Religion Ask a Christian - Continued in Part 2

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CM9000

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Well that post really takes the cake.

"Not to sound condescending"

Well you blew that didn't you.

"You may disagree and say your life is all peachy and you're happy in life but the way you look at and live life itself (your mentality) doesn't agree."

You know precisely zero about my life you sanctimonious goose.

"Was it human ego when Nelson Mandela found purpose which saw him spend a good chunk of his life in prison?"

Nelson Mandela was driven by an insatiable urge to see justice and equality on earth for his fellow South Africans, not for some entirely unsubstantiated enticement of life after death.

"You're not participating in anything of substance, that's the sad reality."

Well then, I must have imagined my love for my family, my wonderfully fulfilling work in a creative field, my love of nature, my care for my fellow humans and for the fragile environment that we are the trustees of.

"You may be participating in living to your death but that's about it."

I imagine like most religious believers, you have no trouble accepting the fact that you didn't exist before you were born on earth. Why do you have so much trouble accepting that you'll again cease to exist as soon as your life on earth has come to a close? What's so special about human life on earth that you've convinced yourself that it overrides the laws of the universe?

Only once we accept that life is an infinitesimally small interlude between two endless periods of oblivion can we begin to start truly living. Life is short. Don't waste a second of it.

My friend, this is an unfortunate view of life. Frankly, it amounts to absolutely noting at all - this is Rick and Morty tier philosophy, or, to put it more simply, nothing of substance in the slightest. It only leads to nihilism.

There being “laws of the universe“ is an assumption. This life being an “infinitesimally small interlude“ is an assumption. The very idea that we can view things on such a cosmic scale, and judge our lives from such a position, is an assumption in itself. And yet you feel no need to examine these statements beforehand.

To think that judging things under the aspect of eternity grants life any value is meaningless. You’re literally reaching outside the very limits of your reason to make a final statement, going beyond any reasonable measure of what we can say is true. And ultimately, what you‘re saying was already developed to a high degree 2000 years ago by thinkers far more smarter than any of us on here, and it’s been challenged in that time span as well.

I would highly suggest you rethink this entire attitude.
 
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My friend, this is an unfortunate view of life. Frankly, it amounts to absolutely noting at all - this is Rick and Morty tier philosophy, or, to put it more simply, nothing of substance in the slightest. It only leads to nihilism.

There being “laws of the universe“ is an assumption. This life being an “infinitesimally small interlude“ is an assumption. The very idea that we can view things on such a cosmic scale, and judge our lives from such a position, is an assumption in itself. And yet you feel no need to examine these statements beforehand.

To think that judging things under the aspect of eternity grants life any value is meaningless. You’re literally reaching outside the very limits of your reason to make a final statement, going beyond any reasonable measure of what we can say is true. And ultimately, what you‘re saying was already developed to a high degree 2000 years ago by thinkers far more smarter than any of us on here, and it’s been challenged in that time span as well.

I would highly suggest you rethink this entire attitude.
Barking up the wrong tree mate.

Address your grievances to Herr Friedrich Nietzsche.

Honestly, you’re talking like nihilism is some new age fad.

Only when we acknowledge the smallness of our place in the majesty of the utterly uncaring universe can we begin to truly live.

Or not truly live, as is your other option. But you alone must make that choice.
 
We are unable to cope with pressure, it starts with the coach. We had 4 home finals in a row that we have lost, this is not a coincidence. We never seem to perform when the heat is on.

2001-2003 again. It's not about the list, give me Clayton Oliver and nothing will change i can guarantee you.
Ollie Wines - deserved Brownlow winner. How good was Boak!
Port will be in the GF next year; bookmark it.
They struggle with that bye, like we do.
Your boys love Hinkley.
 

Evolved1

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Ollie Wines - deserved Brownlow winner. How good was Boak!
Port will be in the GF next year; bookmark it.
They struggle with that bye, like we do.
Your boys love Hinkley.
On the turps tonight, Dubsy?
 
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Ollie Wines - deserved Brownlow winner. How good was Boak!
Port will be in the GF next year; bookmark it.
They struggle with that bye, like we do.
Your boys love Hinkley.
Bookmarked , i wish i am wrong though, i just don't see it happening, all year we struggled to beat top 4 teams. The only team we are able to beat in the finals seem to be Geelong.
 
Bookmarked , i wish i am wrong though, i just don't see it happening, all year we struggled to beat top 4 teams. The only team we are able to beat in the finals seem to be Geelong.
Looks that way; won't have to deal with the Cats next year. The misery of what happened this year will be a great spur.
 

Evolved1

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I think VD is harsh on geelong, they made the grannies in 2020, i would love to be them, it seems like 2001 to 2003 all over again for us.
Geelong look old and slow, and I think they're cooked tbh. Port were extremely disappointing against the dogs. Downhill skiers?
 
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Kidding, right?

indoistriku

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“There’s evidence of a large cosmic airburst, close to this city called Tall el-Hammam,” Kennett said of an explosion similar to the Tunguska Event, a roughly 12-megaton airburst that occurred in 1908, when a 56-60-meter meteor pierced the Earth’s atmosphere over the Eastern Siberian Taiga.

The shock of the explosion over Tall el-Hammam was enough to level the city, flattening the palace and surrounding walls and mudbrick structures, according to the paper. The distribution of bones indicated “extreme disarticulation and skeletal fragmentation in nearby humans.”

“All the observations stated in Genesis are consistent with a cosmic airburst,” said one scientist involved in the discovery that the city of Sodom was destroyed by a fire and brimstone-type event.

