Posts by slimboyfat

147

Challenge to Creationists

by cofty in

in response to the 37 threads in my evolution is a fact series - see bottom of op for links - perry posted a link to an article "44 reasons why evolution isn't true".. i offered him a challenge on the thread and by pm.

predictably he is totally ignoring it, so i am offering the challenge to any evolution-denier who thinks they have evidence to support their position.. please present one specific piece of evidence for creationism.. my task will be to refute it with evidence within 24 hours.. then i will present one piece of evidence for evolution and your challenge will be the same.. all posts must be as succinct as reasonably possible.

entirely in your own words, without copy-paste, videos or links.. please post your interest to take part and we will set it up before the first actual post in the exchange.

slimboyfat

I think there's a difference between making information available to people who are looking for it and pursuing people telling them things they don't want to hear. In the case of JWs looking for information about evolution tailored to their background, I still think this is an excellent idea, and well suited to a blog on the topic. Running around the forum, or the streets for that matter, telling people your views on evolution and God whether they are interested or not seems somewhat less productive.

Evolution may be a fact. At the same time no fact is immune to revision in light of further evidence, as you apparently conceded elsewhere. So we agree on this.

It may be very unlikely that evolutionary theory will be overturned in any meaningful sense. But can we rule it out? Human history is littered with ideas that were taken for granted at the time but are now discarded. There are undoubtedly things about the world which we now take for granted, and think it would be wrong to question, but people in hundreds of years will think how could we have been so stupid. The trouble is we never know what those things are. So alongside a commitment to reason and evidence we should also have some humility and resist dogmatism.

147

Challenge to Creationists

by cofty in

in response to the 37 threads in my evolution is a fact series - see bottom of op for links - perry posted a link to an article "44 reasons why evolution isn't true".. i offered him a challenge on the thread and by pm.

predictably he is totally ignoring it, so i am offering the challenge to any evolution-denier who thinks they have evidence to support their position.. please present one specific piece of evidence for creationism.. my task will be to refute it with evidence within 24 hours.. then i will present one piece of evidence for evolution and your challenge will be the same.. all posts must be as succinct as reasonably possible.

entirely in your own words, without copy-paste, videos or links.. please post your interest to take part and we will set it up before the first actual post in the exchange.

slimboyfat

Progress? I was 99% sure (give or take a couple of percent) of evolution already in 2000 when you were still a Bible thumping literalist. ;-)

And deconstruction is not BS, it is the earthquake of the age, the Derridean epoch we inhabit, and the Foucauldian sea in which we swim.

7

Who elects Governing Body members?

by Lostandfound in

who elects the new gb members as needed, who is in charge, what happens when no anointed to fill vacancies?

change so everyone partakes?

in time gb members likely to be teenagers, i was baptised over 50 years ago, seemed to be faith based reasons for membership, what happened to paradie earth, jesus, and not just money, what is there in it to make you want to join, not appalling videos, appalling gb members pleading for money.

slimboyfat

Existing GB members select new GB members.

Since numbers of anointed have been going up they'll likely not run out of anointed brothers to choose any time soon. They may however abandon the literal 144.000 teaching if the number keeps going up, or forbid new anointed, or just not count them. Who knows what they'll come up with next. Never in a million years would I have predicted the overlapping generation nonsense. They could come up with anything and see if it fly.

They seem to have lost their way on teachings. They appear to have lost any semblance of coherence or credibility. Or is that just my impression?

147

Challenge to Creationists

by cofty in

in response to the 37 threads in my evolution is a fact series - see bottom of op for links - perry posted a link to an article "44 reasons why evolution isn't true".. i offered him a challenge on the thread and by pm.

predictably he is totally ignoring it, so i am offering the challenge to any evolution-denier who thinks they have evidence to support their position.. please present one specific piece of evidence for creationism.. my task will be to refute it with evidence within 24 hours.. then i will present one piece of evidence for evolution and your challenge will be the same.. all posts must be as succinct as reasonably possible.

entirely in your own words, without copy-paste, videos or links.. please post your interest to take part and we will set it up before the first actual post in the exchange.

slimboyfat

I completely agree with you jacobm. I find it really tiring how some people relentlessly try to persuade others on the forum to adopt their own viewpoint as the absolute truth. It's pathetic and JWesque. And I'm going to keep telling them so until they see things in a properly relativistic manner as I do!

70

Witness Carts - A Vehicle for Significant Decline

by slimboyfat in

i was stalking to a jw today about her recent experience on the carts and with being a jw generally.

until this conversation i considered the carts as just an ineffective preaching method and a harmless waste of time.

but now i wonder if the effect of the carts might be to produce noticeable decline in jw numbers.

slimboyfat

Oh right the metropolitan/cart distinction is something that passed me by, I just see JWs with stalls and carts and think they're all the same.

