Of course God could step in and stop everything bad happening in fact - why have anything bad happen ever - if that's what you want let's see what else your idea of a loving God should step in for:
1/ OOh you mustn't date that man - he's actually far better suited for lady y - I've got you matched with the perfect partner Mr z.
2/ I've cancelled radiation of the harmful kind from the sun - no suntans but no sun induced melanoma.
3/ Rainfall is now moderated to fall at 3.oo am every morning in a light non-offensive drizzle designed to avoid any nasty surges of water - by the way its also heated so you won't get a cold.
4/ All dangerous dips, crevices, sudden drops from cliffs etc.. have been removed and the earth flattened to reduce the accidental damage you might get by falling over - wouldn't want you to sue me.
5/ All animals that have even the slightest chance of dangering human life have been removed or altered. Horses are now a regulation 3 feet high and travel at half their previous speed to reduce falling.
6/ All animals no longer consume any products enjoyed by humans - this has removed the risk of famine and for good measure wherever there is even a hint of some child being even slightly malnourished I've created a new hunger pheremone that causes migrating chickens to gather into that vicinity and lay pre cooked and deshelled eggs into the mouths of said infant.
7/ Disease is officially banished - no colds, flu, measles or any other nasty bugs - all gone.
8/ No car driving allowed. Movement is to be at the optimally safe speed of 3 miles per hour.
9/ Lightning is required to fix nitrogen into the soil but it is now repelled by human contact so removing fatal lightning bolt strikes(except in the case of gross blasphemy in which case I'll fry your tush)
10/ Friendships will now be controlled to avoid any unnecessary unhappiness and opportunities for deceit, backstabbing, gossip or anything that my in any way lead to you thinking that I don't love you because something I made hurts you.
11/ When you kick Me out of your lives, out of your society and out of your belief systems I'll still maintain eveything and I'll still believe in you.
..right enough of that drivel.
God made the miracle of children being born, rainbows after rain, triumph over adversity, the capacity for love as well as the capacity for hate, the ability to choose, a world of danger and excitement, He reminds us daily that no matter how clever we get we aren't all powerful and that having a sense of our fragility makes this life precious and beautiful. To top it all off He also said that everyone had a time alloted to them here on this earth before we could go home, this world isn't the goal, it isn't meant to be our final destination. If you asked those who died after the event (assuming you have a roving reporter in heaven) the vast majority of departed would not swop the wonders of the next life to return to the school that is this one.
Point 11 is the only valid point above if you didn't get it.
Posts by Qcmbr
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97Greatest Storm in History Coming Today
by Amazing1914 inhurricane katrina is heading for new orleans, la, and will hit it by this afternoon.
it is the largest hurricane known in history.
the entire storm range covers more than 50% of the gulf of mexico.
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Qcmbr
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Evolutionary establishment tactics
by hooberus inwednesday evenings (august 24th) fox news program "the oreilly factor" featured an interview life after "intelligent design" with dr. richard sternberg, editor, of the peer-reviewed journal "proceedings of the biological society of washington.
" dr. sternberg's home page discusses the recriminations he faced by certain members of the evolutionary establishment after publishing an arcticle by another person advocating the possibilty of intelligent design in the peer reviewed journal.
http://www.rsternberg.net/
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Qcmbr
What I find funny is many in the scientific community are so far up their own butts that they can't see that the scientific world and its institutions operate like every other single human organisation - it has its own internal belief systems and dogma. I have read articles in the New Scientist that are far more zany than anything religion ever put out and ID is far further down the track of normalcy than most religion (ID doesn't require a God - just something intelligent enough to bio engineer a world.)It has its own fads and fashions. It shuns those that don't fit in. It rewards with positions of powers those who sing to the right tune. It has a canon of accepted scripture (until new light overwrites it) and it has prophets who are adored even when they are proven wrong by the latest seer. It is run by money and the power of the sacred grant. There are great rewards for the chosen while the poor grunts in the lab have to work for a pittance.
There are many missionaries of that community who are as sneaky/devious/eloquent/smooth in preaching as any JW/Mormon/Baptist -quick example- I love reading Terapods ongoing crusade (and it is getting more vociferous each time) against religion (fought on a scientific ticket) - within a few months he's moved from the (paraphrase) 'I'd like to know if God lives - I just want some proof' to the 'its a lie' - read his history I've watched his metamorphosis - quite enlightening. The danger is he is like Alan , eloquent and clever , but that doesn't make either of them right no matter how many derogatory terms they throw into their posts or how often they refer to anyone who doesn't accept their godless dogma as somehow lacking in their mental brilliance - look I can do it too - "anyone who can't see that dismissing intelligence as a causative effect in making biological or geological processes is bad science is clearly showing some regressive amoeba gene that they so love to think they are related to" - doesn't make me right (maybe just extremely desirable to the opposite sex).
Back to my point. Evolution is a big broad church with many internally competing theories and ideas mixed up in it. Some things seem fairly factual such as micro adaptation but some things are clearly not yet facts because we haven't got all the data.
I like the idea that Forscher suggested which is the one we should all uphold - without preaching against theories with some religious zeal - let them compete together and let everyone decide without fear of being labelled inferior, stupid or out of step. Even if our anti god scientists here hate the one theory surely they can support the idea that the person who subscribes to that theory at least merits the respect as a person and shouldn't be shouted down from the cheap seats.
