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30th July 2012, 02:32 PM | #2321 |
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What's the best argument for UHC? This argument against UHC. "Perhaps one reason per capita GDP is lower in UHC countries is because they've tried to prevent this important function [bankrupting the sick] and thus carry forward considerable economic dead wood?"-BeAChooser |
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30th July 2012, 02:33 PM | #2322 |
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30th July 2012, 02:39 PM | #2323 |
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really?
Ok, then explain how a person can live within a whale stomach for 3 days? Be sure to explain: 1.) Where the air the person was breathing came from. 2.) how the individual avoided being digested in the stomach acids. Feel free to use a diagram of a whale's anatomy to illustrate your argument. |
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What's the best argument for UHC? This argument against UHC. "Perhaps one reason per capita GDP is lower in UHC countries is because they've tried to prevent this important function [bankrupting the sick] and thus carry forward considerable economic dead wood?"-BeAChooser |
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30th July 2012, 02:40 PM | #2324 |
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Now show us on the whale where God touched you.
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30th July 2012, 02:41 PM | #2325 |
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30th July 2012, 02:45 PM | #2326 |
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What's the best argument for UHC? This argument against UHC. "Perhaps one reason per capita GDP is lower in UHC countries is because they've tried to prevent this important function [bankrupting the sick] and thus carry forward considerable economic dead wood?"-BeAChooser |
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30th July 2012, 02:45 PM | #2327 |
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30th July 2012, 03:10 PM | #2328 |
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30th July 2012, 03:11 PM | #2329 |
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Very well, let's use the language of the Gospel of Matthew (Mt. 27:51 - 53):
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split; the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. I have the following questions on the passage above: 1) Why didn't Josephus or anyone else - including the other gospel writers - record these things: the curtain of the Holy of Holies torn in two, the earthquake. and dead bodies resurrected, entering Jerusalem and being seen by many? 2) In your opinion, was this resurrection of the bodies of the "saints" (Gr. hagioi, "holy") just temporary, or did they persist in life for a number of days, weeks, months or years? 3) In your opinion, did Matthew interview these resurrected saints, or did the reanimated bodies merely appear to people? |
30th July 2012, 03:24 PM | #2330 |
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Okay, if we accept the possibility there is a God, miracles could happen. The whale episode is only one reason to see the Book of Jonah as fictional. Here are some others:
1) According to Jonah 3:3, Nineveh was so large that it was three days journey in breadth. As an experienced hiker, I can tell you that one can walk 15 miles in a day, making Nineveh 45 miles wide. We have the remains of Nineveh. It is nowhere near that large. It was at most five kilometers long and a bit less than three kilometers wide. Since a kilometer is a bit over six tenths of a mile, Nineveh is about three miles long and under two miles wide. The city described in Jonah 3:3 clearly isn't historical. 2) No Assyrian monarch ever repented either their worship of their gods (particularly Ishtar, patron deity of Nineveh) or their aggressive, brutal behavior. Therefore, Jonah isn't historical. 3) If Nineveh repented, how do we account for the Book of Nahum, which gloats over the demise of the city, saying it's destruction is the result of God's wrath? Also, I notice that you have not responded to my questions concerning the Book of Job. |
30th July 2012, 03:47 PM | #2331 |
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30th July 2012, 03:47 PM | #2332 |
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30th July 2012, 04:59 PM | #2333 |
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DOC, Why did 20,000 people ignore the earthquake and many christs walking aroung
You want to argue about labels? Ok !
