BurnTheShips

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Posts by BurnTheShips

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  12

  STRONG MEN WEEP AND CHILDREN MARCH AS WTS RELEASES NEW PUBLICATION

  by still wondering in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  yes, pure theater as marching columns of children cause strong men to weep when wts releases new publication.. .

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  BurnTheShips

  Geez, it conjures images of a Nuremberg party rally.

  Rutherford Youth.

  BTS
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  26

  Would you buy a 2 cylinder, 875cc petrol car that returns almost 70mpg?

  by lifelong humanist in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've bought lots of cars over the last 35 years or so - mostly fiats and alfa romeos.

  i'm a dedicated italian car fan.. my very first car was a tiny fiat 500 with a tiny air-cooled motor in the rear (trunk).

  it was a 1967 car - they first appeared in 1957. it was cheap to run, slow, and very basic - but i just loved it!.

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  BurnTheShips

  Tiny little thing.

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  16

  Cancer Vaccine Developed -- And Ignored

  by glenster in

  1. social
  2. current

  the food and drug administration has just approved a. vaccine that helps protect against anal cancer in men.

  and women by targeting the human papillomavirus (hpv).. about 90 percent of anal cancers are believed to be.

  caused by hpv, and the vaccination also helps prevent.

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  BurnTheShips

  Not health insurance companies, drug companies.

  This is equally illogical, especially since it is these drug companies that developed the vaccines!

  Gardasil is marketed by Merck, and Cervarix is by GlaxoSmithKline.

  Both of these are among the world's largest pharmas, and I'm no fan of big pharma!

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  54

  Was It a Fig Tree From Which Eve and Adam Ate?

  by snowbird in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  book of jasher .

  14 and it was in the fifty-sixth year of the life of lamech when adam died; nine hundred and thirty years old was he at his death, and his two sons, with enoch and methuselah his son, buried him with great pomp, as at the burial of kings, in the cave which god had told him.

  15 and in that place all the sons of men made a great mourning and weeping on account of adam; it has therefore become a custom among the sons of men to this day.

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  BurnTheShips

  I planted a small fig tree out in front of my old house. Big leaves.

  If Eve wore a fig leaf, what did Adam wear?

  He wore a hole through it.

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  16

  Cancer Vaccine Developed -- And Ignored

  by glenster in

  1. social
  2. current

  the food and drug administration has just approved a. vaccine that helps protect against anal cancer in men.

  and women by targeting the human papillomavirus (hpv).. about 90 percent of anal cancers are believed to be.

  caused by hpv, and the vaccination also helps prevent.

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  BurnTheShips

  The medical insurance people will lose BILLIONS if fewer people get these cancers and no longer need to buy the drugs.

  I fail to see how the health insurance industry would lose out due to lower claims from these cancers.

  Regarding the article:

  It isn't accurate in its description. Gardasil and Cervarix are not human cancer vaccines, they are viral vaccines (for viruses that can cause cancer, but are not themselves cancer).

  There is only one cancer vaccine on the US market: Dendreon's Provenge. And even then, it is debatable as to whether or not it fits the classical definition for vaccine. It is not an injectable product: leukocytes are extracted from the bloodstream, then taken to a lab where they are grown in culture and functionalized to attack prostate cancer cells.

  This is a very labor intensive, expensive process if compared with an injectable. Since the therapy is so recent, it also needs to recoup research and development costs, so it runs over $90k for a course of treatment. It was approved earlier this year, and I think the benefit is very marginal.

  It is, however, a first in class therapeutic.

  If we exclude Provenge, there are no cancer vaccines on the US market.

  Real cancer vaccines are in clinical trials for FDA approval, and I suspect the earliest approved ones will be using DNA plasmid technology. DNA vaccines will be for both prophylactic and therapeutic uses.

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  95

  Is Liberal Christianity Smug and Arrogant?

  by leavingwt in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is liberal christianity smug and arrogant?.

  the liberal christian finds himself in a belief system that would be unfamiliar to the overwhelming majority of christians who've lived and died before him, over the past two thousand years.

  is the liberal christian, in effect, saying to these previous christians, "you were doing it wrong.

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  BurnTheShips

  He was truly ahead of his time. He valued reason above dogma. A real Francis Collins type.

  He even elaborated a very primitive idea of evolution.

  http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x215790

  But to quote Darwin, a Life in Science on evolution,

  Saint Augustine (353-430) painted an even clearer picture. He taught that the original germs of living things came in two forms, one placed by the Creator in animals and plants, and a second variety scattered throughout the environment, destined to become active only under the right conditions. He said that the Biblical account of the Creation should not be read as literally occupying six days, but six units of time, while the passage `In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth' should be interpreted:

  As if this were the seed of the heaven and the earth, although as yet all the matter of heaven and of earth was in confusion; but because it was certain that from this the heaven and the earth would be, therefore the material itself is called by that name.

  Augustine likens the Creation to the growth of a tree from its seed, which has the potential to become a tree, but does so only through a long, slow process, in accordance with the environment in which it finds itself. God created the potential for the heavens and earth, and for life, but the details worked themselves out in accordance with the laws laid down by God, on this picture. It wasn't necessary for God to create each individual species (let alone each individual living thing) in the process called Special Creation. Instead, the Creator provided the seeds of the Universe and of life, and let them develop in their own time.

