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There’s a Giant Flaw in Human History

I know this is not completely on topic as far a past advanced knowledge and tech. I am interested in what others think about the recent discosures about UAPs and the advanced knowledge and tech associated. Is this all in peoples imagination. Or is there something to this.

It may well explain how humans can fool themselves about advanced knowledge and tech from the past.

It also may show that knowledge is not a gradual climb from simple to complex. That it comes and goes, peaks and disappears and comes back. Or comes from alternative ways of knowing.

But also may give insight into peoples metaphysical beliefs.

By the way I am not even suggesting that aliens somehow passed on knowledge to the ancients. Only that knowledge is not linear.
Where do you think knowledge comes from?
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Best Possible Uses for AI Imagiable

Good points. However, Yuval Noah Harari, known for his expertise in Biology, technology and information systems points out that the current state of AI, can be compared to the age of amoeba, with our own human evolution - where it took 3.5 billion years for humans to evolve from amoeba... Harari points out that with AI, such an advanced transformation will be much quicker, taking only 20 or 30 years.

With such rapid change, we can expect AI to improve drastically, year after year.
There is also potential for evil:

So it all depends on the moral integrity of the programmers, and their competence in discovering what could go wrong.
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Stranger Things

There’s a lot of cuts planned for public assistance. Including the programs I mentioned and others related to food, housing and health care. The fallout will be ugly. Not only for minorities but others that fall outside of their ideal.

~bella
This is one of the areas that bolster my opinion that the current administration is fascist (and I'd also argue that the past administration was Marxist).

Social Darwinism is a characteristic of fascism. The fascists themselves promote social Darwinism in their own writings. It's not just that "the other" should be eliminated from society, but also "the weak."
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Questions and Answers

You are trying to say that works are necessary for salvation and that contradicts many scriptures.
No, that is not what @Guojing was saying. He was saying that works "validate" the faith of a Christian's salvation in Christ. Salvation is by God's Love, Grace and Mercy, and not something we earn by our works.

It is by faith we are saved and not of works.
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Best Possible Uses for AI Imagiable

AI can't do some necessary work for you. It is limited, as its available databases are also limited. No doubt at times there may be wrong information in the web, and AI might give you a bum steer. Choice of words might be critical for AI giving you the "right answer." Therefore you have to have some sense of what the "right answer" might be (or the "good advice") before you can reasonably accept it without blind faith.

I got investment advice of a list of questions to ask about specific options, asking for the best overnight investment. The instructor showed that he used 4 AI engines, in which he recommended 2 of them for success. In those 2 AI engines, he won profit overnight. So I tried the exact same procedure on the 2 recommended AI engines (ChatGPT 5 and Grok 4.1, and I added MS Copilot), on 3 trades I won one and lost two. It proved to me it's basically a "crap shoot" or "coin toss," IOW, a gamble.

I regularly query it for medical advice, since I am retired and ailing. Sometimes I believe the answer is good, but most of the time, after asking all related questions I think of, I end up trashing the info. It may be near the same thing as a doctor's advice, because doctors give advice based on statistical evidence - 70% responded this way, 85% responded to that medicine, etc. So that's what they will prescribe, but it doesn't necessarily apply to you, since everyone's body chemistry is unique. AI is simply passing along statistical probabilities.

Sometimes you roll a 7, and sometimes snake-eyes. I use AI as a tool for possible solutions, but I don't rely on it.
Good points. However, Yuval Noah Harari, known for his expertise in Big History, Technology and Information Systems points out that the current state of AI, can be compared to the age of amoeba, with our own human evolution - where it took 3.5 billion years for humans to evolve from amoeba... Harari points out that with AI, such an advanced transformation will be much quicker, taking only 20 or 30 years.

With such rapid change, we can expect AI to improve drastically, year after year.
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Stranger Things

What happens if the scores are poor? Do you think this will also be a tool for recruitment?

~bella
Bad ASVAB scores would be a really, really bad indicator of the effectiveness of public education.

The military has practically all the same vocations as the civilian community. A bad ASVAB score across the board would mean the student is not currently prepared for technical training in practically any technical skill even in the civilian community.

I think that's where we actually are, and I think having all students take the ASVAB would clearly identify that fact.

