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Pope Leo XIV urges Catholic politicians to follow the Gospel in public life

I wonder if this advice is just for French politicians, or whether it should apply as well to American politicians. I'm thinking of the likes of Pelosi? In any regard, it is good advice for us all.
Pelosi is well on in years. I sincerely hope she repents before it’s too late.
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There’s a Giant Flaw in Human History

I've never even heard of Avi Loeb is he supposed to a giant in the field and a potential Nobel laureate?

He's an astrophysics theorist. In the field of galaxy formation and evolution, yes giant is probably appropriate, but I don't think that will get anyone a Nobel prize.

I'm a little surprised you haven't heard of him. I first heard of him when he had some quick explanatory paper on a mysterious new observation. Someone (Science, Physics Today) wrote up a profile and how he wrote that paper "over the weekend". This did annoy a lot of people who work long and hard to sort out the issues while hit-and-run theorists have already moved onto six other things.

Unfortunately, Loeb took his own tendency to do "quick and speculative science" and went off the deep end.

He was the leading proponent of the ʻOumuamua is an alien craft claim. (He parlayed that into a popular "science" book.) He scraped up a pile of private funds to create some sort of "institute" to investigate his ideas. Their next folly was the "spherules from alien bolide" expedition. His group was the one claiming the "spherules" were extraterrestrial. (They were the ones collecting them from the sea floor.) Lately (and predictably) has been pushing "3I/ATLAS" as "alien".

I would say more, but others have organized similar thoughts. There some good videos on YT that cover Loeb's fall into the pit. "Professer Dave" Farina has one, but I think Angela Collier's is better. She has a recent Ph.D. in astrophysics and asks the question: "Is Avi Loeb a crackpot?" (spoiler, not yet...)
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Rfk drops ball

Yea, yea. I've heard your mask screed over and over.

I know you don't want to discuss it, because it demonstrates just how shoddy the "science" has been at CDC. Ditto with vaccine mandates. I don't know why people pretend like the evidence-poor mandates are not directly related to this current moment. They absolutely are.

Why do you trust these agencies? What do they have to do to convince you that they're totally captured? I don't trust RFK Jr either, but my distrust of the CDC was borne out of the CDC's own evidence-poor decisions. That's why I find it laughable that they're whining about "scientific reality" now.
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Mass Shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church/School in Minneapolis

yup the issue is many times people like that do not care if that fame is good or bad. Which is one reason I feel that they should not make as big of a deal out of the school shootings. I am NOT saying not to report on them, but do not talk about them for days on end and do not bring up prior shootings every time there is another.

Yes, the press in many locales have already done what you are suggesting regarding suicide, particularly teen suicide, where knowledge of one seems to breed another. I was part of a successful community effort for the press to stop listing adolescent deaths as suicides. It would be helpful if we could stifle our need to know rather than advertising school shootings as path of notoriety.
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The Return of My Ex Nihilo Challenge

How do you know it's the "original Hebrew"?
The Hebrew text the KJV is translated from is the Masoretic Text (MT) which is the most widely used Hebrew text for Bibles and is authoritative in Jewish canon.

The MT uses the same word for 1:1 and 2:1 which is the plural for heavens/skies which is "shamayim". This word is always in the plural and there is no singular form so there is no alternative Hebrew text that would conflict this. It can equally refer to the physical expanse of the sky or to the spiritual realm. And is a matter of interpretation as to its meaning.

The creation account is written in a chiastic pattern (even in the 1611 KJV) so each idea has a opener and a closer and the two pair together and can be used to understand their context better. 1:1 and 2:1 is the chiastic pair in this case. 2:1 says "thus the [shamayim] and the earth were created". This is the same word and context used in 1:1 so whatever is chosen for one should be reflected in the other be it "heaven", "heavens" or something else like "skies", all perfectly fine translations, however it would be inconsistent to use one form in one but a different in the other.

A lot of early (16th century) English translations use the singular in 1:1 but the plural in 2 the same as the KJV. This might be from Latin text influence also using singular in 1:1 and plural in 2:1 (caelum/caeli) and then establishing strong cultural resonance that could be factors why the KJV translated it this way.

