Posts by Abaddon

50

What is your IQ?

by skyman in

jw
friends

my iq is 130 i have taken the test twice and both times it was 130. the detailed report said i am very high in math and logical thinking, but lower on language skills.

i believe this site has helped me with spelling and grammar.

i type rather fast now compared to when i started posting.

Abaddon

IQ tests try to measure 'g', a term denoting general intelligence, which is information processing ability as distinct from knowledge-based.

Try IS the operative word, as it is surprisingly hard to factor out ALL 'knowledge', and this makes cross-cultural comparisons fraught with error.

Although I think a company selling a method of increasing IQ is probably having you on (as is anything online claiming to accurately measure IQ), I feel if you're deprived of simple keys to process information through environment, you will feel smarter when you learn those keys, as the keys themselves are just information handling techniques and simple in themselves. It's the only thing I can account for in terms of the difference between how I think now and how I thought before getting a proper education.

19

How do you think the world will end?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

i was watching this national geographic program called "the end" the other day.

it showed different events that could end mankind and possibly the planet.

in each one, there is true in possibilities and they never showed an example of god destroying the world.

Abaddon

The EARTH will cease to exist at some vastly distant point in the future when the Sun gets biggers as it cools.

The WORLD will have already changed beyond recognition at that point.

Whether those changes wipe out man or not is another question.

23

JWs - Prudes or not Prudes?

by Spectrum in

i was looking at jwconnections out of curiosity thinking i'd find a selection of prudish jw women but was shocked to find that some of these women don't look prudish at all.

they'ed probably give worldly women a run for their money.

maybe things are changing.

Abaddon

Spectrum

They'ed probably give worldly women a run for their money. Maybe things are changing.

Have you actually dated and lived with 'wordly' women? I sure as hell noticed a difference, but maybe I should have sniffed after Ruth Rochester a little more, or gone for a teen pioneer instead of a ten-year older reinstated Witness, and 'trained them up' proper. But then I was sexually inexperienced and clueless, so what would I have known?... although NOW I could really have fun... come here Sister, I want to show you my new presentation...

LOL. As far as JW women go, for a start you'll probably end up with;

a/ someone who is a good little JW, so say good bye to blow jobs and a sexually experienced partner and or one who feels comfortable with their own body.

b/ someone who is a bad little JW, who has masturbated, necked, petted, sucked and acted pretty much like a normal person whilst developing a sexual identity, but who still can't break away from a toxic and damaging cult.

Wow, what a great choice!!!

What's with the cultic loaded language by the way? That little weasel word 'worldy' is JW shorthand for 'bad, wrong, to be avoided'. Do you still think that way or does your vocabulary need to catch up?

PS; answer to evolution thread?

53

PROOF OF REBIRTH?

by Dansk in

jw
friends

rebirth, as opposed to reincarnation, is a fascinating topic and the following two stories have been taken from the tibetan book of living and dying by sogyal rinpoche (available from amazon books).

the second story, that of a child, came to the attention of the dalai lama and he sent a special representative to interview her and verify the story.

there have been many other rebirth stories published and the subject holds a special fascination for me.

Abaddon

All there is to 'prove' rebirth are STORIES. Thus far nothing has ever been observed under controlled circumstances. Doesn't mean there is no rebirth, but there is a proven tendancy for old religious beliefs that do not respond to scientific observation to turn out to be superstisious nonsense. Whether this is the case with rebirth remains to be seen, but on the balance of the evidence AND THE LACK OF IT, I'm not betting on it.

However, if I had a choice of afterlife, rebirth would be my fave option, so please don't mistakenly conclude I don't want to believe. I just can't lower my standards of evidence enough to let myself as otherwise there's SEAS of unproved bollocks I'd have to regard as 'fact'.

I also should mention my fiance is convinced she knew me in a previous life.

metatron

Instinctive knowledge in animals - It makes no sense to me to think that specific complex behaviors are actually programmed into the genome.

Well, stick a pair of beavers hand-reared into a bare concrete cell and watch them MIME dam building activity. Then see your opinion of what makes sense is wrong and change it. There are loads of other examples which prove complex behaviours are often not learned but transmitted genetically.

As funky points pout, Vivekananda was writing before the modern rediscovery of Mendelian Genetics, so he was uninformed.

Likewise, you are stuck in old fashioned views of the genome (funky uses the good counter of recepie to your canard of blueprint), and rather than reading fluff about Remote Viewing (never ever proved in reputable and repeatable scientific experiments - please provide evidence to the contrary) would be well advised to read some modern text books before being so sure you are right and modern science is wrong.

I also think that reincarnation would explain homosexuality, if a soul/spirit/thetan can return as the other gender.

