scotoma

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Posts by scotoma

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  48

  Religious people are less intelligent than atheists, according to analysis of scores of scientific studies stretching back over decades

  by besty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists-according-to-analysis-of-scores-of-scientific-studies-stretching-back-over-decades-8758046.html.

  study found 'a reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity' in 53 out of 63 studies.

  a new review of 63 scientific studies stretching back over decades has concluded that religious people are less intelligent than non-believers.. .

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  scotoma

  Cant Leave

  "I am surprised there haven't been more comments on this.........."

  695 people have already viewed this info on

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/259200/1/IQ-and-Theism
• 
  53

  Were Any of You Part of the L.A. JW Party Scene in the Late 60s/Early 70s?

  by DNCall in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you were, you'll remember how happening it was..

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  scotoma

  The JW party scene was hot all over. In the east the parties involved Chicago,Detroit, Cleveland, Philly, Boston New York, Baltimore, D.C.

  Everyone knew someone. We would jump in a car and Drive from Detroit to Chicago and meet people from Philly and NYC. A lot of Bethel boys would show up at these parties.

  Lots of under age drinking. Booze supplied by what was then known as the Congregation Servant, Assistant Congregation Servant and Bible Study Servant. Their kids would throw the parties. Lots of party food. And dancing. The witnesses were the hippest of any party. If there was a new dance in Harlem we learned it in Chi Town or Motown. Any week-end there were 8 to 10 out of towners sleeping in some brothers basement.

  The rules on "porneia" were unknown. Penetration was the only thing that was considered sex. Necking and Petting didn't mean anything. The only advice was to "watch out and not go too far." Everyone was pioneering or on their way to prison. It made for a pretty pointless life. You couldn't get serious about your future so you enjoyed the weekends.

  Most of those people are the hypocritical elders today. Very few people wandered out into the world. And those who did - came back.
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  7

  JW 2013 Dissaster Plan

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  has there been a thread on this yet.. i may have missed this..

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  scotoma

  Has there been a thread on this yet.

  I may have missed this.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.