So, if the students who do poorly on the SAT also do poorly on the ASVAB, we would face the tough question of exactly what schools think they're doing.
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Trump praises NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani after White House meeting

Sure. Mandami has called Trump a fascist, but he would never dare say it to his face. Especially when he is groveling at his feet.
Never happened.
How else do you explain why Mandami entered the office as some leftist hero that is going to stick it to Trump, only to come out like a battered housewife trying to keep a positive public image?
Mandami held his ground while Trump simped.
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Street Preaching

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Well if a person is going into this with the mindset of street preaching then they will encounter problems. Because who wants to be preached at!

But if a believer goes out into the world and asking people if they would like God's free gift of Eternal Life. They may find many open ears. So the key then is when an open ear is found, the person must correctly tell people how to receive God's free gift of Eternal Life. Which is only received by belief in Jesus for Eternal Life
Yes this is true, its about something that rings true or sparks their interest. The early church called the Gentiles God fearers as they did not necessarily believe in God but were open and interested enough to see there was something different and attractive to this new gospel that was spreading.

The church was speaking about salvation, finding peace like no other, true life. A new Kingdom of peace. This is what got their attention. But it was also because they seen it actually happening among the Christian community. Helping the poor and widows when everyone else didn't.
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Why do people hate ICE...

You frame it as though "they have to lie". Wouldn't honesty be the Christian approach here, even if it means being denied entry into the US? Or are immigrants are not bound by Christian moral standards?

Everyone should always provide truthful information on immigration forms. Anyone who has entered the US or overstayed their visa and then left must disclose this when applying for a US entry visa again. Admitting to violating US immigration law typically results in automatic denial of future entry to the US. And you are right that is the Christian thing to do.

Christians in America who insist undocumented immigrants, “You should self-deport, go back to your country, and then return legally,” they should be honest about their statements. If they advise someone to self-deport, they ought to clarify that coming back may not be possible. Many Americans who recommend self-deportation are not being truthful with the undocumented about the reality of returning legally. This lack of honesty is not consistent with Christian values.
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Street Preaching

Now that I'm no longer in a city I never really run into them. It has been literally years since I saw a street preacher.
Me too. Almost like its gone out of fashion lol.
But, I did see a few. Ones that were effective and ones that were not.

One going back many years to my university days still sticks with me.

He was a somewhat chubby man, mid to late 40's. Preaching / Yelling with zeal in the middle of the campus square during the school flea market.

The crowd was honestly respectful, most passed by, a few were listening but none were heckling.

In an effort to reach the young men in the crowd, he began preaching / yelling about how God would give you not just spiritual strength but physical strength. He went on to claim that through God he could do more push-ups than anyone in attendance. Going as far as to call the young men listening spiritual and physical weaklings.

A young college athlete stepped forward to take him up on his offer. The street preacher tried to back down, tried to deflect, etc. But, the young man would have none of it. He, called the preacher a coward and asked him to prove what he just claimed or go home because he was just full of hot air.

The portly, middle aged preacher said a prayer then and he and the young athlete had a push-up contest.

The street preacher lost. Not just lost by a little. He lost badly. The young man was still doing pushups like a machine when the preacher gave up in a red faced, huffing and puffing heap.

The crowd laughed and left, the preacher gathered up his stuff and left.

Obviously lessons were learned that day. Likely not the ones the preacher intended, but perhaps one he needed.

If you street preach, be sure you are called, be sure you are prepared, be sure you do not stray from the Word into self...
Yes, if only the preacher made it about something he was good at. Or maybe not at all. But I think even with dumb mistakes or poor presentation Gods spirit gets through if the persons heart is in it for God.

I think the best preaching is from the heart. Really as with the disciples and early leaders and even everyday Christians who preached the gospel. This was a testimony and not a sermon. It was a testimony about Christs reality. Just like someone would if they were passing on the testimony of a real historical event.

Christians today are the decendents of the original eye witnesses who were closest to the events. We are more or less doing what they were doing. Or at least can do because we are under the same gospel. But I think even moreso because we not only have the eye witnesses cut a history of the witnesses of witnesses of witnesses.

If there are still those who are willing to die for the same belief today just like in the early church. Then so can any Christian today I think. Just depends on the circumstances. If we lived in Nigeria then this would test our faith.

