Yah... this has to be among the worst statements and I too believed they were toning down the rhetoric . Isn't this contradicting other recent (last two years or so) statements at least indirectly? I could easily be wrong, but it does not seem like everyone is on the same page in the writing department.
Posts by bohm
-
105New Watchtower Propaganda and hate speech destroying families (Feb 2016 WT)
by Daniel1555 inthe following is a paragraph from the new february study watchtower article "learn from jehovah's loyal servants.".
7 a conflict of loyalties may arise when a close relative is disfellowshipped.
for example, a sister named anne [1] received a telephone call from her disfellowshipped mother.
-
-
-
17
I have 5 Audible credits I need to use up. Recommendations?
by nicolaou insomething to make me think or laugh.
i've done the hitchens, dawkins, harris thing and as much as i rate them i'd like to move off at a tangent .
always enjoy philosophy or even something with a theological bent.. i'm coming to the end of heretic by ayaan hirsi ali and can thoroughly recommend it.. c'mon guys, don't let me down .
-
-
bohm
Something by Steven Pinker you have not read already. "The history of western philosophy" by Bertrand Russell (surprisingly funny).
I would not recommend the two recent books by Richard Carrier. I am struggling to get through "on the historicity of jesus" and IMO they are both poorly written and the first book, "Proving history", asserts many things which are false.
-
212
Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?
by Tenacious ini know this question has popped up from time to time but i really would like to know how you guys, those that no longer believe, came to that conclusion?
was it the wts and all its crap?
was it something you read?
-
-
bohm
Viv, you asked for an example of a computer program that evolved and i provided a list.
I really dont get why you interact the way you do with people on this forum. It appears you are only interesting in starting and winning arguments, not with superior arguments or facts, but with anger and rethoric. Are you a happy person?
-
212
Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?
by Tenacious ini know this question has popped up from time to time but i really would like to know how you guys, those that no longer believe, came to that conclusion?
was it the wts and all its crap?
was it something you read?
-
-
bohm
Eric: Machines can fly!
Vinnie: Awesome, name a machine that can fly on it's own
Bob: This is fairly easy, there are planes and rockets and..
Vinnie: That's not at all what the question was.I know, I know, this is totally unrelated because reasons...
-
212
Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?
by Tenacious ini know this question has popped up from time to time but i really would like to know how you guys, those that no longer believe, came to that conclusion?
was it the wts and all its crap?
was it something you read?
-
-
bohm
EOM: Computer programs absolutely can evolve!
VIV: Awesome, name a computer program that evolved on it's own
BOHM: This is fairly easy. You can find many examples of evolving computer program within the field of evolutionary computing (...)
VIV: That's not at all what the question was....evidently...the question is not to name a computer program that can evolve...evidently...
-
155
Headline: "Islamic Invasion: Europe now scrambles for guns." How true is this?
by cappytan ina year to a year and a half ago, i would have taken this article at face value and believed it.. now, i realize this article comes from a dubious source.
world news daily has a die-hard right-wing bias.
so, in an effort to get real information, i'm asking my european exjw's, is this article all true?
-
-
bohm
The OP is if a certain article is also the experience by local XJWs, that europeans are gathering guns or want to at least. I actually live in one of the affected countries and I can say with 100% certainty I have not heard anyone IRL or on a website in my language talk about getting guns because of the refugees (or as the article prefers: "refugees". One wonders what would qualify a person as an actual refugee asides white skin); the idea sounds silly and absurd and play no part in the current public discourse (which *is* critical regarding what we are going to do about all those people).
Turning to the current narrative on the more right-leaning segments of the internet I think people need to consider that there *are* racists and these racists *will*, damn the facts, portray refugees as terrorists, as an islamic invasion, etc. etc. This spreading of fear and uncertainty is right out of the brownshirt playbook and will be spread regardless the facts. For this reason I would encourage anyone to carefully document the supposed facts about the refugee crisis by actual numbers which can be independently verified, for instance it has become part of the official narrative in some segments of the internet it is nearly all men who are fleeing which just does not stack up with reality:
http://www.factcheck.org/2015/09/stretching-facts-on-syrian-refugees/
"UNHCR’s data show that 50.5 percent of refugees are women. Females age 18 to 59 make up 23.9 percent of the refugees, while males in that age group make up 21.8 percent."
-
15
Watchtower HATES being compared to Catholic Church - but if the shoe fits...
by Zoos inremember this?.
.
well how about this?.
-
-
bohm
Where is the last picture from? is that before or after a convention?! -
212
Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?
by Tenacious ini know this question has popped up from time to time but i really would like to know how you guys, those that no longer believe, came to that conclusion?
was it the wts and all its crap?
was it something you read?
-
-
bohm
Here is another way to look at it. Suppose a person accept evolution. In that case she accepts that evolution is a very powerful way to optimize organisms, that is, change the information in their DNA in order to make them more fit, and that person would predict that if we implemented evolution on a computer it should be able to optimize computer programs efficiently. As it turns out, this is true. Evolution works and works damn well. -
212
Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?
by Tenacious ini know this question has popped up from time to time but i really would like to know how you guys, those that no longer believe, came to that conclusion?
was it the wts and all its crap?
was it something you read?
-
-
bohm
Cofty: DNA is not a programme, it has no information or instructions of any kind.
I agree with you on nearly anything related to evolution, but I have to disagree with you on this. That DNA is said to carry information or instructions is widely accepted vocabulary in genetics, check out a graduate genetics textbook. You are right that DNA just "does it's thing" (i.e. interact with the other cellular machinery), however the same can be said about a computer program (which is just magnetic anomalies on a spinning plate interacting with other parts of a computer) and this does not prevent us from saying the computer program contains information. "Intention" is not at this point a useful term and not well-defined.
-
212
Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?
by Tenacious ini know this question has popped up from time to time but i really would like to know how you guys, those that no longer believe, came to that conclusion?
was it the wts and all its crap?
was it something you read?
-
-
bohm
EOM: Computer programs absolutely can evolve!
VIV: Awesome, name a computer program that evolved on it's own.This is fairly easy. You can find many examples of evolving computer program within the field of evolutionary computing. To start you can go to google scholar and search for "genetic algorithm" (1.9mio hits), or if you prefer an ordering by application domain and specific programs check out the list on wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genetic_algorithm_applications
if you prefer a single current example you can check out evolino, an application where neural architechtures are evolved for control tasks: http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/evolino.html
I notice you appended "on it's own" to EOM's statement. This would (strictly speaking!) make your statement true since a computer program "on it's own" presumably would be a computer program without a medium to run it, however this would clearly also be a strawman.