Spiritist, I never once sought to insult you. I asked you to show me where I had made false assumptions. You came at me with insults. I have said nothing here, and very little anywhere else, about mediums, NDEs or past life experiences, because I don't find the topic particularly interesting or the recorded experiences convincing. It is also not my responsibility to disprove them. YOU are m
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Your experiences are your own, and although I assume that there's a more naturalistic explanation for what you feel you have encountered (confirmation bias and reconstructed memories springing immediately to mind), I will not tell you what YOU should think about the events in your life that have shaped your perception of reality. That's why data points collected from consistent, scientific met
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Thank you. And by the way, thanks for constantly throwing shit my way to look up. I don't know why I'm constantly disappointed that I rarely get cogent responses back from the faithful about the things I research. THEY claim that this shit is cosmically significant; Bible study is only a hobby of mine (for now). The vast majority of the responses I get are copy-and-paste jobs from apologet
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I saw that. The whole thread is interesting as you see a variety of believers of one sort or another spinning yarn around a central thesis, and none of them quite jive with the others. In the end you're left with less of a solution to the problem posed and something more like a atheist's cat toy to be scratched up and batted around.
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I always appreciate when someone is able to identify my moniker.
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I don't think Spiritist can understand how profoundly offensive the notion that I don't back up my assertions with evidences truly is for a person like me. I am, if anything, a researcher. For instance, I'm currently reading The Early History of God: Yahweh and other Deities in Ancient Israel by Mark S. Smith. These kinds of books take me weeks or months to read, because I follow citations.
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"You can't prove any of your assertions (your nice and false assumptions) yet you spew it out like it is true!" I would love for you to give me some specific examples of where I have made assertions that aren't backed up by data. If I've said something in error, or if you'd like my citations, please let me know. I will do my best to accommodate your request. Here's the thing: I st
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Drinking my morning red wine and pissing around. Later I'll douche Halloween out of my house so that L. Tom Turkey can come in, condemn my "counterfeit" lifestyle and usher in the season of Thanksgiving. Sometime today I'm going to continue a series of sketches, my erotic depictions of Genesis 6:1-2.
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Brother, I've lived in that headspace for two decades. It's not fun, and I'm sorry you're struggling. "The only oar I ever had to navigate all this witched filial expectation that hangs in the air was the supposed scriptorian expertise I had in their eyes." This also hit close to home. My mother was sure that I would be called as an apostle one day. I had ridiculous dreams of bein
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There is good reason to believe that Elohim in the Tanakh is often reference to a form of EL, the Canaanite father deity that was merged with the Edomite Yahweh during the premonarchic and monarchic periods in Israel during the late 2nd and early-to-mid 1st milleniums BCE. Where is your evidence of the Trinity before the 1st century CE?
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"There is value in being chaste and virtuous as a woman or a man." "...morality doesn't have to be tossed..." I don't see value in remaining chaste, unless one chooses that life individually. Virtue and morality are synonymous and aren't set ideals. Being a moral person may have nothing whatsoever to do with sexual expression, unless it is moralized by the person or t
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The "good old days" are a fantasy, and kids back then were just as sexual as kids today, though apparently far less overtly so. we're experiencing a dynamic shift in our culture relating to how sexuality may be expressed, and I get that it can be difficult to adjust our own perceptions based on new information. Generally, we like to be right, and we don't like our values questioned.
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I wonder why this isn't getting more traction. Jerry Irwin was a modern-day Brigham Young, only without the sizable congregation as amassed by the charismatic visionary/rapist Joseph Smith Jr. Any sort of authoritarian-based organization, whether they be, say, religious or corporate, runs the risk of these kinds of horrendous abuses.
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Hymn #102 Jesus, Lover.... Let Me to Thy Bosom Fly...
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Hold to The Rod Your Iron Rod.
