"Diamonds in the sky", mysterious lyrics ?
How about corals in the hilltops of Barbados ?
In the excellent series,"Earth Story" episode ,"The Big Freeze" Aubrey Manning interviews earth scientist Maureen Raymo who explains how the multiple coral terraces up the hillsides of Barbados got to be there as a result of a combination of repeated ice ages & tectonic uplift. The oldest stagshorn coral on the hill top were dated to 125,000 years old. See Wikipedia article about Barbados. It says there are water eroded caves such as Harrison's cave where stalactites and stalagmites can be seen
Has Rihanna ever sung or talked about this ?
I'd like to hear Rihanna singing about the sea shells on her sea shore.
Maybe she could sing a coral fishers song while wearing three appropriately placed scallop shells ?
Throughout antiquity, scallops and other hinged shells have symbolized the feminine principle.
Many paintings of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and fertility, included a scallop shell in the painting to identify her. This is evident in Botticelli's classically inspired,' The Birth of Venus' (jocularly nicknamed 'Venus on the half-shell')
Planet Venus looks like a diamond in the sky on 21st Feb 2015 with Mars half a degree above.
See on Youtube from 9:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIuoNtRBG4w&list=PL0v0-PLUoiqflFqBMDm9qW2wZFz7fX541&index=6
Saturday 21 February 2015
Tuesday 17 February 2015
Motorhead, God was never on your side [ alternate lyrics ]
Great lyrics by Motorhead.
My parody:
The stars will never fall down on us
Because they are flaming too far away.
Our Sun is not due to dim,
Before the human race is not even a memory
The Babble never knew that stars are huge Suns,
Billions of years old and light years away.
It wasn't correct about the observable universe,
So how could it know of unseen realms ?
Let the voice of reason shine,
Let mumbo jumbo be mocked and jeered.
God's face is human, unseen priests,
They hadn't a clue about reality,
They were never on your side,
They never told us of contraception or germ theory.
Let science and reason, alone decide
The God deluded were never on your side
[note Matt 24v29 predicts,"The stars will fall from the sky"]
My parody:
The stars will never fall down on us
Because they are flaming too far away.
Our Sun is not due to dim,
Before the human race is not even a memory
The Babble never knew that stars are huge Suns,
Billions of years old and light years away.
It wasn't correct about the observable universe,
So how could it know of unseen realms ?
Let the voice of reason shine,
Let mumbo jumbo be mocked and jeered.
God's face is human, unseen priests,
They hadn't a clue about reality,
They were never on your side,
They never told us of contraception or germ theory.
Let science and reason, alone decide
The God deluded were never on your side
[note Matt 24v29 predicts,"The stars will fall from the sky"]
I'll carve the text in the granite for you, no you do it.
Good points by Steve Shives thanks
Archaeologist Israel Finkelstein in his book,"The Bible unearthed" doubts that a large exodus of Israelites ever crossed the Sinai Peninsula as the evidence that should be there has never been found.
I think the stories may be mythical; made up.
In any case I think if something like it had happened then the Israelites would have told Moses that the 10 commandments were nothing new as they already knew similar ideas from the 42 negative confessions on the Ancient Egyptian Papyrus of Ani.
Also how come Moses didn't complain, "God damn you, how the f'ing sheol is it that you had me walk past the limestone hills of Northern Sinai peninsula, and then walk past the Sandstone hills of middle Sinai and its only now that I am on the hardest granite mountain you remember about carving tablets of stone ?"
So then God replies in Exodus 34v1,"I will write on the tablets of stone" but like the boss from hell, Exodus 34v27"The Lord said to Moses,"Write down these words..."
Also interesting that the tablets of stone have gone missing, disappeared without a trace and the Bible nowhere mentions it - totally forgotten about, as if they never existed.
Note on the Geology of Sinai by F.W.Holland says
The peninsula of Sinai may be divided into three geological districts, named from the granitic, limestone, and sandstone rocks of which they are composed.
The whole of the northern portion of the peninsula is occupied by an extensive plateau of limestone,
A broad belt of sand, called the Debbet-er-Ramleh, separates this limestone from the southern Granite portion of the peninsula
http://jgslegacy.lyellcollection.org/content/22/1-2/491
Wikipedia says:
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics.
