slimboyfat

Joined

• started 536 topics
• posted 17,573 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by slimboyfat

• 
  14

  Does "Hanlon's Razor" apply to the Governing Body?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i recently learned of the term "hanlon's razor".. wikipedia defines it as: .

  hanlon's razor is an aphorism expressed in various ways including "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

  " it recommends a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for a phenomenon (a philosophical razor).. so could it be said that this applies to the gb / society ?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Yes, definitely. With a few sinister exceptions, such as Jaracz.
• 
  81

  Secret sex in the Org

  by pomo6780 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  2 pioneers of the opposite sex.

  the brother is in his mid-20s, sister is in her late 20s.

  both are alone in car as the only 2 out in field service.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  "Could you direct me to the euphemism please ?"

  One time a nurse asked me for a euphemism. So I gave her one.
• 
  142

  Panpsychism - a philosophy with a future

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  at one time scientists believed that living things and non-living things were made of different material, accounting for the unique properties of living things.

  this idea is called vitalism and is no longer popular.

  what does remain popular (in fact is still the dominant view) is a similar idea that things that experience the world (humans, frogs, mice) are different from things that don't experience the world (potatoes, rocks, snowflakes).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  We don't know and may never know for sure. Radical emergence is an explanation that results from a commitment to reductive materialism. Panpsychism is an alternative way of understanding how consciousness relates to the material world that rejects both dualism and reductive materialism. The arguments on either side don't appear to relate to something called "woo". As far as I can see this word "woo" is a rhetorical way of dismissing something you disagree without going to the bother of explaining why.
• 
  142

  Panpsychism - a philosophy with a future

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  at one time scientists believed that living things and non-living things were made of different material, accounting for the unique properties of living things.

  this idea is called vitalism and is no longer popular.

  what does remain popular (in fact is still the dominant view) is a similar idea that things that experience the world (humans, frogs, mice) are different from things that don't experience the world (potatoes, rocks, snowflakes).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  I've certainly come to agree with whoever made the comment that the world is "not only stranger than we suppose, it's stranger than we can suppose". So that, for me, leaves open the possibility of things like panpsychism. I also have a commitment to the idea that nothing should be ruled out. This on both empirical and ethical grounds. The fact is that knowledge is not simply linear and accretive. There are too many examples of unexpected twists and reversals for that. Plus the practice of ruling out solutions is essentially authoritarian and ethically suspect.

  Sometimes this can be misconstrued as simply saying: "who knows, maybe evolution is wrong and creationism is right, or maybe the earth is flat after all". But it's actually much more radical than that. It's more like saying: "maybe in time we will discover that the Earth and the history of life are so completely different than how we currently conceptualise them that the vocabulary of description will need to be utterly revised in ways we cannot currently imagine". This doesn't envisage a regression into creationism or flat earth perspectives, but leaves open the possibility for new and unexpected perspectives.

  I would place the growing interest in panpsychism in the category of unexpected twists in intellectual thought worthy of contemplation. Because fundamentally the roots of experience in an (apparently) material world are deeply mysterious. Reductive materialism doesn't appear to offer very compelling answers, and dualism has its problems, so it's worth considering alternatives.
• 
  25

  What's changed since I left in 2006?

  by Jehovah lol in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i think i made a thread like this a couple of years ago but i can't remember what was said and i'd rather have a new discussion anyway.. what's different in the wts since i left it behind in 2006?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  What changed since 2006? Don't trust apostates for the answer to that one! Best bet would be for you to go back an attend your old book study group. They'll tell you what's changed over tea and cake in a cosy informal setting.
• 
  69

  284000 baptized in 2017

  by jw-verite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.

  "during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  See the graphs 5th and 6th down. Baptisms are trending down long term, and are well below their 1990s peak, especially in percentage terms.

  https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php

  In the mid 1990s baptism numbers were almost 8% of the publisher number, whereas in recent years it dropped to nearly 3%. That is a huge reduction that makes real growth pretty much impossible.
• 
  69

  284000 baptized in 2017

  by jw-verite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.

  "during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Yeah but the push for kids to get baptised has been going at least four years, so strange to have a bump now, I think it's just random fluctuation. In historical perspective baptisms are well down from their peak in the 1990s, especially in percentage terms.
• 
  69

  284000 baptized in 2017

  by jw-verite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.

  "during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Yes it is somewhat surprising, this increase in baptisms.

  The all time peak for baptisms was around 380,000 in 1996, or thereabouts. (From memory)

  It will be very interesting to see the congregation total, in view of "consolidations", if it is published.
• 
  14

  New NWT, then and now - a comparison of the 2013 NWT, 2013 vs 2017.

  by MeanMrMustard in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  acts 2:9. old text:.

  acts 2:10. old text:.

  acts 2:11. old text:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Thank you very much Mean Mr Mustard!

  Initial comments: first of all I think it's interesting that there are not many changes. I can't quantify it, but I think there were more changes around the first few printings of the NWT in the 1950s and 60s, including some striking ones. (John 1:1 "Originally the Word was with God...") Maybe this indicates a degree of care and decisiveness with the 2013 revision.

  Second comment: what on earth went on in Matt 5:18? It's almost as if someone with a sense of humour in 2013 decided mischievously to remove a phrase from the very verse of the Bible that says no jot or tittle can be removed.

  Bibles sometimes get nicknames because of such mistakes, most famously the "wicked Bible", or "adulterous Bible", which instructed rather than proscribed adultery: "thou shalt commit adultery".

  Maybe the 2013 NWT could be named the "heaven passing" Bible, because of the missing "smallest letter". Or a catchier title I can't come up with.
• 
  142

  Panpsychism - a philosophy with a future

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  at one time scientists believed that living things and non-living things were made of different material, accounting for the unique properties of living things.

  this idea is called vitalism and is no longer popular.

  what does remain popular (in fact is still the dominant view) is a similar idea that things that experience the world (humans, frogs, mice) are different from things that don't experience the world (potatoes, rocks, snowflakes).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  That rock I see outside in my backyard isn't going to get up and move on its own. Never. Ever.

  No doubt true. But also not something a panpsychist would expect or believe either.