Why do you need to 'explain' homosexuality?? What did gay people do to you you need to 'explain' them like you need to 'explain' juvenial delinquents? Break into your house and decorate it? Dress smarter than you? Dance better?

Get over it, some boys like boys some girls like girls, stop making 'excuses' they probably don't want and definately don't need.

Oh, and what's with the thetan crap? WE KNOW that's wrong.

7

New Kansas Science Standards

by hooberus in

the following are the recently approved "kansas science standards" (taken from official site).

http://www.ksde.org/outcomes/sciencestd.doc.

read them for youselves, and compare with how they have been represented by evolutionists and the media.

Abaddon

hooberus

Any smart comments on the Dover ruling? Or do you ignore the court cases where ID is shown to be foisted on students by an unrepresentastive and uneducated bunch of people intent on inserting religious teaching into school?

I love this quote by Mark Twain;

"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards."

Let us see what mealy-mouthed nonsense Kansas is up to - how many times has this come up in Kansas in the past decade or so?

Evolution is accepted by many scientists but questioned by some. The Board has heard credible scientific testimony that indeed there are significant debates about the evidence for key aspects of chemical and biological evolutionary theory. All scientific theories should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered. We therefore think it is important and appropriate for students to know about these scientific debates and for the Science Curriculum Standards to include information about them. In choosing this approach to the science curriculum standards, we are encouraged by the similar approach taken by other states, whose new science standards incorporate scientific criticisms into the science curriculum that describes the scientific case for the theory of evolution.

While the testimony presented at the science hearings included many advocates of Intelligent Design, these standards neither mandate nor prohibit teaching about this scientific disagreement.

This seems to e an attempt to not take responsibility for what is taught in Kasas schools...

29

Please, Help Me Understand,How Does Somethng come from Nothing.

by Blueblades in

jw
friends

whether it is god or the beginning of evolution, how did it come from nothing?

we are here, that is a fact, where did we come from?

belief systems are another thing, where is the proof of anything?.

Abaddon

Hi Ian

But someone will say that God put the spark there that started all Creation.

Which is why I phrased what I said the way I did. I can't 'prove' abiogenesis as being mechanistic, although I think it was. However, I do believe that divine intervention was not neccesary for life, once present, to develop as the prehistorical record indicates.

Questions Dominic asks are typical of what we've all asked: "If there is a God why does he allow so much suffering?"

Because the idea of god as a big skyman who kisses it all better is silly and primative, even though it might comfort some.

"Why doesn't he prove he is there?"

Because 'god' is abstract, and exists in our minds, and we are part of it. There is no way to prove it, nor is there a personality in 'god' to conceive the neccesity of proving itself.

"Why do we have to die?", etc.

We question this because we have been lied to. Everything ends. Only religious superstition makes us wonder why, combined with the fact we CAN wonder why.

The whole aspect of the Universe and life is absolutely fascinating. What reason(s) for its existence?

29

Please, Help Me Understand,How Does Somethng come from Nothing.

by Blueblades in

jw
friends

whether it is god or the beginning of evolution, how did it come from nothing?

we are here, that is a fact, where did we come from?

belief systems are another thing, where is the proof of anything?.

Abaddon

To be honest, no one can.

You can believe a creative entity just happened to come from nowhere, or that is had always always been there (which 'dodges the issue' for someone with no imagination, but to most people is just avoiding the issue without answering it).

Or you have to believe that there were physical processes taking place leading up to the 'Big Bang'... the explanation of which relies upon maths so complex for most of us it's the equivalent of believing god was always there.

Look at what life around you tells you.

Is god neccesary for the development of biological life?. Catagorically no. Look at how the ID-ers and Creationists fail, time and time again to support their blasphemous chacaterisations of god as some primative tribal diety doing magic.

Does this mean there is no god? Again, no.

Is there hard evidence of 'god' being invovled in human history? None that withstands investigation.

Does this mean there is no god? Again, no.

Maybe 'god' is an emergent characteristic of human society; rather than humans being made by god, human societies reach a point where they make god. At first in their own image - violent, petty, brutal (read the first five books of the Bible, or any other 'Holy Book'). But later as an image of what we would like things to be like, an ideation, a unifying whole.

For me there is far more support for 'god' being an idea that is greater than sum of its parts, rather than some silly tribal deity.

37

Anyone take up smoking after leaving the borg?

by AK - Jeff in

jw
friends

i still consider it a bad habit with health concerns.

but i am honestly attracted to the idea of a pipe and cherry tobacco.. i have joked of it some with wifey, but not too serious.

maybe though just an occasional pipe or a cuban would be ok?.

Abaddon

I started cigarettes after I left the Borg as spliffs made me cough my guts out and I needed to get used to smoke.

