Posts by slimboyfat

38

“Lazarus, come out!”

by Fisherman in

many people here have expressed faith in evolution and in other theories—but in all honesty, do you have any hope whatsoever in your heart or in the back of your mind ?

truthfully..

I’m not saying that it’s simply statistically improbable for me to exist in particular, or life in general for that matter. I’m saying it’s miraculous that matter, life, and consciousness should have arisen at all. Either that is a miracle of God or it’s a miracle that it just happened all by itself. Whatever way you look at it it’s miraculous - some might even say that the “it just happened” theory is more miraculous. You’ve probably heard the observation that materialism asks: “give us one free miracle and we will explain the rest”. The one free miracle materialism is asking for is that the universe, life and consciousness arose from nothing, out of nowhere, for no reason. That’s a pretty big miracle!

Animals have awareness too and that needs to be accounted for, as you say. But as far as we know humans are the only creatures able to contemplate the nature of ourselves and the universe, apparently with some success, as far as science goes. That the universe should produce a mind that is able to contemplate the universe is in its own way miraculous in addition to the miracle of existence. Materialists can keep on claiming that there is nothing miraculous going on here to produce the universe, life, consciousness, and accurate perception of reality, but it does seem pretty extraordinary, and does seem to call for an explanation beyond “it just happened”.

38

“Lazarus, come out!”

by Fisherman in

many people here have expressed faith in evolution and in other theories—but in all honesty, do you have any hope whatsoever in your heart or in the back of your mind ?

truthfully..

slimboyfat

My view on the possibility of resurrection is that it is a complete miracle, no matter how you look at - whether believing in God, or blind materialism - that the universe somehow conspired to give rise to our conscious existence in the first place. The fact that we are alive right now is just unfathomable, and hard to believe, except it’s a fact. If that was possible, then who is to say that God/the universe/ or whatever it was that gave rise to our existence in the first place cannot do it a second time?

More than that, our conscious life seems to require some sort of explanation that materialism is not in a position to provide. Trying to explain consciousness in terms of matter is a bit like trying to explain the plot of a story in terms of ink and paper. It doesn’t get anywhere near to touching the real issue. We don’t know what accounts for consciousness, but whatever it is may hold deeper clues to our nature and the possibility of future conscious life beyond our current lifespan.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

slimboyfat

I had a look at the old thread. At that point I still viewed him as open to reasonable criticism. I was wrong about that, it was a complete waste of time. Never in any conversation does he ask if the person has a reasonable point. He only asks: how can I make the other person look bad, back down, and get my own way? He’ll say anything to achieve that regardless of the facts of the situation. He tried every trick imaginable from name calling (while claiming it was the other way round) veiled threats (while claiming he was being threatened) and hiding behind his wife’s feelings. For one, his wife had nothing to do with the discussion, it was a weird play for sympathy. Secondly, he clearly doesn’t care about his wife’s feelings, or anybody else’s, it is all just rhetoric to steam roller others and get his own way.

22

BBC & Gary Lineker

by BoogerMan in

whether you like or loathe the guy, agree or disagree, surely he has a right to express his opinions freely on twitter?.

every bbc employee who appears on tv or speaks on the radio, should now be paranoid about any opinions they've put on their social media accounts, because if the bbc are prepared to censor/silence lineker, they'll go for anyone.. oops: looks like the bbc can dictate what their staff can & can't say in their social media accounts.. https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidance/individual-use-of-social-media.

pity they weren't as strict with their high profile paedophile, mr. savile..

slimboyfat

He didn’t compare government policy to Nazi policy. He compared the “language” the government was using to the language the Nazis used in the 1930s. In particular the Secretary of State said that illegal immigrants are “invading” our country. This is indeed the kind of hyperbolic and dehumanising language the Nazis used of so-called enemies of the state. Some have complained that the comparison is not fair because our government is not as bad as the Nazis, but that is a low bar, to put it mildly. The whole point about identifying and calling out dehumanising language such as that used by the current government is to nip it in the bud before it develops into something worse. What would we prefer - no criticism of any dehumanising language or any comparison with history until something as bad as the Nazis is fully developed. Then it would be too late to do anything about it. I for one applaud Lineker for his stance and all his colleagues who stand in solidarity with him. The government and its approach to migrants is extremely unpopular in the UK.

https://youtu.be/L_n-vs-3gxs

40

"Mankind's Search for God" book

by My Name is of No Consequence in

this book was published around 1990, but was never studied (to my knowledge).

does anyone know the reason why?.

slimboyfat

I read the yellow book What Has Religion Done for Mankind before I got baptised. At the end of the book are photographs of some of the large conventions from the time. I also seem to remember an extended discussion of Nimrod and Babel as the sources of false religious practices.

Leolaia has argued that JW religion was at its most plausible in the 1950s. (She singled out the green Your Will Be Done book but it’s from the same period.)

