slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  12

  Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR)

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. physical

  i stumbled across something the other day that made me sit up because it seemed to perfectly describe a feeling i experience from time to time that apparently isn't uncommon.. it's called autonomous sensory meridian response or "asmr" and is a kind of tingly feeling on/in your head.

  you can read about it here:.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/autonomous_sensory_meridian_response.

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  slimboyfat

  Let me file this under, "weird things I would never have heard about were it not for the Internet".

  I got online in 2000 and I'm still half expecting the Internet to be a passing phase and for reality to return to 1990s "normal" at some point.
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  78

  A stunning piece of LOGIC from the Apostle Paul

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1st corinthians 15 12-17. but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

  if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised.

  and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile... .

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  slimboyfat

  The reason I argued that the feasibility of a resurrection is bound up with the existence or otherwise of God is because I believe the two things are logically linked for the reasons I have given. I am sorry you see this as a nefarious plot. I see it as clarifying the issue.

  To me it seems pretty simple: a material universe without any supreme being is one in which a resurrection is very unlikely. Whereas a universe caused by a supreme being is one where a resurrection is entirely possible. Therefore the feasibility of a resurrection hangs on the existence or otherwise of God.

  To me it's as if you want to exclude God by the back door. First you want to establish that a resurrection certainly could not have happened. Having conceded that, the other person has already entered with you into a purely material conception of reality that excludes God. So the discussion is over before it began.
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  78

  A stunning piece of LOGIC from the Apostle Paul

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1st corinthians 15 12-17. but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

  if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised.

  and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile... .

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  slimboyfat

  Your argument that there certainly was no resurrection rests on the assumption there is no God.

  Whereas belief in the resurrection rests on the view that God exists and resurrection is a plausible act for such a being.

  So I suggest that the argument ultimately turns on whether God exists or not.

  Unless you argue that even if God exists then it would have been impossible for him to resurrect Jesus? I doubt you would argue that.

  So yes, "if God" is the key question, I would say.
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  78

  A stunning piece of LOGIC from the Apostle Paul

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1st corinthians 15 12-17. but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

  if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised.

  and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile... .

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  slimboyfat

  Oh I forgot the main difference (I'm tired):

  If we allow for the possibility of their being a God, there is plausible explanation for why he might want to perform a resurrection, whereas there is little reason to suppose he'd be interested in creating a typing penguin.

  The (or an) explanation for why God intervened to resurrect Jesus is to give mankind hope that death need not be the end, suffering can be reversed, God values us as individuals and ultimately will not forget us. Whether we agree with that story or not, we should acknowledge that it speaks to deep aspects of our human nature, and our concerns, in a way that a hypothetical typing penguin simply does not. (Unless I'm missing out something terribly dramatic and meaningful in the typing penguin scenario)
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  78

  A stunning piece of LOGIC from the Apostle Paul

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1st corinthians 15 12-17. but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

  if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised.

  and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile... .

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  slimboyfat

  There are circumstances surrounding the idea of the resurrection that make it unlike a typing penguin. Such as:

  1. The amazing fact of consciousness and the natural question of what becomes of it at death.

  2. The course of human history including the history of the Jews and the rise and dominance of Christianity.

  3. The very fact that anything exists at all and forces us to confront either a material universe from nothing or a material universe produced by something or someone outside of space and time.

  4. The fact that billions of humans over thousands of years have found the Christian story of resurrection meaningful and compelling.

  It's a bit silly to compare an idea with the history and reflection on being and consciousness as the resurrection has, with the likelihood of a typing penguin.
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  78

  A stunning piece of LOGIC from the Apostle Paul

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1st corinthians 15 12-17. but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

  if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised.

  and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile... .

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  slimboyfat

  Welcome miss Ives.

  I learned a long time ago that you question nothing, but if you do keep it to yourself.

  Ain't that true. There's no such thing as a free conversation with JW. You always have to be guarded. I can't understand how some people are satisfied to live like that, but apparently they are.
  
