OT: (Jehovah's Witnesses) "Millions Living Today Will Never Die"
Dougster
It's kind of funny, but while waiting for an Uber on Friday I had a Jehovah's Witness approach me. I was kind of surprised these guys are still around with all of their miserably failed predictions they have. But then again, all the names the masses seem to be most enamored with in the financial world have pretty much been calling the top in the stock market every day since March 2009 and been that wrong for that long has hardly made a dent in their popularity, so what the heck?
It also reminded me of a guy who sat across from me in history class in high school who was a JW. Then there was the 144,000 reference yesterday. Got me reading a bit about their history.
One of their saying I found particularly interesting is "millions living today will never die". Their doctrines have been all over the place over the years, but this was a statement that the generation alive 1914 would witness the end of the world, and Jesus's return, and eternal life. Oooops, kind got that one wrong...
But it's kind of funny, because I have a similar which I'll put out there and you guys can make fun of it. I believe that the Jehovah's just got the date wrong by exactly 100 years, and the reason for not dying wrong. I believe that many of those who were lucky enough to be young in 2014 (not 1914) will see such spectacular advances in AI, medicine and robotics that they will get to live forever (* well as much as in possible consider the 3rd law of thermodynamics and the relativistic question of whether we are in an open or closed spacetime). The reason is quite the opposite of what the JWs believe, however. Far from it being Jesus's return, it will be that we so distanced ourselves from religious thinking and replaced it with scientific thinking (and robots will have none of our psychological biases that point us in the direction of religion) that we'll have replaced the "holy grail" of religion in quite a non-religious way.
What do you guys? Kurzweilian singularity possible around middle to late-middle century?
I think people are quite asleep right now to all that is going to happen quite rapidly now. Also the challenges of who gets the fruits of it first is going to be the number 1 social issue of our times.
It also reminded me of a guy who sat across from me in history class in high school who was a JW. Then there was the 144,000 reference yesterday. Got me reading a bit about their history.
One of their saying I found particularly interesting is "millions living today will never die". Their doctrines have been all over the place over the years, but this was a statement that the generation alive 1914 would witness the end of the world, and Jesus's return, and eternal life. Oooops, kind got that one wrong...
But it's kind of funny, because I have a similar which I'll put out there and you guys can make fun of it. I believe that the Jehovah's just got the date wrong by exactly 100 years, and the reason for not dying wrong. I believe that many of those who were lucky enough to be young in 2014 (not 1914) will see such spectacular advances in AI, medicine and robotics that they will get to live forever (* well as much as in possible consider the 3rd law of thermodynamics and the relativistic question of whether we are in an open or closed spacetime). The reason is quite the opposite of what the JWs believe, however. Far from it being Jesus's return, it will be that we so distanced ourselves from religious thinking and replaced it with scientific thinking (and robots will have none of our psychological biases that point us in the direction of religion) that we'll have replaced the "holy grail" of religion in quite a non-religious way.
What do you guys? Kurzweilian singularity possible around middle to late-middle century?
I think people are quite asleep right now to all that is going to happen quite rapidly now. Also the challenges of who gets the fruits of it first is going to be the number 1 social issue of our times.
23 comments
~Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomer
"blah, blah, blah, Robert Jastrow"
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My Dad used to talk about Jastrow, and It’s been a long time since I've heard that name.
Jastrow was the go-to guy when some religious whack needed credibility from the scientific community -- even though Jastrow was an agnostic. Books, like Jastrow's, that try to make a connection between science and religion are a complete fucking waste of time. And Jastrow never believed in climate change even though the whole topic has been a done-deal in the scientific community, for about two decades. Before my time, but Jastrow was about the only physicist with credentials who supported Reagan's bizarre star-wars missile defense proposal.
@Dougster: You should start be nicer to all of us. Otherwise, when the time comes, only us nice people (like SJG) will be swept up into the air, and you will be left on Earth with the Koch bros to suffer eternal damnation.
Before 2055, plenty of disasters. I don't know if I'll live to see or hear about the Battle of Armegeddon. Supposedly someone will descend out of the clouds. Of course if 2/3 of the planet's population is dead before then, that's not a whole lot to look forward until unless you're a Klingon saying it's a good day to die or one of those jihadis expecting a hundred virgins. That's over 40 years away, time enough to party.