85

Physically in mentally agnostic ie sitting on the fence

by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

hi everyone i’m not pimi or pimo i’m pima.. i don’t think the gb have everything right but i’m sitting on the fence that maybe they do some things.. if the great trib starts i will jump that side of the fence.. this is a definite little sneaky advantage dodging but even by their own doctrine last min some could come in.. i suspect many are like me.. i spent years in bethel and am very disappointed and disillusioned by it all.. but at the end of the day i love the bible and think it is the word of god and i don’t see any other religion that comes as close to what jesus describes his true followers or who are fulfilling mat 24:14..

slimboyfat

Usually yes, but in this case they seem to be talking about organisms themselves playing a part in their own evolution through an act of will, thereby in a sense “intelligently designing” their progeny. Just another example of how evolution may be more complicated and in important ways different than traditionally conceived. Weinstein also makes the point that advocates of intelligent design, however conceived, are modern day heretics, and heretics perform the important function of keeping unfashionable ideas in the mix of available explanations that may provide useful elements in the future.

53

1975 on the back burner

by Fisherman in

“1975” still marks 6000 years from the creation of adam in wt calendar.

according to “all scriptures inspired” book, there is a gap between the creation of adam and the creation of eve and her marriage to adam.

it was at that point in time when eve was created that marked the end of the 6th creative day and the beginning of god’s rest, the 7th day as recorded in genesis.

slimboyfat

According to the Genesis account Adam was 130 when they had their first child, so that sets the absolute limit of the delay between the creation of Adam and Eve at 129 years. That would put the latest date for the 6000-year anniversary of the creation of Eve at 2104. That would be 190 years after the Gentile Times ended in 1914 – quite a stretch.

One or the (many ) issues that Fred Franz never really properly addressed however, when compiling his Bible chronology, is the fact that 130 years sounds like a suspicious round number, as do many of the figures in Genesis. Any modern statistician would consider the fact that we are presented with so many round numbers as strong evidence that we are dealing with estimates or rounded up figures (setting aside the possibility that the numbers are not even intended to be taken literally at all) which cumulatively can lead to a fairly substantial margin of error. Franz’s answer to this objection was that he believed God wouldn’t have provided the figures if they could not be used to compile an accurate chronology. But this assumes he is correct that it was God’s intention that an accurate chronology could be derived from them, an assumption for which he doesn’t offer any support.

If I recall correctly, I think Franz also offered the suggestion that the errors in the rounded up figures probably cancel out. This would depend how you round up the numbers. If the numbers are rounded to the nearest ten then maybe they do largely cancel out. (134 and 126 are both rounded to 130) But if the numbers are rounded to the preceding ten that could build up to a substantial difference. (134 rounded to 130 but 126 rounded to 120) Even if the more accurate rounding method was used, that would still allow for an overall margin of error a number of years in total.

85

Physically in mentally agnostic ie sitting on the fence

by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

hi everyone i’m not pimi or pimo i’m pima.. i don’t think the gb have everything right but i’m sitting on the fence that maybe they do some things.. if the great trib starts i will jump that side of the fence.. this is a definite little sneaky advantage dodging but even by their own doctrine last min some could come in.. i suspect many are like me.. i spent years in bethel and am very disappointed and disillusioned by it all.. but at the end of the day i love the bible and think it is the word of god and i don’t see any other religion that comes as close to what jesus describes his true followers or who are fulfilling mat 24:14..

slimboyfat

Conversation between Brian Keating and Eric Weinstein on something he calls “intelligent design”, among other things. When current evolutionary theory is replaced by another paradigm it will be something new, not a return to an old paradigm because that’s the way it goes in science.

https://youtu.be/zDTdm5ZS7gI

171

Mass Shooting at Kingdom Hall in Hamburg, Germany

by EdenOne in

mass shooting at a kingdom hall in hamburg, germany this evening.

at least 6 or 7 killed, dozens injured.

single shooter on the run, police doesn't rule out more shooters.

slimboyfat

This is terrible. I feel like physically going to the next meeting in solidarity. But I could understand if JWs in general are frightened to go to the KH now. Perhaps the GB will make a worldwide call that meetings this weekend be held on Zoom and safety measure be quickly put in place for the next physical meetings. In reality this was probably a one off incident and attending the KH will not be more dangerous going forward, but it’s understandable if people don’t feel safe. It could have been worse if it was at an assembly or convention. I don’t know about guns at all but it sounds like a lot of people dead from the number of shots. Did the person have a lot of practice shooting somehow? If so I wonder where an exJW got that experience.

171

Mass Shooting at Kingdom Hall in Hamburg, Germany

by EdenOne in

mass shooting at a kingdom hall in hamburg, germany this evening.

at least 6 or 7 killed, dozens injured.

single shooter on the run, police doesn't rule out more shooters.

slimboyfat

According to the JW website 6 different congregations meet here: Croatian, Romanian, Twi, Tagalog, English and German. It was the German congregation that was meeting tonight.