DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Food For Thought(Middle East)

What you don't realize 1day is your sudden reading and searching of the Word is God calling you to knowledge. Go for it, argue with it, read it and see where it all leads.

Look, im not gonna debate religion as this is not what the post is about. My point is that ALL religions have one goal and that is to be in power. How do you become in power of people? By fear. How do you make people fear you, by killing them.

Religion was based on a need to CONTROL people. Thus all religions promote killing and war.

Sadly, it leads to death and false hope.

Read that New Testament, cover to cover, then report back to us on what you have found, good, bad, happy or sad. Perhaps you will convince me it is bad so I can go Par-tay!

Wellllll, if God wrote the bible, why would there be a NEW Testament? Why a different book that changed? And it changed years and years later, so I am confused.

and I know we got off topic, but one more thing. If christianity was TRUE, why would there be different religions? You are believing that your religion is true and no others are, yet if you were born Muslim you would believe in the Koran, if you were born into a jewish family, would believe Jesus was the son of god that died for your sins? If it was fact and happened, then there would be leway in the matter, yet there is nothing but contradicting religions all believing different things.

What about Zeus, Athena, and Apollo? people once thought those Gods were true and lived by them.....another civilization that was completely wrong.

Ok, you got that from the New Testament? I'm not looking to argue religion either. I'm going out to buy a Par-Tay hat right now. Keep me informed of what you find, not what you think now. I gotta know you read it and found it to be about control and death.

Wow! I can't keep up! You post like lightning!

Wellll, to the best of my memory, the coming of Jesus Christ was considered the New Covenant so the Bible actually doesn't end and start again, the coming of Jesus is a continuation and fulfillment of the Old. They tie together.

The Old Testament predicts a Messiah (see Isaiah 53), and the New Testament reveals who the Messiah is (John 4:25–26). The Old Testament records the giving of God’s Law, and the New Testament shows how Jesus the Messiah fulfilled that Law (Matthew 5:17; Hebrews 10:9). In the Old Testament, God’s dealings are mainly with His chosen people, the Jews; in the New Testament, God’s dealings are mainly with His church (Matthew 16:18). Physical blessings promised under the Old Covenant (Deuteronomy 29:9) give way to spiritual blessings under the New Covenant (Ephesians 1:3).



Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/difference-old-new-testaments.html#ixzz3Y9x52ZC8

Sounds like the Matrix trilogy to me...

So the earth has only been "created" for 6000 years, can anyone explain dinosaurs?

Noahs ark, so noah had a heating system to keep the lions warm and cooling system to keep the polar bears cold, cause he was a thinker!

and when i bring that up i get "well its about interpretation and its a story" so then how do we know whats to be interpreted and whats story? killing people for being gay is in the bible, is that interpreted or story? who is to say what you can interpret and what needs to be taken as law. . . . it seems religious people pick and choose what they want out of the bible, so to me that doesnt make sense either.

Well, I was born an Atheist and remained so into my 20's. If we went back in time to then, I would agree with you that it is a bunch of crap.

Lol! Not all Christians believe the earth is 6000 years old. There are groups who do however. My favorite thing to do was look at a star at night and say "At the speed of light, the light from that star takes 15,000 years to get here." "We are looking at that star 15,000 years ago."

Look, I am not educated enough to understand all the ins and outs of the Bible, you want to go deeper you gotta talk to Ytown or someone on here who has studied it deeper. PM them and they will be glad to talk to you. Luck Bud, keep me informed.

Which goes to point, the bible basically shows 6,000 years old, so then you cant believe in teh bible. The age of the earth can be estimated by taking the first five days of creation (from earth’s creation to Adam), then following the genealogies from Adam to Abraham in Genesis 5 and 11, then adding in the time from Abraham to today.

Adam was created on day 6, so there were five days before him. If we add up the dates from Adam to Abraham, we get about 2,000 years, using the Masoretic Hebrew text of Genesis 5 and 11.3 Whether Christian or secular, most scholars would agree that Abraham lived about 2,000 B.C. (4,000 years ago).

Sorry, I added to that previous post, read it again. I can't keep up! Ahhhhh

You cannot prove that it is true or happened, just as I cannot prove that I am the sexiest man alive. I believe I am, however my wife has told me different.

Science has proven time and time again that the bible is incorrect, yet people "choose" to believe that science is wrong. When there are FACTS that show the bible is true adn these things happened, you will have an argument. Let me know when that happens.

Yeah I am on a roll today. I start a new job monday so this is my "free" week at work. Im basically just sitting here not doing anything. lol

But you and others reject the facts and refuse to consider them.

You are like the guy 2000 years from now who finds a copy of our Washington Post and laughs at it as made up.

Congrats on the new job, you a Minister?

Nah, I was never into little boys

Oh dear.

Well you seem to know a lot of stuff so my advice is to read that New Testament and see what you think.

It sure brought this long ago atheist to a better life. I never got into all the details of the Bible, I was more into the message. Other guys on here know the details too.

I have found that God has my back and always has, even when I was that atheist, so I have decided to have His back too, and always will. His Son is pretty cool too. Saved my butt.