The word Christ is in the Bible as a title for Jesus. Jesus rose from a grave and walked around just like the "zombie" saints mentioned in Matthew. So maybe in the bible the word christ can be used instead of zombie. Still unanswered: DOC, Why did 20,000 people ignore the earthquake and many christs (dead people rising from graves and walking around) ? First asked on 17th July 2012 - 14 days and counting DOC! Or maybe DOC, Why did 20,000 people ignore the earthquake and many-bodies-of-the-saints-who-had-fallen-asleep-were-raised,-and coming-out-of-the-tombs-after-his-resurrection-they-went-into-the-holy-city-and-appeared-to-many? First asked on 17th July 2012 - 14 days and counting DOC! P.S. Where in the NT does it state that the "christs" that are mentioned in Matthew were not in the same condition as before death? Where in the NT does it state that the "christs" that are mentioned in Matthew did not have the same personality as before death? |
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NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter (another observation) (and Abell 520) Electric comets still do not exist! |
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30th July 2012, 05:50 PM | #2334 |
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30th July 2012, 06:37 PM | #2335 |
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Why? Cosmologists can offer plausible explanations which accord with our current understanding of the properties of matter and energy. But our current, or indeed any, understanding of biology precludes survival inside the stomach of a large living sea creature for three days.
When you say "easier time believing" you really mean "easier time visualising". We can create a picture in our heads of a person swallowed and later disgorged by a whale, not because it is possible, but because we are familiar with the things present in the story, like people and whales. But we can't create adequate mental images of billions and trillions of atoms produced from pure energy, even though it can be shown - to the intellect, not to the visual imagination - that such transformations do take place. To confuse "being able to picture to myself" with "being able to believe" is an infantile error. ETA Or, to be more precise, to believe things only if we can create mental pictures of them, is such an error. |
30th July 2012, 06:52 PM | #2336 |
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Small problem - you are wrong .
It is "all the matter in the 10 billion trillion stars" came from the mass of 10 billion trillion stars squeezed into a volume smaller than that of an atom. All of the mass of the universe existed from the moment of the Big Bang. It is also a false comparison. There is physical evidence for the Big Bang: What is the evidence for the Big Bang? There is only a fairytale about someone living in a whale for 3 days. There are only fairytales about people being raised from the dead. The evidence is that these events are impossible. Put someone in the stomach of a whale and they die and are digested. If someone dies then they stay dead. |
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NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter (another observation) (and Abell 520) Electric comets still do not exist! |
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30th July 2012, 10:34 PM | #2337 | |||
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Boy, would your mind have been blown by Lawrence Krauss's talk on The Future, and Nothing at TAM.
Here's a version from a couple of years ago.
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.Bertrand Russell Zooterkin is correct Darat Nerd! Hokulele Join the JREF Folders ! Team 13232 Ezekiel 23:20 |
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31st July 2012, 12:32 AM | #2338 |
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31st July 2012, 12:37 AM | #2339 |
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31st July 2012, 01:06 AM | #2340 |
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Yes, in the same way that I think that a pig that had wings would be able to fly. But there is no such pig, and there is no such god. What is your argument intended to establish? If I thought that god could do a big miraculous thing, would I then think that he could do a smaller miraculous thing. Well, yes, but so what? I don't believe such a being exists in the first place!
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31st July 2012, 05:14 AM | #2341 |
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Quote:
Any evidence indicating that an allegation of his is impossible is rendered pointless - "miraculous" covers everything. Jonah's story? Clearly God could have either made a miracle "oxygen bubble" using a holy miracle force field. Or slowed Jonah's metabolism so that no respiration was needed and a "miracle membrane" protected him from the digestive juices. I think some here underestimate how all-encompassing DOC's miracles are. They are certainly powerful enough to render dialog with him pointless. |
31st July 2012, 05:25 AM | #2342 |
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31st July 2012, 05:47 AM | #2343 |
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How many zeros? Jabba |
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31st July 2012, 06:22 AM | #2344 |
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-Aberhaten did it - "Which gives us an answer to our question. What’s the worst thing that can happen in a pressure cooker?" Randall Munroe -Director of Independent Determining Inquisitor Of Crazy Yapping - Aberhaten's Apothegm™ - An Internet law that states that optimism is indistinguishable from sarcasm |
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31st July 2012, 06:33 AM | #2345 |
