Posts by James Brown

145

If you believe in Gods laws why dont you go live in Saudi Arabia ?

by mP in

i think we all know that shariah law is basically mohammads copy of the torah, with minor edits.

slavery, womens inequality, anti homosexuality are obviously written in the same spirit.

so believers why dont you go live in saudi arabia if yo u believe gods law is perfect or at the last useful ?.

James Brown

I would argue that more people will justify their violent acts, burglaries and criminal behavior by saying “god will forgive me.” If what you say is true, why do you suppose that atheists supply less than 1% of prisons while Christians make up 75%?

Atheist make up a very small percent of the population in the USA. So because there

are not many atheist in America, there are not many atheist in prison.

I worked at the county jail in Florida for 10 years.

From what I saw most people in jail are not Christians they are just people in a Christian country.

Most people in jail don't go to church every week or they would not be in jail.

It is true that there is a lot of evangelical work in the jails. Christians make bibles and bible studies

available to the inmates. But from what I saw the majority of the inmates were not practicing

Christians.

I never came across anyone who said "God will forgive me", I did come across a lot of people who said

they were going to hell.

God only forgives those who turn around and repent and take Jesus into their life.

427

If man evolved?

by tornapart in

i know anyone who believes in evolution is going to say that there is no 'if' about it.

however.... if man evolved over hundreds of thousands of years ago, why were there only about 200-300 million people alive 2,000 years ago?

surely there'd have been many billions by then?.

James Brown

Hello Randy rawe

Hi James,

"It's hocus pocus. People who live off tax payers dollars in the education system trying to confuse the masses with their mumbo jumbo." To me this is a key thought in one of your posts. One that I was hitting on as well. That is, in regards to knowledge and expertise to there is a question of who to trust. And, it does relate to motivation. Maybe what is going on is most in the scientific community know their dating methods are bogus, that the theory of evolution is nonsense, but are trapped in a system wherein they need to promote a sort of orthodoxy in order to get paid. In fact we make a point very much like this in regards to the leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses. They are trapped, they simply cannot say things they might otherwise know is true.

So... how can we sort this out? How can we tell if the data we are being handed is not tainted by bias?

Cheers,

-Randy

The thing that comes to mind regarding your question, Randy is Philipians 2:12 says each one of us has

to work out our own salvation.

Ist Theselonians 5:21 says "Test everything that is said, hold on to what is good"

Hebrews 9:27 says it is appointed once for man to die. And then judgement.

We are all going to die. Some people believe in something, God and some people believe in nothing.

If you believe in God read his word the bible. You dont need to read the bible and something else.

Just the bible and you will know what God wants.

If you don't believe in God you can read or not read what ever you want.

So... how can we sort this out? How can we tell if the data we are being handed is not tainted by bias?

Another non scriptural, biblical way to sort things out is to follow the money, who has vested

interest, look at both sides of the coin, read pros and cons on the issues. I have and have read every book

Richard Dawkins has written. Plus works by Hawkins, Sagin, Hitchens, Sam Harris.

Truth is where you find it. Hopefully along the way you develop a good ability to spot bull crap.

427

If man evolved?

by tornapart in

i know anyone who believes in evolution is going to say that there is no 'if' about it.

however.... if man evolved over hundreds of thousands of years ago, why were there only about 200-300 million people alive 2,000 years ago?

surely there'd have been many billions by then?.

James Brown

Just a question. Why is 100k the magic number. As a JW I was fine with the earth being millions of years old and still having been created. I don't think Genesis is literal now. But, I also am unsure of why 100k is your cutoff point where it falls apart for you.

Because the genealogy from Jesus to Adam do not allow for 100,000 years.

Also if there are 100,000 years of layers of ice that would rule out a world wide flood.

I haven't been a JW since 83. But I was a JW for 33 years before that.

If the earth is over 100,000 years old and the genealogy from Jesus to Adam are

wrong then Jesus did not die for Adams sin or mans sin.

STOP THE PRESSES!

It seems like the Devil is in the ice core details

World War II Airplanes Under the Ice

The Greenland Society of Atlanta has recently attempted to excavate a 10-foot diameter shaft in the Greenland ice pack to remove two B-17 Flying Fortresses and six P-38 Lightning fighters trapped under an estimated 250 feet of ice for almost 50 years (Bloomberg, 1989). Aside from the fascination with salvaging several vintage aircraft for parts and movie rights, the fact that these aircraft were buried so deeply in such a short time focuses attention on the time scales used to estimate the chronologies of ice.

If the aircraft were buried under about 250 feet of ice and snow in about 50 years, this means the ice sheet has been accumulating at an average rate of five feet per year. The Greenland ice sheet averages almost 4000 feet thick. If we were to assume the ice sheet has been accumulating at this rate since its beginning, it would take less than 1000 years for it to form and the recent-creation model might seem to be vindicated

427

If man evolved?

by tornapart in

i know anyone who believes in evolution is going to say that there is no 'if' about it.

however.... if man evolved over hundreds of thousands of years ago, why were there only about 200-300 million people alive 2,000 years ago?

surely there'd have been many billions by then?.