Hey and I appreciate that. I just think it is a MESSAGE that is not from a god. I am not saying that the bible is evil or that religion is evil, (i think the organizations of religion may be) but the premise to ME is that its suppose to be a message on how people should act, a message written by MEN.

If believing in the bible and god turn a crook into a saint, and makes my car safer on teh street parked in front of my house, GO BIBLE!

we've been in a holy war since 1947. open your eyes.

1day, to be fair to christians, a lot of them don't believe that 6000 year old nonsense. it's that new christian wave or whatever they call it. everyone on this board who is christian has never once claimed to believe in that.

However, you're point is valid on multiple religions. and i've said it before.

there's hundreds of religions, and thousands of gods that humans are worshipping right NOW. so how does someone have the audacity to tell someone their religion is the wrong one, mine is right? its utter nonsense.

christian or muslim religion is no more valid than the guy with the flying spaghetti monster shrine he worships.

All they want IS power. think about it. They always try to revert society to the days that religion was the government. the days when you could get tried for treason for speaking out against the church. We still got nut cases THIS year talking about being homosexuals should be a execution sentence. Are you freaking kidding me?

The ONLY difference is our government is stable, in the middle east, specifically iraq, they're not. so they can get away with that crap out there. But make no mistake about it, the politicians and people with money who are hardcore would love nothing more than to make a christian version of the middle east, where The bible is taught in school more than science, where women have to dress like it's freaking little house on the prairy.

but anyway, there's too many instances where economy is a major factor in the middle east.

we see it right here in the states. the poorest areas are ran by thugs and gangs. even the prison system, where the prison guards are bought by cartels, gangs, and Aryans.

then you got these backwood militias training with military grade equipment, most of them trained from the military service. Vice did an excellent report of the homegrown threat.

We so worried about people in a different continent that we are ignoring the issues right here at home. Almost every major dynasty since recorded history has been destroyed from the inside.

I hereby nominate this sentence for "quote of the day"...

look at Utah and Idaho and tell me i'm lying.

You're not lying, you are Kwady!

Don't they teach the Koran in school more than science and wouldn't their women be happier to wear lighter "little house" dresses instead of a head to toe Burka?

they push science and education hard in the middle east. Iran, for example, has a low birth rate because they give the women birth control that way they focus on education first. Same thing in turkey.

developed countries, anyway. but that's not the point.

I am curious as to what all of these times are. I mean, there must be hundreds of them by the way you present it, so please, elucidate.

Judging from your response to me, I'm going to assume that you thought I was being sarcastic (Maybe it was the smiley that did it...).

I was not being sarcastic at all.

I found it to be dead on-point, and truly funny because of the word choice. It really was: "the quote of the day."

"Little House on the Prairie"... choice material.

LMAO!

...and those who have the financial wherewithal, send their kids straight to the United States to get the best college education they can.

So much for that old cliche: "The Great Western Devil," eh?



__________________________

To the rest of My Dawgs:

Here in the the NW of Ohio, we live at the southern tip of the most densely-populated Arabic community in the entire Western Hemisphere.

The colleges around here have almost as many Middle-Eastern international students per capita as we have Asians. These are bright, focused and highly-motivated kids, and they're going toe-to-toe with those who came from Korea, Japan, China. Super serious. They are not about keggers and chasing skirt. School is what they're here for... and they are NOT going to allow themselves to be distracted. Too much of their families' futures are riding on their individual successes at this phase of their lives. Many of the 2nd-generation families here host students from their mother country, to help them defer the costs of room & board- thereby making their education costs manageable.

For all the news coverage and air time devoted to the least educated, most violent factions of the Middle East communities, we tend to forget (or ignore) the important scientific, artistic, mathematic, philosophical and intellectual advancements that came from this region of the globe. Astronomy, poetry, high literature, medicine, music, science... ALL were pushed forward by advanced thinkers from this region when the peoples of Europe were still trying to form cohesive communal collectives. That tradition exists up to today... and I see everyday evidence of it when I'm out doing 'arts outreach' collaborations with the local college communities.

These kids ask questions at seminars that put their American counterparts to shame. Some of them know more more about Beethoven, Bach, Stravinsky and Shostakovich than 1st and 2nd year MusPerf majors... and they're Economics/CompSci majors!

Think about this: One of our modern core subjects in the S.T.E.M. curriculum in 2015, is Algebra ( (from Arabic: al-jebr meaning "reunion of broken parts")...which dates back to at least 1830-1531 BC. This science predates the contributions of Plato and the Greek revolution by ~1500 years. Even the numbers 1, 2, 3... etc are called "Arabic numerals" because of their origins.

To be sure, there is a wealth of societal dysfunction in this region of the world... but at the same time, I truly want My Dawgs to understand that what we've been shown by the media is only a slice of what these people truly are. We do them an injustice (-and limit our own understanding of The Real World) if we allow ourselves to paint the entire region with a broad brush.

They ain't all terrorists (or 'terrorists-in-waiting').
They ain't all backwards, religiously-shackled drones.
They ain't all 'enemies of what America represents.'

