Posts by drwtsn32

23

So what's wrong with being a "Cult"?

by The Berean in

i looked up the definition of "cult" on dictionary.com.

definition #1 read as follows "a particular system of religious worship, esp.with reference to its rites and cerimonies.

" that soundeed vanilla enough .... scrolling down to #2, i saw "an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal or thing, esp.

drwtsn32

WTWizard,

You give examples of things with a "cult" following... certainly there is nothing wrong with people who are/were fans of Minidisc (like me!), fans of a particular movie, etc. That's certainly not the type of "cult" we are talking about here.

Kevin Trudeau, though? Seriously? He is a scam artist. A convicted felon. He has been sued and fined numerous times for breaking the law. He is currently banned from even being in infomercials. How anyone can still put stock in his bullshit is beyond me.

66

What do you know "without googling" about the reputed mechanisms for evolution?

by gubberningbody in

jw
friends

i see people take positions all day long and i rather suspect both sides are woefully ignorant.. i read and hear people speak of the volumes of data pro or con and when i ask for specific examples of what each may be referring to, i am often met with silence.. .

drwtsn32

I have researched Evolution quite a bit and consider myself pretty knowledgeable, for a non-evolutionary biologist. Of course there is much I don't know about the topic, and many things are quite complex and I don't remember all the details. Evolution, like many topics, is one of those things where the more you study it, the deeper and more complex you realize it is.

I see it all the time though.... someone fighting the theory of evolution in a debate and it is clear they have no real knowledge of it. The JW's are a perfect example. They think the books the WTS publishes on Evolution give them a good knowledge of it. They couldn't be more wrong, yet they are extremely confident that they can defeat the theory in a debate.

It would be better to learn what your opponent truly believes before debating him/her, but that takes more effort than what most are willing to put into it. Those debates are pretty worthless...

64

Why are people so offended by this?

by desib77 in

jw
friends

i've been doing a lot of thinking and have been leaning toward a new conclusion about god.

i'm thinking that i believe in his existance but think that he does not play an active role in our lives.

he does not cause evil but also does not bless...... what do you think?.

drwtsn32

deism - belief in a disinterested God! not for me I prefer the hope that my God cares enough to want to save us from ourselves.

So because you don't prefer that option, it must not be true? Wow. No matter how much we may wish it to be true, our desires do not directly affect reality.

As to why some are offended by this concept... people get offended by differing religious ideas all the time. Many theists are also often offended by the conclusions atheists have come to. Maybe they feel insecure in their position.

64

Why are people so offended by this?

by desib77 in

jw
friends

i've been doing a lot of thinking and have been leaning toward a new conclusion about god.

i'm thinking that i believe in his existance but think that he does not play an active role in our lives.

he does not cause evil but also does not bless...... what do you think?.

drwtsn32

The only thing I still wonder a lot about is the existence of paranormal or unexplained things.

Unexplained things do happen all the time. Sometimes there is just not enough information to know exactly what happened. What I don't get is how someone suddenly makes a leap from "unexplained" to "it must be ghosts" (or other supernatural phenomenon). I thought we just established it was unexplainable? Where is the evidence for this supernatural cause?

It is interesting to note that there has not been a single objective, verifiable case of anything that was proven supernatural in origin. Unexplainable things are often explainable by completely natural processes later when more information is gathered. Or they remain forever unexplained. We human beings must fight the desire to 'explain' the unexplainable by making up something about it. That's what we've done throughout all our history. And IMO that is one reason we believe in God.

23

So what's wrong with being a "Cult"?

by The Berean in

i looked up the definition of "cult" on dictionary.com.

definition #1 read as follows "a particular system of religious worship, esp.with reference to its rites and cerimonies.

" that soundeed vanilla enough .... scrolling down to #2, i saw "an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal or thing, esp.

drwtsn32

Cults are dangerous because they take away a person's individuality and ability to think independently. Cults do this by controlling behavior, thoughts, the environment, and what information the cult member is exposed to.

I find those dictionary definitions lacking. Here is a list of "warning signs" that are characteristic of cults/unsafe groups:

http://www.rickross.com/warningsigns.html

298

Why is the US so afraid of Social Health Care?

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

i just don't get why the us is so afraid of social health care, and is so opposed to the canadian and british models.

the plain fact is that there are far more americans without access to health care than the combined populations of sweden, norway, denmark and finland.. a measure of the maturity of any society has to be how it sees fit to re-apportion its wealth.. we are quick to criticise african leaders who line their own pockets but leave the masses in poverty but cannot see that blindly following capitalist principles is much the same.

if we live in a wealthy society then part of that wealth has to be put back into society as a whole.. .

drwtsn32

Thanks, I will check it out.

