Posts by Abaddon

69

Final Thought About Atheism

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

final thought about atheismafter having reviewed the last thread about atheism, i have decided there.

exists a common theme among the postings.

the themes surrounding the .

Abaddon

The wanderer

All you have done is this;

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/

http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm

See, I can give URL's; no smoke without a fire, eh?

http://www.fixedearth.com/

And another one!

http://www.strangemag.com/nessie.home.html

This is easy isn't it?

http://www.bfro.net/

Got the point yet?

Cutting and pasting links means nothing. One can find any variety of nutter cloaking their claims in pseudoscience and speculation. Doesn't mean they are right - but remember, a boy on a beach with a stick can PROVE the earth is curved. No one has proved the paranormal yet. Not one bit.

Good evidence would be a scientific paper, published in a reputable peer-reviewed science journal having an abstract that read something like;

"In a study of 10,000 randomly-selected people on the electoral register, 0.04% were found to be able to generate a force averaging 0.004N on electronic scale situated in a vacuum chamber in another visable to them via a CCTV link in the next room."

Or;

"In a study of 573 University students it was found five students were capable of sending a 20-digit number to one of the group of five when they were located in two separate location with no means of perceiving the other by any known sense, the number being a random sequence selected via means of double-blind protocols, all experiments being observed by panel of five independent scientists selected from the National Science bodies of G7 nations."

Personally I would find proof of coherent thought transference or telekinesis fantastically exciting. But no one has done it yet, and I won't let my liking of such a thing alter my standards of proof, or treat you like a child and pretend you have a good point when you don't. Or do you like being condescended too?

43

Gay/Lesbian Symbols

by Crumpet in

jw
friends

the whole rainbow thread piqued my curiosity.

i have often wondered how you know without speaking to someone if they are gay and you are not in a known gay place - like um brighton or the candy bar in london.. does anyone know of any other gay and lesbian symbols or signs?.

someone told me once that a ring on your pinkie was a sign - can anyone verify the truth of this?.

Abaddon

Just as there are gay men and lesbians who are promiscuous and are just interested in physical relationships, so too are there promiscuous hetereosexuals.

There are also men who want a secure loving relationship with another man, who they like having sex with, and lesbians who wants the same sort of relationship with a woman. Just like straight people who want a secure relationship with the opposite sex.

I've known gay people who have been in relationships decades long, lesbians who go through a wild phase of discovery before settling down on the opposite side of the world with their girlfriend... and straight people who've done the same WooHoo! thang and settled down with someone of the opposite sex.

The biggest mistake you can make is to think homosexuality is all about sex. It is no more all about sex than heterosexuality. Yeah, there's mad sex clubs for gay guys, lesbian pick-up bars... but as straight people have the same sort of things all it does is show that gay people are just like straight people apart from the liking people with the same naughty bits.

Just as there are straight people who talk about their sex lives (I'm sure some straight friends of yours talk about their sex lives jaguar), so too there are gay people who do that - and loads who don't.

Hell, I'm sure some people you know go home to someone of the same sex and you don't know.

The symbols thing makes me think of clothing styles. A friend of mine was refused entry to a lesbian bar once as she was wearing a pretty cotton summer dress. Apparently in some clubs, all lesbians are equal, but the ones in combats, army boots, crew-cut T-shirts with wallets on chains and short hair are more equal than others.

43

Gay/Lesbian Symbols

by Crumpet in

jw
friends

the whole rainbow thread piqued my curiosity.

i have often wondered how you know without speaking to someone if they are gay and you are not in a known gay place - like um brighton or the candy bar in london.. does anyone know of any other gay and lesbian symbols or signs?.

someone told me once that a ring on your pinkie was a sign - can anyone verify the truth of this?.

Abaddon

69

Final Thought About Atheism

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

final thought about atheismafter having reviewed the last thread about atheism, i have decided there.

exists a common theme among the postings.

the themes surrounding the .

Abaddon

Crumpet

Well, if one could prove there were non-corporeal entities, and they were subject to selection and could transfer uniquenes on to offspring, yes, they would evolve.