Archaeologist Israel Finkelstein in his book,"The Bible unearthed" doubts that a large exodus of Israelites ever crossed the Sinai Peninsula as the evidence that should be there has never been found.
I think the stories may be mythical; made up.
In any case I think if something like it had happened then the Israelites would have told Moses that the 10 commandments were nothing new as they already knew similar ideas from the 42 negative confessions on the Ancient Egyptian Papyrus of Ani.
Also how come Moses didn't complain, "God damn you, how the f'ing sheol is it that you had me walk past the limestone hills of Northern Sinai peninsula, and then walk past the Sandstone hills of middle Sinai and its only now that I am on the hardest granite mountain you remember about carving tablets of stone ?"
So then God replies in Exodus 34v1,"I will write on the tablets of stone" but like the boss from hell, Exodus 34v27"The Lord said to Moses,"Write down these words..."
Also interesting that the tablets of stone have gone missing, disappeared without a trace and the Bible nowhere mentions it - totally forgotten about, as if they never existed.
Note on the Geology of Sinai by F.W.Holland says
The peninsula of Sinai may be divided into three geological districts, named from the granitic, limestone, and sandstone rocks of which they are composed.
The whole of the northern portion of the peninsula is occupied by an extensive plateau of limestone,
A broad belt of sand, called the Debbet-er-Ramleh, separates this limestone from the southern Granite portion of the peninsula
http://jgslegacy.lyellcollection.org/content/22/1-2/491
Wikipedia says:
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics.
Sunday 8 February 2015
If it wasn't for disease then God would have to play God
Interesting article by Justin, sympathetic.
Acts 17v24 "God who made the world and EVERYTHING IN IT" So did all the insects which are now parasitic adapt after the fall from some benign life cycle ? Was God originally going to miraculously hold everything in some perfectly ordered state ? Did mosquitoes start off vegetarian ?
What was God's original plan A if there was no illness or death ? Were we going to be told the technology for making space ships and colonizing the universe to avoid congestion on Earth or just whisked away miraculously to other exoplanets ?
What would be the outcome if humans suffered no illness or disease ? Well the total human population would spiral, then God would need to play God and choose who to terminate to make way for more children. No one would relish making those decisions so it is understandable that this could be quite a headache for God. Hence it is fairly plain that God allows illness and disease to randomly terminate humans allowing God to claim plausible deniability.
Actually if there were no disease and the human population spiralled then probably there would not be enough food for all so there would be death by starvation. This might also be accompanied by war over scarce resources but idealistically it could be resolved by drawing lots for who dies.
For much of human history the total human population was under only 1000 million and at that amount the habitats and biodiversity of the world would probably have been healthy for millions of years. However with spiralling human population to over 100 billion as a result of people living thousands of years and no one dying then it could be imagined that many other species would be wiped out with the end result that the humans race would not last more than a few thousand years. Again not really a problem if God can just miraculously start again on another planet.
Why doesn't the Bible have the first humans live pain free, illness free lives from 0-70 years old then be carried up to heaven on a chariot of fire. Having humans typically live like Adam's 930 years was soon going to cause overcrowding so it is no wonder that life expectancy was allowed to fall dramatically.
Wednesday 4 February 2015
Stephen Fries God
Russell Brand gives lots of links to a whole range of ideas in this video. I would like to add that Acts 17v24 claims,"The God who made the world and EVERYTHING IN IT...." Ooops, I bet if the author of that sentence knew what we know now about parasites & pathogens then he would have wished he had blamed Satan for causing the micro-organisms of death. So given Acts 17v24 then I agree with Stephen Fry saying this is a cruel act. Added to this Matt 19v26 has Jesus say,"With God all things are possible" Yet this imagined God withheld the knowledge to make medicines to kill the pathogens.
Matt 15 has Jesus ridicule the idea of washing hands before eating- there is no sign in the Bible that Jesus was aware of germ theory. James 4v17 says,"Anyone who knows the good he ought to do but fails to do it sins". Well humans often have the excuse of not enough money or time or technology but what excuse would an Almighty God have ?
