TrueTomHarley

16 minutes ago, AlanF said:

I attend a congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses.

I pity the poor elders there.

6 hours ago, AlanF said:

I'm sure the site is populated by people at least as astute as you.

Rhodes scholars, every last one of them. And they all think it’s funny.

You would too if you could learn to turn that frown upside down!!

8 hours ago, AlanF said:

Jokes have to make a certain amount of sense, or be something that is clearly tongue-in-cheek. What you said is not funny in any way.

I have put it elsewhere on social media (minus your name, of course). Quite a few are cracking up over it.

8 hours ago, AlanF said:

And still NO PROBABILITY CALCULATIONS.

Working on em. I’ll etch them into your grave marker. Make sure you have a big one, for the numbers are pretty large.

I asked my mathematician friend, “What are the chances of life originating spontaneously?”

”Greater than that of all the atoms in the known universe,” he said.

I then followed up: “What are chances that Alan will leave his infantile personality behind and respond to disagreement like an adult?”

”Let’s take another look at that evolution question,” he said. “Maybe I was a little hasty,”

47 minutes ago, AlanF said:

The usual ‘out of your ass’ calculation.... Bullshit.... Probabilities are by definition numbers between 0 and 1 -- which you obviously know nothing about.

The above was a joke, which you obviously know nothing about.

A joke is when you say something that a reasonable person will think is funny. Like this one (again with apologies to Colossus—the Forbin Project):

”Attention!”

(yes)

“You will hereby cease to dispute with TrueTom! He will not be intimidated! You will obey your superior!  You will....”

Beeeeeeeeepppp!

Mr Tom, Alan has launched another insult missile

”Of course. Throw it on the stack.”

50 minutes ago, Arauna said:

Those are my very own words deary - I do not need creationist to open my mind and the things I wrote came from my own research! And thinking things through by myself! If by chance I use the same phrases it is because i came to the same conclusion they did. 

Just because that idiot thinks his wisdom is displayed by categorizing arguments and reasonings doesn’t mean that I have to. I don’t even know what arguments are “young earth” and what are not, nor to I care. It is like he is competing with The Librarian (that old hen), anal about her Dewey Decimal System. Me, I just try to deal with what makes sense.

11 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

The guy is a piece of work. Sometimes I fear his cherished evolution is true and that he is the final product. In that event, the end of all things will come far quicker than by any of the scenarios you have floated.

I also have not yet made the comparison (for the sake of kindness, but kindness is utterly wasted of this fellow) that while he looks forward to his death, you and I awake looking forward to the day, in an atmosphere of overall joy. Maybe THAT is the ultimate assessment of what one’s beliefs do for a person.

He really really REALLY should have stayed where he was. He would have a more pleasant personality if he had.

Just now, Arauna said:

You just don't get it....... do you?  And don't bother with more cursed name calling....... it rolls off our backs.  Cursing others is not a valid rebuttal........ lol.  You sound very desperate when you call us names

The guy is a piece of work. Sometimes I fear his cherished evolution is true and that he is the final product. In that event, the end of all things will come far quicker than by any of the scenarios you have floated.

6 hours ago, AlanF said:

It means you lose the probability argument, moron.

Are you really that stupid, or just pretending?

I lost nothing. I asked my mathematician friend, “What are the chances of life originating spontaneously?”

”Greater than that of all the atoms in the known universe,” he said.

I then followed up: “What are chances that Alan will leave his infantile personality behind and respond to disagreement like an adult?”

”Let’s take another look at that evolution question,” he said. “Maybe I was a little hasty,”

6 hours ago, AlanF said:

If you can't do that, you lose.

You are one strange bird to think that the purpose of life is to win or lose on a here today—gone tomorrow internet thread perhaps read by 20 people.

Here is a Uighur reeducation camp story that is not very pleasant.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/12/uighur-xinjiang-re-education-camp-china-gulbahar-haitiwaji?fbclid=IwAR08naRh1Iz_cUvSWZl-vlFoD2O7NTvyrPyZKu6jvEAyy1wdlWI8W3XIMtY

1 hour ago, AlanF said:

This is the fallacy of applying post-priori knowledge to a probabilistic situation,

Are you sure that you are not committing the fallacy of postulatum pig flyum? 

Bart Ehrman, though I disagree with him on ever so many points, did contribute one gem for the ages: “If you know a Latin phrase and also a perfectly fine English phrase that means the same thing, you should always use the Latin so people will know that you are educated.

You think that by attaching a learned label to something you can explain away nonsense? Here @Araunaand the mathematicians have you, and no wistful wand will wave it away.

