Chesterton said:

I would suggest to have a better perspective search out his earlier scripted, formal talks in front of audiences.

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I will try to respond to your post in a future thread that is more centrally devoted to Nick Fuentes, but let me say just a few things that I've found.

First, I still have a lot of respect for Shapiro, but I think he mislead me a bit, and this in two ways. First, much of what is being said about Tucker strikes me as true, but after watching the whole interview I can see that Tucker was disagreeing with Fuentes, albeit very gently. This means that charges of "ideological laundering" pure and simple are not quite accurate. Second, Fuentes is not as bad as I thought he was after I watched Shapiro's initial video. Resentment and anger seem to drive much of what he does, but he is at the same time intelligent, thoughtful, argument-based, and capable of self-reflection. For example, this is a surprising video.

At the same time, I think Fuentes' rhetoric is problematic, I think there is an affective problem (particularly with anger and resentment, albeit for legitimate injustices), and I think there are logical problems both theologically and politically. Still, he deserves more of a hearing than I first anticipated. There seem to be a lot of reasonable people who are willing to listen to him or were willing to listen to him in the past, including Orthodox on CF.

Apple Sky said:

Maybe I just couldn't believe that man had walked on the the moon,

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But you did.

Prior to that you had been saying that the moon landings were false and that nothing would change your belief in a Flat Earth.
Then you watched Charles' testimony - which some of us commended you for.
Them you wrote on here that you "hand on heart believed every word", wrote a prayer saying "sorry" for doubting the astronauts and said that Flat Earth was a load of rubbish and "I can't believe I said that."

I don't believe yours was the only life that was changed by that testimony. It's quite possible that people came, and are still becoming, Christians as a result of it. You were already a Christian but you became a moon landings believer.

And then you weren't.
Had your mind previously been completely changed by a lie? Were you lying when you said "hand on heart"? Or did you just change your mind again and decide that posting FE YouTube videos and winding everybody up was more fun?

What is wrong with people. This is getting worse.

Can science find God? If God is defined as a being (or perhaps “the ground of being”) that is neither composed of matter nor confined to a spatial location, then the answer seems to be no. After all, science is limited to explaining the natural, physical world. If God exists beyond that world and is not composed of anything found within it, then he seems to be out of the reach of scientific inquiry.

But even if science can’t “find” God in the same way I can find my car in a parking lot, maybe it can indirectly find him. After all, if God affects the physical world, then couldn’t scientific experiments detect those effects and then infer from them that God exists?

One common interaction between God and the universe that believers and nonbelievers think can be tested is prayer—specifically, intercessory prayer for other people. This testing usually takes the form of “prayer studies” that test whether praying for the sick results in more positive health outcomes.

Continued below.

Akita Suggagaki said:

You misplaced an effect for a cause. The intention, the purpose, the cause was to force Republicans to address healthcare. But Republicans were too obstinate and the shutdown happened. It was Republicans who used it to get what they wanted. And they did.

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Obamacare - exclusively Democrats
Oversight of the ACA (because Obama didn't want his name on a failing venture) - Democrats
Addition of Subsidies to help with rising cost of healthcare - Democrats
Dates for the subsidies to end - Democrats
Who didn't address the need all of 2024 - Democrats
Who designed the subsidies to go directly to big pharma? - Democrats
Who designed the subsidies to not lower anyone's deductible, out of pocket or subscription cost - Democrats

Whose fault is all this?

Oompa Loompa said:

Great! So you would be totally fine with Trump spying on ANTIFA activists and illegal aliens to prosecute and deport, should he follow the same protocols used against conservative parents speaking out against liberal school boards.

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I have no legal issues with anyone following the law.

BPPLEE said:

You would agree with them wouldn't you?

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No. I’m not a fan of importing labor to put downward pressure on wages.

Gracious Heavenly Father,
Help Your children to avoid using technology to replace You. Do not Your people have the Holy Spirit, and not machines? Help us to guard marriage in Your strength and power. Guide the leaders over the church to recognize the same.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen

Stopped_lurking said:

If it exists and make predictions about or manipulate the world we can describe it even in scientific terms.

