Thanks, Midge!
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seattleniceguy
JoinedPosts by seattleniceguy
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85
DNA - belief destuction
by donkey inthe single largest reason to decimate my belief in jw?s and all biblical faith occurred when i discovered some facts about our cells.
specifically a part of the cell called mitochondria.
mitochondria are sometimes described as "cellular power plants" because their primary purpose is to manufacture adenosine triphosphate (atp), which is used as a source of energy that the cell uses.. as humans one inherits one?s mitochondria only from one's mother, this finding implies that all living humans have a female line of descent from a woman whom researchers have dubbed mitochondrial eve.
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Anyone from Washington? Seattle?
by curlygirl in.
hey!.
i'm new to the site but, would love to talk to other ex jws in the area.. curlygirl
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seattleniceguy
Hello and welcome, curlygirl!
At first they all wanted to say that someone must have stumbled me------I find that concept soooooo offensive. It implies weakness and it takes the opposite of that to leave the only thing you've ever known.
My thoughts exactly. For JWs, all doubt is weakness, but in reality, it takes tremendous, gut-wrenching strength to think about issues squarely.
In a related vein, my big revelation came when I realized that JWs want you to be weak, not strong. If you are "weak" and you get DF'd because you "give into fleshly desires," then they have compassion and hope. But if you are emotionally healthy, in charge of your life and mind, and you say, "I've thought carefully about this matter, and it is not true," then you are an apostate.
Or in conversations as a Witness, if you talk about your weaknesses, you're sure to get a lot of empathy. "This old world, it's so tough," etc, etc. But if you are a strong, mature person, you won't find much good company, and you'll be viewed with suspicion. To a JW, weak = righteous, strong = evil.
Yes, I live in Seatle. I'm near Northgate Mall. Sending you a PM...
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DNA - belief destuction
by donkey inthe single largest reason to decimate my belief in jw?s and all biblical faith occurred when i discovered some facts about our cells.
specifically a part of the cell called mitochondria.
mitochondria are sometimes described as "cellular power plants" because their primary purpose is to manufacture adenosine triphosphate (atp), which is used as a source of energy that the cell uses.. as humans one inherits one?s mitochondria only from one's mother, this finding implies that all living humans have a female line of descent from a woman whom researchers have dubbed mitochondrial eve.
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seattleniceguy
Midget-Sasquatch,
The mitochodrion (and chloroplasts in plants- which also have their own circular DNA) are about the size of typical bacteria and double-membraned. This has led to the hypothesis that mitochodria (and chloroplasts) were originally separate bacteria and they entered symbiotic relationships with other cells, eventually evolving to the more familiar eukaryotic animal (or plant) cells we're familiar with. Neat stuff to contemplate.
This is fascinating. I remember when my biology teacher at the community college I went to tried to explain this to us. Of course, I was too bull-headed to listen and instead dismissed it out of hand before even hearing the evidence with a very JW-esque, "I can't believe how they just accept speculations!" Oh, the irony. Anyway, I was wondering if (besides the talkorigins site cited at the beginning of this thread) you have any books to recommend on this subject?
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How do you answer when the witnesses call at your door?
by jeanniebeanz in.
to tell the truth, i am surprised that they call on me anymore since they know who i am.
just curious as to what you all say to them now that you know what they really represent.. jean
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seattleniceguy
I haven't yet had the chance, but I'm looking forward to it. Especially if they are young people who might still be open to reason.
I really liked FunkyDerek's approach. Talk about being trapped in your own lies! If I were a Witness and that happened to me, I'd think about that for a long time.
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Internal Reaction to Monthly Awake
by ezekiel3 inwell the news is getting around within the congregations about the awake!
going to a monthly beginning 2006.. some reactions from active jws:.
one sister actually dances a jig.
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seattleniceguy
LOL...Funny stuff, Zeke!
One sister actually dances a jig.
Another sister proclaims, "Isn't it just amazing how the Slave knows just what we need."
I recall similar reactions when the pioneer hours were reduced to 70 a month.
Another sister, "Good, there's was just too much fluff in there anyway."