James Brown

A softer approach, James Brown, might be to give up a literal interpretation of the Bible. Heck, the Jews don't take the Adam and Eve tale literally

If the earth is over 100,000 years old. I have no choice but to give up a literal interpretation of the bible.

21

What kind of cigar are you smoking, alcohol are you drinking, or other pleasure enjoying tonight?

by Comatose in

it's a chilean wine for the spouse and a coffee and brown sugar infused cigar for me.

quite nice.

.

James Brown

I had 3 Yingling Lights with and after dinner.

I was sober once for 7 years.

It was a very good time.

These are good times also.

427

If man evolved?

by tornapart in

i know anyone who believes in evolution is going to say that there is no 'if' about it.

however.... if man evolved over hundreds of thousands of years ago, why were there only about 200-300 million people alive 2,000 years ago?

surely there'd have been many billions by then?.

James Brown

James Brown... Ever been in a cave? Ever seen a giant stellagtite or stalagmite? They take tens or hundreds of thousands of years to form. For an obvious reason. Hard minerals slowly turn to deposits and they then grow down out of the caves ceiling. How would you explain those with a belief in a young earth theory. Third attempt to get you to answer.

Comatose: I don't know the answer to your questions. I was hung up on the unreliability of radiometric dating.

I was not even aware of stalagmite dating, as a dating method.

Now that I see that ice cores may date the earth over 100,000 years if that proves true there is not much use

in me debating or arguing about other methods I don't know about.

If the earth is over 100, 000 years old my understanding of the bible

and a young earth is compromised.

The genealogy of Jesus back to Adam would indicate a young earth. If the earth is not young

that would make me question the writings about Jesus and the bible.

427

If man evolved?

by tornapart in

i know anyone who believes in evolution is going to say that there is no 'if' about it.

however.... if man evolved over hundreds of thousands of years ago, why were there only about 200-300 million people alive 2,000 years ago?

surely there'd have been many billions by then?.

James Brown

James Brown, every explanation I have given was in my own words. If you refuse to understand, that's your business. I thought the warehouse full of ice cores was pretty convincing.

As far as I can tell, your lack of confidence in radiometric testing is resting on a single instance, Mount St. Helen's lava, the results of which were explained to you. Using this single instance as reason enough to throw out all radiometric testing, is an example of confirmation bias.

Snowfall and melt, a little dust on top, one year. More snowfall and melt, little dust on top, second year. Layer upon layer of ice and dust, many years. Count the layers of dust - number of years. Count all the layers of dust, and that's how many years we can go back. So far the U.S. Geological survey has thousands of meters of ice core samples.

If a radiometric test of a sample from 3,000 meters down matches up with the result from manual counting of the rings, we have a linear confirmation of two counting methods.

Jgnat the highlighted paragraph is a good simple explanation. I was not aware of a method that could date the earth over 100,000

years. I will reflect on it and read some more about it. If the devil is not in the details then that would be the end of my believing

in a young earth.

427

If man evolved?

by tornapart in

i know anyone who believes in evolution is going to say that there is no 'if' about it.

however.... if man evolved over hundreds of thousands of years ago, why were there only about 200-300 million people alive 2,000 years ago?

surely there'd have been many billions by then?.

James Brown

I will suspend my arguing about a young vs old earth until I research and digest ice

core samples dating the earth in excess of 100,000 years.

If the earth is in excess of 100,000 years old, I could more easily accept the

various macro evolution theories.

I would still have a problem with the errors in isotope dating but if the earth is over

100,000 years old, I don't have a whole lot of incentive to argue my concerns.

As I say right now I am in the process of installing a swimming pool so it will be a while before

I can research and digest this matter.

427

If man evolved?

by tornapart in

i know anyone who believes in evolution is going to say that there is no 'if' about it.

however.... if man evolved over hundreds of thousands of years ago, why were there only about 200-300 million people alive 2,000 years ago?

surely there'd have been many billions by then?.

James Brown

There is a scientific method that shows the earth is more than 100,000 years old. You can manually count the rings in the ice cores, and it counts as one per year. That stands up to scrutiny.

No need to try to reconcile it with the Bible. The Bible is a book of faith, not a book of science.

Actually Goper that is a pretty good simple explanation. Thank you.

I understand the concept.

I need to think about it and see some more information.

But the explanation is to the point. Either some one will give me a further clarification or I will research it on the web.

Thank you.

427

If man evolved?

by tornapart in

i know anyone who believes in evolution is going to say that there is no 'if' about it.

however.... if man evolved over hundreds of thousands of years ago, why were there only about 200-300 million people alive 2,000 years ago?

surely there'd have been many billions by then?.

James Brown

There is a scientific method that shows the earth is more than 100,000 years old. You can manually count the rings in the ice cores, and it counts as one per year. That stands up to scrutiny.

No need to try to reconcile it with the Bible. The Bible is a book of faith, not a book of science

I will have to look into that since no one can give me a better explanation.

It might take me a while I am installing a swiming pool.

If someone could explain it in a few short easy to understand paragraphs that would put an end to my

young earth theory.