Conversation Among Friends - for discussion of religion, politics, science, whatever...among friends

CERN's Large Hadron Collider

Joey — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:29:14 -0400

While there are some interesting claims about planetary destruction with the LHC, I think the most amazing thing about the new collider (to start operation in August '08) is that it will produce 15 petabytes of data/year!!

Talk about job security for the analysis folks. . .

Luther vs. Jesus

Joey — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:14:10 -0400

On Sin

Christ: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication . . . murder . . . and suchlike. And concerning these I warn you, they who do such things will not attain the Kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:19-21).

Luther: "Sin boldly but believe more boldly. Let your faith be greater than your sin. . . Sin will not destroy us in the reign of the Lamb, although we were to commit fornication a thousand times in one day" (Letter to Melanchton, August 1, 1521, Audin p.178).

Christ: "And do not be drunk with wine, for in that is debauchery" (Eph. 5:18). "Keep thyself chaste" (I Tim. 5:22).

Luther: "Why do I sit soaked in wine? ... To be continent and chaste is not in me" (Luther's diary).

On Good Works

Christ: "What will it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but does not have works? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:14,26).

Luther: "He that says the Gospel requires works for salvation, I say, flat and plain, is a liar" ("able Talk, Weimer Edition, II, p.137).

On Truth

Christ: "Do not be liars against the truth. This is not the wisdom that descends from above. It is earthly, sensual, devilish" (James 3:1~15). "Do not lie to one another" (Col. 3:9). "The Lord hateth... a lying tongue... a deceitful witness that uttereth lies. . . "(Proverbs 6:1&17). "A thief is worse than a liar, but both of them shall inherit destruction" (Ecclus. 20:27).

Luther: "To lie in case of necessity, or for convenience, or in excuse, would not offend God, who is ready to take such lies on Himself" (Enserch Conference, July 17, 1540).

On Marriage

Christ: "Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery" ~ark 10:11-12).

Luther: "As to divorce, it is still a moot question whether it is allowable. For my part, I prefer bigamy" (DeWette, Vol.2, p.459).

On Free Will

Christ: "Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It were better for that man if he had not been born" (Matt. 26:24). "Let no man say when he is tempted, that he is tempted by God; for God is no tempter to evil" (James 1:13).

Luther: "Judas' will was the work of God; God by His almighty power moved his will as He does all that is in this world" (De Servo Arbitro - Against man's free will). Accosted on all sides by charges of heresy, even by many of his former associates in the Protestant movement, Luther found refuge in this, the strangest of all his beliefs. No man is accountable for his actions, Luther taught, no matter how evil. Not even Judas." (From the book CHRIST VS. LUTHER, edited by R. A. Short, copyright 1953 by the Bellarmine Publishing Company, Mound, Minn.)

One is forced to ask himself the increasingly obvious question? Did Jesus Christ found a church that would deceive the world and then after 1500 years approve of over 35,000+ different and contradictory denominations which were founded by man? Are these protestant churches purified and free of error? Have the the gates of hell prevailed against the protestant experiment?

Null Physics (Intergalactic Redshift)

Joey — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:17:18 -0400

CAF Thinkers,

What do you think about this nullphysics.com?

Especially note the white paper on Intergalactic Redshift.

Are Most Scientists Atheists or Agnostics Rather than Believers in God?

Jonathan — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:22:52 -0400

from my blog: link

13 year-old's calcs

Joey — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:01:48 -0400

Interesting to take into account the possibility of collision with an artificial satellite.

Moving the odds of collision from 1:45000 to 1:450 is troubling at best.

German schoolboy, 13, corects NASA's asteroid figures

Frankly, I never guessed that any amount of space junk could influence life in the world. I suppose we could blast the target satellite and move the odds back up to 1:45000.

Truth gets out. . .

Joey — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:14:33 -0500

Now I feel bad for making my liberal colleagues spar beyond their capabilities. . .

. . . amazingly the esteemed Gallup Poll has produced a study indicating that liberals are really suffering from a confusion and a befuddlement that they really have no escape from . . .

This explains so much. . . especially why they want universal health care. . . they actually need the lithium and now I'm so much more willing to pay for this. . . now we know how to help them. . .

I think we should discontinue use of "liberal" as it unfairly lables those who struggle with simple thoughts and logical reasoning.

How do we really help those so-called "liberals" who we now see are simply struggling with basic thought processes? Especially we should start by committing the two democratic presidental candidates to hospital treatment. They surely are in danger of mental illness and have no business leading the country; especially given what we now know about this very large albeit simple minded demographic.

Demographic Winter

Joey — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:37:14 -0500

This is a potentially interesting documentary on the global decline in fertility rates, it consequences, and the potential for an irreversible tipping point.

I am interested in the numbers and modeling this in the context of a tipping point. I think this is interesting also in the context of China's emerging male population and similarly India. Eschatologically, both of these male populations are disturbing reminders of Saruman's Uruk Hai. Where do the king's of the East get their armies? (Rev. 16:12)

Demographic Winter (www.demographicwinter.com)

"Worldwide, birth rate have been halved in the past 50 years. There are now 59 nations, with 44% of the world's population with below replacement fertility.

"Sometime in this century, the world's population will begin to decline. At a certain point the decline will become "rapid. We may even reach population free-fall in our lifetimes.

"For some countries population decline is already a reality. Russia is losing three-quarters-of-a-million people a year. Its population (currently 145 million) is expected to fall by one-third by 2050."

"If present low birth rates persist, the European Union estimates there will be a continent-wide shortfall of 20 million workers by 2030.

junk science?

Peter — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:38:36 -0500

Hey Dudes, did any of you check this out:

www.junkscience.com

i found a link to something real interesting there:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pubs/moberg2005/moberg2005.html

Sacraments

Joey — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:49:54 -0500

JM & PM,

I have been reading a book written by a theologian. (I know, augh, it's pretty good anyway.)

The author points out that one gap between Protestants and Catholics is the concept of a sacrament.

What do you think about a discussion thread on the theology of the sacraments? (This done in the spirit of unity among Christians.)

The Price of Salvation

Joey — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:32:20 -0500

This is remarkable.

The Price of Salvation