Posts by Village Idiot

35

If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed ...

by Simon in

matthew 17:20 - he said to them, because of your little faith.

for truly, i say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.. i get the 'message' - if you believe enough (in fact, even a tiny amount - a mustard seed being tiny) then nothing is impossible but really, what a ridiculous statement and idea for several reasons.. there are lots of people who believe things completely and sincerely even to the point of death.

so far i've not noticed any sudden movements of any mountain ranges.

Village Idiot

Jonathan Drake: "The explosion of Christ devotion is a documented event. It was everywhere within just over a decade."

Where is the documentation of such a drastic increase within the first decade? I'm not saying that there wasn't any increase but several thousand at one time is hard to believe. Any increase would probably have slowly started and then snowballed after a certain period of time but thousands in one day?

"no matter how charismatic the teacher, there is no way people would convert to something and stick to it when later they were killed by the hundreds and used as torches to light roadways. It's not possible."

Does the name Joseph Rutherford ring a bell? No coliseums but draft dodgers and Holocaust victims and it's later continuation as the blood doctrine (That Watchtower with the montage of martyred children on its front page comes to mind.).

35

Site Update: Jan 10, 2015

by Simon in

i've made some updates to the user section of the site.

besides some cosmetic tweaks the most notable new feature is the ability to see a listing of the topics someone has posted on - this includes topics they started as well as topics they replied to.. it will look like this when you go to a user page or your own profile page:.

simon.

Village Idiot

Simon, just to let you know I'm having some difficulty in having my text highlighted and colored.

35

If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed ...

by Simon in

matthew 17:20 - he said to them, because of your little faith.

for truly, i say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.. i get the 'message' - if you believe enough (in fact, even a tiny amount - a mustard seed being tiny) then nothing is impossible but really, what a ridiculous statement and idea for several reasons.. there are lots of people who believe things completely and sincerely even to the point of death.

so far i've not noticed any sudden movements of any mountain ranges.

Village Idiot

Jonathan Drake: "As an example, the people who joined the Christian movement by the thousands..."

Why should we assume that there were thousands regardless of what the Bible claims? History does show that Christianity grew in numbers but that doesn't mean that several thousand were suddenly converted in a short period of time.

"Something very real, and very impressive was going on to cause such a drastic explosion of Jesus devotion."

I believe that something real and impressive did happen. Jesus was a charismatic preacher (guru, cult leader) who acquired a small number of super devoted apostles. They in turn started the ball rolling after his death.

35

If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed ...

by Simon in

matthew 17:20 - he said to them, because of your little faith.

for truly, i say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.. i get the 'message' - if you believe enough (in fact, even a tiny amount - a mustard seed being tiny) then nothing is impossible but really, what a ridiculous statement and idea for several reasons.. there are lots of people who believe things completely and sincerely even to the point of death.

so far i've not noticed any sudden movements of any mountain ranges.

Village Idiot

Jesus was prone to hyperbole so I believe he was being metaphoric in this case. What cannot be dismissed is his statement at the end of the book of Mark:

15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mark 16:15-20 New International Version

The highlighted scriptures are those that would be more difficult to fake (unless they choose their snakes and their 'poison'. And yes I know that this scripture does not appear in some manuscripts but that only highlights the contradictions of the Bible.

55

The contempt of Anthony Morris: the face doesn't lie.

by freemindfade in

i have noticed something even long before even looking into ttatt, something about morris bothered me.

i am personally very attuned to body language, facial expressions and general subtleties in human interaction.

there was something about his face that really bothered me, and i will explain it.

Village Idiot

freemindfade, have you ever observed the body language of a person that you knew (not suspected) to be a psychopath in the clinical sense?

30

How is Genesis scientifically incorrect?

by EndofMysteries in

i'll add many things in the bible i don't agree with, but the bible is a collection of books.

now to make sure i'm reading as closely to what is written in genesis, i look at this hebrew interlinear, because english translating and rearranging of words can change it.

http://www.scripture4all.org/onlineinterlinear/otpdf/gen1.pdf.

Village Idiot

R. Jerome Harris:

"Genesis 1:1 does not speak of a planet coming into being from a cloud of dust. No human knows how the planet came to be."

Yes they do. Scientists can deduce how the earth came to be by watching, through telescopes, the birth of other stars which themselves come forth from large dust clouds. You can see the dust clouds in various stages of their formation.

"The days of the creation were not literal 24 hour days. The earth was not as it is now. And besides, why would recogning of a 24 hour day be needed as no man was around and no time pieces (clocks or watches) existed. The days of creation were "epochs of time" (time periods) each day spanning many 1000s of years. The expression "day" should be understood in the context of "my grandfathers day" or "in the day of the horse and buggy." Not a literal 24 hour day."

How did you reach this conclusion about the length of the creative 'days'.

"And besides, why would recogning of a 24 hour day be needed as no man was around and no time pieces (clocks or watches) existed."

One does not need any time measuring devices to discern what a literal day is.

69

Science still doesn't have the answers on how life first appeared

by EndofMysteries in

since so many athiests in this thread, and since i'm going to college, i was curious if what i would learn in biology would change my thoughts and show that life clearly and easily spontaneously happened.

just looking up the origins of dna or rna there is nothing conclusive.

for example, scientists today are able to manipulate life.

Village Idiot

LoveUniHateExams:

"Science still doesn't have the answers on how life first appeared"

They have a lot of answers as to how life evolved from microbes to the present. The only puzzle is how self reproducing molecules, which preceded microbes, came about.

With the evolution of life and matter itself being a proven certainty they simply have a couple pieces of the puzzle missing - for now.

55

The contempt of Anthony Morris: the face doesn't lie.

by freemindfade in

i have noticed something even long before even looking into ttatt, something about morris bothered me.

i am personally very attuned to body language, facial expressions and general subtleties in human interaction.

there was something about his face that really bothered me, and i will explain it.

Village Idiot

freemindfade, do you mute the sound when listening to Anthony Morris or anyone else? I've heard that if you watch a person talk with the sound off you can better catch their expressions. It seems that when we're listening to a voice our brain is focused on the words which partially distracts us from the body language of the person.

55

The contempt of Anthony Morris: the face doesn't lie.

by freemindfade in

i have noticed something even long before even looking into ttatt, something about morris bothered me.

i am personally very attuned to body language, facial expressions and general subtleties in human interaction.

there was something about his face that really bothered me, and i will explain it.

Village Idiot

Maybe he's related to this guy:

18

Science increasingly makes the case for god

by DesirousOfChange in

recently got this email from a long-time jw friend who is still "in".thoughts on a tactful response?thanks,doc

science increasingly makes the case for god.

the odds of life existing on another planet grow ever longer.. intelligent design, anyone?.

Village Idiot

Ucantnome, I highly recommend the book Rare Earth by Peter D. Ward to anyone interested in the question of life in this universe.