  In all but name, except for introducing the hand of God to start off the Universe, Augustine's theory was a theory of evolution, and one which stands up well alongside modern theories of the evolution of the Universe and the evolution of life on Earth.' His views were influential throughout the Middle Ages, and followed by such important thinkers as William of Occam (in the fourteenth century) and, most importantly, by Saint Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century. Aquinas simply quoted Augustine's teaching on the subject of the Creation and the interpretation of Genesis; but as he was one of the highest authorities in the Christian Church at the time, and has been one of the most influential since, this amounted to an official seal of approval for the idea that God had set the Universe in motion and then rested.

  http://www.sullivan-county.com/id2/evolution.htm

  He is my baptismal saint, for this and many other reasons.

  

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  95

  Is Liberal Christianity Smug and Arrogant?

  by leavingwt in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is liberal christianity smug and arrogant?.

  the liberal christian finds himself in a belief system that would be unfamiliar to the overwhelming majority of christians who've lived and died before him, over the past two thousand years.

  is the liberal christian, in effect, saying to these previous christians, "you were doing it wrong.

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  BurnTheShips

  "Evidently" not a liberal Christian. Ouch.

  Eusebius reported that Origen, following Matthew 19:12 literally, castrated himself.

  Ouch indeed.

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  95

  Is Liberal Christianity Smug and Arrogant?

  by leavingwt in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is liberal christianity smug and arrogant?.

  the liberal christian finds himself in a belief system that would be unfamiliar to the overwhelming majority of christians who've lived and died before him, over the past two thousand years.

  is the liberal christian, in effect, saying to these previous christians, "you were doing it wrong.

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  BurnTheShips

  Perry might want to respond to that one.

  That would be great. I'm still waiting on him to respond to my "speed of light" thread.

  I'll pitch in this little tidbit from the 5th century AD by St. Augustine:

  Saint Augustine, one of the most influential theologians of the Catholic Church, suggested that the Biblical text should not be interpreted literally if it contradicts what we know from science and our God-given reason. From an important passage on his "The Literal Interpretation of Genesis" (early fifth century, AD), St. Augustine wrote:

  "It not infrequently happens that something about the earth, about the sky, about other elements of this world, about the motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about definite eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons, about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things, may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience, even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful and ruinous, though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-Christian] should hear a Christian speaking so idiotically on these matters, and as if in accord with Christian writings, that he might say that he could scarcely keep from laughing when he saw how totally in error they are. In view of this and in keeping it in mind constantly while dealing with the book of Genesis, I have, insofar as I was able, explained in detail and set forth for consideration the meanings of obscure passages, taking care not to affirm rashly some one meaning to the prejudice of another and perhaps better explanation." (The Literal Interpretation of Genesis 1:19–20, Chapt. 19 [AD 408])

  "With the scriptures it is a matter of treating about the faith. For that reason, as I have noted repeatedly, if anyone, not understanding the mode of divine eloquence, should find something about these matters [about the physical universe] in our books, or hear of the same from those books, of such a kind that it seems to be at variance with the perceptions of his own rational faculties, let him believe that these other things are in no way necessary to the admonitions or accounts or predictions of the scriptures. In short, it must be said that our authors knew the truth about the nature of the skies, but it was not the intention of the Spirit of God, who spoke through them, to teach men anything that would not be of use to them for their salvation." (ibid, 2:9)

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  95

  Is Liberal Christianity Smug and Arrogant?

  by leavingwt in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is liberal christianity smug and arrogant?.

  the liberal christian finds himself in a belief system that would be unfamiliar to the overwhelming majority of christians who've lived and died before him, over the past two thousand years.

  is the liberal christian, in effect, saying to these previous christians, "you were doing it wrong.

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  BurnTheShips

  Put simply, it would be non-Evangelical, non-Fundamentalist theology, in which the Bible is not THE word of God and individuals can decide for themselves to ignore certain Scriptural commands, etc.

  In that case, this statement is moot:

  The liberal Christian finds himself in a belief system that would be unfamiliar to the overwhelming majority of Christians who've lived and died before him, over the past two thousand years.

  ....because Evangelical Fundamentalist theology is neither ancient, or universal. In fact, even today, the majority of Christians are not evangelical or fundamentalist. Additionally, you can still hold that the Bible is the word of God, yet have different ideas regarding what inerrancy means.

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  95

  Is Liberal Christianity Smug and Arrogant?

  by leavingwt in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is liberal christianity smug and arrogant?.

  the liberal christian finds himself in a belief system that would be unfamiliar to the overwhelming majority of christians who've lived and died before him, over the past two thousand years.

  is the liberal christian, in effect, saying to these previous christians, "you were doing it wrong.

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  BurnTheShips

  How is "liberal Christianity" defined?

  That is what I was wondering myself. I guess if you aren't a sola scriptura Christian adhering to a hyper literal interpretation of the text, then you are a liberal Christian.

  Here is a wiki page on the term:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Christianity

  BTS