That's so hillarious. Just a couple months ago, a person would have been considered disloyal for suggesting that the contents of the Awake were "fluff" or that it would be better for it to go to one issue a month.
I think you make an interesting point about getting honest reactions when there is a big change like this. Of course, the censor-filter is still on, and Witnesses try to make sure their expressions match the new official sentiments, but the juxtaposition of the new sentiments with the sentiments that were being expressed just days or weeks previous makes for interesting food for thought.
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New Software Program Purports to Prove Evolution
by Room 215 inresearchers at the university of michigan hae developed a software program that purports to replicate the process of random selection and that incontrovertibly proves evolution.
it's named avida, and is freely available via internet download.
it's all explained in the february issue of discover magazine.
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seattleniceguy
Hey u/d,
Morals and ethics can be explained from an evolutionary standpoint. In a hostile world, species are tremendously advantaged by cooperation. In order for cooperation to work, certain baseline rule of conduct are necessary. Many animals besides humans form groups that resemble tribes (consider wolves, apes, ants, etc), and they protect and cooperate with members of their tribe, while warring with others. Primates often show conspicuously human traits such as compassion for their fellows.
As humans, we are able to analyze our own behavior and label it "animalistic" or "humanistic," but those descriptions don't really bear on whether the behevaior was supplied through evolutionary or creationist means. So it is not really "trying to have it both ways" to accept evolution but still use the adjectives "animalistic" (resembling behavior in animals) or "humanistic" (resembling behavior considered unique to humans).
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Also, I just wanted to respond to the original post in which the poster wrote that the authors of the software program had gleefully pronounced it "incontrovertible evidence" of evolution. I don't think any scientist would say such a thing. A computer simulation cannot become any kind of evidence, let alone incontrovertible evidence, for something that occurs in the natural world, because does not represent observations of the natural world. (Okay, okay, maybe a computer program could provide evidence that computers work in a certain way.)
The really powerful aspect of computer simulations is that they help researchers determine more effectively where to look and what to focus on, or as training/illustration tools. I'm sure it's one of the latter purposes that this software serves.
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A friend in need did it!
by Badger inhe's made his 200th post on this here apostate board!
now, all you jwders, show him how much you love him!.
badger, of the roasting class.
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seattleniceguy
Hey there, AFIN,
200 posts and still a die-hard Witness apologist? You're setting a new record there, my friend. That's cool, though. I totally understand. Service here has got to be way more fun than normal service. You can actually talk to people who know their stuff and can have intelligent conversations with you.
Hope you stick around!
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Anyone like me where you still believe in MOST of their doctrines?
by inquirer inlike i don't like that un involvment, record keeping.
i don't know what to think about the paedophile stuff, because you could accuse the catholic church of that too.
but apart from those things i still believe that god's name is jehovah, his son is jesus, no trinity, and he died on a torture stake... i love reading the new world translation, i believe it's the best one, but i love reading other translations too!
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seattleniceguy
I was going to reply, but then I noticed that AlmostAtheist's reply exactly summed up my experience as well. You rock, Dave!
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What does death really mean? How can we reconcile death and eternal Hell
by JerichoForce inmy next posting due early next week will deal with supposed violence and judgement in the old testament as many in this forum have stated that they can't understand the issue of violence as they see a god of violence portrayed in the old testament and can't reconcile him with a god of love.
i will endeavour to address this issue in some detail...thank you and god bless... can i ask a couple of things please, you might be able to help me make some sense of this.
do you believe in hell as an everlasting place of torture?
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seattleniceguy
How can we reconcile death and eternal Hell?
Easy. Death means the cessation of life, and eternal Hell is a fairy tale created by people who wanted to control other people via fear. Hope that clears things up!
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Why quotes from old publications are meaningful
by seattleniceguy inmost witnesses know that if you dig too hard in their older publications, you're bound to find strange, even ridiculous, quotes.
but they are trained not to put too much thought into these older publications.
if reasonable people could legitimately disagree with the wts at that time, then what does that say about "god's channel"?
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seattleniceguy
Mungo,
It's even more outrageous when you consider that that book was considered in a question and answer study, in which some of us parroted that in comments, and the rest of us nodded appreciatively.
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