I got up to 20-a-day, but it was smoking on reflex, not real enjoyment (unlike spliff), and within three years or so I'd more-or-less quit cigarettes and maybe had a handful of hand-rolled cigarettes in additon to spliffage a day.

In the past few years I now mostly smoke spliff (a few a night), which is herbal canabis rolled with tobacco. I do have the occasional cigarette or handroll, but it's either when I am out drinking or if I use the smoking room at work for a conversation with a coleauge, in which case I'll accept one.

I now have my craving sorted to the extent that I can go away for three weeks (or a weekend etc.) and not smoke anything, so I guess I could quit totally, but I don't want to.

30

Did any of you head off to University after leaving the org

by yaddayadda in

one of my biggest regrets is not getting a degree, due to the jw brain-washing against higher education.

i feel a strong sense of never having reached my academic potential and having been restricted in many ways by this.

i was a high achiever at high school + some teachers were bemused that i never went on to varsity.

Abaddon

I started College the week I left my wife and stopped attending meetings.

I'd planned it for 4 months. I'd almost left my wife and the Borg a year previously, but at that time hadn't considered going to College.

I studied a year-long course designed to get me up to the level where I could study Science at University. In England you normally have to have 'A' levels to go to University, and they're normally in the two years after your 16th year. I'd never got them.

I studied my arse off and much to my surprise (I really wasn't academic at school) found it was easy, and got really good marks

I then started at Exeter University studying a BSc(Hons) in Physics and Science Education, a four-year long degree qualifying you to teach Science 11-17. I did this for 3 years, moving from the Physics strean to a General Science one as I discovered I loved Biology, getting results of 2.1 (in England it is 3rd, Lower second (2.2), Upper second (2.1) and First, the last being best) most of the time.

I then ran out of money. I left University, and ended up completing my degree via the Open University (distance learning). At Uni' I had also discovered I loved writing and literature, ending up the Editor of the University Newspaper. Having had to take stock with my financial problems, I really thought I'd rather study English Litetature, and the way you make up a whole degree through OU allows you to do this. I now have a BA(Hons), I suppose it's best described as a major in English Literature and a minor in Science and Science Education.

The past few years I've been supporting my fiance as she studied; once we get financialy stable again (she's gone from earning a third of what I earn part-time whilst studying to earning more than me, how cool is that?) I'd LOVE to go back to Uni' for a year and take a teaching certficate, and teach English to 11-17 year-olds.

I've done well in my job (I am a Manager in an International Call Centre providing high-level tech support to consumer and business electronic manufacturers, I liase with the clients), but unless I'm busy it bores me, and I am rarely THAT busy (as my posting bears out).

Getting an Education was one of the best things I have ever done. Do it, You owe it to yourself. For me, it was like learning to think for the first time.

69

Gaps in Fossil Record Disprove Evolution? What about Gaps in Creationism?

by Reluctant Buddha in

missing links disprove a theory???.

what about this one, creationists!!!.

real t-rex .

Abaddon

Looking forward, as ever, to the responses from Creationists et. al.

This is fun, it's all about the Dover court case;

Some highlights;

Consider, to illustrate, that Professor Behe remarkably and unmistakably claims that the plausibility of the argument for ID depends upon the extent to which one believes in the existence of God.

Isn't it great that one of the leading lights of ID is such a $ucking muppet in a court case over whether ID is a religious belief, he agrees that ID's belivability varies according to whether one believes in god. LOL, with 'friends like that... '

Dr. Miller presented peer-reviewed studies refuting Professor Behe’s claim that the immune system was irreducibly complex. Between 1996 and 2002, various studies confirmed each element of the evolutionary hypothesis explaining the origin of the immune system. In fact, on cross-examination, Professor Behe was questioned concerning his 1996 claim that science would never find an evolutionary explanation for the immune system. He was presented with fifty-eight peer-reviewed publications, nine books, and several immunology textbook chapters about the evolution of the immune system; however, he simply insisted that this was still not sufficient evidence of evolution, and that is was not “good enough.”

Nice display of a Creationist disregarding inconvenient evidence; no refutation of a decade of research, just a smug empty statement. Must make Creationist's very proud!

Both Defendants and many of the leading proponents of ID make a bedrock assumption which is utterly false. Their presupposition is that evolutionary theory is antithetical to a belief in the existence of a supreme being and to religion in general. Repeatedly in this trial, Plaintiffs’ scientific experts testified that the theory of evolution represents good science, is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, and that it in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator.

ID is based on lies, but some of us knew that...

The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID policy.

Nice to see that moral scruples will not stand in the way of Creationists wishing to misinform children.

Why people beliece sucj rubbish I don't know... it is really sad...