evolution is a Fact #3 - ERVs

by cofty in

part 1 - protein functional redundancy.... part 2 - dna functional redundancy.... imagine you are teacher with suspicions that some of your pupils have been copying from each other.

comparing the correct answers in all of their assignments might not provide conclusive evidence.

they could simply claim they had all carefully revised the same textbooks so it shouldn't be surprising that they all gave the same answers.

DJS

Clambake,

The old DJS (circa 2015) would have said something like: "What's the matter Clambake, did you run out of old womens' life savings to pilfer so you thought you would annoy Cofty?"

But that was the old DJS.

291

Evolution is a Fact #1 - Protein Functional Redundancy

by cofty in

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.

DJS

@sowhatnow: "while I sit with a deer in the headlight expression on my face".

But you wear it so well Oh Queenly One. Men, and when I say 'men' I mean me, are attracted to that air between the ears' look.