@jonojim1337 - and I don't know why you laugh hysterically at my posts.
When we ask you a question, your answer is, "Tiktok/Instagram/YouTube says...."
Is that the extent of your "research " - social media?

Mark Quayle said:

It's true that it doesn't matter what Calvin thinks, anymore than what you or I think. But don't make the mistake of thinking that this question is not among the weightier matters. Understanding this is easily within the question of who God is and what we are, which has everything to do with knowing God.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but it's not on the greatest hits album with GOD.

Mark Quayle said:

We throw too simplistic a definition to terms like, "good works" —specially in the context of predestination and supposed 'freewill'. Can you not see where this applies to justice, mercy and faithfulness? (Matthew 23:23) Why would any of us suppose that we know God well enough to not pursue Biblical doctrine concerning predestination and God's dealings with the will of corrupted creatures? Doesn't matter???

Click to expand...

I wouldn't presume to think that your walk with Jesus is remotely the same as mine, and that your understanding of GOD and His will is the same as mine at this point. We are only united together by the blood of Jesus, our spiritual maturity levels are all different by design.

What you might find to be important to you is not even on my radar screen anymore, if it ever was in the first place. Our walk with Jesus is to be a steady upward climb towards closeness with The Father and His holiness, not a circle in the sand.

You're more than welcome to pursue such matters, by all means do so, but again, don't automatically think that your walk and ambitions with GOD, and what you find to be important, is the same as mine.

DaisyDay said:

Well then, that's that. I don't see any point in further discussion since your mind is made up no matter what.

Click to expand...

As opposed to your open-mindedness...

But OK then. Nice talking to you!

DaisyDay said:

Oh look! A graph with no sourcing. Cool.

Click to expand...

Perhaps your eyesight is failing you. There is source listed right on the image. It's a bar chart showing the number of VAERS reports over the years. If you don't trust the chart, you can query CDC Wonder yourself to verify.

Light Heavyweight

Rescued One said:

But that wasn't what brought my attention to your view of Calvinism. You suggested that Calvinism teaches that childless women go to hell; that is not true.

Click to expand...

I didn't. Refer to my last response to you. As far as the rest of it, I don't want to derail the topic and get into a debate.

Robban said:

It is about knowing the difference between immigrant and refugee. a refugee seeks refuge until the danger he is fleeing from is over,

relieved he returns. Matthew 2:13-14, Matthew 2:19-20.

Click to expand...

The only refugees the Trump administration apparently recognises white south Africans fleeing a fictitious genocide.

Ophiolite said:

At the risk of going off topic, the image on the left would not be the sort of evidence I would wish to use for any purpose. It is labelled as a granite, but its appearance counts against this. Granite is primarily made up of feldspars and quartz. These have low-order interference colours under polarised light and these should dominate the image. Moreover there is no evidence of the twinning one would expect of the plagioclase feldspars and crystal shape is atypical. Micas, an important minor constituent of granites, are also seemingly absent. In contrast several of the crystals have interference colour, shapes and character associated with pyroxenes. This is certainly an igneous rock, but it is not a granite.

Note: it is some decades since I've had occassion to examine rocks in thin section, but petrography was one of my favourite aspects of practical geology. Nevertheless, I considered two alternative explanations that might justify the identification as granite. First, birefringence colours are increased in intensity if the thin section thickness is too great. Against this explanation, a) one does not publish or work with thin sections not prepared to exacting measures and the crystal shapes are abnornal for granite. b)If the micrograph was photographed in uv light then unusual colours might be produced, but in that case the image would be properly identified as taken in that uncommon way.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your input, I sourced the Google image under the search 'Granite cross polarization image', but the greater problem there were no images for vitrified granite so I used Obsidian as an example what a vitrified granite should look like in a glassy amorphous state under a polarizing microscope.
Ironically @stevevw's link to the Nature article provided all the information I needed.

How tragic. It should not have happened.

Servus said:

Actually they don't look alike.

Click to expand...

As I said, they're not identical. Quibbling over the details is irrelevant - again, the point is that there is no consistent definition of what a "fishing boat" might look like in the Caribbean, so saying that something "doesn't look like a fishing boat" because it doesn't look like a random picture of a fishing boat that you found on the internet is a red herring.

The similarities between the two boats in my post are their size (roughly 20 ft) and their general layout (open boats with fairly low freeboard).

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.

Click to expand...

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!

ThatRobGuy said:

As noted by that article you linked:
"but they hold differing opinions of what that phrase means"

2/3 say Churches should keep out of politics.

View attachment 374271

View attachment 374273

So among the that 45% you're referencing, only a quarter of that subset want the "Christian form of Sharia".

Click to expand...

And they are not going to get it, any more than the subset of Muslim immigrants who want the Muslim form of Sharia are going to get it. And no, the call to prayer is not an imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims.

FWIW, the video does not mention the president. Just refusing illegal orders.

Seven years? I guess that's some experience, but nowhere as good as the 20 years that Trump's pardon czar put in for dealing in tons of Colombian cocaine.

RamiC said:

The world we are in is not the one God created for you to live on,

Click to expand...

Um ...

Isaiah 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Aldebaran said:

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

Click to expand...

Which it does.

Somebody asked Grok to grade the paper.

zelosravioli said:

One objection I get, when dispelling the notion that we need some anointed 'authority' or such at every church meeting or bible study, is "You'll have HERESY and CHAOS if you just let the ignorant masses of people read for themselves!!"