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Crime is anything that is illegal. There are things that are illegal that, in my mind, shouldn't be. There are things that WERE illegal that are no longer. "Crime" is far too general a term to use to serve your point. You could have used, for instance, murder as a better example. Not a great one, mind you, because there's a world of difference between a person choosing to use thei
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I don't have time to address these articles with the detail I would prefer, but I will make a couple of points. First, the Huffpost Blog article cites information provided by Fight The New Drug, an anti-pornography nonprofit backed by the Mormon church and spearheaded by a BYU marketing graduate who believed that pornography caused his cousin to commit rape, heretofore known as the "Josh
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"A lot of porn is related to human trafficking and sex slaves." Where are you getting your porn, the Ukraine? You are NOT supporting sex trafficking if you're getting your porn from reputable companies. As a matter of fact, patronizing more mainstream companies helps to fight AGAINST human trafficking, because you are taking money away from the groups that use less-than-willing pa
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I do have children. When they are adults, I believe that I would be fine with either of them getting into the adult film industry, provided that they do it intelligently and carefully. I'd just have to be more careful in researching my viewing material. In regard to the short lifespan of the average performer's career, it seems that there are several factors to consider. With the average age o
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I don't care to prove you wrong, nor am I going to "flame" you. I will, however, address a few points you brought up. "I still find a lot of it incredibly sexist and disrespectful." This is true. However, I would say that this is true within the larger context of media. I honestly can't say that porn is any worse in this regard than the average television show. ACCEPT in
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There have been a plethora of porn threads here on RfM and doubtless there will be countless more in the future. Everyone has their own opinion about whether porn in a dirge upon a marriage and society at large or is, ultimately, innocuous. We will continue to argue this point forever, pounding our heads against the sexiest fucking wall the world has ever invented until our foreheads are all b
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The Merneptah stele most definitely says, "Israel." You'd be hard-pressed to find a scholar who disagrees. They were designated as being a distinct ethnic group from other Canaanites. You're right, though, that the Egyptians referred to Israel as a small group, nomadic or at least semi-nomadic. But we're basically on the same page.
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Your point is well taken, but I need to correct a minor points of information. Israel was its own ethnic group from other Semitic peoples at least a few hundred years earlier than you asserted; the Merneptah Stele mentions them in the 13th century BCE, indicating a small but distinct group. (You used the term Hebrews, which is a somewhat generic term whose meaning is difficult to pin down.)
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To stay on point let me say that John Dehlin is my favorite exMormon cult leader.
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I got something for your Mom. Right here! . . . . . . . It's flowers! For her garden!
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Forgive my ignorance, but how does your post tie into the topic of this thread? I don't see the connection.
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Like so many stories in the Pentateuch, particularly Genesis, I see the story of Esau marrying to Hittite women as a slur against his alleged progeny, the Edomites, whose kingdom flourished during the 9th to 7th Centuries BCE, coinciding with the Deuteronomics Reform of Judahite religion under the reign of King Josiah. Jacob (or Israel, the father of the Israelites) tricked his father into gi
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Laying my cards on the table, I have had A LOT of vodka this evening. But I know a little bit about the subject of Melchizedek in the Bible. Genesis 14 essentially recounts the (probably mythological, but certainly legendary) account of Abram being blessed by the Priest-King of Salem, whose god was El Elyon the Canaanite father deity, after his involvement in a series of military campaigns (in
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The quote below was posted on the previous thread, but it deserved more notice. From Darkfem: "Most psychologically mature people understand the distinction between idealization and reality. We have a human need to admire and idealize others, but when they disappoint us, as they inevitably do because they are human, too, we should learn how to cope with disappointment and still acknowl
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I think you and I agree more than we disagree. The problem comes when an exaggerated idea of the Bible's moral relevance and authority are zealously asserted, to the point that an ideology or moral theory MUST necessarily be true by virtue of its inclusion in one book or another of scripture. This is problematic and dangerous, because it removes the responsibility, in the minds of the faith
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