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Showing posts from April, 2020

Our Sun is a Weirdly Quiet Star. Lucky? Probably Not.

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Today, Space.com published an article about an amazing scientific discovery - our star is not nearly as active as similar stars that scientists have observed. The article is entitled, Our sun is a weirdly 'quiet' star — and that's lucky for all of us , and represents the results of a study of the brightness of stars as viewed by the Kepler Space Telescope and the Gaia Star-Mapping Mission. The article notes: "We were very surprised that most of the sun-like stars are so much more active than the sun," Alexander Shapiro, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany and a co-author on the new research, said in a statement. * * * The astronomers narrowed down a collection of tens of thousands of stars by focusing on those with about the same surface temperature, surface gravity, age and metallicity as our sun. Then, they split these stars into two batches: one containing 369 stars that rotate every 20 to 30 days and one with

Punching Holes In A King James Only Conspiracy Narrative

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One quibble that we regularly hear from King James Version only advocates is that the Roman Catholic Church has produced corrupt Bible translations in an effort to discredit that particular archaic translation and gradually convert unsuspecting people. A few examples of Scripture passages that have supposedly been removed from our modern Bible versions would include Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53-8:11. This theory leaves us with a nagging question, however. If the Roman Catholic Church was involved in some conspiracy to undermine the authority of the King James Bible, then why does that hierarchy accept those passages as inspired Scripture despite them being included in textual brackets?         Following is a footnote from the New American Bible Revised Edition on the text of Mark 16:9-20:         "This passage, termed the Longer Ending to the Marcan gospel by comparison with a much briefer conclusion found in some less important manuscripts, has traditionally been accepted

the discussion is on Metacrock thread

Pix knows he cant win this argument (TS) he' ia ignoring it,but he;s gong after ny civiolization idea http://christiancadre.blogspot.com/2020/04/see-metacrocks-blog.html?showComment=1588062811844#c7188468282683556499

Transcendental Signifier Argument

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Definitions (1)Transcendental Signifier (TS): The signification mark (word) which refer to the top of metaphysical hierarchy; the organizing principle which makes sense of all sense data and groups it into a meaningful and coherent whole, through which meaning can be understood.The corollary, the thing the Transcendental Signifier signifies, is the "Transcendental Signified (designated as TSed)" (2) Signifier: The term used of written words in the linguistic theories know as "structuralism" and in the theories of French Linguist Ferdenand Sassure. A signifer is a "marK," that is writing, which designates a concept forming a word, that which points to an object as the thing that it is and no other. ie, a physical tree is the signified, the object of the signifier "t-r-e-e." Preliminary Observations: (1) Any rational, coherent and meaningful view of the universe must of necessity presuppose an organizing principle which makes sense of the u

Sweeter Than Honey

"For there were other roads, which lacked " truth". The Jews had as their immediate neighbors, close to them in race as well as in position, Pagans of the worst kind, Pagans whose religion was marked by none of that beauty or (sometimes) wisdom which we can find among the Greeks. That background made the "beauty" or "sweetness" of the Law more visible; not least because these neighboring Paganisms were a constant temptation to the Jew and may in some of their externals have been not unlike his own religion. The temptation was to tum to those terrible rites in times of terror-when, for example, the Assyrians were pressing on. We who not so long ago waited daily for invasion by enemies, like the Assyrians, skilled and constant in systematic cruelty, know how they may have felt. They were tempted, since the Lord seemed deaf, to try those appalling deities who demanded so much more and might therefore perhaps give more in return. But when a Jew in some h

Divine Justice And The Christian Worldview

"It [the Jewish point of view] supplements the Christian picture in one important way. For what alarms us in the Christian picture is the infinite purity of the standard against which our actions will be judged. But then we know that none of us will ever come up that standard. We are all in the same boat. We must all pin our hopes on the mercy of God and the work of Christ, not on our own goodness. Now the Jewish picture of civil action sharply reminds us that perhaps we are faulty not only by the Divine standard but also by a very human standard which all reasonable people admit and which we ourselves usually wish to enforce upon others. Almost certainly there are unsatisfied claims, human claims, against each one of us. For who can really believe that in all his dealings with employers and employees, with husband or wife, with parents and children, in quarrels and in collaborations, he has always attained (let alone charity or generosity) mere honesty and fairness? Of course we

see Metacrock's blog

https://metacrock.blogspot.com/2020/04/excerpt-from-work-in-progress.html I have been writting a book on Christianity and the death of civilization seems lie a good time to reveal the first except from it. CHRISTIANITY AND THE DEATH OF CIVILIZATION Chapter 1: Is Civilization in Decline?

Transcendental Signifier Argument

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The argument 1. Any rational, coherent, and meaningful view of the universe must of necessity presuppose organizing principles (Ops) 2. OP's summed up in TS 3. Modern Thought rejects TS outright or takes out all aspects of mind. 4 . Therefore, Modern thought fails to provide a   rational, coherent, and meaningful view of the universe. 5.   minds organize and communicate meaning 6. Therefore universal mind, offers the best understanding of TS 7 .  Concept of God unites TS with universal mind there fore   offers  best explanation for a view that is  R ational, Coherent, and  M eaningful (RCM). 1-3 Randal Rauser's Interview of me On this argument   new (1)  Any rational, coherent, and meaningful view of the universe must of necessity presuppose organizing principles (Ops) OP 's make sense of the universe and explain hierarchies of conceptualization: effects need causes, conclusions are mandated by premises, meaning in lang

Is Sickness Always The Result Of Personal Sin?

[John] 9.2 The disciples evidently shared the common Jewish belief that sickness was invariably a penalty for sin. But the fact that this man was blind from birth indicated that personal sin was not the cause of his affliction, and pointed out to his parents as the ones responsible. Jesus reiterated what the Book of Job had already taught: that sickness is not always the result of sin either by the individual, or as in this case, by his parents. Note that this is the only recorded case in which Jesus healed one blind from birth. Excerpt taken from Harper Study Bible [Revised Standard Version], p. 1600

Mind is not rediuceable to Brain part 1

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            This topic is of great importance for believers in God because it encompasses almost every facet of the territory upon which the battle over belief is fought. It impinges upon what one believes about the ability to be good or to refuse sin, the freedom of belief vs. the view that belief is just a side effect of bad psychology, the nature of religious experience and its veracity, even the after life. This topic should be of great importance to non believers as well as it impinges upon our ability to understand ourselves as free agents capable of governing ourselves, and as individuals who would seek the meaning of our lives and the expression of self in art. I suspect also that the determinist/reductionist view point encourages atheists in their materialism and rejection of the soul. Brain/Mind             Ideological and philosophical types of reductionism seek to reduce human consciousness to a level of side effect produced by brain chemistry; to do