The Miracles of God!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Mar 7 2007, 04:23 PM) [snapback]401861[/snapback]</div>

What does that mean?

"It" was done by either god, man, or nature. I say the player scored the touchdown not Jesus. And it is the player's choice to believe in god or not.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Mar 7 2007, 01:38 PM) [snapback]401797[/snapback]</div>

did you raise some hell too, mister not-level headed?

seriously, i would have gotten up and walked out just to demonstrate what i thought of that lecture.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Mar 7 2007, 02:33 PM) [snapback]401837[/snapback]</div>

now this is something i could really dig into...

how fascinating, the concept of experience, memory, and its subconscious vs conscious effects on decisionmaking. not to mention a casual analysis of the situation and perception of such, also learned through previous experience or lack thereof.

like how adolescents, through having fewer experiences in life, are inclined to be more brave and less cautious, more interested in novel things, objects, ideas, whatever. (can you tell my lab does behavioral studies in adolescent rats? :blink

unfortunately it's not like you can do much for controlled experiments in live subjects to check out the consequences of certain neurons being activated without background inputs. especially not in humans!

 

Birth defects. Aren't they just failed attempts at evolution?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Mar 7 2007, 01:17 PM) [snapback]401856[/snapback]</div>

A tad off topic but this sentence brought to mind my two predictions regarding the discovery of extra-terrestrial life:

1. When we find it, it will be prolific, occupying every available niche of wherever we find it, in diverse abundance. We won't discover an isolated colony of bacteria clinging one drout away from extinction on an otherwise barren landscape, we'll find the entire planet's surface crowded with a million teeming species. If one had to describe a single characteristic capturing the essence of life, that it is prolific is surely its most outstanding, and universal. Here on earth, from the deepest trench in the Pacific Ocean to miles above the top of Everest in the upper atmosphere, there isn't a single cubic centimeter that is completely sterile.

2. When we find it, we'll realize we'd actually discovered it earlier, but at the time failed to recognize it for what it was, because it was so thoroughly alien. All earthly life is DNA and carbon based; extraterrestrial life may have a different genesis we can't imagine (until we discover it). All that it will have in common with terrestrial life is #1 above: that whatever it is, it'll be prolific.

I obviously can't prove either one of these - I just hope I live long enough to find out!

Mark Baird
Alameda CA

 

There has been many events over the years that have been called miracles. Cancer cures, walking after being in wheelchair for years, etc. Why does god hate amputees? He has never cured one of them. I guess they don't believe enough. Maybe we need a group prayer for one as a test case. :huh:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Mar 7 2007, 08:47 PM) [snapback]401963[/snapback]</div>

We're still in the process of evaluating how we perceive and classify terrestrial life. I can imagine that your implications concerning extra terrestrial life may bear out........

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaea.html

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Mar 7 2007, 09:08 AM) [snapback]401725[/snapback]</div>

I have to disagree. I believe some of the problems we have as a society stem from our shielding ourselves against unpleasant realities. Bush hides the caskets flown home from Iraq, the true gore of war is not depicted in the news, meat is decoratively packaged in the supermarket, the horrors of birth defect and human deformity are quietly kept behind the curtain. We become unaware that life often has ugly repercussions, and reinforcing this unawareness makes it difficult or even impossible for us to cope with it rationally or reasonably when it inevitably confronts us in ways we can't escape, and we wind up doing ourselves even greater harm than had we faced up to life's brutal ugly side at the outset.

Perhaps the depiction here is exploiting its sensationalist aspect, but our prejudice against images like this makes it hard for me to objectively say one way or the other.

Mark Baird
Alameda CA

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Mar 7 2007, 09:04 PM) [snapback]401975[/snapback]</div>

I understand the basic psychological need to feel that life is unfolding as it should, and that our lives have purpose. Too many of us would dissolve into paralytic anxiety if forced to bear the full brunt of reality, utterly unable to cope with the seemingly chaotic insanity that is life as a human. All the same, accepting the fact that I'm going to die has given me a greater sense of urgency, responsibility, and humility.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Mar 7 2007, 02:10 PM) [snapback]401891[/snapback]</div>

I found that testing series interesting when I read about it. Same with the epigenetic changes in agouti mice when fed different prenatal foods. I believe there is a long term study on humans that is similar to the study they did with rats in relation to motherly caring and it's behavioral effects like you stated.

 

Oh Merciful God, I pray to you to use the Holy Spirit to soften the hearts of those who cannot see you. Uncover their eyes and ears so that they may see the Glory you have for your children. Use your power to break through the wall that satan has created. Give me and others the words and guidance to reach as many as possible. Soften your heart to these "stiff necked people". Amen

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Mar 7 2007, 04:35 PM) [snapback]401960[/snapback]</div>

You make a very great mistake when you apply the word "attempt" to evolution. Natural selection has no volition. It does not "attempt" anything. It has no "purpose" and it does not work toward any "goal." It is a process by which genes that confer upon their organisms a better chance of reproduction (which also implies survival to the age of reproduction) have a better chance of reproducing, and therefore increase their proportion in the gene pool of the population, leading to gradual changes in physical properties of the species, which, over time, lead populations to diverge into what we (arbitrarily) designate as new species.

However, you are right in one sense: evolution could not procede were it not for genetic changes. When those changes cause visible and deleterious alterations in the organism (as most sudden and drastic changes are) we call them birth defects. Genetic alterations beneficial to the survival and reproductive success of the organism are more likely to be so small and gradual that we would not notice them. Of course, the word "defect" is a value word. We arbitrarily apply that word when the change causes problems for the individual, or makes the individual look odd to us. An extra finger, for example, probably does not affect the individual one way or another, but we find it grotesque, so we label it a "defect" and probably discriminate against the individual.

A very small number of genetic alterations are beneficial, and so come to dominate within a population. Most are neutral or deleterious.

 

Ahhhh, the religious trolling continues.

That, sir, is the sickest and most demented post I have yet seen on Priuschat. You take the prize.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Mar 7 2007, 11:48 AM) [snapback]401706[/snapback]</div>

I've explained this point before, but your ears are obviously closed: MAN turned his back on God. God has simply allowed enough time to pass for the utter failure of man-rule to become a legal precident for all time. When he shortly re-implements God-rule, not only will NO ONE ever be able to declare themselves independant again, but he will work to undo all the suffering that man has been put through in the past 6,000 years. The 6,000 years of human suffering is ample proof that no form of government, no king or president, no constitution, no matter how well-intended, can properly and impartially care for all its people. 6,000 years to us seems like a long time, but compared to the amount of time that God has taken to create the universe and prepare this earth it is a tiny blip on the radar.

The Bible explains that very well. There are NO other gods. Jehovah, the God of the Bible, is the ONLY true God. The others are all inventions of man, and ways that Satan has used to lead as many people away from God as possible. The one major evidence of this is that all of them have similar root beliefs, which can all be traced back to the false worship that started in Babylon (Babel) by Nimrod and his followers, in defiance of God.
Is there more than one God?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Mar 8 2007, 02:16 PM) [snapback]402350[/snapback]</div>

i'm with evan on this one.

 

I've always loved that argument.

"How do you know the Bible is telling the truth?"

"It was written by God!"

"How do you know God exists?"

"It says so in the Bible!"