Jason, my dear, you are not exactly "discussing" here, now are you? Be honest. You "know" you have the "truth" and anything that does not fit with your concept of "truth" is automatically a lie. Is this not correct?
Larc and I and the others here spent years "knowing" we had the "truth" even though there was ample evidence available to poke holes in our "truth" around every corner. We all clung to that "truth" until finally something caused us to really stop and look at what we were doing.
You say that we have not patted you on the back and said, "Good point, Jason....WOW!" Do you know why? It's because we used to believe exactly as you do (well, pretty much), but we finally learned to question things and see what facts fit the issue we were trying to discuss.
You say that going through the calculations yourself would take a ridiculous amount of time. Now, Jason, that's a total copout and you know it. You are simply afraid that doing some simple arithmetic might show that something was not quite right and accurate in your little world. I think you're afraid to take that chance.
Likewise, you have convinced yourself that I am trying to "promote my own beliefs" so to speak. Sorry, Jason, I am simply stating what I have found out through my own experience. I know for a fact that as little as 3 or 4 quarts of grain over and above what a horse should eat can cause colic and founder. How do I know? Well, one of my previous horses was a master at picking locks and opening feed bins--at which point he would gorge himself and require a visit from the vet to pump him full of mineral oil to get the excess grain out of his system before it killed him.
I have learned how much forage is necessary because I have had to deal with figuring out how much to buy to see my animals through the winter. I also know how the hay looks and smells at the end of the season, and how the horses will refuse to eat it unless there is absolutely nothing else available. I also know that hay distributors don't maintain stocks from year to year--it loses nutritional value after one season. They sell any leftover bales to construction companies or as garden mulch. That's why hay prices fluctuate widely from year to year. They cannot store excess hay from a good year to use during a poor season.
She asks good questions but they don't prove anything.
Questions and facts prove nothing if you refuse to consider them. Believe me, Jason, I was once in your position. I KNEW everything because I had the "truth" from the Bible, and no amount of factual evidence to the contrary could prove otherwise. Disbelieving the literalness of a Biblical illustration does not equate to disbelief in God. All it means is that the chroniclers of that particular passage looked at things from their own perspective, which was quite narrow. If the facts don't fit the illustration, then we're interpreting the illustration incorrectly.
This discussion may continue until all of you
give up. I never once said you and you pal RHW couldn't believe what you want. That doesn't mean what you
believe is true and it doesn't mean I can't argue about it. You call yourselves ex-witnesses but you still think
the same way. If anyone challenges your beliefs you get all rude and start putting people down.
Once again, Jason, you are mistaking statements of fact and relating of life experiences with "belief". You are so far off the mark it is pathetic. I would LOVE to believe that I could go out and purchase $1.00 a bale mulch hay for my horses and they would be perfectly fine.....damn, I could save a lot of money. Unfortunately, a belief like that would probably kill them, since they would have almost no nutritional feed through the winter months. As I stood there watching my animals wither away, my "belief" that everything was fine would count for nothing.
Similarly, believing that Noah could have managed to fit everything into the confines of the Ark, AND maintain it all for a year on the water and for who knows how long on Mt. Ararat while waiting for the water to subside and vegetation to grow, is naive in the extreme. Couldn't happen, Jason.....simply couldn't happen.
Your hypotheses so far are desperate attempts to explain away actual physical laws. Better to look at the facts first, then see if your "belief" fits, rather than trying to change factual evidence to fit your beliefs.
You have been jumping through hoops trying to massage facts to fit what you feel you must believe. Been there done that, Jason, and I have no intention of denying what IS true for what someone tells me is the "truth".
