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  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

Is AI making the human race dumber?

As with everything, it will depend on how it is used by each individual user, being of very great benefit to some, but while also at the same time, being of very great harm to others, and in that way, AI is no different from Google, or the Internet, or Social Media, or any other great invention/advancement of humankind.

God Bless.
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BUSTED - 12 False theories refuted:

Ask someone: What is a large round object; longer than its diameter, that has its contents under a lead cover and it flies long distances through the atmosphere? Just about everyone today would answer: A nuke missile.
Now ask them about a flying scroll that has a message on it regarding thieves and those who speak falsely; ask them to explain how that is like a nuclear missile.
They'll either say that it isn't, and/or tell you to stop talking nonsense.
It is not possible for Gods Prophets to be wrong.
You're not a prophet. You were wrong in 2012.

God will take action in His Creation again, as He did in the days of Noah.
Yes, because Jesus will return one day.
It may not be in the way, and at the time, that you're expecting.
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The 2025 Government Shutdown Thread

What this is really about is....

...is something that would carry more weight if you didn't need to post links to Breibart. Why...I have absolutely no idea. It's almost as all you want to do is admit your argument has no worth. Or at least someone else's argument.
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The 2025 Government Shutdown Thread

Democrats again are making an outrageous demand. Let them give 35 billion dollars to the insurance companies from their own pockets instead of from the pockets of working taxpayers. They need to pass the continuing resolution and start working with President Trump and the GOP to lower health care costs.
What’s the problem? We just gave 40b to Argentina but can’t spend 35 on our own people to have access to healthcare? Why does the GOP want Americans to suffer?
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BUSTED - 12 False theories refuted:

seems you're the only one who can "see it".
Ask someone: What is a large round object; longer than its diameter, that has its contents under a lead cover and it flies long distances through the atmosphere? Just about everyone today would answer: A nuke missile.
Of course, it's entirely possible that things won't happen as you expect them to
It is not possible for Gods Prophets to be wrong. God will take action in His Creation again, as He did in the days of Noah.
Not knowing what we have been told will happen, simply leaves people in the dark.
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There’s a Giant Flaw in Human History

what kind of "conscious experiences" are needed to make or measure stone vases?
Is it just about the measures. What about the method of changing the material to then make the works. Measuring will only tell us about the end product and how precise or what looks like made it. It won't tell us exactly how it was achieved. Only that something more sophisticated was involved.

But say under the aspect of conscious experiences that this immersed ancients in nature more deeply. Not as in the sciences and measuring or qualifying reality. But as a relational aspect that allowed ancients into a deeper awareness or insight that gave them knowledge of how nature works and thus could manipulate it.

Just through sheer conscious experiences of nature. Remember that these ancients had no enlightenment or critical thinking in scientific terms. It was all experiential.
That is how science works. If it didn't work that way it would not be science.
Yes so therefore when it oversteps its boundaries its no onger science but attempting metaphysical belief. When its used to rationalise the supernatural belief or transcedent aspects of reality as being unreal its overstepping the mark.

As a science method for what it does look at its very good. But this should be acknowledge that this is only one aspect or dimension even of reality. In fact there are emerging anomelies in this paradigm that point to a deeper dimension and paradigm. So its really paradigms competing with each other over what is fundemental reality.

A reasonable philsophical position would be to say exactly this. That science as a method only tells us a small part of nature and reality and that there are other aspects that don't fall into this paradigm which are just as relevant and real that need to be considered before anyone starts making ontological claims about what counts as real or fact or truth.
You might. I don't.
Yes because you believe and 'believe' is the destinguishing word that all reality is within the causal closure of the physical. In otherwords there is only one fundemental reality which is the physical, or material or naturalistic. So long as all causes stem back to a quantifiable aspect that can be measures in quantifiable empiricle measures.

So of course all aspects including epiphenomena, religious beliefs, consciousness, experiences are caused by the physical. For example conscious experiences as an epiphenomena of the physical brain. Nothing supernatural or transcedent in nature.

