the moment arrived.
i have sent out my first three letters: one to the local congregation, one to the governing body (right, right, like i'll get a reply?
), and one to my family.
Nice work, Spook.
Your letter is clear, thought-provoking, direct, and honest. You gave them a lot more respect than I think you will be able to expect from them. I hope they are positively affected by it. A person who DA's casts a strong vote, one that is difficult to ignore. More power to you.
SNG
a thread from yesterday got me thinking about something.
is it possible that human life is less bleak if not viewed through the eyes of theism?
traditionally, i think there?s a general understanding that to look at the world through ?god-colored?
Excellent post, doogie!
For me also, life is much more invigorating without the God-colored glasses you mention, and especially without the Judeo-Christian God-colored glasses.
One reason for me is that getting past the Christian ethic allows us to be unabashedly hopeful about humans. Christianity has this dark raincloud over humanity all the time: "We're sinful, we're imperfect, we're wretched. Only by God's grace - undeserved, at that - can we have the merest glimmer of hope. Oh, pitiful wreck that I am! Would that God might overlook my error in the day of his destructive fury!"
That outlook is incredibly distasteful to me. It engenders a negative view of humanity. How can we have hope when we see our fellow humans as basically bad, deserving of death, spoiled from perfection?
A humanist attitude is so much more uplifting. Sure, we've made our mistakes. But look at the waters we've successfully navigated! We've come a long way, and we press on further! We've stood on the shoulders of those who have come before us and held the lamp yet higher!
Realizing that we are alone in the universe means that it's up to us to make things work. That endenders serious personal responsibility. We can't kick back and wait for God to take care of it. We need to be good citizens now. We must stand upright, walk straight ahead, look each other straight in the eye and work together.
Especially at this moment in human history, when more and more people are shedding the bonds of ignorance, interacting with the global community, learning and contributing in their own unique ways, I have a heart brimming with hope and anticipation. The future is bright. Tossing aside my God-colored umbrella and raincoat, I bask in its warm rays.
SNG
okay, everyone, buckle your seatbelts and put on your thinking caps.
in this week's installment in my continuing series, we'll be examining two (count 'em!
) pieces of the evidence and how they relate to each other.. you can check out my previous articles here:.
Midget-Sasquatch, that's fascinating! Of course, looking at the mtDNA from long-isolated groups of people such as Australian aborigines would provide another way of setting the mitochondrial clock! And if these methods were all in harmony, then it would provide a strong degree of certainty about the calibration. Now why didn't I think of that!
SNG
okay, everyone, buckle your seatbelts and put on your thinking caps.
in this week's installment in my continuing series, we'll be examining two (count 'em!
) pieces of the evidence and how they relate to each other.. you can check out my previous articles here:.
Euph,
If I understand this correctly, the evidence that all humans are matrilineally related to each other is identical to the evidence that humans are matrilineally related to apes; the difference is only one of degree.
In other words, hooberus, if you accept that science has proven that humans have a common female ancestor, then how can you deny that humans and apes have common ancestry, when the method of proof is the same?
I tried to write the same thing in my last post, but I couldn't frame it satisfyingly so I omitted it. Thanks for putting that into the right words.
SNG
okay, everyone, buckle your seatbelts and put on your thinking caps.
in this week's installment in my continuing series, we'll be examining two (count 'em!
) pieces of the evidence and how they relate to each other.. you can check out my previous articles here:.
I should apologize to hooberus for speaking too soon. You are correct in stating that the mitochondrial clock is indeed set by assuming a common ancestor between humans and apes, but that's only because:
SNG
okay, everyone, buckle your seatbelts and put on your thinking caps.
in this week's installment in my continuing series, we'll be examining two (count 'em!
) pieces of the evidence and how they relate to each other.. you can check out my previous articles here:.
Euph,
I think you're right. I didn't realize the mutation rate is so low. I found this explanation (which sounds a lot like what you probably read) by Alec MacAndrew:
The normally accepted rate is one mutation every 300 to 600 generations (6000 to 12000 years) and this is calibrated, as Wieland correctly says, by counting mutations in great ape and human mitochondria and regressing back to the age of their divergence as determined by fossils dated by radiometric dating.
Source: http://www.evolutionpages.com/Mitochondrial%20Eve.htm
Since mutations occur at this low rate, it is not possible to directly observe a rate of observation. As you point out, this would make this evidence secondary (at least as far as determining a date for most recent common matrilineal ancestor). To state the problem in another way for anyone who is having trouble following along:
Actually, even disregarding the question of the convergence date, mtDNA provides us with a lot of geneological data, very similar in application to the retroviral sequences and cytochrome c sequences I posted about earlier.
One interesting implication is shown by comparing mtDNA from humans on the different continents. In comparing a key sequence of about 900 base pairs, only 1% Europeans differed by more than 12 base pairs. The same was true in Asia. In Africa, however, 37% of people differed by more than 12 base pairs. This indicates strongly that humans have lived in Africa for the longest time, supporting the "Out Of Africa" model of human evolution.
Actually, my main point in all of this was not to establish a date for the most recent common matrilineal ancestor, but to lay down the fundamentals of mtDNA in preparation for the next installment.
Thanks for your astute observations!
SNG
i would very much enjoy meeting up with some of you, to just chill and talk.
as i am reading all these wonderful posts, i wish to put a face to some of these, hear other stories, enlightenments and the such.
I'll actually be living in the Longview/Kelso area.
(Eyes popping out of head) Are you serious? That's where I grew up! My dad lives down there so I visit now and then.
SNG
i would very much enjoy meeting up with some of you, to just chill and talk.
as i am reading all these wonderful posts, i wish to put a face to some of these, hear other stories, enlightenments and the such.
Hey Cerise,
Same goes for you - PM me when you come through Seattle. Latte's on me.
SNG
the witnesses had a coherent and comforting system before apostates came along and challenged many of "the watchtower's" core beliefs.
over blood, the un and other issues the "watchtower" has responded to apostates by clarifying/changing positions.
many firm believers have been led away from the faith by the active apostate community on the web.
Hello slimboyfat,
I think you can learn a lot about an organization by what it does in face of criticism. An authoritarian, top-down organization tries to simply ignore or crush dissent. In the age of the Internet, this is a strategy that is doomed to failure.
A much better tack is to consider the criticisms your opponents have and make corrections were necessary, or show why the criticisms are invalid. It's a much more democratic way of running things. People are happy to be a part of an organization that shows it listens to what its members and outsiders have to say.
Unfortunately, I think the WTS is way too prideful to take option B. They'll probably just keep on resolutely trying to ignore the problem until they run out of steam.
SNG
(Edited to fix spelling mistake.)
i would very much enjoy meeting up with some of you, to just chill and talk.
as i am reading all these wonderful posts, i wish to put a face to some of these, hear other stories, enlightenments and the such.
Hey Mr. D,
I'm in Seattle. Give me a PM if you're ever going to be down this way.
SNG