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I don't think the ancients thought in scientific terms. That was not the paradigm. I think it was more that they were part of nature and this was something they experienced. They were more in tune with nature rather than having to look outside it trying to work it out.

So they would be seeing things differently because it came naturally to them. If nature followed laws and they were experiencing those laws then they were more or less controlling nature without fully understanding this scientifically.

I go back to the thought experiment of colorblind Mark who is a scientists that knows everything technical about sight, brain connections, lightwaves and the color spectrum. Yet has never experiences the color Red.

One day she can see colors and has her forst 'Red experience'. We can say Mary gains an insight and new knowledge of reality that science could not tell her. This red experience is part of reality. Gives additional knowledge and changes how the world is. It can only be gained by phenomenal experiences.

Just like the red experience brings knowledge so does all phenomenal experiences. Living completely immersed in this phenomenal paradigm unlike todays enlightened material paradigm will bring a different kind of knowledge that is fundemental to the objective world. Being fundemental means it is the source of the material world and thus a more likely state of being that can manipulate it in different ways.

Stopped_lurking said:

If there is someone out there that can soften stone with some ancient technology or lost knowledge of course we can look at them doing it. Until someone does it, it is reasonable to put it in the category of perhaps possible. Just saying that it exists, doesn't make it so even if one invokes indigenous knowledge or something similar.

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Oh it doesn't just exist in imaginations. In fact this is probably a good example of how we can look at ancient knowledge and the signatures and discover how they were smarter than we think. Just like those articles I linked saying that science is also realising the value of Traditional knowledge.

I thought I already linked a couple of articles. One on how they molded blocks on the outer casing of the pyramids. The other on how ancients softened and changed stone with natural chemicals and plants.

More investigation has happened due to the rise of modern tech which allows more detailed studies and testing. I think by studying and testing these sites we are discovering their abilities.

Whether that was intentional or a coincident we will have to work out. But it seems theres too many coincidents to be not some sort of advanced knowledge at that time if we are talking about sound and energy waves, anti gravity, manipulating stone material and all that.

Here are some more

Evidence of Molecular Bond Reversal… & Ancient Stone Softening Technology
~Evidence of Molecular Bond Reversal… & Ancient Stone Softening Technology

The Surprising Truth Behind the Construction of the Great Pyramids
Were the stone blocks carved from natural limestone or cast with an early version of concrete? A materials science research team provides evidence to answer this age-old mystery.
The Surprising Truth Behind the Construction of the Great Pyramids

Inca Stone-Dissolving Plants
Inca Stone-Dissolving Plants

This is about acoustic sonic waves in cutting hard stone and lifting stones.

Investigating the Cavity Resonance Acoustic Properties of the Great Pyramid for Free Energy Generation A Study of the King's Chamber and Its Potential Applications
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381806657_Investigating_the_Cavity_Resonance_Acoustic_Properties_of_the_Great_Pyramid_for_Free_Energy_Generation_A_Study_of_the_King's_Chamber_and_Its_Potential_Applications

The Role of Abolishing Gravity in Ancient Egyptian Pyramids Architecture
The Role of Abolishing Gravity in Ancient Egyptian Pyramids Architecture

Electromagnetic properties of the Great Pyramid: First multipole resonances and energy concentration
Electromagnetic properties of the Great Pyramid: First multipole resonances and energy concentration

Hans Blaster said:

Did they use that tip to get a warrant?

(and most of your "examples" above were not probable cause)

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If/when this goes to court, I'm assuming that the legal angle that ICE is going to use is that by DR Hortons having a business license, that's an implied consent provision for administrative inspections for compliance and enforcement. (since consent of the business owner is also a mechanism that grants them access to enter a "private" worksite)

There's also the "pain view/public view doctrine"...where if a law enforcement officer is able to see a criminal activity taking place inside a private property from a public vantage point, they're allowed to enter. -- For example, if a cop is walking a beat, and sees crime being committed from the side walk, they don't need a warrant to enter the store and make arrests.