I would suggest it is from cultural sensitivity the KJV leaves it this way. Although the printing press made Bibles more cheap and available they still were luxury items and not quite cheap enough that every household had one. People would commit key verses to memory and where I can't be sure of all the verses most often memorized you can be sure Gen 1:1 was one of the more common (and still is) which was more commonly translated in the singular in 16th century tranlations (at least with English) and as noted above also with the Latin texts. This is not a "bad translation" fault of the KJV but them appling a level of contextualization and being sensitive to cultural norms over a raw mechanical feel.

While this may have been still considered reasonable practice in the 16/17th century today it is different. We are far more educated and have more tools available to use than any scholar did in the 16th century. Tyndale made the first English NT which got him burned at the stake for it. He is quoted "I will cause a boy who drives the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you do, if God spares my life". I don't know if Tyndale ever got to see that come to fruition but certainly today, any person in any lot of life has more access so biblical resources than anyone in the centuries before them in the palm of their hand and at all times. I myself just got finished referencing 5 English 16th Bibles to confirm what they used and looking at their digital copies from the original and then comparing it with the Latin and Hebrew texts also viewing digital copies from the same time using a phone.

Where heaven/heavens is not a large doctrinal issue, we are not in the 17th century and don't need to be concerned with how people will disfavor the reading because it has an 's' or not. Either or is fine, but if we really want to be picky plural for both is probably a better representation, however I actually favour a word that isn't as loaded like "skies", the transliterated Hebrew "shamayim" or something that is typically in one form only like "cosmos". but like the KJV of old, modern translations must determine how well these words will be accepted and frankly I don't think people will like it and it will cause controversy which is not a goal of translations. so we may be a few years away from those readings (the Mechanical Translation uses "skies" so there are a few), until then I'm happy with either of these.
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Is It The Object or The Person?

I think it more the person, but it is also a societal issue.

When I attended high school waaaaaaaayyyy back in the day and waaaaaaay back in the sticks in a rural area - the opening day of deer hunting season was an excused absence. During hunting season most senior boys (and a few of the girls) that were fortunate enough to have access to a vehicle also had a shotgun or rifle in their vehicles in case they wanted to stop and hunt on way home from school. I know this may venture into off track territory, but I never knew of an instance where the animal didn't end up as part of food for the family.

Guns are more advanced now. But they really haven't changed that much. Guns were still deadly back then. Maybe society, values and people are what has changed more?
I've been around those who own guns my whole life.
Not one of them have ever misused a gun and harmed an innocent person.
It's not the object that is the danger if is used properly for target shooting for example, which is fun and I've done even though I don't own a gun myself.
It's the person with an evil heart bent on causing harm or death to innocent people.
It 's that simple.
People can use bricks, knives, vehicles, guns to hurt innocent people.
If those things are used by those with good intent, no innocent person is hurt.
No one is hit by a brick, stabbed with a knife, ran over by a vehicle or shot.
Those things don't cause harm to innocent people unless a person with ill intent uses one of them for such.
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Christians and Fictional Afterlife

Had an idea for a humorous fantasy story, but there's a problem: It occurs with souls that have left this world. It's not the first time such an idea's come to mind. I have what is frankly a very nasty, dark humored, afterlife story. but haven't written it because I don't want people to get the wrong idea about what comes after. First, what's been revealed to us is kind of sketchy and I don't want people to get the idea of "Hmm...could be." Second, I've read so many afterlife stories that essentially deny the Gospel. Third, I fear it trivializes what is really a serious issue.

Does my idea deny the gospel? No. But I doubt that the afterlife is like this, even though we're informed we're surrounded by a crowd of witnesses. I'm still kind of uncomfortable with it.

Comments?
Write it as fiction and add a disclaimer. ;)
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How the Extinction of the Dinosaurs Gave Us Fruit...

