Is the Moon Really Bigger on the Horizon?

[Avonia]

SkyWriting, I'll let you do a bit more research on you side. Enjoy!

 

[Laodicean]

It is always amazing how quickly Adventists become anti-education.

anti-education in general, or anti-a-specific facet of education? That's a broad brush you are painting with.

 

[Laodicean]

Many myths are based on factual observations.

After watching a MythBusters marathon of 10 shows one lazy Sunday, I came to the conclusion that they were just playing dumb to create controversy.

Both of your "Myths" are just the same.
Myth? There is no gravity for astronauts because they are in space where there is no gravity.

Reality:
There is no gravity for astronauts because they are in space where there is no perception of gravity.
Gravity is everywhere.
Astronauts are unaware of any gravity until they hit a planet or something. Almost the same thing as "no gravity."

hmmmm...you got me to thinking about this again. Gravity is fascinating. How does it really work? Is there really such a thing as a graviton?

I didn't realize that gravity is supposed to be everywhere until Avonia shared this bit of knowledge. Actually, I had always figured that since the pull of gravity lessens the further away two bodies are from each other, that surely, at some point in deep space, where there is sufficient distance between two masses, that gravity would disappear. But I see that they say not. Though how do they know, since no one has been out in deep space?

Indeed, since the effect of gravity is instantaneous, making its effect occur faster than the speed of light -- a supposed impossibility -- then maybe gravity is not a particle after all, but rather one continuous super-string fabric of the universe?. That is why its effects are felt immediately? It doesn't have to travel anywhere; it is just already there? ??

 

[SkyWriting]

SkyWriting, I'll let you do a bit more research on you side. Enjoy!

What. Did you want me cite my sources? Not a problem.

 

[SkyWriting]

...
Indeed, since the effect of gravity is instantaneous, making its effect occur faster than the speed of light -- a supposed impossibility -- then maybe gravity is not a particle after all, but rather one continuous super-string fabric of the universe?. That is why its effects are felt immediately? It doesn't have to travel anywhere; it is just already there? ??

I hadn't thought about it's effect being instantaneous across any distance. That would explain the super-string theory a bit as I've never understood the premise. So if I make a big enough bomb and vaporize 1/3 of the earth, the loss of mass would instantly be felt across the entire cosmos?

Don't worry.
I'll start with just a mailbox or two.

 

[Sophia7]

It's interesting to look at the transition in some cultures from viewing disease as something that is caused either by gods/demons to a more scientific view. Sumerians are an interesting example of the former - and the incantations in the Udug Hul texts for specific diseases.

So this is an interesting take on this thread. I suspect that much of the casting out of demons had little to do with demons - well, the floating around "spirit" kind. What's tragic is when people were proclaimed to be "demon possessed" because of disease, physical characteristics that had nothing to do with disease, or even metal illness. Of course, we still do a bit of that today.

One way to think about it is regardless of the source of the "demons" those who "cast them out" are healers. To me, one of the most amazing things Jesus did was help people understand that healing was possible. He got a lot of things that were stuck, unstuck.

Yes, I understand that there are different viewpoints on the casting out of demons and that people in many ancient cultures would have been more likely to attribute the causes of disease and other ailments to demon possession than people of a more scientific mindset today. Whether or not there were literal "spirit" demons in the passages that I referenced, the point remains that the Bible says nothing to indicate that Mary Magdalene's problem was adultery or prostitution, nor that she was a "repeat offender."

 

[Sophia7]

I was about 16 when I went through the book Seventh-day Adventists Believe (the pre-2005 edition) and, in the course of reading it, reviewed the explanation of the lifestyle fundamental. The fundamental didn't outlaw jazz, jewelry, card playing, and other things, but the explanation in the book and Messages to Young People did. So I wanted to know a bit more about the Biblical basis for that.
I went through the chapter, and picked out the "jewelry" section, and wrote down all the cited texts, and then looked them up one by one and read them in context, and wrote myself up a little summary of what I had found.

Was I floored.

