Posts by knowsnothing1

43

Animals

by unsure in

if humans have to suffer to have free will and to disprove satan's challenge to god as mentioned in the bible...then why the f*ck do animals have to suffer as well?

.

satan's challenge involved humans and not poor animals.. i'm looking for an honest explanation from believers.. at this point, the older i get, the less i believe in a god who is "love"..

I myself still have many questions unanswered. I can't tell you why there are so many denominations. I can't answer why out of the same book come out so many different interpretations. I can't answer why some have had experiences with the supernatural and others never had.

I can only tell you my personal experiences and that I really truly believe in the core of Christianity. Jesus was a man that walked this Earth, perfect and sinless, to have his blood shed for us. He is the only Savior, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the only way to the Father.

He wasn't a mythology. He was a real man crucified under Pontius Pilate.

I tried living my life without God, and it was meaningless. Anything you do on this Earth perishes, and all your hard work, your joy, your accomplishments, your failures, come to nothing when you die. I tried living my own life, the life I thought would satisfy me. There was only a temporary satisfaction. Solomon said it best, it's all vanity, chasing after the wind.

It's comforting to know that you are never alone. That even when you have no answers left, God is the answer. If you've messed up, if things have gone horribly awry and you have no hope, no control over the situation, you still have hope and love in God through Jesus. You can hang your hat on the Rock, the eternal one.

16

Artificial Intelligence and 2019

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

i was intrigued by a forecast made by damo academy, the in-house technology and science research arm of china's, huge e-commerce business,, alibaba.. they seem to be predicting the following technology trends for 2019 and that artificial intelligence would continue to be the ho area of progress.. so what do any techies hanging out here think?

safe predictions?

wild guesses?

knowsnothing1

I've always loved to dabble in tech. AI will become ever more pervasive. The big leap will be, I believe, in quantum computing. That's the real game changer.

The question is when.

180

Languages, Dialects, Accents

by LoveUniHateExams in

jw
friends

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

knowsnothing1

LUHE, Arabic sounds like a difficult language to learn, especially the writing and pronounciation. However, I think it's cool that most words are based on 3 letter roots. So they've got that going for them.

Why did you choose to learn Arabic? Just curious. I think it's a cool language for sure. Really, I think all languages are great. They all have a unique way of describing and looking at the world.

180

Languages, Dialects, Accents

by LoveUniHateExams in

jw
friends

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

knowsnothing1

LUHE, I only speak English and Spanish fluently.

I can communicate and understand basic Romanian. I haven't spoken in a bit, so I'm starting to lose it. I can read Portuguese much better, and speak it to some degree better as well, but still not fluent.

I tried learning Russian for a bit, but it's difficult. At least I can read the Cyrillic alphabet, and I've studied a bit of Koine Greek as well. I'm a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

180

Languages, Dialects, Accents

by LoveUniHateExams in

jw
friends

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

knowsnothing1

I love the study of languages. Indo-European languages especially.

My mother is Colombian, but I was born in the States, so I grew up speaking Spanish at home and learned English from TV and school.

Being bilingual fueled my love for languages. I would love to compare English and Spanish cognates.

Some examples:

Commence - comenzar

Obedience - obediencia

Salute - saludar

I often found myself sounding more sophisticated than my friends because I would use the Spanish word in English.

For example, I was discussing something with my friend and I remember I used the term aggrandize. I could have used something more English sounding like inflate or boast, but aggrandize came naturally because of my Spanish substrate. Not that there is an exact cognate, but 'engrandecer' came first to my thoughts, and so out came aggrandize. I even had to look it up later in the dictionary to make sure I was speaking properly, and it turns out that yes aggrandize does exist.

One of my best life friend that I met in middle school was Brazilian and spoke Portuguese. I was fascinated with that language as well, it's so similar to Spanish. So I self taught myself a bit. There are some false friends you have to be aware of though.

Embarazada in Spanish is pregnant, where as embaraçada in Portuguese is the same as in English, embarrassed.

To top it off, my dad is Romanian. I got a chance to pick up another Romance language and use it. The grammar is more difficult than the other Romance languages, but I honestly didn't find it too difficult to pick up the basics, because of the Latin roots of all Romance languages.

It just fascinates me how languages evolved over time.

