jonojim1337 said:

Imagine complaining about a continent not being visible when all of ancient history tells us we have a submerged continent.

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You appear to be confusing history with mythology. Please present any ancient historical reference to a submerged continent.

essentialsaltes said:

“I saw a white male shooting at another person, a Black male,” said Michael Starks, who was in the parking lot when the shooting happened. “He could have hit him in the back, could have killed him, could have had a stray bullet that struck someone else.”

Police say 64-year-old Steven Douglas Wagner pulled a pistol and fired near the garden center around 3 p.m. at the store on Atlanta Highway.

A Lowe’s employee told police the young man had not stolen anything, according to Starks.

Starks called 911 and followed Wagner back into the store and snapped a photo that helped police make an arrest within minutes.

He said Wagner’s demeanor was concerning.

“He honestly thought he did nothing wrong and should have been rewarded for his actions,” Starks said.

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Let me check on what gun owners think about this.

The usual attitude is that you don't shoot at people running away from shoplifting.

The store has insurance for merchandise. You might hit someone else. You won't get a medal for heroism.

You're going to pay tens of thousands for a lawyer even if you get off.

And you're probably not going to get off.

ladodgers6 said:

Okay, where do I start. Paul instructs believers to grow in the knowledge of the Lord so that we do not get deceived and to test the spirits. Failing to do so leads people to heresies.

The Bible strongly connects growing in the knowledge of the Lord with avoiding deception, particularly in 2 Peter 3:17-18, which warns believers to beware of falling away and urges them to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" as the antidote to being led astray. Other key verses like 2 Peter 1:5-8 detail adding to your faith qualities like knowledge, goodness, and love to be fruitful, while Matthew 24:4-5 warns of false messiahs and deception in the last days, highlighting the need for vigilance and grounding in truth.

Secondly, the Apostle Paul debates the Jews at Athens where the city was full of idols (Acts 17:16-34).

If we do not know how to defend the truth means we really do not understand Scripture.​

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Again,..... a lot of people are more worried about theology than a relationship with Jesus.

# 1. FOR /// GAR is a CONJUNATION

#2 I. ///. EGO. is a PERSONAL POSSESSESIVE PRONOUN. in. the NOMINATIVE CASE. in. the SINGULAR

#3 NEITHER ///. OUDE is an. ADVERB

#4 RECEIVED ///. PARALANBANO. is in. the AORIST TENSE in the ACTIVE VOICE inv the INDICATIVE MOOD , means you better believe it

#5 IT /// AUTOS. is a PERSONAL POSSESSIVE PRONOUN in. the SINGULAT in. the NEUTER , N meaning MALE and FEMALE

#6 OF /// PARA is a PREPOSTION

#7 MAN ///. ANTROTRPOSin vv the GENITIVE CASE in the b. SINGULAR

#8. NEITHER. /// OUTE. is a CONJUNCAION

#9 WAS I TAUGHT. ///. DIDASKO. in. the AORIST TENSE in. the PASSIVE VOICE. , means it is CHRIST working , in. the. INDICATIVE MOOD

in the SINGULAR

#10. BUT /// ALLA. is a CONJUNCATION

#11 BY /// DIA. is a PREPOSITION

#12 THE REVELATION ///. APOKALYPSIS. in vv the GENITIVE CASE. in. the SINGULAR

#13 0F. JESUS. ///. IOSOUS. in. the GENITIVE CASE in. the SINGULAR

# 14 CHRIST ///. CHRISTOS in vv the GENITIVE CASE in v the SINGULAR.

#. A And PAUL. is the ONLY GOSPEL. that was given by. Christ himself to Paul

# B. And it is the ONLY way to be SAVED FOR TODAY. , PERIOD

# C. No. one can be saved by WAYTER BAPTISM

# D Paul n. never preached to be BORN AGAIN

# E And PAUL NEVER WATER BAPIZED NO ONE EVER , TRYN ME !!

dan p

Hentenza said:

To me that’s the common sense approach.

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Yes, to met that's conservatism, although my liberal friends would disagree. Perhaps they would prefer "that which has been shown to work in the past."

