Posts by funkyderek

78

Will this be "the Sign of the Son of Man"?

by a Christian in

forgive me if this has been posted here before.

i just read about a comet that is now heading our way that will come closer to us than our moon.

this comet will be visible in earth's skies on april 13th ( good friday, the day of christ's death ) in the year 2029. it will then return exactly seven years later on april 13 ( easter sunday, the day of christ's resurrection ) in the year 2036. it is said that its 2029 pass through the earth's skies and its gravitational pull may alter its orbit just a little bit so that upon its return in 2036 it may strike the earth.

funkyderek

a Christian:

OBVES,
You sure know how to kill a thread.
Your crazy chronology and nutty number crunching amounts to nothing more than a pile of rubbish stacked upon a foundation of garbage! Your 1914 and 1513 BC dates are totally discredited Watchtower Society creations. Since the rest of your fanciful interpretations of scripture are the fruit of that rotten tree they could not possibly be correct, even if they were reasonable, which they are not.
For God's sake man, get some psychiatric help!

Oh, the irony!

13

DaVinci Code...Expert Opinions Sought

by hillbilly in

jw
friends

the da vinci code was on last night.

i'll paint this question with a broad brush... is any of this story plausible?

the society sidesteps mary m... and no church really want's jesus seen as a mere human.what say ye (all) ?.

funkyderek

hillbilly:

The Da Vinci code was on last night. I saw it once before. I'll paint this question with a broad brush... is any of this story plausible?

Not even remotely. It's a third-rate thriller based on a ludicrous revisionist version of history, itself based on forged documents, wishful thinking and a heavy dose of imagination and lies. Hell, forget the background; the behaviour of the characters isn't even remotely plausible. They don't act or talk like real human beings at all and the plot is like a sub-par episode of Scooby-Doo.

That's based on the book; I couldn't bring myself to watch the film. I mean, it's got Tom Hanks in it; how could that improve things?

19

Human Origins. The Way We Are

by BurnTheShips in

jw
friends

i tend to subscribe to the multi-regional hypothesis for human origins, and i find this article intriguing.

could cro-mags and neanders respectively, be adam and eve?

cain and abel?

funkyderek

BurnTheShips:

Neanderthal remains have been found from Iraq to SW Europe. That is quite widespread.

Not compared with the range of H. sapiens at the time which included all of Africa, Asia and Australia (and possibly the Americas).

Hybridization\interchange may be one of the factors that led to the technological explosion c 40k ago.

Could be, but again the genetic evidence doesn't support that. If humans and Neanderthals did interbreed, the Neanderthal genes seem to have disappeared.

The Lagar Velho remains appear hybrid:

And perhaps it was a hybrid. I've no doubt humans and Neanderthals occasionally mated, and it's possible that they produced viable offspring. They just don't seem to have left any permanent trace, Gooch's fanciful musings notwithstanding.

78

Will this be "the Sign of the Son of Man"?

by a Christian in

forgive me if this has been posted here before.

i just read about a comet that is now heading our way that will come closer to us than our moon.

this comet will be visible in earth's skies on april 13th ( good friday, the day of christ's death ) in the year 2029. it will then return exactly seven years later on april 13 ( easter sunday, the day of christ's resurrection ) in the year 2036. it is said that its 2029 pass through the earth's skies and its gravitational pull may alter its orbit just a little bit so that upon its return in 2036 it may strike the earth.

funkyderek

a Christian:

What's your problem? I posted this subject here for discussion. I didn't come up with this idea. I just ran across it.

And the problem is that instead of dismissing it as the obvious nonsense it is, you gave it time and consideration. You actually thought that such ridiculous fantasies may have some connection to reality.

It's been discussed all over the Net for a couple years.

Not all over the Net. Just the weird apocalyptic corners you and your kind inhabit.

In fact I said to begin with that I hesitated to start a new thread on it thinking it had most likely already been discussed here.

I don't recall this particular wacky prediction being mentioned here before but there have been certainly many of the same type. I've no doubt you've encountered at least as many of them as I have, which is why it puzzles me that you give this one any consideration at all.