Also interesting is applying evolutionary biology to claimed paranormal abilities;

Attributes that have a positive value for survival increase their penetration into a population. In other words mind-reading, elephant levitators who can avoid danger by knowing about it beforehand will have lots of babies, and many of these babies will carry the same trait, until as many people can read mind, levitate elephants and see the future as can digest lactose.I

This is very much not the case. Therefore one can say that one of the following must be true;

Paranormal abilities do not exist; there is no evidence against this possibility
Paranormal abilities do exist, but are so tiny and uncontrollable they are of no survival benefit what-so-ever and only turn up on the off chance, and even then don't breed true. This is possible but doesn't explain how paranormal stuff works; we know how electricity works (simplification; pumping electrons), but we cannot point to paranormalons and show how they make tables float.
Paranormal abilities do exist and do provide a survival benefit but are a new thing (just as lactose tolerance was once a new thing) and haven't had time to develop properly in the population yet; same problem regarding explaining how it works as above.
Paranormal abilities are the result of humans being parasitised by non-corporeal entities (who hide from scientists and cameras) well; it is possible, but that's different from likely.
Paranormal abilities are the result of a divine gift and are not something related to one's genetics; I'd have to ask the fairies if this is true

69

Final Thought About Atheism

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

final thought about atheismafter having reviewed the last thread about atheism, i have decided there.

exists a common theme among the postings.

the themes surrounding the .

Abaddon

And now the fantasists have a nice little circle jerk...

Guys, it was made to sound like major Universities are ploughing major money into the paranormal. They are not. It is made to sound like there is a vast set of evidence supporting belief in the paranormal. There is not, at least not of the level of reliability that would secure a speeding ticket.

Now you mock those who've asked you to actually prove what you're talking about is more than credulous speculation.

Come on then. Where are the people levitating stuff with the power of their mind, sending messages from one mind to another mind, accurately foretelling the future or seeing things in their mind from beyond visual range?

ALL of these things are easy to prove if they exist. Your determined avoidance of this fact and the fact no one HAS proved such things speaks volumes about the etiology of belief.

69

Final Thought About Atheism

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

final thought about atheismafter having reviewed the last thread about atheism, i have decided there.

exists a common theme among the postings.

the themes surrounding the .

Abaddon

147

Merry Becomes A Muslim (a bit long)

by Merry Magdalene in

who is merry?

i was born in 1965, the same year that malcolm x was assassinated.

my father had committed suicide a few months into my mother's pregnancy so we lived with her parents until she married again when i was about 18 months old.

Abaddon

Tras

You never did really respond to me pointing out your claim that stoning for adultery is a Qur'anic law is totally false.

Be that as it may;

You can't stand before God while blood flows from your body. Using women hygienic products doesn't stop the blood from flownig, it simply absorbs the blood that does flow. I'm not trying to gross anyone out, but would any guy perform any sexual act on a woman that is menstruating? Why not if there is nothing wrong with? So you're saying it's gross for you, but it should be good for God? Don't you find this reasoning sick and twisted?

Tras, wake up and smell the hemoglobin. LOADS of men do, and LOADS of women want then to. Some women are too crampy to want to, others find sex during their period a relief. Others, sadly have been raised to think their own bodies are disgusting 1/4 of the time.

Allah supposedly made the human body; does Allah regret what he has done or find what he has done unclean? No. So how could Allah punish women for something natural and non-harmful. Your slavish literalism makes a fool of Allah as you swallow down absurdities that are shameful to believe of god.

Basically, Mary, Jelcat and others are happy being Musims, and this board insists on attacking them.

Get a grip and actually stop making false claims about your own holy scriptures before you falsely accuse others of attacking Muslims. Spirirted debate about beliefs is not attacking. I've stated clearly I have no problem with someone being a Muslim.

What I am trying to understand is why a convert would choose a more traditional form of the belief.

Islam has many varients, all the way from utter scum like the Taliban to people today who are looking at Islam in the way Christianity was examined in the 18th and 19th Century. I can list different sects if you like, and you can pretend like they're not so different they aren't at war with each other in Iraq.Again.