Good to see people arguing that convicted fellons should be barred from working for state or federal governments.

BCP1928 said:

He didn't. Mark Kelly didn't either.

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Did the hit dog holler?

Yes. And if we are supposed to believe that the pulpit guarantees us that truth will be taught, then how come so much false doctrine and baloney also gets spewed from behind pulpits? Most all cultic leaders came from behind a pulpit, and still use a pulpit. Many strange doctrines still get broadcasted from pulpits.

The church is told 'FROM the pulpit' that 'What they are hearing FROM the pulpit is nothing but truth FROM God!' And the congregation is told that they should subject themselves 'to the pulpit' and the message - 'because' the pulpit has the 'approval of the pulpit!!'
This is circular reasoning, and has more in common with ex cathedra than it has to do with truth and what scripture warned us of. And the authority of Gods Word (and the believers place in the body of Christ).

It may be subtle, but quite often the pastor or preacher will weave into the sermon somewhere that 'God wants you to hear this', or 'God told me to tell you', or 'God revealed to me today..' as if they are always getting and giving some message directly from God!

Thats manipulation, and God told me to tell you that...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

See photos from Mount Pocono area ahead of Trump visit to Mount Airy​

AV1611VET said:

I would go to Sunday school and hear how God created us, then go to school and learn how [Gaia] created us.

I'm thankful that I learned the Truth in my earlier years; else I may have suffered cognitive dissonance and ended up choosing the wrong path.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

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Well, I see that some things haven't changed in the past seven years, such as the style of argument that you're fond of making. I know you're aware of this already, but some of us don't see a contradiction between those two things. That's one of the points made in my book.

Seeing as you're this forum's most dedicated creationist poster, I'd be willing to send you a copy for free. The only things I'd require in return are the postage, and a promise that you'll read all of it. And before you dismiss my book as "evolutionist claptrap" or something similar, notice that it's been cited in a positive manner by professional creation scientists, in this paper. (It's the book cited as "Kane et al. 2016".) Please let me know if you're interested.

PloverWing said:

Would it have been so bad if the FBI agents had chosen to kneel to show solidarity with the protestors?

In the march in our town in 2020, some police officers walked alongside us to help ensure that everything stayed peaceful and to make sure traffic stopped for us when we crossed streets. When we got to the park that was our end point and had a short ceremony (prayers from local clergy, etc.), the police officers knelt when we did. I took that as a statement from them that they disapproved of Floyd's killing and similar acts of excessive police violence, and I was encouraged that our local officers were making that statement.

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Sounds good to me!

Trump admin is ‘trying to put out a fire they started’ at Weather Service as a cold, snowy winter looms​

The National Weather Service is working to hire back hundreds of positions laid off or otherwise cut by the Trump administration, but it’s progressing at a snail’s pace, with about 80 final job offers accepted for meteorologists, hydrologists and other specialized staff.

The agency received permission in late July to add a total of 450 people after about 550 were cut by DOGE earlier this year. The decision to authorize new hires came after lawmakers and citizens expressed concerns about how the NWS cuts would impact public safety.

The slow hiring means the Weather Service is going into yet another critical storm season with more than a dozen forecast offices forced to get by with serious staff vacancies, potentially undermining the accuracy of forecasts and warnings during powerful winter storms.

There is still one forecast office, located in Hanford, Calif., that is too short on staffing to operate 24/7, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) official who requested anonymity for fear of retribution.

Right now, there are nine NWS offices that are launching balloons at a cadence of once per day, the NOAA official said. [instead of the usual 2]

Servus said:

Florida Man strikes again.

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It will never end.

People matter more than guns.

I said what I said.

jonojim1337 said:

There it is again. It is by Grace that ye are saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves, lest any man should boast.

We are unprofitable servants. Meaning, NOTHING you will ever do will profit you.

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Indeed. The only wages people will receive are the wages of sin, which death. All else that God gives is by His mercy and grace alone.

MarcusGregor said:

What about em-dashes?

