Simon T

 . . 

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/rudy-giuliani-trial...

Is he not just digging the hole he is in deeper? 

Remind me, how many peaceful demonstrations were there in Game of Thrones?  

My recollection is the entire plot is leaders throwing their armies against each other to grab the crown by force.  Did I miss something?

My understanding is that the White House makes it's own recordings of interviews for archival purposes.  The news agency performing the interview have the broadcast rights.    So, if Trump releases the video before the 60 minutes broadcast - are they breaking any laws, and what action could CBS take, and against whom?

. . . between the birth of Christ in Luke and in Matthew.

According to Luke:

Luke 2 say that Joseph and Mary are living in Nazareth, but because of a census when Cyrenius (AKA Quirinius to give him his Roman name) was governor of Syria they had to travel all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

There is no room in the inn, so they stop in a stable and Jesus is born and laid in a manger.

They then travel on to Jerusalem, then back home to Nazareth where Jesus grows up.

According to Matthew:

Matthew 2 says that Jesus is born in Bethlehem, apparently in the family home, during the reign of Herod the Great.

The three Magi come to their house and visit, then depart. Joseph is warned by an angel that he must flee.

So Joseph, Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt where they live for some time until Herod the Great dies and they consider it safe to return.

So they are heading home but discover that Herod Archelaus rules the area including Bethlehem, so they head north to Galilee and settle in Nazareth. This is further evidence that they had lived in Bethlehem, not Nazareth.

There are several problems with this.

Date of the birth - Quirinius/Cyrenius did not become governor of Syria (and Judea) until after Herod Archelaus was removed from power. One of these accounts has to be wrong.

Census - people did not travel huge distances for a census. Why does Luke say that they did?

Luke says that Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth and returned via Jerusalem to Nazareth. Matthew says they lived in Bethlehem fled to Egypt and then moved to Nazareth. Which is right and which is wrong?

If they were afraid of Herod the Greats son, Herod Archelaus such that they were afraid to return to Bethlehem, why were they not afraid of Herod the Great's son Herod Antipas? Why not go to Syria, or the Decopolis cities where they would not have any of Herod the Great's sons over them?

If one of these accounts is seriously wrong, then what does that say about the rest of that particular gospel?

Now that the US is in sync with Britain, can I suggest that we rename the 25th of December to reflect the event that is really worth celebrating:

The Dr Who Special.

Roll on Whomass

exactly how your answer gets posted to Y/A?

I mean in total detail, from you pressing buttons, to the answer appearing in a form that I can read.

If you can not explain this to me in detail, does that make the 'theory' that the box you are typing on is inhabited by pixies, and they carry the messages around, true?

If it does not, then why do so many of you think that a lack of a natural explanation of the origin of the universe is justification for claiming that your version of a deity is real?

In the responses to this question yesterday:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?%E2%80%A6

Several people posted that abiogenesis is impossible. But they failed to explain exactly why it is impossible.

If you think abiogenesis is impossible can you please give a detailed explanation of why DNA or RNA type molecules could never ever be formed under any circumstances.

Do not be afraid to get too technical. I did collage level chemistry and have a good knowledge of biology, and if you go past those levels I am more than willing to learn something new.

BTW, I also have an excellent understanding of math and probabilities, and I am aware that there is a vast difference between improbable and impossible.

So, come on and educate me.

In responses to this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=201106...

Several people posted that abiogenesis is impossible. But they failed to explain exactly why it is impossible.

If you think abiogenesis is impossible can you please give a detailed explanation of why DNA or RNA type molecules could never ever be formed under any circumstances.

Do not be afraid to get too technical. I did collage level chemistry and have a good knowledge of biology, and if you go past those levels I am more than willing to learn something new.

BTW, I also have an excellent understanding of math and probabilities, and I am aware that there is a vast difference between improbable and impossible.

So, come on and educate me.

The bible does have some passages that have been verified by other historical records and by archeology.

However, the same can be said for the stories of the Greek gods and the Norse gods. These are generally recognised as being mythology.

For the parts of the bible that have supernatural events what do we have to say that this is not mythology but the supernatural events in the Greek and Norse texts are mythology.

Hindus and Muslims - please feel free to answer this question for your own holy texts.

Bonus Question:

There are many parts in the Bible (and other holy texts for you non-Christians) that have actually been disproved by independent records and archeology. How do you account for these if it is not mythology?

We need something special so that the next End Of The World predictions are treated with the respect they deserve.

It seems that many Christians seem to think that Tacitus' references to Christians - the followers of Christ - in Rome is proof that Jesus was real.

On this basis, would it not also be true that when Tacitus chronicles the Vestal Virgins - followers of the Goddess Vesta - that this is equal proof that the Goddess Vesta is real.

Here is a translation of one of his Histories volumes. Search on 'Vestal' to find his references.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16927/16927-h/ii.ht...

So, if God has declared that the world will end on a certain date, has the human adoption of time zones and the International Date Line, with the result that it is never the same date over the entire world ** stopping God from implementing The End Of The World?