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Seriously, do you even remember when you started this ridiculous line of argument in the first place? And how it was almost immediately shown to be false? As luck would have it, I do. It was in November, 2010. You've been digging the same hole for nearly two years. How deep are you planning to go? |
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31st July 2012, 06:43 AM | #2346 |
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.Bertrand Russell Zooterkin is correct Darat Nerd! Hokulele Join the JREF Folders ! Team 13232 Ezekiel 23:20 |
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31st July 2012, 06:46 AM | #2347 |
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Now you're changing the story, you asked "If God exists miracles are possible"
Not "If god exists things we call miracles are possible" These are not equivalent statements. And this exposes why your question is inherently dishonest. Let's look at my harry potter example statement: "If Harry Potter exists, magic is possible" 1.) there is no evidence that Harry potter, as described in the stories, is real. 2.) There is no evidence of magic being real. 3.) Harry Potter and Magic are ill defined concepts. As such, the "if then" statement is completely meaningless as its terms are ill defined AND have no supporting evidence for their reality. Now, look at your statement: If God exists miracles are possible 1.) There is no evidence for a god. 2.) There is no evidence for miracles 3.) The terms used are ill defined and as such too flexible to be reliable. (You just attempted to shift the meaning of miracle) As such, your If then statement is completely meaningless. |
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What's the best argument for UHC? This argument against UHC. "Perhaps one reason per capita GDP is lower in UHC countries is because they've tried to prevent this important function [bankrupting the sick] and thus carry forward considerable economic dead wood?"-BeAChooser |
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31st July 2012, 08:18 AM | #2348 |
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31st July 2012, 09:20 AM | #2349 |
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.Bertrand Russell Zooterkin is correct Darat Nerd! Hokulele Join the JREF Folders ! Team 13232 Ezekiel 23:20 |
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31st July 2012, 09:23 AM | #2350 |
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"Oh god...What have you done, zooterkin? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!?!" - Cleon |
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31st July 2012, 09:51 AM | #2351 |
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.Bertrand Russell Zooterkin is correct Darat Nerd! Hokulele Join the JREF Folders ! Team 13232 Ezekiel 23:20 |
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31st July 2012, 10:20 AM | #2352 |
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How is it that you don't have an answer for such an obvious question? Are you saying that it had never occurred to you to question this before? Giving you the benefit of the doubt that you had read this story before you were asked about it here, did you really say to yourself at the time, "Seems legit"? |
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31st July 2012, 10:53 AM | #2353 |
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Setting aside that you've been given other examples which satisfy your demand, what is the reason for this condition? Are you trying to claim that fiction was the fashion everywhere in the ancient world except Judea? Does it occur to you at all that this is an even more bizarre claim than that there was no fiction at all in those days? |
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31st July 2012, 11:55 AM | #2354 |
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If you're going to get all thingy about only using words that are in the Bible then we'll be needing to restrict the thread to Aramaic and Koine Greek. How do you reckon that will pan out? And your evidence that the alleged Jesus' personality was the same after 36 hours of deadification is _____________________________ ? Which reminds me. Since you've got Wednesday free you might like to have a little handwave at this puzzler. |
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31st July 2012, 12:15 PM | #2355 |
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DOC: You challenged posters on this thread to find a single work of fiction written in Judea from 1,000 BCE (or B.C., if you prefer) to the time of Jesus. A number of us have responded quite specifically. You have not really responded to these posts. Ignoring for the moment Job and Jonah, which I see as homiletic fiction, thus, still quite valid as moral teachings, the demonstrably unhistorical nature of Jonah and Esther and indications of the late authorship of Ruth; let's concentrate on the following:
Judith Tobit Susanna and the Elders Bel and Dragon Marriage of Asenath None of these are Part of either the Protestant Canon or the Masoretic Text. The Marriage of Asenath isn't even part of the more inclusive Catholic canon. All are demonstrably fictional. All fit the time scale you imposed. What is your response? |
31st July 2012, 03:30 PM | #2356 |
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31st July 2012, 03:34 PM | #2357 |
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Of course you do, and that's why you'll always be as wrong as you were when you first claimed to be able to present evidence for why we know the New Testament writers told the truth. Maybe wronger, come to think of it, since I'm sure most of the stuff you don't know about the Big Bang is what you've unlearned since this thread started. |
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31st July 2012, 07:08 PM | #2358 |
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31st July 2012, 10:50 PM | #2359 |
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31st July 2012, 10:53 PM | #2360 |
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