Evolution and spirits

by Chris Tann 149 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • DATA-DOG
    DATA-DOG

    No one has disproven the existence of spirits. Providing evidence that certain psychological events are often interpreted as "supernatural" and disproving the existence of spirits are two very different things.

    DD

  • Witness My Fury
  • b00mslang
    b00mslang

    As an Engineer, it is my opinion that Psychology is fluff (like Sociology, Philosophy, and Poly Sci). It's pure snake-oil.

    It's a course of study for mental defectives that can't pass math or materials science. Or, for dope smokers on their way to Law School.

    Vy do zu hate your muther? I don't hate my mother, I love my mother! Ahhh...zo, you vant to haf zex mit your muther?

    Tards, with really bitchin' couches.

  • prologos
    prologos

    This quirk of human perception must have its roots somewhere in the evolution processEven Jesus was in th dark about it.

    curing epilepic attacks by driving pigs into free fall?

  • LisaRose
    LisaRose

    Just because something is reported in a newspaper does not prove it happened, only that a few people believed it happened. Yes, people are skeptical of stories like this, and they should be. The word of a few eye witnesses is not really proof of much. If demons existed you would have some concrete evidence of it, physical proof that things happened, not just the word of a few people. I believe an incident happened, but it was not demons, just the over active imaginations of those involved.

    Several years ago, an incident happened in an emergency room, where a woman who had been undergoing chemo therapy was taken in for a complication of the treatment. This was in the early days of chemo, not much was known about possible complications. A nurse thought she smelled something funny, and then she got dizzy and felt sick. Other medical staff started feeling sick also, they were convinced they had been poisoned by the chemo somehow. So many people got sick the emergency room was shut down until it could be investigated. After much testing of the air, the original cancer patient and all the medical staff, it was determined to be a case mass hysteria. The fear of possibly being poisoned caused these people believe they were sick, but they were never actually sick at all. When people are afraid, their imaginations take over, the brain is capable of filling in the blanks and causing you to feel actual physical symptoms. That is why you need more that the memories of a few people.

    Memories are not actually all that concrete. People's memories of things can be manipulated and change over time. That is why eyewitness accounts of things are not actually all that reliable. Police are used to accounts of the same incident being wildly divergent.

    On the other hand, evolution has been verified, over and over, by thousands of scientists in different fields. While scientists are learning new things all the time, the basic facts about how we evolved has not changed. Recent DNA research has filled in the blanks, but not contradicted, on the whole, from what was known from other evidence.

    Comparing what we know about evolution to one news story is comparing apples and oranges. You should study the evidence for evolution, it's really quite interesting. I have a subscription to National Geographic, I have learned so much from that. It embarrasses me that I was once so ignorant as to reject evolution because the Watchtower did. They manipulated facts, misquoted scientists and used third grade logic to attempt to prove evolution wrong. All of their so called proof is easily shown to be wrong. There is a reason they haven't updated the evolution book in forty years, because, for one thing, DNA research completely contradicts the bible account.

  • erbie
    erbie

    ' There are no such things as spirits. It is all psychology and superstition'

    Is that supposed to be a statement of fact?

    It certainly sounds like one to me.

    People, be free to believe in what you want so long as it does not harm others...

  • Witness My Fury
    Witness My Fury

    Plenty of harm comes from people believing in nonsense, children are killed because relatives believe they are exorcising demons, that is without all the untold adults who suffer the same fate.

    LisaRose nailed it.

  • designs
    designs

    ...you just don't see the old Pigs over the Cliff prescription being used enough these days....

  • Onager
    Onager

    Chris Tann does this link remind you of the account you're referring to? It's in a coffee shop, not a hospital, but the "magic" sounds the same.

    http://www.today.com/popculture/carrie-telekinesis-stunt-gives-coffee-shop-patrons-extra-jolt-8C11356002

    This is a prank which has gone viral recently. Your account sounds like the genesis of an urban myth based on it. If you read some of the articles on Snopes.com you can see how these sort of stories start and then change.

    This is just my theory, but changing the location to a hospital rather than a coffee shop (more dead people \ angry spirits in a hospital) gives the story "spirity" credentials and changing the man into a child ups the emotional hookyness.

  • KateWild
    KateWild

    So many people nowadays are abstract thinkers. They don't need evidence for their beliefs, just a little personal experience. I know someone who doesn't believe in God, but believes in spirits and fortune telling and in evolution.

    In the UK evolution is something taught at school and is not mutually exclusive to belief in God and spirits. Concrete thinkers however, which all JWs are, and some continue to be once they wake up, need to have defined bounderies for their beliefs. Concrete thinking is very childlike and does not give a person the balance that is required as an adult.

    Kate xx

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