Ed

See my post to Fiach above about the myth of medieval europeans thinking the earth was flat.

Ed

Ok. Here is one study on rapists:

Med Sci Law 2002 Jan;42(1):51-7
The sexual profile of rapists in Singapore
Gwee KP, Lim LE, Woo M.
Institute of Mental Health, Singapore, Republic of Singapore.

To our knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the sexual profile of rapists in Singapore. A semi-structured interview based on a questionnaire about sexual habits was conducted on 62 convicted rapists and a control group of 63 prisoners comprising 32 convicted for violent non-sexual offences and 31 for non-violent non-sexual offences. Significantly more rapists masturbated at least once a month and were exposed to pornography within six months before the offence when compared to non-violent controls. Violent controls did not differ significantly from rapists in any aspect of the sexual history. The greater similarity between rapists and violent controls lends support to the concept of rape as a violent rather than sexual offence. A subgroup of 17 'hypersexual' rapists were identified who were either having sex or masturbating very frequently but had still resorted to rape. Compared to the other 46 rapists, the 'hypersexual' rapists were more likely to have fantasised predominantly about rape or bondage and to cite domination, aggression or hostility as reasons for committing rape, suggesting an even stronger element of power and aggression than in their less sexually active counterparts.

Also, everytime you see a rapist or pedophile being arrested in the newspaper you will hear that the police found a stash of pornography in their residence.

Quote:

wj: There have been many pedophile priests, out of proportion to the rest of society, and their teachings forbid fornication of any kind. They resort to molesting kids when they can't take the suppression any longer.

It is a well known secret for at least 50 years that the Roman Catholic priesthood has a much higher proportion of homosexuals than the general population. And most of them joined the priesthood to hide their lifestyle. These men have no real interest in actually following the teachings of Christianity. The evidence for this can be seen in the recent victims, ie they are all post-pubescent. Pure pedophiles generally molest pre-pubescents.

Jeremy Pallant

Are y'all aware that this thread has earned a reputation as The. Post. That. Would. Not. Die?

Give your moderators a break, please!

Ed

I am not sure that excuse is viable anymore given that unicellular organisms have been found fossilized.

Quote:

Ed:In his vision he may be seeing God in silhouette sitting over the circle of the earth. In silhouette a sphere looks like a circle. lp: With the sky being like a tent and God sitting on a throne above it. Tents are usually placed on flat surfaces, however.

No, the verse says that He sits IN the tent not above it. Tent is just a metaphor for the place where God dwells.

Quote:

Ed:No, you have failed to prove it is not a metaphor. And even if it is not a metaphor it still does not mean the bible teaches that there is a solid dome over the earth, it just means that that is what Moses believed. God did not correct the beliefs of the authors of the bible in areas that were relatively unimportant and not part of his primary message. But the evidence points to it being a metaphor. lp: A being who specifies animal sacrifices in gory detail (see Leviticus) yet who does not want to correct such errors made by his followers? I don't see why I have to take such bullshit seriously.

You have yet to demonstrate that they are errors.

Quote:

Ed: Actually studies have shown that individuals that commit rape and molest children use more pornography than the general public and therefore probably masturbate MORE rather than suppress their urges. lp: Which ones? Those that come from the imaginations and selective "research" of fundies?

No, see my post above where I cite a study of rapists in Singapore.

lpetrich

(LP on the rarity of fossils of soft parts...)

Ed:
I am not sure that excuse is viable anymore given that unicellular organisms have been found fossilized.

It's not all-or-nothing; that does not stop soft-part fossils from being rare. Consider the case of the conodont animal -- fossils of conodonts have been much more common than fossils of their owners.

Kimbrella is totally unlike any later organism.

Except that Kimberella isn't; it's vaguely mollusk-like.

No, the verse says that He sits IN the tent not above it. Tent is just a metaphor for the place where God dwells.

Except that a close reading of the Bible suggests otherwise.

(errors in the Bible...)
You have yet to demonstrate that they are errors.

Except that the Biblical Errancy section of this site discusses numerous Bible errors.

Ed

How does that make it an implosion? The Cambrian animals are multicellular, you are talking about single celled organisms.