Part of the reason I opened this discussion was to get opposing views.

Good. You've got one.

I did not say anything about "Easter 2029." I wrote of "Easter 2036." And that date is correct as April 13, at least on Western calendars.

I meant Good Friday which I would consider part of Easter, although I suppose technically it's Lent. To a non-religious person like me, it's the start of Easter weekend.

However, this does not entirely invalidate the premise.

No, I didn't think it would. But the premise is nonsense anyway. Even if the trivial fact of its second appearance being on Easter Sunday was matched by the minor coincidence of its first appearance being on Good Friday, that would not validate the premise. A comet is still a ball of ice and rock thats been hurtling through space for aeons before anyone thought up your particular brand of superstition. It has nothing to do with what Middle Eastern fisherman living thousands of years ago thought was going to happen.

For if the Apophis asteroid does appear in earth's skies, as astronomers tell us it will, on Easter Sunday 2036 - a date everyone in the Western world associates with Christ, and then strikes the earth, certainly the entire Christian world will then be wondering if this is "the sign of the Son of Man."

It's in the nature of religious people to interpret whatever happens as a sign from their particular deities. If something of significance happens on a "holy day" then adherents of the religion in question are bound to see it as a sign - it's what they do.

19

Human Origins. The Way We Are

by BurnTheShips in

jw
friends

i tend to subscribe to the multi-regional hypothesis for human origins, and i find this article intriguing.

could cro-mags and neanders respectively, be adam and eve?

cain and abel?

funkyderek

BurnTheShips:

I disagree.

Good for you. It's just you and Gooch though, I'm afraid. Care to share why you disagree with the majority on this one?

19

Human Origins. The Way We Are

by BurnTheShips in

jw
friends

i tend to subscribe to the multi-regional hypothesis for human origins, and i find this article intriguing.

could cro-mags and neanders respectively, be adam and eve?

cain and abel?

funkyderek

BurnTheShips:

First up, can you remove the long line of ----- so that the whole post fits on the screen - you'll get more replies that way.

Could Cro-Mags and Neanders respectively, be Adam and Eve? Cain and Abel? Thought provoking to say the least.

The article might be thought-provoking but why on earth would it provoke thoughts like that? In what sense do you think these two species could "be" the characters from Hebrew mythology you mention?

While early Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis may have interbred to some extent, there is no real evidence of the sort of hybridisation Gooch talks about. While his ideas are intriguing and inventive, they have little more than novelty value and perhaps are presented tongue-in-cheek. I mean, does he really think you can tell someone's political leanings by the size of their second toe?

The best evidence currently available points to H. neanderthalensis having been wiped out by H. sapiens either by being outcompeted or being slaughtered for food or in war. It's also possible that they became extinct through interbreeding and absorption, although as the population of Neanderthals was apparently never that large or widespread, the sort of hybridisation Gooch suggests seems highly unlikely.

78

Will this be "the Sign of the Son of Man"?

by a Christian in

forgive me if this has been posted here before.

i just read about a comet that is now heading our way that will come closer to us than our moon.

this comet will be visible in earth's skies on april 13th ( good friday, the day of christ's death ) in the year 2029. it will then return exactly seven years later on april 13 ( easter sunday, the day of christ's resurrection ) in the year 2036. it is said that its 2029 pass through the earth's skies and its gravitational pull may alter its orbit just a little bit so that upon its return in 2036 it may strike the earth.

funkyderek

a Christian:

Yes, congratulations! You've cracked it. Of all the comets, meteors, supernovae and planetary alignments of the last 2,000 years this one alone is the real sign of Jesus coming back.

There's a horrible, sickening irony in someone taking useful rationally-obtained knowledge about the universe and attempting to crowbar it into such a primitive superstitious worldview. The disgust I feel is tempered by my deep embarrassment for you, which itself is heightened by your getting the date for Easter 2029 wrong.

Oh dear! Back to the apocalyptic drawing board, I suppose...