70

Witness Carts - A Vehicle for Significant Decline

by slimboyfat in

i was stalking to a jw today about her recent experience on the carts and with being a jw generally.

until this conversation i considered the carts as just an ineffective preaching method and a harmless waste of time.

but now i wonder if the effect of the carts might be to produce noticeable decline in jw numbers.

slimboyfat

I reckon they've got more carts in Edinburgh than Glasgow. I've seen them at Waverley station, Charlotte Square, the Royal Mile, Nicholson Street and Bruntsfield.

In Glasgow I've only ever seen them on Great Western Road next to Oran Mor and under the cavernous highland man's umbrella at the central station.

147

Challenge to Creationists

by cofty in

in response to the 37 threads in my evolution is a fact series - see bottom of op for links - perry posted a link to an article "44 reasons why evolution isn't true".. i offered him a challenge on the thread and by pm.

predictably he is totally ignoring it, so i am offering the challenge to any evolution-denier who thinks they have evidence to support their position.. please present one specific piece of evidence for creationism.. my task will be to refute it with evidence within 24 hours.. then i will present one piece of evidence for evolution and your challenge will be the same.. all posts must be as succinct as reasonably possible.

entirely in your own words, without copy-paste, videos or links.. please post your interest to take part and we will set it up before the first actual post in the exchange.

slimboyfat

I never said because there is not 100% certainty therefore all arguments are equally valid. I'm just saying why rule anything out.

I find it curious when I tell Cofty I believe in evolution with about 99% certainty he finds that so objectionable. What is it about the last 1% that is so vitally important? We can always leave the door open for the possibility of being wrong. What practical difference does it make to say you believe evolution 100% rather than 99%? It seems obsessive and dogmatic.

70

Witness Carts - A Vehicle for Significant Decline

by slimboyfat in

i was stalking to a jw today about her recent experience on the carts and with being a jw generally.

until this conversation i considered the carts as just an ineffective preaching method and a harmless waste of time.

but now i wonder if the effect of the carts might be to produce noticeable decline in jw numbers.

slimboyfat

jwleaks I'm not sure I understand. You what me to summarise the article, or you're objecting to me attributing the views of one sociologist to sociologists in general?

147

Challenge to Creationists

by cofty in

in response to the 37 threads in my evolution is a fact series - see bottom of op for links - perry posted a link to an article "44 reasons why evolution isn't true".. i offered him a challenge on the thread and by pm.

predictably he is totally ignoring it, so i am offering the challenge to any evolution-denier who thinks they have evidence to support their position.. please present one specific piece of evidence for creationism.. my task will be to refute it with evidence within 24 hours.. then i will present one piece of evidence for evolution and your challenge will be the same.. all posts must be as succinct as reasonably possible.

entirely in your own words, without copy-paste, videos or links.. please post your interest to take part and we will set it up before the first actual post in the exchange.

slimboyfat

I'm not a theist. I'm somebody who thinks dogmatism is ridiculous in all its forms. A couple of years ago I might have said I was agnostic or atheist. Now I think it's more agnostic 50/50 could go either way. I can't explain how we can understand our world if there is no being beyond being to explain how minds that can contemplate themselves arose. I'm about 99% sure evolution is a better explanation of life than creationism. But I've changed my mind about a lot of things.

Never say never again!

For me the lesson of my encounter with JW certaintism is not to replace it with another, but to embrace uncertainty, diversity, and the double edged persistent threat/possibility of being wrong.

37

How Long Does This Religion Have Left?

by pale.emperor in

the generation that will be no means pass away have passed away.. the 144,000 were sealed up in 1935, oh, no wait, we got that wrong, we still have some.. russel is the faithful and wise servant... oh, no he wasn't it was me, rutherford... no, actually, we got that wrong it's knorr... erm, no we mean the governing body.. shunning is pagan, true christians would never do that (1946)... oh, actually, we should do that too.. the revelation book has been re-written.. the un is the satan's visible organisation.. wtbs signs up for fellowship with the un in 1991.. exposed in the guardian newspaper so ends it's fellowship in 2001.. the greatest man book is now obsolete and replaced with another jesus book.. the mags are reduced in pages.. encouraged to use tablets instead of actual books to save paper (money).

halls being sold off.. congregations sharing halls.. society owned buildings being sold off.. video pertitioning for money only last year to fund a new building.. bethelites reduced.. missionaries sent back home.. young members leaving.. long time members discovering the history and leaving.. how long do you think this religion has left?

i cant see it being here in another 100 years.

slimboyfat

I think it will start declining within 5 years, but may take a couple of hundred years to fold completely. It's neither a new religion in the making nor will it collapse very soon. We're looking at long term gradual decline. Like the Christian Scientists except even longer.