Oh, and don't worry, I think white-power Christian churches and Fundy Christians who bomb abortion clinic are scum to.

NONE of the varieties of Islam can prove their version is right. They might claim it, but claims mean nothing when everyone makes the same one.

So why go for one that clings to vestiges of primative patriarchal pastoralist traditions pre-dating Islam? Why go for traditional forms of the beliefs that, as the evidence around the world shows, give rise to societies where women suffer disadvantage?

Tell me, do you expect your wife/ves to stop working and raise your children, keep your home? Or would you be happy with her/they continuing in her/their careers? If you disagree with your wife/ves over something, do you expect your word to be final? Will you beat your wife/ves lightly so as not to make a mark (as allowed by Islamic Scripture) if she/they won't listen to you? If your daughter is an incredibly talented athlete, say a born gymnast, or gets a scholarship to ballet school, will you stop her? Would you stop a son with the same opportunites?

I'm not attacking you. I am trying to understand how SO many things that add up to inequality can be seen as equality. Trying to see how your background influences you (just as ours does us).

69

Final Thought About Atheism

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

final thought about atheismafter having reviewed the last thread about atheism, i have decided there.

exists a common theme among the postings.

the themes surrounding the .

Abaddon

The wanderer

Having asked you clearly for proof several times, specified a level of reliability of proof, and given examples of some claimed paranormal powers or entities you could supply proof on, your repeated questions asking me what I want are a result of terminal incomprehension on your part, deliberate or otherwise.

Unless you actually respond to clear and reasonable requests for information related to the validity of your speculations, there's no point in discussing this further.

61

Did God ever Exist?

by found-my-way in

reading so many posts on atheism which is the belief that there is no god, and reading comments from creationists made me ponder if there was an alternate reason for our existence.. if god is up there, why does he permit suffering?

if i were god, i wouldn't of let it happen in the first place, these are my children, why would i let them suffer?

maybe i am influenced by my creationist upbringing and beliefs while a jw, because i find it hard to wrap my brain around the idea that everything came from nothing.

Abaddon

I always wonder how you can get the spittle of the inside of my screen after I have read one of Perry's posts.

Cyber-pharasee, cut and paste Calvanist.

He is so much more interested in vindicating his self-rightous self than vindicating god.

Funny how someone who scorns atheists for setting themselves up as god does exactly the same thing (not that atheists actually do that, but he does).

He is blind to the fact that by selecting an interpretation of scripture as 'truth', when a thousand or more different shades of Christianity alone have their own 'truths', when none can show by their fruits or by proofs they are any more right in the specifics of Christian practise, he is making himself god by the conceit his opinon can be more right than the next sincere Christian.

He rants and raves when his limited understanding and vanity make him feel he can make some form of argument. And ignores or flees those that he cannot answer

61

Did God ever Exist?

by found-my-way in

reading so many posts on atheism which is the belief that there is no god, and reading comments from creationists made me ponder if there was an alternate reason for our existence.. if god is up there, why does he permit suffering?

if i were god, i wouldn't of let it happen in the first place, these are my children, why would i let them suffer?

maybe i am influenced by my creationist upbringing and beliefs while a jw, because i find it hard to wrap my brain around the idea that everything came from nothing.

Abaddon

Perry, do you still believe in the doctrine of the elect? (i.e. we are predestined to burn or go to heaven and there is nothing that we can do about it).

If you believe you are one of the elect it would explain something about the way you look down your nose at the rest of the world. You have made yourself your own god, pronounced yourself saved, and now can sit in complacency sneering at everyone else whilst you worship your own highly-elevated opinion of yourself.

If you have stopped believing in the doctrine of the elect, then you're obviously a butterfly mind flitting from one bunch of supersticion to the next, taking what you like and using it to make yourself feel less inadequate, and your latest set of beliefs are as of little interest as your last as they have the same order of reliability.

Be a good chap and clear up exactly what sort of person we are dealing with...