With regard to this whole thing though I would give some criticism to the TA that graded it. I don't think it was appropriate for them to have written "graded by an LGBTQ+ person" or whatever it actually said with trans flag colors for highlighting. Even if they were highly offended by what she said, and they should have been, we all should have been IMO, I think "rubbing it in" like that just wasn't appropriate.

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I

essentialsaltes said:

The reason it was floating around was that conservatives were making a big deal of this 'injustice' and spreading it themselves as 'evidence' of what a great essay it was.

Why conservatives are obsessed with this bad college essay​

The academic merits of Fulnecky’s essay are immaterial to the battle at hand. [Short answer to headline question: it's ragebait.]

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I think some of her wording was rather inflammatory and not appropriate or professional. I agree with the TA in that case. The students use of the word “demonic” was very inappropriate.

rjs330 said:

Is your claim then, because we have Americans who commit crime, we should therefore allow illegals in who commit crime?

The truth is we don't actually know how much crime illegals commit because most places don't keep track of if a person is illegal or not. I know in my area inmates are not required to prove their citizenship.

And they should be top of the list. They are citizens. Yes, illegals arent supposed to get certain aid, and yet they do becauae states administer the programs and there are ways around the federal requirements.

Is this all the illegals are good for? Doing the dirty jobs and being taken advantage of. Maybe if we forced rhe farmers to hire only legals the wages would go up enough that Americans might do it. But this is a dirty little secret. Hire illegals and keep wages lower, for everyone.

The Bible says a lot of things Christians should and shouldn't do. Are you for forcing everyone to follow scritpure in all things or just certain things? The things you apparently support. What if I said we needed to outlaw lying and homosexuality. Would you be for that or against that?

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No I am not saying illegals should be allowed to come here, you can assume that if you like.

And anytime a person is arrested they go into the data bank / their fingerprint, their age, their address, their name, their nationality and whether they are illegal or not. All over the USA and today with computers it is easy to keep up with.

I didn't say illegals were supposed to get aid and wasn't saying that citizens shouldn't be at the top of the list.

Who said that was all their good for you? I believe I indicated this if not I'm saying it directly the majority of the US citizens think that those type of jobs is too low, to menial for them and will not do it. Jobs that the slaves did what did Trump call certain jobs /Black jobs.

Forcing, funny how people who don't believe in scripture always use the word forcing, who have I forced to do anything. Churches Don't Force anyone to do anything they speak of what's written in scripture do all people follow it no, most people mess up and mess up big.

Actually in a court of law lying is out lawed - line to the feds is outlawed. Lying to cops you can get fined.

Homosexuality at one point was outlawed not that long ago, funny how you use this, why not outlaw cheating / why not outlaw adultery / why not outlaw disrespect for your parents / why not outlaw disrespect for your neighbors / which are other things that Bible speaks against but you chose homosexuality.

Me personally I don't give a hoot what you or anybody else do that's your business. But I will say the Bible speaks against it and it's entirely up to you or any individual on what your/their sexual orientations are.

# 1. BUT /// DE is a CONJNCATION

#2 I CERTIFY ///. GNOIZO is the PRESENT TENSE in the ACTIVE VOICE in. the ACTIVE VOICE in the INDICATIVE MOOD in the SINGULAR

#3 YOU /// HYMIN. is a PERSONAL POSSESSETIVE PRONOUN in. the VOCATIVE CASE in. the PLURAL

# 4 BRETHREN /// ADELPHO. inthe v. VOCATIVE CASE in. the PLURAL

# 5 THAT /// HOTI is a CONJUNCATION

# 6 THE. /// HO. is a DEFINITE ARTICLE. is a ACCUSATIVE CASE in. the SINGULAR. , in. the NEUTER

# 7 GOSPEL /// EUAHOGELION. in the ACCUSATIVE CASE in. the SIGNULAR in the . NEUTER

#8 WHICH ///. HO is a DEFINITE. ARTICILE in. the ACCUATIVE CASE in. te SINGULAR in the NEUTER

#9 WAS PREACHED /// EVANGELIZO. in. the AORIST TENSE in he PASSIVE VOICE is a PARTICIPLE. in the ACCUSATIVE CASE in. the NEUTER

#10 OF /// HYPO. is. a PREPOSTION

# 11. ME //. EMOU is a PERSONAL POSSESSETIVE PRONOUN. in. the GENITIVE CASE in. the SINGULAR and the GREEK word ME // EMOU

is in. the EMPHATIC. and it means ME and NOT some one ELSE , ME PAUL !!