I had expected to find a clear link between what the Bible said on the subject, and what I had grown up being taught and what was said in MYP and the Nichols et al explanation in SDAs Believe... But I didn't find such a link. That was a very quiet Sabbath afternoon on my own in my grandparents' house, & a very quiet explosion. I did not discuss my findings with them because I knew what their position was and what it symbolized for them. I did not go out and begin to hunt for jewlery to wear; it was not that important to me to wear or not wear. But I did not any more take for granted that there was a sound basis for every doctrine whether consistently taught/applied in my division or not.

These set us up for self-reinforcing myths. Jewelry is bad. You FEEL bad when when you wear it. Therefore, you were correct. Jewelry is bad.

Theaters were like this for me. I remember the first time I went to a theater and watched a movie. I felt horrible - like I had traded my ticket to Heaven for a stupid movie. OK, the movie was actually pretty good. But still.

For some reason, that programming really stuck. To this day, I grab my guardian angel's hand when entering a theater and drag it in - just to make sure nobody is left outside I may need in the theater. (This is a SDA inside joke.)

Things like avoiding jewelry and movie theaters were never programmed into me or required of me as a child because my parents didn't care about them. Going to an Adventist college where jewelry was forbidden (as well as other things) was a big culture shock for me, and then when hubby was a pastor, we were sent to a very traditional Adventist environment. I adapted, but sometimes it was hard for me to deal with the differences between the way I had been raised in Adventism and the way some Adventists adhered to EGW's writings so strictly.

I do remember hearing in school (during the two years that I attended SDA elementary schools) the teaching that our guardian angels had to wait outside the movie theater if we went in, but I didn't take it seriously. I had always assumed that EGW wrote that (another myth), but when I searched her writings later for the quote, I realized that it wasn't there; I guess some Adventists must have added that to her warnings against theaters.

 

[Sophia7]

And it's quite a funny one.

I think the first movie I went to with friends from school -- and I think heaven had a chuckle at my expense -- was Jumanji. Oh Lord, save my soul; the ambivalence was incredibly because of my community's judgment on film and "the theater" vs "home screenings".

I can't remember if I'd also gone to see Toy Story with my heathen brother before that or afterwards. Talking dolls? Voodoo.

When I was in college, one of the most popular hangouts for Adventists on Saturday nights after sundown was the dollar theater.

 

[Avonia]

Whether or not there were literal "spirit" demons in the passages that I referenced, the point remains that the Bible says nothing to indicate that Mary Magdalene's problem was adultery or prostitution, nor that she was a "repeat offender."

I have to wonder if this myth also had appeal because of the significant role and relationship Mary had with Jesus. We also seem much more comfortable with the Divine Masculine (Logos) than the Divine Feminine (Sophia).

To the intention of this thread, I think many of us are used to thinking of God as a man - preferably white. I'm remembering all of the children's books and art I was exposed to as a child.

Entertaining a more holistic concept of God was definitely a "Is the Moon Really Bigger" moment for me.

 

[Avonia]

Things like avoiding jewelry and movie theaters were never programmed into me

I do remember hearing in school (during the two years that I attended SDA elementary schools) the teaching that our guardian angels had to wait outside the movie theater if we went in, but I didn't take it seriously.

This just means you were a Badventist. And a living testimony to the urgency in isolating our children from "worldly people" who undermine our lore.

 

[Sophia7]

I have to wonder if this myth also had appeal because of the significant role and relationship Mary had with Jesus. We also seem much more comfortable with the Divine Masculine (Logos) than the Divine Feminine (Sophia).

To the intention of this thread, I think many of us are used to thinking of God as a man - preferably white. I'm remembering all of the children's books and art I was exposed to as a child.

Entertaining a more holistic concept of God was definitely a "Is the Moon Really Bigger" moment for me.

I think that the picture of God that has been passed down to most of us in the western world from things like medieval art is a white male. Though the Bible speaks of "Him" in masculine terms, it also describes God as spirit, so my view is that God is neither male nor female and does not have a physical body by nature. And even Jesus in His incarnate form as a man wouldn't have looked like the white-skinned, blue-eyed, European-looking portrayals that we often see.

 

[Sophia7]

This just means you were a Badventist. And a living testimony to the urgency in isolating our children from "worldly people" who undermine our lore.

I guess so.