He then goes on to say "but there’s no scientific proof that this destroyed city is indeed the Sodom of the Old Testament.” But that is a gross oversimplification of the issue because there is more than one epistemological method of knowledge/knowing. For example, Steven Collins Ph.D (in archaeology) in a paper of his "suggests that every available line of evidence from ANE archaeology, history, culture, literature, climatology, and socio-economics demonstrates that the patriarchs fit best in the period following 1800 BCE, which also conforms to the terminal MB2 destruction of Hammam/Sodom."


Summary: Scientific evidence found that validates the biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The professor who specialises in marine geology, not archaeology, reminds the reluctant reader that there is no *scientific* evidence that this city was actually Sodom. The professor who specialises in Archaeology reminds the balanced reader that there is an entire host of other epistemological methods to reach the conclusion that, yes, this was Sodom.
 

Evolved1

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“All the observations stated in Genesis are consistent with a cosmic airburst,” said one scientist involved in the discovery that the city of Sodom was destroyed by a fire and brimstone-type event.

He then goes on to say "but there’s no scientific proof that this destroyed city is indeed the Sodom of the Old Testament.” But that is a gross oversimplification of the issue because there is more than one epistemological method of knowledge/knowing. For example, Steven Collins Ph.D (in archaeology) in a paper of his "suggests that every available line of evidence from ANE archaeology, history, culture, literature, climatology, and socio-economics demonstrates that the patriarchs fit best in the period following 1800 BCE, which also conforms to the terminal MB2 destruction of Hammam/Sodom."


Summary: Scientific evidence found that validates the biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The professor who specialises in marine geology, not archaeology, reminds the reluctant reader that there is no *scientific* evidence that this city was actually Sodom. The professor who specialises in Archaeology reminds the balanced reader that there is an entire host of other epistemological methods to reach the conclusion that, yes, this was Sodom.
Is James Kennett a fundamentalist Christian?
 
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Kidding, right?



“All the observations stated in Genesis are consistent with a cosmic airburst,” said one scientist involved in the discovery that the city of Sodom was destroyed by a fire and brimstone-type event.

He then goes on to say "but there’s no scientific proof that this destroyed city is indeed the Sodom of the Old Testament.” But that is a gross oversimplification of the issue because there is more than one epistemological method of knowledge/knowing. For example, Steven Collins Ph.D (in archaeology) in a paper of his "suggests that every available line of evidence from ANE archaeology, history, culture, literature, climatology, and socio-economics demonstrates that the patriarchs fit best in the period following 1800 BCE, which also conforms to the terminal MB2 destruction of Hammam/Sodom."


Summary: Scientific evidence found that validates the biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The professor who specialises in marine geology, not archaeology, reminds the reluctant reader that there is no *scientific* evidence that this city was actually Sodom. The professor who specialises in Archaeology reminds the balanced reader that there is an entire host of other epistemological methods to reach the conclusion that, yes, this was Sodom.
An ancient city (that may well have been the biblical Sodom) appears to have been struck by a meteor or similar.

Well blow me down with a feather.

Now here's the hard bit - you have to prove this meteor was sent on its path by "god" and the "god" was angry at the inhabitants of that city.

Also what makes you so certain the "god' is even subject to very human emotions like anger?
 
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“All the observations stated in Genesis are consistent with a cosmic airburst,” said one scientist involved in the discovery that the city of Sodom was destroyed by a fire and brimstone-type event.

He then goes on to say "but there’s no scientific proof that this destroyed city is indeed the Sodom of the Old Testament.” But that is a gross oversimplification of the issue because there is more than one epistemological method of knowledge/knowing. For example, Steven Collins Ph.D (in archaeology) in a paper of his "suggests that every available line of evidence from ANE archaeology, history, culture, literature, climatology, and socio-economics demonstrates that the patriarchs fit best in the period following 1800 BCE, which also conforms to the terminal MB2 destruction of Hammam/Sodom."


Summary: Scientific evidence found that validates the biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The professor who specialises in marine geology, not archaeology, reminds the reluctant reader that there is no *scientific* evidence that this city was actually Sodom. The professor who specialises in Archaeology reminds the balanced reader that there is an entire host of other epistemological methods to reach the conclusion that, yes, this was Sodom.

The proposal that Tall el-Hammam is Sodom is of course disputed.

Bill Schlegel, professor in Israel for 25 years and author of the Satellite Bible Atlas argues why the biblical text does not fit the geography of Tall el-Hammam.

Eugene Merrill, Distinguished Professor of Old Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and author of Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, argues that for Tall el-Hammam to be Sodom one must deny all of the biblical dates before the time of the judges.

Make of those what you will.
 

indoistriku

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Is James Kennett a fundamentalist Christian?
If he is, he's an honest one, as he was quick to qualify the findings with a reminder that there's no *scientific* evidence for Tall el-Hammam actually being Sodom. He's a retired Earth Scientist, Professor Emeritus at UCSB in the University of California system. He's from New Zealand has no formal theological qualifications to indicate he is a Christian. He may be religious, but if I were guessing, I'd say no. Almost certainly no fundamentalist, even if he is religious. https://www.gulfbase.org/people/dr-james-p-kennett
The proposal that Tall el-Hammam is Sodom is of course disputed.

Bill Schlegel, professor in Israel for 25 years and author of the Satellite Bible Atlas argues why the biblical text does not fit the geography of Tall el-Hammam.

Eugene Merrill, Distinguished Professor of Old Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and author of Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, argues that for Tall el-Hammam to be Sodom one must deny all of the biblical dates before the time of the judges.

Make of those what you will.

Yes, noted. The academic paper I linked to, written by Collins, is a refutation of Merrill's work.
 
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