16

Paradise=Muslim's 70 virgins or Witnesses=Eternity singing kingdom songs!

by Witness 007 in

boy do i feel ripped off!

as a witness if i spend my life at meetings and field service my reward is............eternity with the witnesses gardening which i hate.....and singing kingdom songs.

no t.v no booze no fun no nothing and to boot i don't get my 70 virgins like the muslims......i mean for 70 virgins i would be willing to go thru all the meetings and field service........but to spend eternity with your circuit oversear and a bunch of bethelite's i think the living would envy the dead.

funkyderek

I believe the virgins in question are perpetual virgins, i.e. their virginity grows back. Personally I think I'd find it quite tedious to have to perpetually deflower 70 women, but to each his own.

At least the Muslim paradise, unlike the JW version, gives them something to really look forward to. They're denied sex on earth; they get an abundance of it in heaven; on earth, they avoid alcohol, in heaven wine flows freely; on earth, they spend most of their time praying and purifying themselves, in heaven they are perpetually pure; on earth, the pig is a disgusting unclean animal, in heaven, it's everlasting pork chops all round!

JWs however probably lose the few pleasures they have in life. Now they've got television and fried food; in the paradise they'll have placid wild animals to stroke and fresh fruit and vegetables to eat. Sex, if it features at all, will be with the same person for all eternity. The most they have to look forward to is meeting their favourite bible character.

Still, it probably beats the Christian heaven where the dream is to sit on a cloud praising God for eternity.

The atheist future of eternal nothingness strikes me as far more appealing than any of those options.

39

There is no 'right' for British women to have pain relief when in labour!

by Gill in

my neighbours daughter recently gave birth in a large uk teaching hospital to her second child.. the baby was a very large 10 lb boy and the labour went horrendously, during which grandma and the mother's partner had to argue with medical staff for help and pain relief.. they were told that women in labour have no 'right' to pain relief in the united kingdom and despite the fact that this young woman was screaming in total despair for nearly fifteen hours before four doctors turned up to help her and give her an epidural anaesthetic., she had no help but gas and air which didn't help her at all.

the hospital was crowded with young polish women also giving birth and the staff midwives told the girl's mother that they had to concentrate on these polish young women as they did not speak english and many of their babies were at risk because they were so small.. this young woman did not even have a private room to herself but was in a crowded ward!.

the young neighbour's baby twice went into distress with his heart rate dropping desperately low.

funkyderek

Gill:

FunkyDerek - Usually ALL women give birth in a private delivery room in a hospital, NOT in a ward. It is unusual in the extreme to give birth on a ward and not acceptable!

Not acceptable to whom? Beggars can't be choosers.

In order to continue to exist, the NHS and services like it must be inadequate. They need to be unpleasant and even risky in order to encourage more of the middle classes to go private, relieving the otherwise intolerable pressure that is inherent in any such "free" system. In fact, they will always tend towards "barely tolerable" as any improvement tempts more people into using the service, and tax increases to pay for improvements force more people to use it.

39

There is no 'right' for British women to have pain relief when in labour!

by Gill in

my neighbours daughter recently gave birth in a large uk teaching hospital to her second child.. the baby was a very large 10 lb boy and the labour went horrendously, during which grandma and the mother's partner had to argue with medical staff for help and pain relief.. they were told that women in labour have no 'right' to pain relief in the united kingdom and despite the fact that this young woman was screaming in total despair for nearly fifteen hours before four doctors turned up to help her and give her an epidural anaesthetic., she had no help but gas and air which didn't help her at all.

the hospital was crowded with young polish women also giving birth and the staff midwives told the girl's mother that they had to concentrate on these polish young women as they did not speak english and many of their babies were at risk because they were so small.. this young woman did not even have a private room to herself but was in a crowded ward!.

the young neighbour's baby twice went into distress with his heart rate dropping desperately low.

funkyderek

Gill:

This young woman did not even have a private room to herself but was in a crowded ward!

There's the problem. She should have gone private. Then she could have had whatever form of pain relief she wished.