#12 IS. /// ESTI. is in. the PRESENT TENSE in. the INDICATIVE MOOD and this MOOD , means you better BELIEVE IT

#13 NOT ///. OU. vis a DISJUNCTIVE PARICLE NGATIVE and means NOTTTT. EVER

# 14 AFER ///. KATA is a PREPOSIION

# 15. MAN. ///. ANTHROPOS. is in the ACUSATIVE CASE in. the SINGULAR !!

dan p

Rescued One said:

I grew up with verbal abuse. I was judged by an atheist father. God did not tell him that all people without college educations are losers.

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That would have been terrible, sorry to hear that - did he claim God revealed that to him while being an atheist? In situations like that it may take time to get used to the metaphor of God as our benevolent Father - or deal with positive male authority in general. I wish you healing.

CF has been flaky for me the last two days, so I lost much of my last post. But I feel it's important to talk about one of those things that I lost: Healthy Vaccinee Bias.

Basically, it goes something like this:

• A mostly-healthy, low-risk population is vaccinated.
• A retrospective observational study is conducted.
• Very few people get sick ard/or die.
• THE VACCINES WORKED! THE HEAVENS REJOICE! THE MEDIA DOTH DECLARE THAT THE VIRUS HAS BEEN DEFEATED! ALL HAIL SCIENCE!

What studies like this fail to account for is that even if the mostly-healthy, low-risk population had not been vaccinated, they would still have had very few people get sick and/or die. We're back to correlation != causation. But in the case of these observational studies (funded by industry, natch) , correlation IS causation. We gave the vaccine, people didn't get sick, ergo, the vaccine was effective. This is why there is often not a comparator to unvaccinated populations.

They tried this during COIVD. Studies were awash with healthy vaccinee bias. It worked for a little while. Who can forget the government propaganda, "The Pandemic of the Unvaccinated"? Until the real-world demonstrated that people who were vaccinated were getting sick just as much as people who weren't vaccinated. Fully vaccinated populations experienced outbreaks of infections. Odd, if the vaccine is supposed to "protect" you. Then came the pivot. You'll still get COVID, but you won't die. But people who weren't vaccinated weren't dying either. And no matter how many industry-funded studies there were, reality set in. That's one of the reasons why COVID vaccine uptake dwindled each year and is now in the low 20% range.

The authors and organizations that write and publish these studies know precisely where their bread is buttered. They know the average person doesn't understand the difference between relative risk and absolute risk. They know the average person doesn't understand healthy vaccinee bias. So they publish studies with the "right" results to keep their funders happy.

Here is a great article that demonstrates how the industry has captured our healthcare systems.

The Liturgist said:

Mark, to clarify, did you run the question in the AI that appears in Google search results or did you follow the link through to Google Gemini? If you don’t know, past a URL to the AI that you asked, and I can tell you.

@BobRyan , had you tested that prompt on Google’s AI, or were we supposed to use ChatGPT as per your previous revision of the prompt?

I got this answer, from ChatGPT 5.1:



I’m guessing @BobRyan that again wasn’t the answer you were expecting?

I tried to warn you; the terms you are using are subjective. AI can’t answer it consistently. There is an issue of bias in the training data as my pious and excellent Lutheran friend @MarkRohfrietsch mentioned, but the actual problem is that you’re still relying on subjective terms and a question that is answered based on statistics. Even with perfect AI, the subjective terminology (including, but not limited to, Trinitarian, administration, denomination) makes your question unanswerable. And since the definition of these things (Trinitarian, administration, denomination) is disputed, if you try to impose objective definitions on them, you still have to deal with the issue of statistical reliability in the training data. So even a perfect AI would be unable to consistently answer this question. Indeed if chatGPT were more advanced, it would refuse to answer the question due to the subjective terms.