So by metaphysical belief you will only see the physical causes and force onto all phenomena a physical explanation ie miracles are some sort of biological anomely we have yet to understand. BUt physical in nature 100%. No Gods or miracles here.

Yet this is stepping beyond science because if there were miracles or the supernatural they will have a physical effect. Really all science is doing describing what is happening and explaining this in the physical terms it happens within. It says nothing about the nature of that phenomena. Thats how science has morphed into a belief that most cannot even see this and just assume like everything else its true. .
How is this about "experiences"?
Everything is about experiences. How do you know we are not in some Simulation. Or at least a big part or some part is just a MInd conception of whatever is the latest view of reality. Can we actually step outside our minds to scientifically verify that how we concieve reality is correct.

I mean theres enough "experiential' knowledge and lived reality to say that all the religions, and transcedent aspects of humans is not just one big physical epiphenomena and most good philsophers will agreed. That we should take seroiusly what has basically been the default human behaviour for millenia. We are all not deluded and dumb science deniers lol.

Experience or rather conscious experience is probably the most reliable aspect from which we can know reality because its direct. Its not made into 3rd party science which actually detaches itself, or rather tries to from our direct contact with reality.

What is reality. We can know the physical objective data of how a house is constructed. Or how a mountain is made. So what. HUmans are meaning making creatures and the world is not about the coffee cups objective reality. But whats in the cup, what the cup represents in reality. Thats the experiential aspect of reality thats missing in science. Yet it is the most dominant and lived reality.
They are not the same.
Ok your getting into semantics again. I mean the same as in all believe in some sort of transcedent existence or being or spirit of some sort. Its just different expressions of the same fundemental belief.

I can get the evidence on this if you want. From meta analysis of the different beliefs and cultural practices. They all home in on the same core beliefs. Just different expressions. Which is the subjective cultural part. But the fundemental belief is ingrained and as much a part of humans as the need to eat.
We looked. There isn't.
THis exactly proves my point that the scientific method oversteps and becomes a belief. You say this like its an ontological fact or truth. We investigated all religious beliefs and all the other paradigms of different knowledge and worldviews and we verified beyond doubt that there is nothing to all this.

Without even realising that even science itself admits there are different paradigms and that you are claiming that the paradigm you exist in or are using itself according to science cannot understand the paradigm its objecting to. Hense its based on an assumption and belief.

Not just that you have put yourself in a very small group of enlightened ones who claim the truth and that the majority of humans are deluded and therefore we must spread the gospel of enlightenment and metaphysical naturalism.
Your claim.

Your words.
Ok my claims, my words, my beliefs like the majority of others. What are you saying here. Are you just repeating back that these are alternative beliefs and knowledge people can have. Or are you acknowledging that there are alternative ways of knowing reality besides your beliefs.
Nothing to do with the topic.
Another example of not even being aware that this is completely related. Is not this about alternative ways of knowing including advanced knowledge of the world, nature and reality. I mentioned conscious experiences as one aspect which includes phenomenal belief and other transcedent aspects.

So if as I pointed out that the paradigm of the scientific method only can deal with the quantifiable and at least some of this ancient lost knowledge is steeped in belief and conscious experiences of the nature.

Then saying that using the science method to even evaluate such knowledge is the wrong method. It cannot tell. IT has not the tools of method to even measure such knowledge. Yet you claim it can.
They aren't.

There isn't.
I won't even go into the vast amount of evidence for this. BUt merely say the fact you state that "they aren't and there isn't" is itself evidence that this is more a belief thatn fact or reality.
I've been immersed in reality for 50 years. That reality matches what "science tells us".
Hum so what evidence is there for beauty, the experience of music, colors, the sense of awe in looking at the universe and knowledge of something greater emerges and persistently so that people build things to the heavens and gods. At what point can science determine this is just make believe and not real knowledge that there is actually some transcedent aspect of reality that really and truelly is part of being human and is a reality beyond humans.