But I'm guessing the legal approach they're going to use is the former. As that's the same type of provision that allows for things like, say, a health inspector from the FDA to come into a restaurant or food plant for a surprise inspection, and shut it down and issue citations on the spot without a judicial warrant.

I think both.

The Church is referred to as the Israel of God, and Paul does say that not all who are ethnically Israel are true Israel. Yet, Romans 11 seems to use Israel to refer to ethnic Jews.

I think it's clear in the Bible that the ethnic Jews will eventually be grafted back into the olive tree that is Israel, but I cannot say what that looks like. Will it be a mass revival among them? Will they retain their cultural heritage like the Messianics? Does this have anything to do with the Holy Land? Idk.

I will say that thinking that the modern state of Israel is part of God's divine plan doesn't require you to subscribe to dispensationalism.

Personally, despite my own doubts about dispensationalism, the modern state of Israel is one of those things that keeps me from completely dismissing dispensationalism. Like, was it all just a coincidence?

In neighboring Texas...

Whooping cough cases skyrocket in Texas, quadrupling last year's numbers​

The state has reported more than 3,500 cases this year. This is the second year that Texas has experienced high increases in whooping cough cases.

Nationally, whooping cough cases have been higher in the past two years than levels seen in prior years and pre-pandemic.

The higher numbers of cases in recent years come as vaccination rates [nationally] for whooping cough have steadily dropped

The Trump team considers its 20-point plan for the Gaza Strip to be the greatest foreign policy achievement of Trump's second term in office to date. It also sees it as a milestone in the expansion of the Abraham Accords, which were a major achievement of Trump's first term. Trump has promised his Republican supporters to keep America out of the ‘endless wars’ in the Middle East – this is also part of Trump's motivation.

Netanyahu also has a strong interest in the ceasefire working. He is aware that it will be difficult for the IDF to mobilise enough willing reservists to resume fighting in Gaza now that the last surviving hostages have been released.

For its part, Hamas is testing its limits with the slow return of dead Israeli hostages and occasional attacks on IDF troops in the Gaza Strip. But Hamas has lost its biggest leverage against Israel after releasing all living hostages, and it knows that the IDF could now act much harder and faster if fighting resumes. Therefore, despite sporadic clashes, the current ceasefire is quite stable.

So is Trump's plan for the Gaza Strip good for Israel?

In the first phase, Israel has control over 53 per cent of the Gaza Strip behind the ‘Yellow Line’, including control of the Rafah border crossing, in order to prevent Hamas from rearming. The IDF also has complete control or a clear line of sight over the entire Salah al-Din motorway, the most important north-south transport artery in the Gaza Strip. It has also been decided that there will be no reconstruction in the Hamas-controlled areas for the time being. Israel has a say in which countries provide troops for the international stabilisation force in Gaza. All these conditions are very advantageous for Israel and were accepted by the Arab parties when they agreed to Trump's plan.

Given that it will probably be extremely difficult and humiliating for Hamas to surrender its weapons, as required for the transition to phase two, the ‘yellow line’ or phase one could prove to be the new status quo in Gaza for the next few years. This is also evident from the fact that Hamas is reluctant to hand over the last bodies of the hostages. Once all the bodies are back, they know that this would mean the end of the first phase and the beginning of the second phase, in which Hamas must be disarmed and its terror tunnels destroyed.

Hamas will certainly cheat, delay and try to survive and regain control of the Gaza Strip. But if that happens, Israel has an agreement approved by the Arab states that legitimises the continued security presence of the IDF in the Gaza Strip.

The success of the Trump plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip will depend on how strong the pressure from the Arab/Muslim world on Hamas remains to disarm and relinquish control of the Gaza Strip. Many of these moderate Sunni Arab rulers are grappling with the problem of radical Islam in their own countries, and it is to be hoped that they will have the wisdom to continue to exert pressure on Hamas.