  
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  78

  A stunning piece of LOGIC from the Apostle Paul

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1st corinthians 15 12-17. but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

  if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised.

  and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile... .

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  slimboyfat

  Maybe biocentrism was a blind alley. I only meant to mention it in passing as saying maybe the universe is very different from what we imagine. That may be the case biocentrism or not. Lanza is not as plausible as I first thought, although there do appear to be some prominent scientists who approve of his ideas.

  But about the resurrection of Jesus.

  I think the best argument against the resurrection is the fact there has never been anything else like it proven to have happened in the history of human experience.

  And maybe the best argument for the resurrection is the fact that Jesus' followers were energised to catapult Chritianity to be the leading world religion and shaper of world history following his resurrection. The history of the Jews and then Christendom may be the best evidence that there is some sort of meaning in the unfolding of events, depending on your perspective. And the resurrection is at the core of that story.

  But the best reason for reserving judgement, in my view, is that the question of the resurrection is inextricably bound up with the idea of there being a supreme being. If there is no God then there seems little point talking about a resurrection of Jesus 2000 years ago. But if there is a God there is no reason to suppose he could not have resurrected Jesus if he wished. From that point of view it doesn't matter that we haven't seen a resurrection since, because God can obviously do so if he wishes. Unusual or even unique events are possible if there is a God.

  So I don't see much evidence for positively claiming the resurrection did happen. But at the same time I don't see any reason for saying it could not have happened. Because there may be a supreme being and he could have resurrected Jesus if he wished and could have guided the course of Christian history if he wished. I guess that's why some people read the Bible and Christian theology and experience Christian ritual and decide it makes sense to them. On that basis they find the complete story plausible as a way of making sense of reality, and that includes the resurrection. We don't need to agree with it to acknowledge it's a reasonable interpretation of events.
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  101

  HELP needed from folks in UK, esp. in Scotland!

  by WTS Archive in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  tl;dr: if you live either in scotland or in other parts of uk and you don't mind traveling, you might be able to help a fellow ex-jw by being present during a courtcase where she alone has to face more than two dozens of jws who have ruined their business.

  please contact me directly for details on when and where the court case will be held (i will know these details in few days probably).

  ps.

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  slimboyfat

  WTS Archive said he picked it up wrong it's the local Dundee paper called the Evening Telegraph, not the national broadsheet.
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  39

  The increasing WT magazine

  by darkspilver in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  apart from the interesting block color change for the title strip on the front page.... the new 2017 wt mag has some new (updated printing figures):.

  2016: produced each issue: 58,987,000 available in 282 languages .

  2017: produced each issue: 61,651,000 available in 294 languages.

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  slimboyfat

  I don't think they count downloads do they?

  Even if they did I doubt it would amount to much. Who goes to JW.org to download magazines?

  Millions of paper copies are produced so publishers can pretend they are preaching and the public can fill their rubbish bins. I can't see any scenario where there's any great demand for downloads from anyone. In fact if they go to download only it would provide a true measure of their popularity as only people who actually want them would tend to download them. They'd be lucky to reach a few million as most JWs probably wouldn't even bother, except for the study articles.
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  101

  HELP needed from folks in UK, esp. in Scotland!

  by WTS Archive in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  tl;dr: if you live either in scotland or in other parts of uk and you don't mind traveling, you might be able to help a fellow ex-jw by being present during a courtcase where she alone has to face more than two dozens of jws who have ruined their business.

  please contact me directly for details on when and where the court case will be held (i will know these details in few days probably).

  ps.

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  slimboyfat

  Evening Telegraph in Dundee that would make sense. Did you talk to the woman on the phone or through emails? I guess it was in Polish. Forgive my joke earlier. We actually did have a Polish brother in our congregation. Others didn't get on with him so well but I liked him. And he really told me he found a Polish Remover bottle in the cupboard. I think he was making a joke. And he did move congregation. In other words it was actually true story.

  JWs tend to be a close community. Do you know anyone who knows the woman a friend of a friend?

  I'm curious about all these Polish JWs in Scotland it would be interesting to meet some.