Show me the test. In fact show me the test that shows how the so called objective reality we live in right now is actually real itself and not some interface reflection of something deeper that looks nothing like what we see.
What big chunk of knowledge about reality?
That I have to explain this means you will not be open.
What is this "indigenous knowledge"? You've offered nothing but the vague notion of it for a couple of weeks and many many posts. Those claims lack any specificity.
Yes thats how western material science has always treated indigenous knowledge. As some vague superstition. Or in this case also atheism which basically aligns well with material science. Or rather metaphsyical naturalsim.
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BUSTED - 12 False theories refuted:

I believe that Zechariah 5:1-11 is a prophecy being fulfilled in our day.
Proof is: We can see it, but the ancient people didn't.
I believe you're wrong. It seems you're the only one who can "see it".
So I'll leave you to believe that you will be in the Holy Land at the age of 120 - I hope you enjoy it.

Of course, it's entirely possible that things won't happen as you expect them to - just as happened in 2012.
But that's for you to deal with.
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Who then can be saved?

That's a problem in Christianity, rampant ignorance of history and the teachings of the early church. The church was all there was-it's how people learned the faith, that same faith that came down to my semi-literate grandmother from the foothills of the Italian Alps over a century ago. And she had one of the most simple, beautiful, deep and productive faiths I've ever known.


And I never mentioned Gnosticism. In fact, that same church rejected gnostic writings while assembling the canon of the new testament which you possess today, The bible didn’t fall down from heaven in complete form- and the church knew and taught the gospel before a word of the new testament was even written.


Grace isn't just God's favor; it's His life in us. And if that doesn't mean "improvment" in us and our behavior, as if Jesus just came so we could remain in our sins, then Christianity would be a joke, a joke of satan's. Turn the question around. Can/should Christians expect to enter heaven if they were to persist in wanton, ergregious sin, aka lawlessness? A righteous person, with a righteousness made possible only by communion with God, doesn't even need to hear the law in order to obey His will, let alone be under the covenant of the law. Grace produces obedience, making you a slave to righteousness (Rom 6); it doesn't keep you in disobedience, disobedience being the basic, original sin of Adam that separated man from God to begin with! At least read the letters of John.

It should go without saying but it's OK to be obligated to be good, to love, to put it best. in the true Christian vernacular. The gospel, the new covenant, finally gives us the authentic way to achieve that- by virtue of reconciled union with God, the only Way. Here's some wisdom of the ages, properly understood:

"The law was given that grace might be sought; and grace was given that the law might be fulfilled." (Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter)
So, your still holding on to the pragmatic "bi polar" version of the gospel, which tries to join the two mutually exclusive covenants together.
The obvious problem with that version of the gospel is, that they don't mix, just as oil and water, iron and clay ect. don't mix.

Correct me if I have mistaken you, but your version of the gospel is not the Biblical (saved by grace), nor is it the unbiblical (saved by works) version. But it is a mixture of both of these.

I can only assume that you have chosen to invent this new version of the gospel, as an alternative or (third option) to the other two which every singe one of the 49,000 Christian denominations hold to.

The big red flag with your new version of the gospel, is that nobody else has discovered it in the past 2000 years, so it makes you very special. You figured out something that nobody else could in all of history, that is a deal breaker in itself. My Pastor warned me about, those claiming to have found something mew in the bible.

The fact is there's only one gospel, and it's the same one which everyone has had for the past 2000 years.
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Be Instructed Judah

Christians were never the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom went into Assyrian captivity, because they had gotten into idol worship.
Matthew 15:24 is the clincher. Jesus came to save the House of Israel.....
He is from the House of Judah and He did preach to the Jews, But only a few accepted Him. It was them, the Apostles, who made Jesus' mission successful and we Christians are now the Israelites of God.
Nowhere in the Bible can be found a general Jewish redemption. Their fate is Prophesied in the OP - their houses will be given to others.
Others; must be Gods peoples, who are the faithful Christians mainly those with Caucasian/ Israel ancestry.
Ezekiel 37:15-28 proves your theory of a solar flare wipeout of current Israel and a replacement nation of Christians called Beulah in error.
Enough Jews will survive to fulfil Eze 37. Mostly those now living in other countries now, who have become Christians.
Saying there will be no Beulah, is a direct rejection of Isaiah 62:1-5
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Who then can be saved?