298

Why is the US so afraid of Social Health Care?

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

i just don't get why the us is so afraid of social health care, and is so opposed to the canadian and british models.

the plain fact is that there are far more americans without access to health care than the combined populations of sweden, norway, denmark and finland.. a measure of the maturity of any society has to be how it sees fit to re-apportion its wealth.. we are quick to criticise african leaders who line their own pockets but leave the masses in poverty but cannot see that blindly following capitalist principles is much the same.

if we live in a wealthy society then part of that wealth has to be put back into society as a whole.. .

drwtsn32

This is false. Not saying you are lying or anything. Just thought you should know. The commonly used figure for Medicare overhead is not a valid comparison to what private insurances report.

If it's wrong I will stop saying it. Nothing bugs me more than people continuing to use arguments that have been debunked.

What is the best indication that it's wrong? Care to post a link?

5

The Safety of File Sharing ?

by BluesBrother in

before i say this, i am not doubting the integrity of the members who kindly share information such as old volumes of wt stuff, or large files of other historic material.. but a technophobe like me can be spooked by information on the net saying that file sharing sites such as "filesend" and "sendspace" are hotbeds of viruses and malware, that may not be known to the sender and should be avoided.. so my question is to ask that our more technically competent members are happy to use these sites and download files ?.

also , what is the implication of clicking the choice "open" rather than "save" when downloading it?

is "open" safer??.

drwtsn32

So my question is to ask that our more technically competent members are happy to use these sites and download files ?

Depends. If I'm downloading a PDF that someone here posts on a file sharing site, I don't worry much. Viruses and malware are typically limited to programs, not document files like PDFs. I would be much more cautious about downloading programs (especially pirated software).

Also , what is the implication of clicking the choice "open" rather than "save" when downloading it? Is "open" safer??

No, "open" is not safer. "Save" may be safer but only for people that don't run a realtime antivirus program. By using "save" they can then manually scan the file before "opening" it.

The main reason I use "save" is so I can specify where to save the file on my system especially if it's something I want to keep. Depending on the browser, using "open" may just put the downloaded file in some temp directory.

298

Why is the US so afraid of Social Health Care?

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

i just don't get why the us is so afraid of social health care, and is so opposed to the canadian and british models.

the plain fact is that there are far more americans without access to health care than the combined populations of sweden, norway, denmark and finland.. a measure of the maturity of any society has to be how it sees fit to re-apportion its wealth.. we are quick to criticise african leaders who line their own pockets but leave the masses in poverty but cannot see that blindly following capitalist principles is much the same.

if we live in a wealthy society then part of that wealth has to be put back into society as a whole.. .

drwtsn32

Standard mail takes forever to get to its destination. I don't trust it to get my bill payments there on time. I pay for an upgraded service to get it there next day and provides tracking. That's $17.50. Fortunately I don't have a lot of bills.

Forever? I disagree..most letters are delivered in only a few short days, but of course that is dependent upon how far it is going. Do you get guaranteed next day service with tracking for $0.44? Of course not.

BTW, this is a side point but have you considered using an online bill payment service? Almost every bank offers that at no charge.

Complaining that your payment may not arrive on time when you are using a $0.44 stamp and paying your bill at the last minute is not the fault of USPS nor is it proof the government can't operate anything efficiently.

Medicare doesn't sound so simple...and the premiums for most of the plans offered are more than I am paying now... and I have a good plan.

Interesting. My dad just turned 65 and signed up for Medicare. He was paying $2300/mo for insurance. Now it's only a few hundred dollars.

298

Why is the US so afraid of Social Health Care?

by eyeslice in

jw
friends

i just don't get why the us is so afraid of social health care, and is so opposed to the canadian and british models.

the plain fact is that there are far more americans without access to health care than the combined populations of sweden, norway, denmark and finland.. a measure of the maturity of any society has to be how it sees fit to re-apportion its wealth.. we are quick to criticise african leaders who line their own pockets but leave the masses in poverty but cannot see that blindly following capitalist principles is much the same.

if we live in a wealthy society then part of that wealth has to be put back into society as a whole.. .

drwtsn32

Because everything the government runs.... costs far more, has far more bureaucratic layers. Just plain inefficient. Examples: Medicare, Medicaid, the Post office...etc I don't think the American people trust the government to do this well. The pricetag on this will be haunting us for many generations to come.

Medicare has much lower overhead costs than private insurance and yet it has a higher approval rating compared to any other private insurance company.

And the postal service? They'll deliver a letter across the country for $0.44. Try doing that with UPS or FedEx. If I were you I would use AmTrak as an example instead of the US Postal Service, but that's just a suggestion.

The government can do some things just fine.