Quote:

Fiach: To my knowlege the first transitional form leading later to us was a creature (name forgotton) that gave rise to Pikaea the worm like creature with an eye spot, muscle segments, a notochord, and a primitive crossing set of nerves to work the muscles in an alternating way still evident in the swimming of fish, walking of horses, and gait of humans with the unconscious alternate arm swing. The other branch led to crustaceans. Why do we think that? It is because presumably Pikaea and later us still carry an usually dormant gene to manufacture a crustacean exoskeleton. Pikaea itself is a transitional form for amphioxus, protochordates, chordates, early fish, sharks, boney fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and us. Fiach

The "unconscious alternate arm swing" is a balancing mechanism, it has nothing to do with the S-movement of fish.

Ed

Exactly, definition no. 1, the second word, expanse is the correct translation. Expanse can mean open space.

Quote:

Ed: Actually, it says windows of heaven, not firmament. The term translated "windows" just means openings. Since the ancient hebrews didnt understand cloud and rain formation they just assumed that the water came from God in heaven thru openings in heaven, God's residence. And again, nothing about a flat earth. ng: NASB Gen 1:8 God called the expanse heaven. KJV Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven.

See above about expanse. Actually my comment above was in error. The ancient hebrews knew that rain came from clouds. See I Kings 18:41-45. So the term windows of heaven was plainly a metaphor.

lpetrich

Ed:
Exactly, definition no. 1, the second word, expanse is the correct translation. Expanse can mean open space.

For what reason?

Jack the Bodiless

The Principle of Eddian Infallibility.

Ed has pronounced that this is the "correct" translation, therefore it is.

Note that Ed has also redefined the meaning of the English word "expanse", which can apparently now signify a volume of empty space, rather than a clear area of flat surface.

...Give it up, Ed. The Hebrews thought the Earth was flat and covered by a solid firmament dome. That IS the correct translation, and no amount of fabrication by you will ever change that.

NOGO

Ed, everytime we exchange posts I assume that you can put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4, therefore I do not state the obvious because I expect you to see it. Obviously you either do not see it or don't want to see.

Firmament or expanse is a surface.
This conclusion does not come from sinple wishful thinking or guesswork. It is based on statements in the Bible. This is how translator do their work. They look at the context of the word everywhere it is used and draw conclusions from the way people used the word.

1. Read Ezekiel 1: Ezekiel sees the firmament open up and above it is the throne of God. Below it are the chrubim.

2. Revelation 6: the surface scrolls away.

3. Psalm 104: God waters the hills from his chambers which are on the waters above the firmament.

4 Job 11: 7-8
Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?
They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know?
Its measure is longer than the earth And broader than the sea.

as high as heavens
longer that the earth
broader than the sea

The dome of heaven was at a distance comparable to the other elements in these verses.

5 Daniel 4:7-8, "I saw a tree of great height at the center of the world. It was large and strong, with its top touching the heavens, and it could be seen from the ends of the earth."

note the tree was at the center of the world where the dome of heaven was at it highest. Note that the tree top touched the dome of heaven.

6 Isaiah 40:22 The dome of heaven looks like a tent, God is above the dome as in Ezekiel 1 and He sees people as small as grasshoppers.

[b]7 Job 37:18
"Can you, with Him, spread out the skies,
Strong as a cast metal mirror? [b]

A mirror is a hard surface which in those days was made out of molten bronze.


Funny the way all metaphors concerning the firmament all point to a surface, see above.

The metaphor defence is totally inadequate here.
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word which usually means one thing is used to mean another. Here the word is "window". A window is an opening in a wall. Generally it can an opening in a surface. So, Ed, where is the metaphor?

The bible uses the word as it usually means a hole to let the water through. Since genesis tells us that the firmament separated water from water and Psalm 104 tells us that God watered the hills from his chambers which were built on the waters THEN 2+2=4 and the waters above falls to earth through openings in the dome of heaven.

Where is the metaphor, Ed?

Also the bible speaks of storehouses ...

Job 38:22,
"Have you entered the storehouse of the snow, and seen the treasury of the hail?"

Deut 28:12
The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.

Once again the heavens must "open" in order for the Lord to send rain on earth.

So, Ed, where is the metaphor?
Explain the metaphor to which you are refering to.

For me it is obvious that the literal interpretation is what the ancient Hebrews believed. Later people realized that rain came from clouds but that does not remove anything from my arguement.