I seen how the Nigerian priest spoke out knowing he just gave himself a death sentence. But he did not care and he spoke clearly and truthfully and directly to the world and it was one of the most powerful preaching I have seen.
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"Don't Give up the Ship"

However, if they can create enough inner-turmoil within the military ranks that creates confusion and doubt about whether or not to follow orders, that can effectively slow Trump's plans to a crawl until they have the numbers to get actual legislation in place.
That prospect scares the living, freaking daylights out of me.

If that happens within the military rank and file, the US military will be cooked. It would take 30 years of a consistent political environment (fat chance of that) to put it back together.

That is a suicide option.

This isn't an entirely new concept for congress or former administration appointees -- that concept being, using unelected, like-minded federal employees as a bulwark against a president's agenda as part of the "resistance".

One notable example (and this is from a 2017 WaPo piece, so definitely not conservative bias)
There’s another level of resistance to the new president that is less visible and potentially more troublesome to the administration: a growing wave of opposition from the federal workers charged with implementing any new president’s agenda.

Less than two weeks into Trump’s administration, federal workers are in regular consultation with recently departed Obama-era political appointees about what they can do to push back against the new president’s initiatives. Some federal employees have set up social media accounts to anonymously leak word of changes that Trump appointees are trying to make.

Career staff members in at least five departments said they are staying in close contact with Obama-era administration officials to get advice on how to pushback against Trump initiatives.

Former labor secretary Thomas Perez, who also headed the Justice Department’s civil rights division under Obama, said he has been working to mobilize grass-roots opposition.



...so not novel with regards to the general approach.

However, what is different about this, is that typically they've leveraged like-minded career federal employees and staffers in places like the State Department for this kind of of bulwark "bring it to a screeching halt" tactic. To my knowledge, they haven't done it with the military servicemen before.

The stakes are much different in this instance.

If a state department employee who dislikes Trump opts to feign incompetence to make a project go poorly, call off sick a bunch, intentionally slow-walk a project to bungle an initiative, they're not going to find themselves in front of a judge, they're not going to get fired (because they're protected by powerful unions)
I have spoken before about how the federal government, especially the armed elements of the federal government, are mostly classically conservative, which means they are naturally resistant to extreme changes of government direction, whether to the left or to the right.

And that's a good thing. It's what Trump ran into in his first term, but what he intends to demolish in his second term.

But what you're talking about is a misunderstanding of that classically conservative nature. It's not something that can be politically weaponized safely, it's an age-old natural characteristic of bureaucracy...even Nebuchadnezzar had to deal with it.

Trying to politically weaponize the classically conservative bureacracy will be as disastrous to the Republic as trying to eliminate it.

Career staff members in at least five departments said they are staying in close contact with Obama-era administration officials to get advice on how to pushback against Trump initiatives.

That is such a disastrous strategy, based on such an erroneous understanding of how the system works, that practically causes me physical pain. That career staff members today are doing such things actually gives credence to the right-wing accusations that Obama did politicize the bureaucracy.

Everything you're saying here makes me more and more fearful that the Republic will not stand another decade.

If a servicemen is given the order of "Okay, protestors have blocked road access to an ICE facility and federal agents can't get in or out, and the governor has refused to do anything about it and ordered state police to not intervene, our job is go clear them out of the way", and that servicemen says "Well, two senators and four former members of the state department put out that video saying they thought that was illegal, and that I could even get in trouble for following that order" and then refuses the order, there will be a very different set of consequences that happens.

What if that had happened during the 60s when Eisenhower and Johnson sent federal troops to enforce integration rulings?
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Do you keep the Sabbath? (poll)

I think it's also a bit irresponsible to say all NT uses of circumcision may only mean jew/gentile.

I never said that all reference to Circumcision in the NT means "only" Jew and Gentile. But most certainly many times Paul used those words, it meant Jew or Gentile. This is simply undeniable Biblical Fact.

That certainly is a use within the NT but each passage needs to be studied to understand its broader meaning.

That is the point I am making.

Col 2 for example, is clearly drawing illusions from the literal cut off flesh to unpack the deeper meaning of circumcision.

11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

This would be the circumcision Moses spoke of, Duet. 10: 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin "of your heart", and be no more stiffnecked.

So this is essential for Salvation. There is NO Salvation without this "circumcision". It is very important.

But in 1 Cor. 7 19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

This is not talking about "Circumcision of the heart" which is everything. Rather, Paul is speaking about Jews and Gentiles, which are nothing as there is no Jew or Gentile in Christ.