God created a universe that will heal itself, progress through adversity, improve, and adapt.
Genius. Nothing to be afraid of. Just admire and give Him the glory! Theistic Evolution is just another way that "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."
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You almost have to wonder if the Democratic Party is secretly trying to lose.

Yes. If you ever wish for your party to EVER be trusted with any power in the future. The midterms may not look to good for the Democrats with that perspective. Your question only reveals two things. 1. A lot of people dont like Trump. 2. More people dont like the Democratic Party.
I would posit that you'd want your president to start implementing POPULAR policies. People in the US are more prone to vote AGAINST things then for things. It's easy to TALK about hating the Democrat party; it's HARDER to turn those votes in Trump votes. Because htose people are looking in the OTHER direction away from Trump.
When the Republican working class decides that it is MORE important to better their economic position, they'd stop voting for Republicans too.

You should considering more people like Trump than they like anything the DNC has to offer. And I am will to wager, less a miracle, that they will not be able to provide a suitable candidate in 2028 that will carry them over the finish line and into the white house. So I look forward to President Vance. Heck, as of today, I think Trump Jr has a better chance of becoming president than the best the DNC can provide. But if your party's strategy is just being the losers so they act as political martyrs for their dying cause, I am not going to stop them. I just wonder what new political party is going to replace them.
"Know your Enemy" - Sun Tzu.

You clearly don't.
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Communism- Socialism

Poverty is certainly a moral issue; but it has nothing to do with music and movies.

The moral issue of poverty and economic injustice is one the Bible itself, and Christianity historically, has had a lot to say about.

Namely, the immorality of the hoarding of wealth by the few resulting the deprivation of means for the many. This is very much a moral issue, and thus a moral solution is required; redistributive methods is an example of a moral solution to the immorality of wealth hoarding; especially through structured and progressive taxation focusing on the rich having the chief tax burden; and providing social welfare for the those who are especially vulnerable.

The Biblical model instituted by God for ancient Israel involved wealth redistribution through methods such as tithing. While tithing has never been a commandment within the Church, the Church has always placed a great deal of stress on redistribution of wealth as a moral obligation upon Christian people, and through the condemnation of practices such as usury.

It is strange that, in the modern west, so many Christians have sided with the morally corrupt and economically unjust system of wealth-hoarding in the form of unregulated capitalism--and opposition to regulation, opposition to economic justice, and opposition to the moral refining of society by calling anything that does not look like neo-liberalism "Marxism".

-CryptoLutheran
1. It is also immoral to not work, to support others (family). You do not take from the rich for that. It is also immoral to not care for those with disabilities unable to work, and those that are sick. The problem with marxism, communism., is allowing people to become "SICK", through drug abuse, and the mentally ill, to not be helped.
Wealth is not a problem in the scripture...

Gen 13:1 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.



De 8:17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
De 8:18 But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers,

2. Simple comparisons, rather than need. Good wages, become unfair and bad wages....

Hire early in the morning, an agreed wage.. Good to the laborers

1 ¶ For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And he went out about the third hour,
5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
6 And about the eleventh hour
In the evening time for their pay..
8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
11 And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. {have wrought … : or, have continued one hour only }
13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
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Jesus & Social Justice

"Social," "environmental," "climate," etc. justice is a function of the populace.

Justice is the function of government.

Another word for Justice is Righteousness.

There are two kinds of righteousness: Righteousness Coram Deo, that's the imputed righteousness which justifies; and Righteous Coram Mundus, that's the righteousness extended toward others.

The Christian is called to exhibit Righteousness, to live righteously. To live a godly life. That life is a life lived in our vocations toward our neighbors.

Do you disagree with this?

-CryptoLutheran
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NY student threatens to sue school over rejected Bible verse parking space designs

Just my thoughts..

  1. I am glad she got use the Christian themed designs.
  2. However, I do see the school's point. Now if some kid wants to use satanic, wiccan, new-age, isalmic, buddhist or designs from any other religion the school will now have a much tougher time saying "No" to that.
  3. High school kids get their personal parking spaces these days?!?! Wow! I feel old.
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