Posts by Laika

18

Christianity (including Jehovahs Witnesses) is the rejection of Christ

by exWTslave in

christianity (including jehovahs witnesses) is the rejection of christ.

take one of the most important teachings of jesus:.

1) he says one can even love his enemies and do good to them, and can tolerate anything (luke 6:27-32).

Laika

If your interpretation of Jesus way is so simple why do you keep sinning ExWTslave?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagianism

22

Evolutionary psychology?

by Laika in

jw
friends

i've read a little bit of work from the field of evolutionary psychology, but nearly all of this stuff comes across as pseudo-scientific bs to me.

much of this stuff just seems to me to be a case of preferring a particular human behaviour over another one, and then saying that this is what nature intended with a story about how it 'evolved'.

a lot of evolutionary psychologists also seem to use evolutionary psychology as cover for their misogyny or racism.. i think most of our behaviours are socialised rather than genetic.. i am hardly an expert here however so could, of course, be completely wrong.

Laika

Here are some articles that I think demonstrate some of the problems with evolutionary psychology:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/may/18/satoshi-kanazawa-black-women-psychology-today

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2011/01/darwins_rape_whistle.html

http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/geoffrey-miller-fat-shaming-tweet-chinese-eugenics-59327/

It would be unfair to tar all evolutionary psychologists with the same brush of course, but as a field it does seem to attract people who want to claim scientific support for their bigotry, unfortunately.

219

An important difference between atheists and true believers

by Hortensia in

true believers, whether christian, muslim or whatever, want to convert you, they want you to believe what they do, and they're willing to go to extremes to make it happen.

atheists don't really care what you believe, and don't go out of their way to convert someone.. http://ow.ly/vn1jz an example of what believers in power do to suppress any difference in thought.

http://ow.ly/vraeo an example of why believers want to suppress different ideas (because they can't win in a fair fight, that's why).

Laika

Cofty, I think you misunderstood me. All I did was point out that non theists were doing most (not all) of the complaining about tone on this thread in response to the complaints about whiny theists. I never said I agreed with their comments, I actually defended the board's atheists in my post 961 on this thread.

219

An important difference between atheists and true believers

by Hortensia in

true believers, whether christian, muslim or whatever, want to convert you, they want you to believe what they do, and they're willing to go to extremes to make it happen.

atheists don't really care what you believe, and don't go out of their way to convert someone.. http://ow.ly/vn1jz an example of what believers in power do to suppress any difference in thought.

http://ow.ly/vraeo an example of why believers want to suppress different ideas (because they can't win in a fair fight, that's why).

Laika

Viviane, why so dismissive? apognophos, frazzled, xanthippe, talesin and sammie were all non-theists who criticised the tone of some atheists on this thread.

22

Evolutionary psychology?

by Laika in

jw
friends

i've read a little bit of work from the field of evolutionary psychology, but nearly all of this stuff comes across as pseudo-scientific bs to me.

much of this stuff just seems to me to be a case of preferring a particular human behaviour over another one, and then saying that this is what nature intended with a story about how it 'evolved'.

a lot of evolutionary psychologists also seem to use evolutionary psychology as cover for their misogyny or racism.. i think most of our behaviours are socialised rather than genetic.. i am hardly an expert here however so could, of course, be completely wrong.

Laika

DS, I have discovered that the biologist PZ Myers is also skeptical of evolutionary psychology: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/category/bad-science/evolutionary-psychology/ so I am not yet convinced that I have to accept evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology as a package deal, though of course I recognise that our brains were subject to evolutionary processes as well.

Cofty, thanks for your response, I was hoping you would contribute to this thread, I will try to come back with some examples for you tomorrow.

22

Evolutionary psychology?

by Laika in

jw
friends

i've read a little bit of work from the field of evolutionary psychology, but nearly all of this stuff comes across as pseudo-scientific bs to me.

much of this stuff just seems to me to be a case of preferring a particular human behaviour over another one, and then saying that this is what nature intended with a story about how it 'evolved'.

a lot of evolutionary psychologists also seem to use evolutionary psychology as cover for their misogyny or racism.. i think most of our behaviours are socialised rather than genetic.. i am hardly an expert here however so could, of course, be completely wrong.

Laika

I've read a little bit of work from the field of evolutionary psychology, but nearly all of this stuff comes across as pseudo-scientific bs to me. Much of this stuff just seems to me to be a case of preferring a particular human behaviour over another one, and then saying that this is what nature intended with a story about how it 'evolved'. A lot of evolutionary psychologists also seem to use evolutionary psychology as cover for their misogyny or racism.

I think most of our behaviours are socialised rather than genetic.

I am hardly an expert here however so could, of course, be completely wrong. That is why I am curious to get the opinions on this 'science' by the board's actual scientists and educated evolutionists.

Thoughts?

51

Are JEhovah's Witnesses reaching out to the Gay community ?

by Watchtower-Free in

.

apostate & ex-jehovalarious meme collection.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/jwmeme/.

Laika

Ha!

Very few of the male JWs I know would be comfortable studying with an openly gay man, those who would be willing would be considered suspicious by other males JWs.

219

An important difference between atheists and true believers

by Hortensia in

true believers, whether christian, muslim or whatever, want to convert you, they want you to believe what they do, and they're willing to go to extremes to make it happen.

atheists don't really care what you believe, and don't go out of their way to convert someone.. http://ow.ly/vn1jz an example of what believers in power do to suppress any difference in thought.

http://ow.ly/vraeo an example of why believers want to suppress different ideas (because they can't win in a fair fight, that's why).

Laika

Hmm... Most of the people complaining about tone in this thread are not theists...

I didn't dislike Tec, I thought she was a nice lady, but it was difficult to have a conversation with her because her response to any disagreement was to tell you that you just didn't have ears to hear or something. Anyway, there's a big difference between strongly expressed disagreement and ridicule. The latter is something I've experienced here rarely and if it became the default way of dealing with me as 'a believer' I'd stop posting here for the same reason I rarely bothered with Tec, not because it would offend me but because it's not conducive to good conversation and would be a waste of my time. I don't foresee this happening however.

Meanwhile I genuinely enjoy posting here.

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