In fact Acts 17v26 claims," God determined the times set for people and the exact places where they should live...v27 he is not far from each one of us " which is almost to say that this world runs exactly according to God's plans. Well I think there are many flaws in this imagined God's plans.
However I agree with Richard Dawkins that there probably is no God, life on Earth evolved by natural selection so we can just try to make the best of it, help each other to maximize human happiness and minimize suffering.
Matt 15 has Jesus ridicule the idea of washing hands before eating- there is no sign in the Bible that Jesus was aware of germ theory. James 4v17 says,"Anyone who knows the good he ought to do but fails to do it sins". Well humans often have the excuse of not enough money or time or technology but what excuse would an Almighty God have ?
In fact Acts 17v26 claims," God determined the times set for people and the exact places where they should live...v27 he is not far from each one of us " which is almost to say that this world runs exactly according to God's plans. Well I think there are many flaws in this imagined God's plans.
However I agree with Richard Dawkins that there probably is no God, life on Earth evolved by natural selection so we can just try to make the best of it, help each other to maximize human happiness and minimize suffering.
Tuesday 3 February 2015
Re threadsuk.com/thou-shalt-not-question-stephen-fry/
I saw a link to this article on Premier Christian radio show, "Unbelievable?"
James 4v17 says, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins"
So then what excuse could an all powerful God have for not preventing the suffering on Earth ? A God who could see what was going on and who had the ability to do something about it but who stood idly by would have sinned, according to James 4v17
Think of all the things a perfect loving God could have done to prevent suffering down through the ages but didn't do.
Even giving the knowledge of germ theory would have helped prevent suffering yet Matthew 15 does not have Jesus show any appreciation of germ theory. Jesus could have said to the Pharisees and teachers of the law, "I agree that it is important to wash your hands in boiled water (cooled) before eating or helping with child birth or injuries, that is quite a good tradition. What goes into your mouth can make you ill and giving food contaminated with e-coli could cause permanent damage to peoples health. We do have a duty of care to others."
Romans 10v13 says Love does not harm.
An Almighty God who played a part in the evolution of life on Earth could have influenced the genetic make up of insects to make it impossible for them to be vectors of the pathogens which harm humans or to cause the extinction of insects such as mosquitos or parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus
James 4v17 says, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins"
So then what excuse could an all powerful God have for not preventing the suffering on Earth ? A God who could see what was going on and who had the ability to do something about it but who stood idly by would have sinned, according to James 4v17
Think of all the things a perfect loving God could have done to prevent suffering down through the ages but didn't do.
Even giving the knowledge of germ theory would have helped prevent suffering yet Matthew 15 does not have Jesus show any appreciation of germ theory. Jesus could have said to the Pharisees and teachers of the law, "I agree that it is important to wash your hands in boiled water (cooled) before eating or helping with child birth or injuries, that is quite a good tradition. What goes into your mouth can make you ill and giving food contaminated with e-coli could cause permanent damage to peoples health. We do have a duty of care to others."
Romans 10v13 says Love does not harm.
An Almighty God who played a part in the evolution of life on Earth could have influenced the genetic make up of insects to make it impossible for them to be vectors of the pathogens which harm humans or to cause the extinction of insects such as mosquitos or parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus
The theory of evolution by natural selection suggests that each surviving species of mammal has kept ahead of the parasites and harmful bacteria etc which would cause the extinction of the species. There is a constant struggle for survival, predators are trying to survive by eating the species below them in the food chain.
Humans now have the knowledge to give ourselves an increased edge over the things which would make our life shorter, nastier and more brutish. With the benefit of modern technology by can dramatically lengthen our life and have far less pain & illness. However if we enter a post antibiotic age or if agri-chemicals become less effective due to resistant weeds & diseases or if fossil fuels run out without sufficient new technologies to replace them then we could very quickly find ourselves at square one.
At any rate a real cosmic God could do infinte miracles to ensure 100% health from 0-70 years old then instantaneous death but we do not see this. Why not if Jesus had won a victory over sin and death ? Why not even for 'the chosen ones' ?
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