I stand for ID, God and freedom of thought and speech (and yes I'll bundle them all in one sentence.) There have been too many times when parts of the scientific community cocked it up for me to join "The Scientific Church Of Any Excuse to Get Rid of God/Anything Smarter Than Us."
If Alan and Tetrapod preached as JWs as much as they preach now they must have been truly awesome - were you guys elders or something? -
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Comparing the 'one, true churches'...
by Shining One inhere is a interesting article on churches that claim they are the one, true church: .
http://www.theholdemans.com/compare.htm .
rex
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Qcmbr
...lds came out of that pretty good if you ask me.
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OK so its 1931 - you have a loaded gun and Hitler is walking by...
by Qcmbr inare you morally obligated to kill him?
what would you do?
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Qcmbr
..The more I think about it the more I think I need to unload that gun , turn around, walk away and help old ladies cross the street. VGood point ZEN
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OK so its 1931 - you have a loaded gun and Hitler is walking by...
by Qcmbr inare you morally obligated to kill him?
what would you do?
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Qcmbr
Once you get thinking about it there are several issues at stake:
1/ Have you just made yourself into what you hate?
2/ How can someone be executed for something they haven't yet done? Minority Report issues.
3/ Should you consider other options (like offering him the watchtower :)
4/ What if killing him releases a far greater evil on the world - you just don't know.
5/ Is it the scale of the future killing that makes it easier to justify? Maybe that's dangerous ground because the arguement can be made that you should always kill someone who is going to kill someone else.
6/ What happens if your knowledge of the future is wrong - you could be mad and Hitler might just be a nice bloke who lives his whole life painting pictures?
7/ Do you have th eright to alter the destiny of so many people? -
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OK so its 1931 - you have a loaded gun and Hitler is walking by...
by Qcmbr inare you morally obligated to kill him?
what would you do?
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Qcmbr
Are you morally obligated to kill him? What would you do?
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Which person in history would you like to be?
by DannyBloem inif you could choose, which person in history would you like to be?.
(okay, i allow bible characters.
danny.
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Qcmbr
..interesting thought - therefore new thread.
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Maybe its time to say goodbye to Christmas
by Qcmbr inas an aside to the xmas thread maybe we have come to the point where chistmas should be xmas and used purely as a santa , snow and stuffed turkey holiday and christians should move their christmas celebration elsewhere.
as an xtian i find it really hard to concentrate on anything remotely spiritual at christmas (except the giving bit and family time which is luvely) and i would be happy to spend an xmas without guilt just lapping up the decadence in a turkey and ginger beer induced haze and to have a different time to pay my devotions to god.
christians nicked christmas from the pagans - its probably time we gave it back.
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Qcmbr
As an aside to the Xmas thread maybe we have come to the point where Chistmas should be xmas and used purely as a Santa , snow and stuffed turkey holiday and Christians should move their Christmas celebration elsewhere.
As an xtian I find it really hard to concentrate on anything remotely spiritual at Christmas (except the giving bit and family time which is luvely) and I would be happy to spend an xmas without guilt just lapping up the decadence in a turkey and ginger beer induced haze and to have a different time to pay my devotions to God.
Christians nicked Christmas from the pagans - its probably time we gave it back. -
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Which person in history would you like to be?
by DannyBloem inif you could choose, which person in history would you like to be?.
(okay, i allow bible characters.
danny.
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Qcmbr
Oh definately me - I mean who wouldn't want to be a salad staple? No seriously it does have to be me if only because I haven't got a clue what I'm going to do with my bite at history. Of course if I was really pushed I wouldn't mind being Lady Godiva's stable hand...
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116
A Customer really pissed me off yesterday at work: SHE WANTS TO PRAY for me
by Terry ini work in a bookstore that specializes in buying its goods directly from the public second-hand and reselling them at half price.. .
it is a large chain of 83 stores in 8 states and does about 100 million a year.. .
i'm in charge of the religion and the philosophy sections.. .
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Qcmbr
..or you could look for the good in this situation. Every one of us is an individual who are creeped out by some thing or even dare I say it some group of people (me I just can't stand raw egg drinkers - I mean how freaky is drinking egg bogeys?!!). I think its OK for GBL to be creeped by christians, Terry to hate preacher teachers and Andi to dislike gorilla pit lesbians but surely rather than all(ok some of you) congratulating Terry on 'handling' a situation (as though somehow there was a situation to be dealt with) we should maybe just accept that this women actually had T.s best interests at heart - isn't that the issue? I know there is a lot of emotional crotch scratching (what the heck does that mean?) over years spent in a belief system that doesn't fit with the majority of this board's beliefs anymore but IMHO its not worth letting them play out again in the form of collective defense against someone who still thinks God is pretty cool.
Now Terry just for the record ('cos I wouldn't want John 1.1 quoted in greek to me ) I think you handled that situation pretty good as well (yay now I'm a hypocrite) but true humilty (as you did discuss) would maybe have listened and took in what was said and then either rejected or accepted it after she left. Wouldn't it have been cool to show her an example of blisteringly good manners and actually try and build her up , validate her as a person, even though you disagree - ie look at the human not the garbage spouting forth. I would be cheering for you from the sidelines had you followed up your internal pain/rejection/anger (you put words on it - you know how you felt) with a recognition of her worth and your respect for her and with the idea you sent her on the way with a smile and hopefully an armload of books. I bet you'd have felt shed loads better as well.
Qcmbr rides off again into the distance singing 'I'm a twit'
PS If you drink raw eggs stay the heck away from me you nutjob