Posts by GoodGuyGreg

1

Log-on security

by GoodGuyGreg in

just a suggestion from old paranoid me: the logon process on this forum evaluates the username and password parts of the credentials separately, from what i see.

giving clues to valid usernames opens up a couple of nasty and probably unwanted attack vectors (including searching for suspected members by their known mail addresses).

i do understand that it simplifies the interaction with less computer literate users, though.. if the current process is there by design, or if i've misunderstood it, i'll just shut my mouth, but at least i want to have warned against it.

GoodGuyGreg

Hi,

Just a suggestion from old paranoid me: The logon process on this forum evaluates the username and password parts of the credentials separately, from what I see. Giving clues to valid usernames opens up a couple of nasty and probably unwanted attack vectors (including searching for suspected members by their known mail addresses). I do understand that it simplifies the interaction with less computer literate users, though.

If the current process is there by design, or if I've misunderstood it, I'll just shut my mouth, but at least I want to have warned against it. :)

39

Evolution is a Fact #12 - Lenski's E. coli Experiment

by cofty in

evolution works by the non-random selection of random mutation.

natural selection accumulates favourable random chance events.. the experiment that was began on 24th february 1988 on e coli bacteria by dr richard e. lenski and his team is surely one of the clearest demonstrations of the power of this process.. e.coli is one of the commonest bacterium on earth, there is around 100 billion, billion of them in the world at any given time and around 1 billion of them in your gut right now.

most of the time they cause no problem, until a new strain wreaks havoc on its host's digestive system.. if we assume the probability of a particular gene mutating to be 1 in a billion, the size of the population is so high that just about every gene in the e.coli genome will have mutated somewhere in the world every day.

GoodGuyGreg

I just wanted to chime in and thank you for this series, Cofty. Always good with a refresher course.

@Clambake: one of the things that makes the Society dangerous is their information control. Many of us who left were able to do so largely thanks to being confronted with facts that made this information control evident to us. To some of us, finally sitting down and taking the time to understand the biology we used to scoff at back in school was, if not the actual straw then at least an important one in the process. And while Cofty is doing an excellent job condensing hundreds of hours of research into bite-sized, verifiable chunks of free information that flies in the face of Watchtower dogma and can't be unseen by those who take the time to read his snippets, what are you doing? At least accept that people are different, and that what worked for you wouldn't necessarily have worked for everyone else, and vice versa.

11

New way to fade?

by dothemath in

a brother in a local congregation has successfully faded, no announcements or judicial hearings that anyone has heard of.. his immediate family are all out, but they have lots of family still in.. if he had joined another religion, or the army, or put up christmas lights, likely the elders would be hounding them like crazy.. but no, he has accepted evolution(it seems to be common knowledge).. i would have thought this would be a disfellowshipping offense, but lots of time has passed, and they just leave them all alone..

GoodGuyGreg

@Darkknight757:

Funnily enough, according to the last conversation I had on the topic of my relationship with the congregation, with an experienced elder and our CO at the time; doubt or lack of faith is not a disfellowshipping offense. As @Wasanelder once hinted at, though: if you start rubbing people's noses in the differences between your views, the elders will be forced to "protect the congregation" expediently.

15

HERE IS YOUR MAP. . . your task is to find the spot which says: YOU ARE HERE

by Terry in

jw
friends

here is your map:.

1. i suspect the truth isn't what i thought it was.. 2. omg--i realize i've been lied to and duped.. 3. what should i do?--i don't want to lose my wife, kids, family, friends, dog, pet hamster .

.. 4. what if jehovah's witnesses really do have the true religion and it's simple human error screwing it up?.

GoodGuyGreg

I will speak out in favor of facts on (some) discussion forums, when people obviously misrepresent facts in subjects like evolution, the Bible's inerrancy or similar. I don't actively start such discussions, though, so I wouldn't go so far as to call it messing with people, but I probably did that earlier.

I actually had an interesting personal experience this weekend: I was with my wife at the convention, and I realized that I don't take things personally anymore. I may find a statement represents a horrific world view on the part of the speaker, or I may cringe at textbook examples of rhetorical fallacies, but it's no longer of any serious concern to me. It's a bit like hearing someone with whom I don't agree on the radio.

12

Harry Pothead

by Strangelove in

my apologies, but there actually is no refference to marijuana in this post.

i just needed an attention grabbing title to get at least one person to answer the question i am to...ask.

i left the orginization only a few months ago.

GoodGuyGreg

The thing I like with the HP books is that they grow with the main characters. If you don't find them very expensive, just go ahead and get them. They're not masterpieces, but definitely worth having read, in my opinion.

If you want serious fun in the fantasy/magic world, though, get yourself started on Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He's been releasing books like there's no tomorrow, and while they weren't bad to begin with, they seem to become better with every new one. He also has a few series for younger readers, which nevertheless are great reading for us parents too.

