Perry - it's ONE study. It doesn't matter where it's printed. It has to be reproduced by other scientists to validate any results and that still doesn't validate how the data is being interpreted. Please reply to what I actually said - thanks!
Overwhelmed
by Freedom rocks 50 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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StarryNight9
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snakeface
Just read the Bible. It's all in there.
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cofty
The findings directly impact the theory of evolution. - Perry
The findings add to our knowledge about the age and diversity of extant species. It confirms the fact of common descent from a single ancestor over millions of years.
Think of life as a dense bush where extant species are represented by the tips of twigs. The question the paper addresses is the relative length of each twig.
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caves
Freedom rocks-Does anyone else feel overwhelmed on what to believe?
I've been doing lots of research on beliefs, evolution, creationism but I feel no further forward about what I truly believe.
For example I looked at the fossil record and tiktaalic and thought great it proves a lot but then I've seen counter arguments on YouTube of people basically saying its a load of rubbish and doesn't prove anything.
I'm left confused because there seems to be strong arguments for and against most theories and discoveries.
12 years ago after I had saved up 100,s of books of all kinds of spirituality, religions, archaeology and more I moved in to the mountains off the grid and while working my two full time jobs and learning to live off the grid I read most all of them. MIND FUCKING BLOWN.
The first year was great. The next 4 were a living hell. Why? because the only thing left to pick apart for me was my belief system.
Let me tell you, you do not know yourself unless you live isolated in the mountains with no human interaction for months at a time(no internet, just books and nature) then every tiny 'demon' you have hidden in the depths of your mind will surface.
It drove me to madness and I got help. But I understand myself in a way I never thought possible.
And if I thought going off the grid was hard. Coming back on and diving into technology has been equally as hard if not harder now.
I always dreamed of living off the grid growing up and I did it. I saw so many things. Grizzlies, mountain lions, cougars, and much more.
One of my summers in the mountains I remember a plant I had never seen before that had purple flowers on it and I was so lonely I would talk to it. It didnt talk back.lol. Unless you count just feeling connected to the peace it brought me when nothing else did.
I cant believe 'nor others' that I went to such extremes to escape my own mindand find it and bebunk it.. Yet what I really did or how it played out is I learned more about myself then I could have ever learned. It turned out I couldn't escape myself nor the abuse from the wtbts cult. For me it accelerated the deprogramming. And broke my heart.
Now I still live pretty far out and am trying to reintegrate back into society and it has been a very long process.
I find that spirituality is a never ending spiral even after all that experience and I also found that people need people.
So much much more I could say about my experience but I digress for now.
To the OP, thousands upon thousands of years and people are still 'Looking'. I dont think we will find the "answers" in our life time in a framework that is operating on a flawed premise.
Science,hard facts, archaeology, are a decent place to start. Imo.
Caves
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cofty
Interesting post Caves!
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Finkelstein
A part of creationist's intellectual dishonesty is that they dismiss much of the scientific evidence that supports evolution, Perry is just but one these individuals, so you really aren't getting anything out his mouth but biased selective information he gathers off the inter-net that opposes evolution.
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Half banana
A fascinating experience you have had Caves and I concur with your conclusion as to where to start. The safest way not to be misled is to stick with things which are provable and not the speculative or dreamy religious hype material.
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OnTheWayOut
Perry:
My basic premise is that while all people are equal, ideas are not equal. And, while we cannot go back in time and see for ourselves what happened, we can try to ground certain conclusions with things we know to be facts (premises) now. Things like:1. All life comes from previous life
2. All information comes from a mind
3. All books have authors
Etc.
A Transcendent God (one outside of our 3 dimensional universe) conclusion doesn't contradict the premises I listed above.
See, there is an example of self-imposed nonsense. Perry feels he needs to know and demonstrate that the creator exists, so he falls for the "outside of our 3 dimensional universe" theory. That really means "I have no answers, so my god is exempt." I don't point this out to poke fun at Perry, but rather to demonstrate that you are better off to accept "I don't know, and that's okay." -
unsure
I understand feeling overwhelmed. Check out my post history for topics I've started that showed my confusion on what to believe.
We will never truly and objectively know the right answer.
On my good days, I just try to live in the moment.
I like this quote:
"The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." - Neil deGrasse Tyson
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joey jojo
Hi Freedom Rocks.
I certainly wouldn't pretend to have the answers to your opening post. However, I will say that believing you know everything (like JW's do) is a really childish attitude and I think being able to admit to not understanding everything is proof of wisdom and a sign that you are strong enough to test your own beliefs.
There is a good youtube clip of Ricky Gervais on a talk show being asked about God and the answer he gave is really thought-provoking.
For those that haven't seen it he made the point that if all holy books were destroyed today and all knowledge of them was lost, they would never be reproduced in the same way, with the same characters and stories.
However, if all knowledge of science was lost today, eventually everything we know would be re-discovered and be EXACTLY the same.
Maybe its an idea for perspective in your search.
Cheers.