1 hour ago, Arauna said:

Don't fall for that apology.

Not to worry. Ever since Dawkins wussed out with the British atheist busses, with placards saying “There probably is no God”—the “probably” because he was jellified of the Truth in Advertising law—I have lost interest in him.

https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2009/10/atheists-buses-and-hellfire-buses.html

51 minutes ago, Arauna said:

The mathematics of hitting the jackpot spot-on over and over so many billions of times in a row seems like something with ‘foresight’ was manipulating the process.  

Yes. Of course.

1 hour ago, Arauna said:

Don't read books of people who says the earth was "seeded " by alliens..

Alan has already explained this, no doubt with many an insult. This was a trap that Poor Richard was led into, a trap that Alan himself would have been smart enough to avoid.

1 hour ago, Arauna said:

Insults is not a form of logic, evidence or debunking.

Well, you’re on to something there.

1 hour ago, 4Jah2me said:

No i suppose not. But it is good self advertising  and as such self promotion. 

The Librarian and I are tight. If I am not too in-people’s-face, I can self-promote a little. After all, I certainly do earn my keep here.

Plus the book is absolutely unique, even if deeply flawed. There is no other integrated account of all that transpires in Russia today regarding JWs, and JWs are clearly the ones on the front burner (almost literally).. And the repaired version will be much better.

21 hours ago, Ann O'Maly said:

It all sounds a little 'gnostic,' 4Jah2me. Do you believe the 'true anointed remnant' have a dual nature,

Think Santa Claus

19 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

I hope no one got the impression that I wrote all that much in these last few posts. Most of this page is just quotes from others and a few lines with my comments interspersed.

I half expect the curtain torn away to reveal you controlling their marionette strings like the old guy running the Oz wizard.

6 hours ago, ComfortMyPeople said:

Just out of curiosity... do you already have time to sleep?

Finally we get into discussion of the deep questions of life.

One verse I will never apply to JWI is that of the lazy man turning on his bed like a door on its hinge.

3 hours ago, 4Jah2me said:

Self praise is no recomendation    But then you learnt it from your bosses the GB. 

Saying your own work is a disaster necessitating repair efforts is not exactly self-praise. 

26 minutes ago, AlanF said:

But as Carl Sagan said [1995]:

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and whats true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), the lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

18 minutes ago, AlanF said:

By faith one can believe that the moon is made of cheddar cheese. One can believe that the earth is shaped like a pizza pie.

For once, I will help 4Jah. I’ve turned over a new leaf.

Think Frank Sinatra: “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...”

1 hour ago, Arauna said:

21 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Klaus Schwab:

Yes I know.....  I must be getting oldheimers.... I am making silly mistakes!

Now I know why I lost my fortune and am reduced to selling pencils to get by. 

When I called Klaus Schwab to complain about his crummy stock tip, he shrugged. “What do you expect from me?” he said. “I think you meant to go to Charles Schwab. Sorry about the pencils.”

Just now, AlanF said:

I said "criminals and undesirables" you lying hound.

Keep it up, @Arauna. I expect him to drop of a rage heart attack any minute now.

3 minutes ago, AlanF said:

I've met him in person several times.

So THAT’s the source of his ill manners.

4 minutes ago, AlanF said:

it was Ben Stein who tricked him into saying that

It should have been you and not Dawkins. As you have made clear again and again, you cannot be tricked.

8 minutes ago, AlanF said:

Do you realize how stupid half of all people are? ...the other half is stupider......I'm glad that I'll be dead ... it didn't come....it didn't come... it's not going to come... You and your ilk will die

“Mr. President, Alan’s popping in for a visit.”

”Oh, my God.”

30 minutes ago, AlanF said:

The point of impeaching this criminal asshole

Given Biden’s laudable goal of “healing the country,” this may not be exactly the way to do it, given that half the population chose him and that most of them think his contention of election shenanigans quite possible.

2 hours ago, AlanF said:

You obviously support his incitement to insurrection.

In fact, his time appears to have come and gone. The constant contention  between he and his adversaries has tired me out. It has been almost as bad as a discussion with you.

I do take note of Rubio’s words regarding some of his cabinet picks, that they will no doubt be “polite and orderly caretakers of America’s decline.” As you well know, however, JWs do not favor the home team government but look to God’s Kingdom to overrule them all. It is the “polite and orderly” we have not seen for awhile that will be a refreshing change of pace. “Ascending or descending is a political judgment that will not be a Witness’s primary concern.