54

IS Science Absolute Truth

by seekchristonly in

if we have faith in science and scientific claims about the universe, origins of life etc.

is that absolute truth.

if so then if they declare that god exists with evidence then do all those who believe in science then believe in god or a creator.

GoodGuyGreg

@seekchristonly:

As others have stated, you should first of all read up on how scientific consensus is formed. There's a reason why a majority of experts within a scientific field believe as they do. This belief isn't based in faith, but in a body of evidence: "We believe this, because of these observable facts."

Few, if any, scientists will claim to have the absolute truth, because our explanations will always be simplified models. Note that this doesn't mean that these models are incorrect: Newtonian physics weren't rendered useless after Einstein's work had been published. What happened, was that we could more correctly identify within which context Newtonian physics are "good enough" (a car accident or a bullet trajectory within our atmosphere) and when they aren't (to get an accurate GPS fix, or when calculating interplanetary trajectories to a high degree of precision).

Believing in a Big Bang or in evolution isn't a matter of faith or opinion, but rather a matter of evidence-based critical thinking. There are so many pieces of evidence that point in the direction of these models that the chance that they aren't representative of reality is very slim.

Believing in the God of the Bible, on the other hand, is completely a matter of faith. There is no evidence other than arguments from ignorance or personal incredulity: "I don't understand how that could happen, therefore God."

But of course: If reality pointed to the existence of God, then the scientific consensus would take God into account.

23

What would be a scientific description/explanation of what God is?

by EndofMysteries in

based upon descriptions in the bible and what is known scientifically so far, what would god actually be?

lightning comes out of the throne.

no man may see and live.

GoodGuyGreg

What @Caedes wrote.

The problem becomes apparent when you try to invoke the same kind of thinking to explain the properties of Odin's throne in Asgaard; the nature of his spear, or how to explain the number of legs on his horse. Basically:
- Do you accept all descriptions of the deity in question as equally true?
- If not, what's the basis for accepting a description?
- What basis do you have for believing in any such description outside of the canonical stories of the religion in question?

In short, a description of energy behaving unlike the way in which we're used to see energy behaving should first and foremost be viewed with some suspicion, especially if it was written down long before people were aware of how energy does behave.

In my opinion, you should treat such description like you would stories of the sun standing still in the sky, or of seas of water above the skies: First sit down and apply what we do know today to this information and see if it is plausible in any way. If it is, go right ahead and speculate on possible causes - it might be fun, and it isn't likely to hurt anyone.
But if the story simply is implausible enough, speculations on how it could work if it was true are pretty pointless.

15

How Did "Shepherding Calls" Go For You?

by minimus in

jw
friends

did you loath them?

did you feel it was a "privilege" to have the elders care deeply about your spiritual well being?

if you were an elder or ministerial servant, did you enjoy going to the homes of the sheep?.

GoodGuyGreg

I was - still am - on friendly terms with the actual individuals who would perform such shepherding calls, on my part. I find it a bit sad that they've been mislead, and they find it a bit sad that I've been mislead, but there's no hard feelings between us.

They still come and visit my wife now and then, and I'll just make some coffee and chitchat with them. I know they mean well, and I see no point in creating enmity where none is intended.

194

Atheism is a Belief System

by seekchristonly in

is atheism a belief system.

after all the atheist believes there is no god .so if that's the case then an atheist if a person of faith.

they have faith in the fact there is no god.

GoodGuyGreg

EndofMysteries:

what is past that point? That might be nothing

Well, yes. And that nothing might be an inherently unstable state, which would explain a thing or two and fit very well with some current scientific suggestions. Or the models might be wrong, or need adjustments. Anyway, my point still stands: Krauss' model does fit with what we know and extrapolates it to an area where we currently can't be sure. A viable rejection of his model needs to show that it is invalid for some reason, and the reason needs to be better than "I don't agree with him about 'nothing'", or it's just a statement of opinion.

Simply put, inserting a conscious and personal creator to solve the question of why nothing is unstable is a bit pointless, unless there are good reasons to attribute more elements of reality to this entity, and so far I have seen no such reasons. If they were to show up, I'd likely change my mind - again. :)

194

Atheism is a Belief System

by seekchristonly in

is atheism a belief system.

after all the atheist believes there is no god .so if that's the case then an atheist if a person of faith.

they have faith in the fact there is no god.

GoodGuyGreg

EndOfMysteries:

What Krauss shows, is that provided some properties are universal (pun somewhat intended), no creator is needed to explain the existence of our universe.

If you want to argue against his ideas, you need to argue for a better reason to believe this isn't the case. Just saying that he's wrong because you don't agree with his definition of "nothing" is pointless unless you can show why your definition lies closer to factual reality.