Hentenza said:

That’s the point. There is no longer a biblical model of rest. Christ fulfilled all of the law and became the Lord of the sabbath. Our rest is now in Him, TODAY (Heb. 4:3). We don’t have to keep one day. We can worship and rest any day.

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So you’re just going to work everyone until they collapse and run everyone into the ground?

This is the theological tradition I was raised in regarding the Sabbath, so I am inclined to agree with it on traditional inertia alone, as in the “this is what I have been taught and I’m not going to change ”. I grew up in the “we go to church on Sunday but we go home and go back to work on Sunday afternoon anyway” group, and even the Sunday service was optional if my dad wanted to go on a nature trip to some campsite somewhere.

I now realize how much workplace idolatry has snuck into our church culture and how much that needs to change. Keeping the Sabbath may not be the correct answer, but the constant pressure for more secular and religious work, as opposed to taking time for real meditation and contemplation and prayer, is our biggest liability in Bible Church land.

It may not be Saturday, but I think I need a structure with time set aside for worship, to focus on it. Otherwise, people will just pull me back into the hamster wheel of endless work. Do we trust our fallen minds with the task of organizing rest periods and deciding how we want to honor the Lord in them AND pushback against those who don’t want to respect any rest to the Lord we set? If we trust our minds, in the power of the Holy Spirit with such a task, should we not take counsel from those we have a structure of rest already, even though we might disagree with them? An abundance of counselors is considered wise.

SabbathBlessings said:

That said I was hoping to touch on something, but if you feel its unrelated, please remove this post

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No worries. I appreciate all the Scripture and all the thought you’ve put into your argument. The “Christians should not rest at all or can rest whenever vs. Christians should keep the Sabbath” debate is fine, because we are in Sabbath and the Law. I just didn’t want to get into “this day that day” wrangling, as it misses the point and wastes posts.

Freth said:

I voted, "Yes, I keep the Sabbath on Saturday every week as mentioned in the Decalogue, the Law, etc."

How I Keep the Sabbath

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Thank you good sir, that is helpful for me. May the Lord bless and keep you.

UN watchdog unable to verify Iran's stockpile of near-weapons grade uranium in months​

The confidential report also said that Iran has still not granted the International Atomic Energy Agency access to sites affected by the war.

Stopped_lurking said:

I think the car example is somewhat ill-fitting, because the properties of transmissions, axles etc (the constituent parts) do actually help explain why it moves.

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Yes, they do explain. I think that's what I said.

Stopped_lurking said:

That from my perspective might be a misuse of the term, it should only be applied when the phenomenon can't be inferred from the constituent parts.

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You're exactly right. Free will can't be inferred from constituent parts. In fact, free will is impossible under a deterministic world view. Yet we all know we have free will.

Stopped_lurking said:

But is measurable and understandable when looking at it in the full context. I don't know enough about free will to know the constituent parts. I'll watch the video (I have to admit I haven't) when I get back home from work.

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The first part of the video is about the deterministic view, where humans don't have free will. You can skip to about 4:40 if you just want to hear about emergent free will. But pay attention. He says things like "Put many things in one layer together, and they'll create the next layer up. Every time they do, entirely new properties emerge." This is an assertion, it's not an explanation of how. It's neither an explanation nor an argument.

A city in Ohio has reversed course and decided to allow a local resident to display a live Nativity scene at a winter farmers market on public property.

Susan Conley had asked to include the Christmas display at a farmers market scheduled to be held next month at the city of Pataskala’s Veterans Green Park.

Although officials had initially rejected the request to display a Nativity scene, Pataskala officials later reversed their decision following a complaint letter from attorneys with Jones Day and First Liberty Institute (FLI).

FLI Senior Counsel Nate Kellum said in a statement shared with The Christian Post on Tuesday that the city should never have refused to allow the live Nativity in the first place.

Continued below.

Editor's Note: This article contains descriptions of child sexual exploitation and child sex abuse that some readers will find disturbing.

The first openly trans-identifying lawmaker in the nation has pleaded guilty in a case that involved his former partner sending him sexually explicit photos of children at a daycare where she worked, with some of the images involving children as young as 3.