26

Jesus Christ: Invented by the Romans to subvert the Messianic impulse in Judaism into Pacifism?

by TerryWalstrom in

of course, there are many crackpot theories about all sorts of things.

we hear about them,look into them and laugh.however, once in a great while, somebody presents a cogent and feasible thesis backed up by scholarship and history.watch this video presentation and present your rebuttal (or agreement) for discussion.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uqg8w7ezuq&t=268s.

knowsnothing1

John, you missed this:

https://carm.org/first-epistle-clement-corinthians

1 Clem. 42:3

Having therefore received a charge, and having been fully assured through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and confirmed in the word of God with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth with the glad tidings that the kingdom of God should come.

Paul's omission of the women doesn't mean he's contradicting.

If I wasn't clear with my first argument, I apologize. Did they die specifically defending the resurrection of Jesus? No, but surely that was where there faith and hope lay. That was what allowed them to endure persecution. As Paul says, to live is Christ, to die is gain.

We can at least discard the OP that Jesus was invented by the Romans. Please refer to Bart Ehrman. It is a historical certainty that a man named Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

26

Jesus Christ: Invented by the Romans to subvert the Messianic impulse in Judaism into Pacifism?

by TerryWalstrom in

of course, there are many crackpot theories about all sorts of things.

we hear about them,look into them and laugh.however, once in a great while, somebody presents a cogent and feasible thesis backed up by scholarship and history.watch this video presentation and present your rebuttal (or agreement) for discussion.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uqg8w7ezuq&t=268s.

knowsnothing1

The only reason they were willing to go to their deaths was because they held firm loyalty to Jesus. They would rather die than worship the emperor, for that would mean disloyalty to Jesus. It wasn't just a dead Jesus they held belief in, but a risen one.

26

Jesus Christ: Invented by the Romans to subvert the Messianic impulse in Judaism into Pacifism?

by TerryWalstrom in

of course, there are many crackpot theories about all sorts of things.

we hear about them,look into them and laugh.however, once in a great while, somebody presents a cogent and feasible thesis backed up by scholarship and history.watch this video presentation and present your rebuttal (or agreement) for discussion.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uqg8w7ezuq&t=268s.

knowsnothing1

@john.prestor

Any other references to the martyrdom of apostles or disciples comes from late 2nd and early 3rd century "Acts of (John, Thomas, Peter, Matthew, etc.)" literature, which contain little more than pious legend. Have you read any of them, knowsnothing1?

I haven't read them, but let's say those accounts are exaggerated and that the only accurate martyrdoms are James and Peter.

How do you deal with Pliny? Was there Christian persecution? More importantly, why were they persecuted?

26

Jesus Christ: Invented by the Romans to subvert the Messianic impulse in Judaism into Pacifism?

by TerryWalstrom in

of course, there are many crackpot theories about all sorts of things.

we hear about them,look into them and laugh.however, once in a great while, somebody presents a cogent and feasible thesis backed up by scholarship and history.watch this video presentation and present your rebuttal (or agreement) for discussion.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uqg8w7ezuq&t=268s.

knowsnothing1

Bart Ehrman disagrees. Jesus was a real, 1st century Jew that was known as a Rabbi, miracle worker, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

His disciples went to their deaths because they held firm to the resurrection of Jesus, having seen them with their own eyes. The movement was first persecuted by the Jews, later by the Romans.

If it was a Roman invention, it was a poor one. It outcompeted and was rival to the state sponsored emperor/local pagan worship of the time.

You also have Pliny on the "Christian Problem" to Emperor Trajan.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Younger_on_Christians

43

Animals

by unsure in

if humans have to suffer to have free will and to disprove satan's challenge to god as mentioned in the bible...then why the f*ck do animals have to suffer as well?

.

satan's challenge involved humans and not poor animals.. i'm looking for an honest explanation from believers.. at this point, the older i get, the less i believe in a god who is "love"..

knowsnothing1

Romans 8:18-25

Creation has been subjected to futility. What we see now isn't what always was and what was always meant to be. There will be freedom for all creation from death and suffering.

I used to be bothered by predation and parasitism too. All creation groans because we know that while these things happen and exist, we innately know and feel that they shouldn't. The beautiful thing is that this is only temporary. The glory that awaits those who believe is incomparable to our present sufferings.

If you're earnestly seeking God, he will reveal himself to you through the Holy Spirit. Call on the name of the Lord Jesus from your heart, and ask him to show you if he's real. He answered me, and I have suffered no disappointment in him.