No, that's Scripture. I didn't write those passages.

No, that's what we can do with God now, by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matt 19:26.

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Phil 4:13
No, that's your interpretation of scripture. You read them through your denominational lens.

No, that's what God can do with us now. You can't do anything, unless God gives it to you.
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Who then can be saved?

No you’re completed wrong about that, there are more than just two “camps” of Christianity. You obviously don’t know much about church history. There were three major denominations before the reformation. The Roman Catholics, The Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Oriental Orthodox Church.
No, you misinterpreted what I clearly stated. I never claimed that there were only two "camps of Christianity". I simply said there are two opposing interpretations of the gospel.

All of the 49,000 Christian Denominations hold to one of these two interpretations.

There's a big problem with those three Denominations your refer to, "Roman Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox" and "Oriental Orthodoxy", all departed from the truth and formed their man made religions.

Here's what Gods Word reveals about your Denominations >>>>>

1 John 2:19, which reads: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us"

Your promoting this idea that the Body of Christ is divided into vehemently opposing Denominations, which teach mans wisdom, instead of Gods truth. God never intended His people to be enemies who kill each other, as we know happened when the Vatican declared war on Protestants and tens of thousands were butchered to death in the name of Christ.

I don't know why you support denominations which justify violence against their brothers in Christ. There is only One true Church, not 49,000 radically opposed denominations.
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Who then can be saved?

I believe that we are saved by grace thru faith and that God has given us the ability to believe the gospel which is why Jesus told His apostles to preach it to all nations.
Who are you referring to, when you say "God has given "us" the ability to believe the gospel. I assume your version of "us" includes the likes of, Judas Iscariot, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler & Co. Your in good company there.

Now for the Bible truth, the "us" in the Bible, means the elect of God. I can see you looking for verse to refute the Bible doctrine of "predestination to salvation". Good luck fining the non existent verses
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The 2025 Government Shutdown Thread

Democrats again are making an outrageous demand. Let them give 35 billion dollars to the insurance companies from their own pockets instead of from the pockets of working taxpayers. They need to pass the continuing resolution and start working with President Trump and the GOP to lower health care costs.
Oh, yeah. Trump had a plan, didn't he? Remind us what that was. If you can't, then explain why the Democrats would trust someone who lies as a matter of course. Trump's polling will fall yet again because all the people who rely on the Affordable Care Act now know what he thinks of them. As does anyone else who is concerned about health in the US.

And you have the nerve to say that all the Dems need to do is back down now and everything will be raindrops and roses and whiskers on kittens? Please...don't treat me, or the US public like idiots.

The longer this drags on, with Trump gratuitously handing out food cards to millionaires and billionaires in his gilded palace while people are literally going hungry on the outside, the deeper into the toilet will head his polling figures. How low can they go? Well...you are about to find out.
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B flat B♭

Half the population don't study the Bible, I wonder, how would they read this verse ?
It's important to remember that the word of God did not have chapters and verses to start with. Chapters were added in about 1227, and verses in the 1550s. They were added for convenience of finding our way around the bible. Verses do need to be taken in their context, and here, the context is the coming of the dawn.
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Who then can be saved?