Stacie-Marie Laughton, whose real name is Barry Laughton, is a 41-year-old man who identifies as female. Laughton pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom in Boston to charges that included child sexual exploitation and possessing child sex abuse materials, ABC News affiliate WMUR9 reported.

The trans-identifying lawmaker, who previously served in the New HampshireHouse of Representatives from 2020 to 2022, faces the possibility of 30 years in prison, according to NH Journal. Laughton and his former partner, Lindsay Groves, are scheduled to be sentenced in February 2026.

Continued below.

essentialsaltes said:

Competitive eating?

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I think a line gets crossed in competitive eating where you have to engage a lot of self control, if you want to win.

Delvianna said:

Because it makes it the law of the land. It's like if a panel of judges ruled on allowing people to just murder who ever they want, because the judges are part ruling the country, the nation will be judged when murder sky rockets.

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I'm trying to figure out how allowing couples to marry each other will harm the rest of us. I don't recall Jesus declaring that government control was the answer to sin. If He didn't think it was worth mentioning, why should be think it's how a nation will be judged?

Pardoning public corruption, it's not just for America, now.

Trump urges Israel to pardon Netanyahu, sparking concerns over US influence​

[Amir Fuchs, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem-based think tank Israel Democracy Institute and an expert in constitutional law] said that if a pardon were granted after the Trump letter, it risked giving a “green light” to corruption

Feature, not bug.

Names occupy a central role in the Bible. The prophet Joel assures us that “all who call upon the name of the LORD shall be delivered” (2:32).

In the Book of Proverbs, we are reminded that “[t]he name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe” (Prov 18:10).

Meanwhile, the Second Commandment instructs us not to misuse the divine name: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

It is no surprise, then, that the Catechism highlights for us the overall importance of names: “God calls each one by name. Everyone’s name is sacred. The name is the icon of the person. It demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it” (2158).



What’s In a Name?

In their book A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament, John Bergsma and Brant Pitre explain why names matter so much from a biblical perspective:

Continued below.

The Register contacted pastors across the country asking the question whether emergency personnel call them to life-threatening situations. For the most part, the answer is No.

When a multi-ton pile of clay covered a steam-shovel fireman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in early December 1952, a 40-year-old Catholic priest had himself lowered upside down into a hole workers had dug to try to save the man.

“Only the tips of the priest’s heels were visible as his murmured prayers were heard above,” The Boston Globe reported the next day. Only a portion of the man’s leg was visible when the priest first got near him, and by the time workers freed the rest of Elpidio Baia, a 55-year-old father of three, the accident victim had died. But Father John Tierney’s efforts to bring him the last rites of the Church are an example of what used to be common — police and firefighters calling a priest to an accident so he can administer sacraments to the critically injured.

Priests still frequently offer confession, Eucharist and anointing of the sick at hospitals, of course, but not so much at the scenes of accidents. The words “priest called to the scene” and similar phrases appeared in many news stories in the United States during the last century until the late 1960s, when they started tapering off, according to searches of online databases conducted by the Register.

It’s not common anymore.

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Tropical Wilds said:

Idk… I think it’s a YMMV kind of thing. The first time I sat on the lyrics to “Gangsta’s Paradise” it kind of broke my heart. And there are lots of good hype up songs that are rap.

I think since music depends on so many factors to illicit a response… Words, music, voice, pacing… It has more benchmarks to hit in order to hit people in a certain way. Like, I think Bob Dylan is a lyrical genius but his voice and accompaniments make me want to beat my head on a wall so I don’t find his music all that inspiring. Rap has a similar issue for me, but it’s because my tastes gravitate more to dance or modern pop, which in many ways is the opposite. The song that makes me feel heard, sometimes to the point of tears, is a dance pop song. It hits me perfectly, but anybody who’s not into that genre isn’t going to feel it like I do.

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For sure rap can tell an emotional story, like a book or poem can. But compared to most other music genres its typically lacking in other emotion generating factors: melody, harmonic movement, vocal expression.