Bonus question: Will God have to go back to the original plan of a flat circular Earth, supported on pillars to be able to solve this problem?

** At 12:00.000 GMT it is 24:00.000 date A on the west side of the International Date Line and 24:00.000 date A +1day on the east side.

Inspired by another question about the significance that it is 20/10/2010 (10/20/2010 for yanks) and the replies that it was already 21/10/2010 for New Zealand and Australia.

Can you please point out the flaw in the following argument:

My understanding is that you define your God as:

1 - Omnipotent. Capable of doing anything.

2. - Onicognizant. Capable of knowing everything.

3. - Loving. God loves us and cares for us.

4. - Creator. God created the entire universe that we live in.

a) Given 1. God was capable of creating any universe. God could have created an infinite number of potential universes where anything and everything could have happened in one of them.

b) Given 2. Before any universe was created God would know exactly what would happen in that universe. The fall of every sparrow, the spin of every electron throughout time. Every moment of joy, every moment of pain.

c) So, given a and b. God would be capable of seeing if any suffering was going to happen in any potential universe and would be capable of altering the creation of that universe such that exactly the same result would occur but that there would be no suffering.

d) Also, given a and b, anything and everything that happened in a universe created by God can only be because God wants that specific thing to happen. God wants that sparrow to fall at that precise time and point. God wants that electron to spin that way though out creation. Otherwise he would have created a different universe.

e) Given 4 and d. Everything that happens in this universe happens because God wants it to.

f) Given 3 though if God loves us, then in any universe that he created there would be no unnecessary suffering.

g) But in our universe there is unnecessary suffering. Children get raped, trapped in natural disasters, die and are horribly maimed. Many infants get diseases that slowly kill them or leave them suffering for the rest of their lives.

h) Since f and g are contradictory this is a logical proof that your God does not exist. There may be a creator deity, but not as you have defined it.

Remember your God is infinitely knowledgeable and infinitely powerful. Hence if has to be possible for Him to teach any lesson, achieve any purpose, allow for any free will and still prevent suffering.

O.K. I have labeled everything so you can refute it point by point, or point out which of these is logically flawed.

But you need to say why it is logically flawed. Just saying "point d is logically flawed" is no good unless you can say why.

Thanks for your constructive answers.

Did Jesus curse the fig tree before or after throwing the moneychangers out of the temple?

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/fig_templ...

Mark 11:12-17 says that Jesus passed and cursed the fig tree before upsetting the temple.

Matthew 21:12+ says that he cleared out the temple and then cursed the fig tree coming back the next morning.

The apologetics say that the time lines are not clear, but they are. Matthew says moneychangers then fig tree. Mark says fig tree then moneychangers.

If Mark and Matthew were both there, how did they get mixed up?

I keep seeing this statement as proof that we are a human being from the moment of conception, but does it?

Allegedly God knows everything, so he has to know of a fertilized egg.

He also knows of the cancer cells in some person's liver. Does that mean those cancer cells are a human being too because God knows about them?

Also it does not say that he knows us at conception, just that he knows us in the womb. If you claim that the phrase "knew you" implies that "you" are a human being, as opposed to every other atom in the universe that an omnicognizant god must know about, then that still leaves a 9 month window for the fetus to change from a bunch of cells into a human being. Why claim that this is at conception when it could equally be the moment just before birth?

Angels must have had free will, otherwise they could not have had 1/3 of them try to rebel against God.

But the angels implicitly knew of God. He directly appeared to them and interacted with them. We are told that if God was to do this with humans it would destroy our free will.

So which is it?

Implicit knowledge of God destroys free will - in which case how could Lucifer rebel?

Implicit knowledge of God does not destroy free will - in which case why does God not appear and settle the which-religion-is-right question once and for all?

Christians, what would you do if the the Hindu God Vishnu appeared infront of you, informed you that your beliefs were wrong and then vanished?

Would you become Hindu?

Would you claim that this was the devil?

Would you think it was a hi-tech prank?

Would you think that it was a figment of your immagination?

Or something else?

How can the bible be accurate and unchanged if Nazareth was not a town in the time of Jesus?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazareth#Earliest_his...

There is archaeological evidence from before the 1st century, there is archaeological evidence from the 2nd century, but there is no evidence for a city existing there in the 1st century.

Also, there is no cliff at all for Jesus to be thrown off, as 'documented' by Luke.

Who thinks that a Jesus came from Nazareth, and who thinks that the Nazareth part got added at a later date?

If you are going to cover the Earth with water deep enough to cover mount Ararat, then you need over a 2 mile depth.

Noah spent over a year on the ark, so salty water covered the Earth for about a year.

So, how did any vegetation survive being covered with a depth of 2 miles of salt water for about a year? (At least 5 months from the start of the flood to the ark coming to rest at an altitude of about 2 miles)

Also what did the animals eat after getting off the ark? If there was no vegetation then the herbivores die.

If God performs another miracle and causes all the vegetation to just survive, then with only 2 herbivores of most species (or even worse, 'kinds') would there have not been an extinction event each time a carnivore got hungry?