No in reality your Bible actually says both, unless you have some sort of Bible version that has the pages ripped out that contain the passages that specifically state that we must abide in Christ and endure to the end in order to be saved. Why are you pretending that those passages are not in your bible? This is what I’ve been talking about, you’re completely ignoring those passages as if they have value at all. You’re not incorporating that information into your theology which is why your theology doesn’t align with all scripture.
You're still going on about these non existent verses. I'm starting to wonder what your purpose is in playing this silly game.
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B flat B♭

The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. Job 38:14

It couldn't be more clearer.
But the earth is not likened to a seal, but to the clay (like our sealing wax) under a seal. The verses tells us that the earth takes its shape (in the context, its contours, mountains and valleys etc.) as clay does when a seal is used on it. As someone pointed out, the context is the coming of dawn. As the light of dawn comes, the contours of the earth can be seen; they take on form. The verse is not saying that the earth is a flat disc, or that it becomes a flat disc with the coming of dawn. Verses must be taken in context.
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God's Olive tree awaits all nations to rejoin and meet his Son

Faith in the promise (Ge 15:5-6, Seed, Jesus Christ, Gal 3:16) was reckoned by God as salvific.
Read Moses' speeches in Deuteronomy - that's the outline of what was considered Life or Death for the believer in TNK/OT times. You should not read the TNK/OT through the lens of the NT, it's the other way around. The average God-fearing Israelite didn't know about Yeshua as the Messiah yet - faith in Him had not been defined yet as the key criterion for Life in Deuteronomy (or the Torah in general).
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Who then can be saved?

Finally you admit that God doesn’t want them to rebel against Him. That’s all I’ve been trying to get you to acknowledge this whole time. Now that we’ve finally established that let’s go back to your post about God’s will.


So you’re saying that we cannot act against God’s will. So why does God grieve about the disobedience of man if He has willed their disobedience and they are incapable of acting against His will?
I have never claimed that we cannot act against Gods will. Quoting a verse which confirms that Godswill will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, doesn't mean that God created people to be evil and wicked.

Man was created good, and God was pleased with him. But man rebelled against God and chose to serve Satan instead. God is not the Autor of evil, I have already mentioned that a few times to you but you're still having difficulty accepting the fact.

If God allows sinners to sin for a time, it doesn't mean He created them to sin. It just means that He is fattening them up for the day of slaughter, so His will be done when He shows His wrath and hatred of sinners, while they are tormented in hell fire for all eternity.
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There’s a Giant Flaw in Human History

Are you going to start dragging that "science is atheistic" crap in here again? It stinks.
No. science itself as an enterprise is designed to only measure the material world that is quantified in physical and naturalistic processes. This has nothing to do with atheism. Christians can be scientists.

The difference is they know its limitations when it comes to other aspects of reality that may not fall into the scientific paradigm.
In fact even within science there are conflicts about which paradigm is correct.

Look at say behaviour sciences where it use to be that all behaviour was conditions on the physical environment and conditioning. Thenm we discovered the Mind and psychology. Another aspect of reality different to the physical processes and not necessarily the result there of. In fact said to be the actual driver of the physical as well.

Now take this to the spiritual which is also a well acknowledged aspect of human behaviour. In fact a vital component that brings the higher ordered states of being that can bring new knowledge and experiences that the physical cannot bring.

Heres the point. Its when those who use science to refute these aspects is when it steps beyond just the science method to a belief. A metaphysical belief that the only way we can know reality is by the physical and naturalistic.

So when someone demands peer review from a hard sciences journal on this aspect they are in fact pushing a dogmatic belief that this is the only way we can know reality.

By the way, where did I bring in that science equals atheism. I usually speak in terms of epistemics. How we know reality. The different methods we use to measure reality. That no method has the complete picture.

Science is good at measuring the quantifiable aspects. A description or explanation and not anything about the actual nature of fundemental reality. But is this all there is to reality. Is there not non material aspects.

Even the so called epiphenomena is a sort of magic idea that the physical can pop out some unquantifiable aspect of reality like a genie in a bottle. That actually alters reality itself as a force. Without any evidence or explanation. Thats sound just as much a belief as in God.
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B flat B♭

Job doesn't describe the earth as round, he describes it as a seal which is round.

View attachment 372840
No, Job says that the earth is like clay under a seal, not the seal itself. When we think of using a seal, we tend to think of something that makes an impression in wax, but it seems that back then they used clay. The verse does not tell us what shape the lump of clay was:

“It takes on form like clay under a seal, And stands out like a garment.” (Job 38:14 NKJV)
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