They are as varied and individual- one from another- as you or I.

My own personal experiences with them have shown me this.

That reminds me... it's been awhile since I closed up the Beirut (on Monroe St.) with Labib. It's high time he hosted another after-concert reception at his restaurant (...the bar section is truly a 'free-flowing resource' of libation and 'good talk' for us musicians... he loves us).

.02,
Clem

Don't let some on these posters or the media comment though. According to them, the Middle East is completely filled with terrorist and people who hate our country.... Even tHough they love our schools, hip hop music, have a famous hip hop Palestinian DJ, the originators of girls with big butts. And the fact that you can look up Muslims musicians on music videos that would make MTV and BET look like children's programs.

But hey... Let's not change the "death to America" narrative.

Part of the problem here is that "Middle East" includes like 15-20 countries. Interestingly, Afghanistan is technically not in the Middle East.

We don't use facts bro. You forgot already?

Swish, not many times I am on teh same page as you, but on this I completely am.

No, I just wanted to stir up trouble.

Noahs Ark comes to mind.

Also the earth being flat:

In the New World Translation Daniel 4:10-11 relates Nebuchadnezzar's dream:

"'Now the visions of my head upon my bed I happened to be beholding, and, look! a tree in the midst of the earth, the height of which was immense. The tree grew up and became strong, and its very height finally reached the heavens, and it was visible to the extremity of the whole earth.'"

The word "midst" means "middle" or "center." Consistently, other Bible versions say "a tree in the middle (or center) of the earth." This verse says that the tree was visible to the extremity of the whole earth, and therefore paints a picture of a flat, circular earth. The tree stood in its center and had its top in the heavens so as to be visible from all over the earth. This would be impossible on a spherical earth.

The picture in Daniel is further strengthened by the account of the Devil's tempting Jesus. Matthew 4:8 says:

Again the Devil took him along to an unusually high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

Again the picture is that all the kingdoms of the world could be viewed from a sufficiently high mountain, which is not possible on a spherical earth.

So ... as far as Noah's ark .... there are so many related stories all around the world, in different cultures, that if it is only a story, then it was one that was thought up by a lot of different people.

There was a flood, accompanied by climate changes, that killed off a lot of people, and animals. You find the story of God saving one family, and a specific group of animals unlikely, but I see it as entirely possible. If there is a God, then why would such a thing be beyond His power? God, by His very definition, can do anything.

Further, mankind does come from a very limited genetic wellspring. This means that most of humanity died off at some point, and a very small group set about repopulating the earth. (whether one believes that man was a direct creation of God, or whether one believes that we emerged from pond scum, to toad, to lizard, to dinosaur, to monkey, to human, or whatever evolutionary path one believes) The facts do seem to indicate a mass extinction of people, followed by a re-population of the earth. If we look at how quickly humanity spreads and grows, this bottleneck would appear to have taken place at about the time of Noah. Further, the Old Testament gives direct genealogy of all people going all the way back to Adam. The numbers add up to what the Bible says. It is absolutely consistent. I believe that God doing such things is far more likely than the universe being created out of nothing ..... by nothing ...... and humanity climbing out of nonliving pond sludge to somehow become alive.

One other thing about Genesis. "God said, let there be light, and there was light" ....... and what do we now think happened when the universe was created? There was a massive explosion of matter and energy, likely in a massive explosion of light, and expanded into the universe in a matter of less than a second. As far as the years, I don't know whether the story of Genesis was intended as an exact creation outline, or whether God knew than mankind would have no idea of what billions of years meant at that time.

As far as the dream ..... it was a dream. The tree was King Nebuchadnezzar, as the dream was interpreted by Daniel. It was not a literal mapping of the world. Did people on the other side of the world know who Nebuchadnezzar was? Of course not. Only people in a specific and limited region of the earth knew (of) him. Think of the dream as a map of the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. Prophetic dreams in the Bible are rarely literal.

As far as the devil ..... would him showing Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world necessarily have to mean that they could look out and see them all at the same time? I do not believe that there is a mountain in all of Israel that one could climb and see, for example, Rome. (with the naked eye) That distance is roughly 1400 miles. The devil could have laid out the kingdoms of the world before Him, as if on a canvas. Rome was part of the known world at that time, and if one could not see Rome from a mountain top, with one's bare eyes, then there could be no expectation to see any further than that.

So Noah was able to keep penquins and polar bears cold with a refrigeration/cooling system and he kept the lions and such warm with a heating system.....cause that tech was around back then.

If we accept that God exists, then what can He not do?

Could the kind of ark that Noah build survive massive swells and waves, and horrible storms? Nope, not without divine intervention. Could tigers and gazelle co-exist peacefully? Probably not without God's intervention.

If God exists, and I believe that he does, then by definition, this would not even take a figurative snap of His fingers.

God didnt create the arc according to the bible, Noah did. So Noah would have had to make a cooling system and heating system and what have you. And you said before about the similar stories of the Arc. Well, some of those stories were from thousand years before, so I tend to believe that it is a work of fiction based of past stories.