Southern Buddhist

I realized I shouldn't have let this slide in without drawing some attention to it. Believers always say this, that the Hebrew words for time had different meanings depending on context. But, really, can you actually provide evidence of this? What is the Hebrew word, exactly, that you say has multiple meanings? Are there instances of it being used in context-dependent ways in places other than the Bible (where the context and meaning are exactly what is being disputed)? Who are the scholars who read, write, and translate ancient Hebrew themselves who say that Hebrew time words meant diffe

Not even. I'm quoting it as a matter accepted by hundreds of scholars who are capable of doing their own translations of ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and their conclusions are peer-reviewed, critiqued, debated, and defended before they ever see the light of day. Can you say the same?

That's because they haven't been answered at all, except by Spademan's nicely-described combination of several mutually-exclusive assertions, followed by a bunch of things that don't make any sense at all, followed by "it's a miracle," followed by "obviously we've already answered this."One of the biggest issues between believers and skeptics is what is to be taken as literal and what must be "interpreted correctly" in order for it to be anything other than flat wrong. Skeptics take things like "weeks" and "generation" as literal and batshit crazy stories as metaphorical. Believers do just t

Night deposit slot, back at the bank.

Ooh, if it's as enjoyable as A World Lit Only by Fire, I'm in.

Page taken down?

Also nice to have something mean two different and contradictory things simultaneously. It's a miracle!

The internet is making me stupid. I read this and my first reaction was to look for a "Like" button.

Oops, looks like you fucked up and installed some kind of weird non-American one. Try again.Also, I think I'll just shorten the cartoon to:

Let us turn to Matthew 10:23: Did the bolded statement happen, or did it not happen? No one ever said it was the "single" requirement for anything. Roll the Bones is asking, did it or did it not happen? Because it's extremely unlikely that there is a town in Israel that has zero awareness of the bible.

I definitely wasn't criticizing your writing. You were using the terms in exactly the way millions of conservative US Christians use them. I just wanted to point out how slippery and flip-floppy that sounds to people outside the magic circle who are trying to figure out what all of you mean when you call yourselves Christian but then criticize everything you don't like as "religion."So it sounds like you're taking door number 2. Which is a perfectly reasonable path (I really didn't know which one most conservative Christians would take), but then you have to admit that the only criterion is

Moxie tastes exactly like creosote.But I already am a hermit.

hungry? Nothing like Shakespeare and a mention of porn to class up a joint.

The seventy weeks prediction of Daniel 9:25-27? Well, except it works a little more like this:"Weeks" actually means "years times 7," not, you know, weeks or anything crazy like that.Anyway, that seventy "weeks" prediction works out to 69 "weeks" (also known as 483 years in the world of real math) up to Jesus. Do you literally believe that 69 weeks is exactly the same period of time as 483 years? Can I borrow a hundred grand, if I promise to pay you back in 52 weeks?As for the 70th week, well, apparently there was a verse left out:Daniel 9:26 1/2: And then two thousand years (er, 285 "weeks

That was brilliant.Just an afterthought I meant to post about Cymbeline but didn't: for the most part it lacks the transcendence of Shakespeare's best, but it does have the distinction of containing the passage that I want on my tombstone: That's the beginning of a larger song, the rest of it just as pretty.

And Visa ... all crashed today by hackers in solidarity with Assange. This is getting interesting.EDIT: It will get really interesting if they take advantage of their hacks to funnel money to Wikileaks. Mostly just DDoS attacks though, probably.

I won't bother with the challenge, because it always turns into well, you have to interpret X/Y/Z verse just right, and "just right" always turns out to be the meaning the person saying that takes from X/Y/Z. In other words, it's only the right interpretation if you agree with me. It always winds up being a circular argument where the believer is right by virtue of his interpretation and the interpretation is right by virtue of the believer agreeing with it.But the wider point is the one I think we both find of interest, although from opposite grounds, and that is defining the terms. It's n

We've already sooo had this argument. "This generation shall not pass" is not a description of what the end times will look like, it's a prediction of when they will occur -- a prediction that turned out to be wrong.

Here, in a nutshell, you illustrate one reason why I dismiss the logic and critical thinking skills of most Christians. In one sentence you manage to say that Christianity both is and is not a religion and that it both does and does not include the entire group that follows Jesus. Then you say we should all hate religion, then you align yourself with it by at least one half of your definition.It's true here, and it's been true everywhere I've seen it done, that "religion" means anything you don't like and "Christianity" means anything you do. That's a bullshit distinction. A mature person

True, or too skimpy on the syrup and thus watery. I don't usually go through the bother of making an extra stop, though. But in gas stations, I always buy the bottles even though their fountain would be much cheaper. Quality control issues.

One partial book I read for a class was outstanding, and even having read only three chapters, I'd recommend it:The Master Switch, Tim Wu <--- Amazon linkThe chapter I read and reported on for class concerned Apple's image of media (beautiful, but locked, based on Apple's exclusive deals with other corporations to provide service or content) vs. that of Google (messy, but totally open). Just that chapter alone, toward the end of the book, is worth the price. So is the introduction, which told of a banquet AT&T threw in 1916, for 800 of the most powerful men in the nation. Not only d

Now we're in my territory! All of the real sugar sodas are markedly better than their high-fructose counterparts. No diet shit for me, ever. I know a lot of people say they can't drink the regular stuff because it's too sweet, but that in no way makes up for the disgusting aftertaste every time you take a sip of diet, or the presence of aspartame. Maybe the Splenda-sweetened drinks are better.You can get Mexican Coke in the Mexican foods section of even a Kroger in Staunton, Virginia, so it's got to be pretty available anywhere, but it is a lot more expensive, and even though I know it's b

Turned himself in, actually, and since yesterday, MasterCard also cut his account, and 4chan (or someone else) retaliated by crashing MasterCard.

Also conditional, fwiw, on shitloads of parenting classes, job training, etc. Conditional as all get-out. Literally, conditional until they can't stand it anymore, but absolutely there for when they need it -- I don't go with the conservative idea of banning it.On the one hand, I agree with the article that we are dangerously overextended on just about every level (debt, oil, militarily) and a serious shock to anything will bring the whole house of cards down.On the other hand, in 2000 we (well, some of us) were talking about paying off the national debt. Things can turn quickly. In 2000,