As it is now, it isn’t confused, it’s rather using temperature (the value that introduces randomness into chatGPT’s output; this is essential in that it literally is what makes chatGPT capable of sustaining an interesting conversation; if you use the chatGPT API you can set temperature=0, and the result is … not useful, and also it costs money each time your run a question using the API; it’s useful only for serious prompt hacking purposes, and I myself don’t use it (if I had used it in this, you wouldn’t see the pretty output formatting that chatGPT does, since the output would be through an ssh session to a Linux or OpenBSD server, in a command line terminal, basically).

But the other issue is even if we weren’t getting inconsistent issues, which we are, you’re already prompt hacking; your efforts to “prevent the AI from getting confused” are simply massaging the question to get the results you want, and the fact we’re seeing digressive results with each iteration you supply us proves both my point that AI cannot be used in this manner without constituting an appeal to unqualified authority, and also that you’ve lost objectivity, since you’re now trying to manipulate chatGPt into desired behavior, which is the definition of prompt engineering.

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The Google one, to demonstrate the "results may vary" nature of AI. Google may indeed have given a very truthful answer, I get the logic it used from the answers in light of the explanations.

I have parents that are flawed like everyone, though not to this degree. But I do have a couple of them in my family that are like this (I'll keep them anonymous, the point is the same).

I had family members, after me not answering calls for 6 weeks (was busy, had helped them, they seen it as I'm always available) who proceeded to beat on my door until they actually broke it open. I will not go into further details, but you can imagine I was not a happy camper and I'm putting that very nicely. Now, in my case I have an advantage, because this isn't my parents and that episode was somewhat extreme and so I haven't had any calls since. There is the "awkward silence" and sideways look at family gatherings if they are there now, but I will not open a door for further encouragement of the previously mentioned behavior.

The rest of my family, while not like this, does absolutely do crazy things. Has been my entire life and many of my childhood struggles (I learned as an adult) were caused by these very insane decisions or things neglected. Do I think our families intend to be off the wall? No, but it doesn't fix it nor make it easier to know that.

I'm praying for you, because I know the intensity of being harassed like that. I've had a number of situations with very similar patterns and behaviors with other people and it just is intolerable. My heart truly goes out to you in this.

I think the only things we can do (at least the only things I could do) is teach people how to treat you. They simply will never draw any lines and it seems for this kind of mindset, anything and everything is fair game if they try it and it "worked before" (even once). I feel like the boundaries and limitations must be firmly set and even explicitly pointed out to them, because they clearly don't see the lines they are crossing. I personally am not the best with having "sit downs" and "hard blunt heart to hearts" with grown people (physically at least) and I have these feelings in me that say "they SHOULD know this is NOT ok."

But... I think they simply needdd that really tough love kind of in your face very point blank sirens and flashing lights rules laid out before them, and not just in words. I think it takes absolutely refusing and becoming a person that will not budge when they push before they will stop pushing. Often words mean nothing to people, and they will also fight and complain if we don't move when pushed, but in my experience dealing with the mouthy backlash has been a picnic compared to the continued behaviors. So tolerating some nuisance accusations or people gossiping behind your back things that aren't true tends to be the requirement to set the permanent boundaries that people with this mindset need to view the situation or relationship differently.

With all that said I hope this doesn't make it hard for you to forgive them, even when you have to put your foot down extremely hard. I've had a lot of injustice done to me and it put some (unwittingly to me previously) bitterness in my heart that God had to forcibly uproot. Since then, I do the hard things needed, but I stay in a position of full forgiveness even when having to tolerate injustice or foolishness or (sometimes) outright childishness. A younger me would get angry about it, but now I just get serious and firmly plant my feet in concrete with tough love.

Some of those things you said really resonated with me, because I've experienced variations from many people, family and not, all my life. It's sheer chaos, and chaos isn't from God. Maybe preaching to them more would discourage them wanting to contact you. lol (sorry, couldn't help but try to add some humor, though it might actually also work)

Praying for you earnestly!

Aldebaran said:

You said the moon was floating around doing its job as God intended.

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Which it does.