JackC
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Everything posted by JackC
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Says who? 1st Law of Thermodynamics No it doesn't. First Law of Thermodynamics - Neither matter nor energy can be created or destroyed. You should really stop getting your science from creationist websites.
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And here's another survey that concludes the exact opposite. Our latest survey finds that, among the top natural scientists, disbelief is greater than ever — almost total. Nature, Vol. 394, No. 6691, p. 313 (1998)
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The many worlds interpretation of quantum theory combined with the anthropic principle is an explaination that works.
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I think a good parent would teach independent thinking.
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Where did you hear this? It's called pantheism. There are hundreds of other religious philosophies. Christianity is not a beautiful and unique snowflake. To the OP, I personally wouldn't recommend going to any church if you want to keep your thought independent. Churches are there to indoctrinate the congregation into their particular brand of baseless faith, which is a prospect I find most distasteful and equate to brainwashing. I think you would be better to read a wide and varied selection of books on the surrounding subjects and try to keep a balanced view.
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I looked into that before but there's only so much gibberish I can take before I implode.
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So who does set the time? I mean he's an omnipotent God isn't he?
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Jesus must get a special pass on account of his dad then?
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When a "prophet" is wrong, then he is no prophet. Oral was wrong and therefore, he is no prophet, hopefully Pat will be wrong and remove the "prophet" hat too. Deut 18:12 How long do you have to wait before you can decide that the "prophet" was wrong and is no such thing? Jesus said he was coming back and that was 2000 years ago. I reckon it could be a long time before Pat Robertson gets his "official whackjob" hat (although the unofficial one suits him quite well)
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I guess that high risk ventures can result in large prophets but you could loose out, whereas an index-linked prophet doesn't have the returns but is a safer long term bet?
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So, how do you tell the difference between a prophet and a whackjob?
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The Neolithic era is a period roughly covering the time when the bible was written. Bronze age would be roughly equivalent. I find it amusing that you would use the term "fundy" regarding atheists. I don't mind but i'm not sure how anyone can fundamentally not believe something. You must be a fundy FSM-atheist and a fundy zeus-atheist.
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Well off the top of my head, what's with god's muliple personalities between the OT and the NT? The skepticsannotedbible.com lists all of them but I'm sure Hairy Huan has posted that so I'll just raise a glass and wish you a great christmas.
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Thanks guys, now I had to go and buy an RC helicopter. Anyone got any tips for a newbe or should I just buy shares in crazy glue now? Wish me luck, the battery has just finished charging.
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Well if God did have any input into the Bible, as some people suggest, then it should be more consistent than it is. But if it's just the musings of neolithic tribesmen on what they considered god to be then it's about what you would expect. But shouldn't it then be open to review as god inspires (or not) man further? But if god doesn't impart wisdom and just leaves it to man to write whatever his own interpretations are, then theology becomes something of a non-subject, more akin to Middle-Earth studies or Klingon history does it not?
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I don't remember saying that "well written" necessarily means "to be taken literally". But the bible is claiming to hold the truth about god and the universe so if it's correct, shouldn't it at least be self-consistent?
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What all do you apply that principle to? All literature, scripture? music? TV shows? Movies? Not everything. But I'd prefer some things to be well written. Laws, political policies, text books that sort of thing. Pretty much anything I'm supposed to actually understand. I'd take religion more seriously if I could at least understand it.
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Is the US Constitution well written? Not really. Take the second ammendment for instance. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. That's pretty ambiguous, the liberal use of commas casts doubt onto its grammatical accuracy and I'm not entirely convinced it's even a correct sentence. But I'm no expert.
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If it was well written everyone would agree on what it means but they don't, even if it is the most read book of all time. Just because a book is popular and influencial doesn't mean it's actually good. Popularity usually has more to do with marketing than quality.
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So is Henry V and it's a much, much better story. Even as entertainment the Bible isn't much cop. All that death and destruction in the OT and then God gets all hippified in the second installment. He should have used a continuity advisor, it's a schoolboy error. Knocking out a universe doesn't seem to be a problem, you'd think a coherent storyline would be walk in the park by comparison.
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No but it reads like it was written by a first grader. Seriously, I've got books on quantum field theory that are easier to understand.
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Why do I have to "exegete" scripture? Why is there a special way of reading and interpreting the Bible that's different from reading say Time magazine? What is so special about the Bible that means I can't just take the words to mean what they say? But the bible isn't like that, there is always context this or translation that or it's a parable or an alegory or something. Even after 2000 years of study by thousands of people, still there's no agreement. Like it or not, the Bible is contradictory, incoherent, ambiguous, poorly written and has some pretty dubious morals in it. I don't see why anyone would waste their time with it.
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Yep, no matter how rediculous or incomprehensible the passage is, there's always an excuse. God sure needs a lot of excuses. I'll pass.
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What about Jesus in the wilderness talking to the devil. Was that a dream too? The devil didn't actually take Jesus to the top of a mountain and show him all the kingdoms of the world? The bible is chock full of this sort of stuff. As a book, it's a crap one considering it's authors were supposedly divinely inspired. It's so convoluted that it's virtually impossible to figure out, as whitnessed by 2000 years of people arguing about the "correct" interpretation. How do you know yours is correct? You don't. You can only read it and think what it means to you. To me (and anyone who expects words to have their usual meanings) it's complete garbage. Your mileage may vary.
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And you guys speak of supposed mental gymnastics required of Christians. Yours is very impressive. I give you a 9.8. So if you were stood on a mountain top in the USA and you wanted to see Japan, how tall would the mountain have to be? I think you need geometry for that, not gymnastics.