Having led and participated in over 400 bible study meetings, maybe visiting over 100 different groups, in nearly every denomination. And of those 400, less than 10 times did it seem to be getting off doctrinally. And of those, only two, or three times, did it seem to be anything close to cultic or unbiblical. I've heard over a thousand odd takes on scripture when in a bible study group, but of those nothing really that couldn't be reasoned through to a correct or satisfactory agreement, generally. Generally there is someone in a group that has enough grasp of scripture, and pushes back (if I dont). But even if nothing is said, its hardly ever a life or death over doctrine issue. I had to let my own pastor make a mistake or two just last week in our mens bible study, you cant argue over every point, and these different takes are generally fairly slight.

I am an Evangelical theologically, theology is in my DNA, I strive to teach correct doctrine, and I am hyper dogmatic about my beliefs - Yet I enjoy, and really like to hear other people express their ideas and views of scripture (thats why I've heard so many different takes on scripture). And if it's my group, I want to know where their understanding is at, and what they are thinking about the subject. Still, I am just a disciple communing with other disciples. Gods Word is the Authority.

The best bible study I participated in was a theological debate style group where the only doctrine of agreement was that you agree that:
'The Bible is Gods Word, and that you had to make all your arguments from scripture'. Cultists bail almost immediately, and the rest of us get to hash out our thoughts with some really great conversations ...

So what I'm saying is: I believe the notion that - there will just be chaos and heresy - is a heresy in itself.
That argument created the rift of Clergy/Laity, the hierarchy and institutions, and the dark ages of christianity.
Let Gods Word , His Scriptures, be our Authority and let live.

Click to expand...

Is it not true that all the chaos and heresy entered the church through these men who ran the show, lording it over everyone with no one to challenge them. Human ministry has always been the source of heresy, it certainly doesn’t come from GOD. Jeremiah 17:5 Psalm 188:8-9 Isaiah 2:22 Psalm 146:3 Romans 8:5-8 1 Corinthians 2:5 Philippians 3:3 I trust no man with my salvation, I will work it out with GOD in fear and trembling. Christ gave his life so that I can do this. Christ is my connection to GOD. All Christians have this ability.

The often-overlooked chapel at Tepeyac, where St. Juan Diego lived and guarded the miraculous tilma for 17 years, remains a key part of the Guadalupe story and Mexico’s spiritual heritage.

The story of St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe began with the well-known apparitions of 1531. The Indigenous visionary remained for years dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the message of the Virgin Mary at a chapel that is still preserved and forms an essential part of the Marian complex of Tepeyac.

Next to the current Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City is the old chapel built to house the image miraculously imprinted on St. Juan Diego’s cloak. This historical site is little-known to pilgrims.

The Origin of the Chapel​

St. Juan Diego was the Indigenous man to whom the Virgin Mary appeared from Dec. 9–12, 1531, asking him to intercede with the first archbishop of Mexico, Friar Juan de Zumárraga, that a chapel be built “on the plain of Tepeyac” as a sign of her love for all nations.

It was on his tilma (cloak) that the image of the Virgin Mary was miraculously imprinted.

After the apparitions, the archbishop ordered the construction of a small chapel to house the tilma. St. Juan Diego lived next to it for 17 years, dedicated to recounting the events and caring for the sacred image until his death in 1548.

A Virgin for the ‘Completely Forgotten’​

Continued below.

RamiC said:

If you are still in Germany, find Black Forest Gateaux, and eat it.

Click to expand...

I have been back in the US since Saturday.

essentialsaltes said:

Death panel ---> Death bots

Click to expand...

Death bots with a financial incentive

Starting Jan. 1, traditional Medicare recipients in Washington state will face a new hurdle to get certain procedures covered — private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny.

Washington is one of six states selected to take part in a federal pilot program called Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction, which aims to reduce fraud and waste by requiring prior authorization for about a dozen outpatient procedures deemed “low-value services.”

AI companies will be paid a portion of the savings from claims they deny or, as the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction plan puts it, “compensated based on a share of averted expenditures.”

Singer Michael Bublé discussed his Catholic faith and how music is “a gift from God” as he met with Pope Leo XIV and performed at the Vatican.

Bublé spoke at a Vatican press conference on Friday ahead of his performance at the Vatican’s “Concert for the Poor” on Saturday.

“This morning, I had the opportunity to meet the Holy Father,” the 50-year-old Canadian native recalled. “For me, this was something that I knew was going to be one of the greatest moments of my life.”

Bublé also shared his belief that “music is a gift from God,” adding, “When I hear music, I hear the voice of God.”

Continued below.

Say it aint so said:

The economy is doing swimmingly well. Everyone knows that "affordability" is just a Democratic con job.

Click to expand...

Is the GINI coefficient increasing? That's the only economic measure MAGA thinks important.

The Rev. Franklin Graham was recently unable to attend a Christian revival event in India due to a visa issue, with some alleging foul play.

Reports circulated last week stating that the 73-year-old Graham was prevented from speaking at an event in Nagaland late last month to commemorate the anniversary of a crusade his father, the late Rev. Billy Graham, conducted in the region 53 years earlier. The Times of India reported that Graham had been denied a visa, causing one local leader to send letters to federal officials voicing displeasure with the matter.

A spokesperson for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association clarified the situation in a statement sent to The Christian Post on Tuesday.

"The visas for Rev. Franklin Graham and our team were approved by the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Foreigners Division; however, it was after the necessary departure date for Mr. Graham to arrive in time for Nagaland United: A Gathering of Faith, Hope and Revival and for the Hornbill Festival," read the statement.

Continued below.