Gal. 3: 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ's, (Circumcised of the heart) then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

I understand how important it is for this world's religions to promote the end of God's Laws, they use circumcision as a tool for this purpose. But God didn't create this statute so that people would reject His judgments and commandments. It is my hope that you might consider these things.
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Why do people hate ICE...

Circumstances are changing constantly.
Again, if the only circumstance that are changing constantly is whether it is you or me, then the problem is hypocrisy. If not, then this is a different question.
Nobody said only criminals.
True, it was simply stated the ICE would be going after criminals, with the unspoken "only" being strongly implied.
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Why do people hate ICE...

I will repeat myself. If you self deport you are eligible to apply to return. You don't have to lie.
Although evidence shows that those who entered the US illegally must report this on immigration forms, you still claim they're eligible to return. This suggests an unwillingness to accept facts that challenge your stance on self-deportation and legal entry. Repeating this view seems to ignore both the information provided and empathy for these individuals, prioritizing deportation over objective assessment.

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Is the Bible inerrant?

Because the word of God, as it came from Him, is inerrant. If the only evidence we have is the Bible, which we refer to as the word of God, then it stands to reason that it should be inerrant and, as such, 'normative and authoritative'.
This doesn't address the question, it's just an assertion. Especially since the Bible is not the Word of God, the Word of God is the 2nd person of the Trinity. The Bible is an icon of the Word of God, and conveying Divine attributes to a book to me reeks of idolatry.
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The Reality of Free Will

@childeye 2 I can see you still do not understand.
I'm not going to say it's because you don't want to understand, though that's possible, since you are reading my posts, but ignoring them, and refusing to respond to them or answer the questions posed to you.

However, for some reason, you and @Clare73 obviously have something against free will.
Yes, it's called the word of God: "He who sins is a slave to sin." (Jn 8:34) Slaves to sin do not have free will to never sin.
Can you live a sinless life?
If not, your will is not completely free, it is only partially free.
I don't know what it is, but I'm guessing you had this argument before, and you don't want to admit you are wrong.
Whatever the case, it's not possible for either of you to refute the proof in this thread.

Let me talk with Clare first, since, as they say, 'Ladies first". :smile:
Clare, my dear, all words are from humans,
Not according to 2 Tim 3:16, "All Scripture is God-breathed," the words are from God, not from humans.
so the complaint that free will is a human notion, doesn't have any merit.
Nice interchange of ""notion" and "words". . .they are not the same thing.

Please present the Scripture which contradicts 2 Tim 3:16, above, as well as the Scripture which states the "free will" of man.
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Why do people hate ICE...

Op/Ed: ICE is grabbing U.S. citizens, defying its own rules and the Constitution

Dayanne Figueroa was on her way to work in Chicago last month when she drove onto a street where an immigration enforcement action was in progress. As she attempted to drive around the chaos, an unmarked vehicle collided with her car. Masked men jumped out of the vehicle, guns drawn and dragged Figueroa from her car by her legs. She was thrown into a minivan, taken away and held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for hours. Dayanne Figueroa is an American citizen.

Figueroa’s case is not an isolated incident. The nonprofit newsroom ProPublica hasdocumented more than 170 cases of U.S. citizens, mostly Latinos, being detained at raids and protests since January.

The wrongful arrest of U.S. citizens by immigration agents is not new; it happened under Presidents Biden and Obama, and during President Trump’s first term. What is new is that Homeland Security and ICE are dramatically ramping up enforcement actions, while operating with less oversight than in the past. This has resulted in greater potential for mistakes — and for more traumatized or injured Americans.

The government denies that these episodes are happening. “There’s no American citizens that have been arrested or detained,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in October. “[Her statement] also is contradicted by Homeland Security press releases explaining why some citizens have been arrested or detained.

When citizens are arrested by immigration agents, it is frequently on the grounds of assaulting or impeding officers. The ProPublica report, however, found that such charges often were dismissed later or dropped. [Figueroa was never charged.]
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The Saving results of the Death of Christ !

For all those Christ died His death exclusively for them acquired:

Deliverance

from the hand of our enemies, Luke 1:71-74

71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;

72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;

73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

This has to do with Spiritual enemies, what the carnal jews didn't understand. Jesus is a Horn of Salvation Vs 69

69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;

By His Death He becomes the Captain of our Salvation ! This also fulfills the promise of Matt 1:21

21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. 9
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