scotoma

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Posts by scotoma

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  29

  IQ and Theism

  by DJS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rob waugh yahoo!

  news .religious people are less intelligent than non-believers, according to a new review of 63 scientific studies stretching back over decades.. .

  a team led by miron zuckerman of the university of rochester found a reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity in 53 out of 63 studies.

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  scotoma

  Those of you who are trying to rebut the scientific findings in the META study involving 63 studies as mentioned in DJS post are doing one of the stupidest things from a scientific viewpoint. You are committing the fallacy of anecdotal evidence.

  Do you really think you know what your are talking about when you put forth your own "exceptional case" and claim that it carries any kind of significant weight compared to the studies mentioned above?

  Belief in God doesn't mean you aren't intelligent. It means you have become captive to a cultural "meme". You made the leap of faith and jumped over the grand canyon of "fact". You did that because of emotional needs. You needed whatever security that gave you. Now, after living comfortably with that paradigm you don't have the guts to go down into the canyon and walk the many trails and examine the details.
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  12

  Disfellowshiping a pagan practice says AWAKE! magazine

  by Rufus T. Firefly in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the [catholic] hierarchys excommunication .

  is altogether foreign to bible teachings.. .

  the encyclopedia britannica says that papal excommunication is not without pagan influence.

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  scotoma

  A dash more "flop" than "flip"
• 
  29

  IQ and Theism

  by DJS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  rob waugh yahoo!

  news .religious people are less intelligent than non-believers, according to a new review of 63 scientific studies stretching back over decades.. .

  a team led by miron zuckerman of the university of rochester found a reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity in 53 out of 63 studies.

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  scotoma

  This is known widely. Political leaders know this too. But, they pretend to believe in God because the majority of the electorate are "average" and believe in God.

  No openly atheist president will be elected in the next 50 years.

  This is also why you can be absolutely certain that the Watchtower prediction of the United Nations destroying religion is an insanely ridiculous idea.

  Belief in God doesn't mean you're dumb. It means you're "dumbth.

  Dumbth (pron. dum-th) adj: a tendency toward muddleheadedness, or willful stupidity appearing in all segments of American life.
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  4

  Growing Up Gay in Russia

  by Quendi in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  [if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:relyonvml /> <o:allowpng /> </o:officedocumentsettings> </xml><![endif].

  [if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>normal</w:view> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:trackmoves /> <w:trackformatting /> <w:punctuationkerning /> <w:validateagainstschemas /> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:saveifxmlinvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:ignoremixedcontent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext> <w:donotpromoteqf /> <w:lidthemeother>en-us</w:lidthemeother> <w:lidthemeasian>x-none</w:lidthemeasian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>x-none</w:lidthemecomplexscript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables /> <w:snaptogridincell /> <w:wraptextwithpunct /> <w:useasianbreakrules /> <w:dontgrowautofit /> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark /> <w:enableopentypekerning /> <w:dontflipmirrorindents /> <w:overridetablestylehps /> </w:compatibility> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont m:val="cambria math" /> <m:brkbin m:val="before" /> <m:brkbinsub m:val="&#45;-" /> <m:smallfrac m:val="off" /> <m:dispdef /> <m:lmargin m:val="0" /> <m:rmargin m:val="0" /> <m:defjc m:val="centergroup" /> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440" /> <m:intlim m:val="subsup" /> <m:narylim m:val="undovr" /> </m:mathpr></w:worddocument> </xml><!

  [endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* style definitions */ table.msonormaltable {mso-style-name:"table normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif].

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  scotoma

  If you had a choice between what is really an indeterminate time in Russia or life in prison in the USA which would you choose? All the other countries were beat into USA submission on this issue. Even Germany where Merkel resents the fact that her government was being spied, on caved in US economic pressure. There were only two pieces left on the chess board - King and a Pawn. The pawn had to go somewhere.

  I'm glad Snowden brought this back to our attention. Before some crazy Neo-Conservatives come back to power.

  Obama is starting to talk about safe guards. Of course he is tring to jump on the train after it left the station. His claim that he was "planning" on reviewing the whole privacy issue is something that was going on in his mind. Yeah after the budget. After implementing healthcare. It was not a high priority for his administration.
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  120

  Why do the GB need a new Bethel compound if the end is so close? Here is the "official" answer

  by sir82 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as most of us know, the society is spending 10's of millions of dollars on a giant, state of the art, secluded bunker country club headquarters in very remote, isolated warwick ny.. the question that "some" have is, why?

  if armageddon is coming "very soon", why go to all that time & effort & expense?

  why have thousands of jws dedicating their time to this massive effort instead of the "lifesaving ministry"?.

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  scotoma

  The real reason JW's are abandoning the NYC area:

  Buffett: Nuclear attack 'virtually a certainty'
  
  May 6, 2002 Posted: 7:55 AM EDT (1155 GMT)
  
  Warren Buffett
  Investor Warren Buffett, who has major insurance holdings, says the United States faces a high
  risk of nuclear, chemical or biological attack.
  
  OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) -- Investment guru Warren Buffett offered a bleak prediction for the
  nation's national security, saying a terrorist attack on American soil is "virtually a certainty."
  
  Envy and dislike of the United States have fueled rage against the country even as the ability to
  build a nuclear device has spread, Buffett said Sunday at the final day of Berkshire Hathaway
  Inc.'s annual meeting.
  
  "We're going to have something in the way of a major nuclear event in this country," said Buffett,
  the firm's chief operating officer. "It will happen. Whether it will happen in 10 years or 10
  minutes, or 50 years ... it's virtually a certainty."
  
  Washington and New York would be the top two targets because terrorists want to traumatize the
  country and kill as many people as possible, Buffett said.

  Check out this web-site. It let's you choose the size of nuclear weapon and location of detonation to see the perimeter of damage

  http://www.nucleardarkness.org/nuclear/nuclearexplosionsimulator/

  A 1 kiloton device (suit case size) would wipe out the financial district, disrupt transportation for the whole NYC area, cripple the electrical supply grid. Cause structural damage to property up to a mile from the blast.

  Experts say that currently there is a 10% chance of a nuclear terrorist attack in the next year and that for every year on out you can add another percentage point.

  So if you have common sense you would pull your world HQ out of New York City. Even if your buildings are far enough from a low yield blast to survive damage the property would greatly diminish in value because people would be spooked to buy a condo or business location in NYC. Add to this the interruption in business and it makes sense to get out of NYC.

  I think the World Trade Center spectacle marked the point where they decided to get the hell out. It has nothing to do with whether God could protect them at some "armageddon".

  So it is either a common sense rational decision or maybe they were guided by some "higher" intelligence to make their move.

  When that fateful day arrives (as the experts seem to believe is certain) the GB will of course claim it was divine providence that they made the decision to "flee" Brooklyn. Then the fabricated stories about how they finally decided to move will start to be discussed. How some felt they should stay and others thought they should leave and how by one vote they decided to leave.

  They are in a win-win situation. They will have just bought themselves another generation.
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  120

  Why do the GB need a new Bethel compound if the end is so close? Here is the "official" answer

  by sir82 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as most of us know, the society is spending 10's of millions of dollars on a giant, state of the art, secluded bunker country club headquarters in very remote, isolated warwick ny.. the question that "some" have is, why?

  if armageddon is coming "very soon", why go to all that time & effort & expense?

  why have thousands of jws dedicating their time to this massive effort instead of the "lifesaving ministry"?.

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  scotoma

  Sounds like Beth Sarim on Steroids.
• 
  11

  Theft of Reminiscing

  by rebel8 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so i'm now at the developmental stage of adulthood when my peers and i are beginning to reminisce about our childhoods.

  if you've ever taken developmental psychology, you know the importance of reminiscing.

  yesterday i went to an event about something retro and participants were really nostalgic and just really enjoying themselves.

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  scotoma

  Quit lamenting the lost childhood. Being in my 60's I could give a sh*t about a lost past. I grew up a JW and I don't feel I missed any of that child hood stuff. You grow up anywhere and everywhere anyway.

  What bothers me is they stole my future. Or I should say I "allowed" them to steal my future.

  I wish I would have never learned the truth about the truth.

  I would have preferred closing my eyes at death thinking I would open them again to a better life.

  It's a shame that it was such a weak and unprovable premise "everlasting life in paradise". It didn't have the strength to survive a life time.
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  3

  downsizing.........

  by tresdecu in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  got this from google news search re jw's.. http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/08/01/2500842/jehovahs-witnesses-convention.html.

  par 2...........???

  interesting..

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  scotoma

  It's obvious what they are doing. They want to have larger groups with larger baptisms. They want people to feel part of a larger organization.

  They want to re-capture the excitement of the past. Myriads and Myriads of brothers.

  Small conventions have gotten to be too easy, too predictable, life-less. And they really don't have enough of the talented motivated speakers to put on an encouraging small convention.
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  10

  Jehovah's Witnesses actions and behaviours

  by jw04 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was reading one of the magazines about 2 years ago, about what to know about social networking sites, the warnings and cautiousness.

  i am not so sure if they don't like the internet, these days almost everyone uses internet.

  i know many have accounts online.

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  scotoma

  I know this is a crank on JW site but lets be honest. Everyone is deluded and it's adaptation for survival.

  Some JW's do very well with their particular delusions.

  We don't like to be called "Mentally Diseased" so let's not accuse others of the same.

  Hypocrisy is the purpose of the human animal's large brain. We don't have large brains to understand the universe.

  Our large brain is to keep track of our lies, other people's lies and whose lies we have to pretend to believe and which people believe our lies. For an extended family of about 100- 200 people that is a formidable task. And we don't use just 10% of our brains to do that. We use all of our brains for that.

  It's mental illness (unsanity not insanity) to think any of us have it together.
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  6

  I rest my case

  by Glander in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  get called on in the watchtower study and (with blondies notes in hand) refute the gb drivel.

  you will not get called on again at best.

  at worst, you'll be hustled out of the kh..

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  scotoma

  Good to see Farkel is "out of HIS box again".