Today I learned why Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Halloween. They don't like strangers going up to their door and annoying them.
2. I have had some interactions with some Jehovahs and I can't believe what a cult that group is. Great to be a man in that group, miserable if you're a woman...
Doesn't seem great for anyone - 'cept maybe a few of their boys out in Brooklyn.
A. Show up with a knife dipped in ketchup and say "I'm sorry, could you come back in a half hour? We're not done with the virgin yet."
How do you get rid of an escaped convict that rang your doorbell?
Open the door holding a bloody butcher knife and blood running down your hand.
I know someone who claims they were cutting up some meat and the doorbell rang, the stranger took one look and took off. Apparently an escaped convict had recently broken out of jail.
“The scientists’ religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”
“Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”
“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”
~ Albert Einstein
But today I woke up before dawn to 68 deg F outside temperatures. July weather in mid-March. The Dispensationalists must be having a field day with this.
I really do believe that we are in severe ecological shit here.
Two years ago a guy from India was telling me that in India it was 54 deg C, which translates to 129 deg F. This remains unconfirmed.
Very hard to even stay alive in that. And then in Tasmania I think it was getting even hotter.
Well here, they aren't saying went quite that high:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Summe…
Is that what I have to look forward to here in San Jose this summer?
Here they talk about Australia, Africa, and California:
http://www.wfs.org/blogs/len-rosen/extre…
Say there is one major crop failure, like say in the Soviet Union, India, or Mainland China? Then right away we are in that Morris West "Shoes of the Fisherman" scenario. Massive waves of human migration, governmental authority collapsing, and a very real probability of nuclear war as various factions compete to hold on to power.
SJG
http://www.worldwatch.org/
Miles Davis Quintet, Around Midnight, 1967
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIu3rvoa…
SJG
I told her that hearing that made me glad I'm an atheist.
Humans always have to ascribed patterns to things, whether the patterns actually exist or not, everything from math and poetry to clouds and constellations. It's our nature; it's our survival strategy. But when they can't figure out that pattern, when they can't identify its source and its ending, it has to be the work of a higher intelligence?
Seriously? Why?
We've figured out (or are well on the way to figuring out) the patterns of a vast number of things today that we couldn't have a hundred -- even fifty -- years ago, but even so, even with that progress, people still have to ascribe those patterns to a "higher intelligence"?
Sometimes threads run their natural course, so a change of direction is helpful. If people want to then steer it back, they can.
SJG
" That is an awful lot of internal hostility you have going on there Josh43. Here are the thoughts of another complete waste of time guy for you to dismiss out of hand if you still are harbouring such rage. (Oh and “climate change”? Really? Really? How very passé.): "
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This is a late response Pikey since, frankly, I thought you were just some sort of whack job. Didn't realize until your more recent posts that you are a true intellectual force here on TUSCL. I'm truly in awe!!!
First off, I don't see why you feel the need to bring two physicists into a thread devoted to Jehovah's Winessess? Are you saying that faith and religion can't stand up on its own? Do you need the credibility of science to justify religion? Do you understand that both Jastrow and Einstein were agnostic?
Jastrow wrote whole books trying to find connections between science and religion. If that's your cup of tea, then fine -- I find the whole subject a waste of time. Jastrow didn't have (1/1000) the stature of Einstein, but he was the head at NASA / Goddard and he had a lot of connections in Washington. The fact that he went against nearly every other scientist on climate change was a disgrace. I haven't got a clue why you think climate change is "very passé " since over half the GOP in Congress still thinks the science is bogus. And we've got are first official presidential contender (Ted Cruz) who thinks the whole think is a hoax. Duh!
Einstein was probably the second smartest dude to ever walk the Earth. He was not the least bit religious. Here is one of his quotes:
"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. "
Here is the original link:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/wor…
Consider the following: 1) his handle is either stupid or racist; 2) he quotes Einstein without realizing Einstein used God metaphorically and was certainly not a conventional theist; 3) he lives on a beer and egg roll diet; 4) he believes the Fabian society is the biggest evil on the planet! I wonder if he thinks the Fabians are sending radio brain control messages only he can perceive!
Oh, he also has a Mad Max movie only he can see running through his head 24/7!
I wish Pikey and Che would post more often -- both are interesting dudes. I suspect that Pikey is doing some of this tongue-in-cheek, but I could be wrong. :)