Prayer threads

[Preon1]

Originally posted by beet1e
Prior to Blammo's kid going missing last week, I thought you guys all knew how useless religion was.  The evidence of the prayer threads points to the contrary.

Given that our AH community is world-wide, it follows that there will be people here from numerous religious persuasions. I'd like to inform the ones that believe in prayer that they're floating in a world of blissfull ignorance.

sheesh

[J_A_B]

"People have been praying for 10's of thousands of years. "

They also thought the Earth was flat for thousands of years.  

Indeed, that statement seems to confirm Beet1e's declaration more than anything else.  Prayer worked for some people in ancient times much as it does today, but those ancient people were praying to Zeus or Posidon or whatnot instead of God the Almighty.   In other words the belief in the power of prayer seems to make more of a difference than which specific diety you're praying to.


Of course there's the somewhat humorous example of two opposing soldiers on the battlefield, both of whom are fervently praying for God to spare him and kill the other guy.  Obviously one of those guys is going to see his prayer "work" while the other guy will discover whether God exists firsthand.


J_A_B

[TweetyBird]

>>They also thought the Earth was flat for thousands of years<<

Thats grade school history. I think it was Aristarchus  (300 BC)who figured the *circumference* of the earth within 400 miles of the accepted figure today. A lot of what was known couldn't be said because of the Church or government or military. So you had people knowing one thing but only able to write the accepted view, or go to jail - e.g., Galileo

[ravells]

I think the first sentence in Beetle's post was sincere.

I think the second sentence was priceless!

Ravs

[J_A_B]

"So you had people knowing one thing but only able to write the accepted view, or go to jail - e.g., Galileo"

That's a few individuals, not the general population.

J_A_B

[ravells]

JAB? Are you referring to the ones who were excommunicated or burnt at the stake?

Ravs

[demaw1]

Ding....Tweety bird is wrong again.sorry


      300 bc No sorry ...1500 plus years before that God told Isiah the world was round....

[TweetyBird]

>>Ding....Tweety bird is wrong again.sorry


300 bc No sorry ...1500 plus years before that God told Isiah the world was round....<<

Maybe you could quote the wrong part for me?

Did Isiah measure the circumference of the world with 400 miles of the acceptable figure of today? Did Aristarchus?

Just quote the wrong part.

[ravells]

Don't know the date, but I know the Egyptians did it by measuring the length of shadows between Heliopolis and some other location further south and got a pretty accurate result. Definitely happened B.C.

Only problem was that the Christian church started suppressing 'the world is a sphere' information after that and once again we were plunged into the darkness of ignorance.  I'm sure the navigators ignored the church and carried right on though.

Ravs

[midnight Target]

Tweety is right on this one. The Ionians (Greeks) were the first to offer a scientific measurement for the circumfrence of the Earth. But it was Eratosthenes not Aristarchus.

[TweetyBird]

>>But it was Eratosthenes not Aristarchus.<<

Was it? ok sorry - I was going back to my Western Civ class a long time ago

Thanks for the correction.

[demaw1]

Well, yes God did , you see he told enoch the measurement of the world, and guess what waaayyyyy back then God used the British Imperal  inch....And you know what,  midnight and tweety...ancient egypt and ancient babalonia would disagree with you .

   The measurement of the earth would take a lotttt of time and study to prove...Maybe there might be someone on much more learned than me who could help.

  I am surprised you didnt just say God didnt tell isaiah,darn, oh well.

   Ravells...there is a small amount of truth in what you say but gees you paint with a large paint brush. History is far from that cut and dried.

[ravells]

care to amplify, demaw?

The Roman Catholic church then was fighting for power. Could I mention Martin Luther at this point?

I entirely agree that history is not cut and dried, but please tell me of the roman catholic church doing anything to help the advancement of science when it was against their interests between 9 - 16 AD.

I'd be curious to know

Ravs

[Sandman]

Originally posted by demaw1
  The measurement of the earth would take a lotttt of time and study to prove...Maybe there might be someone on much more learned than me who could help.
 

Well... if your only acceptable proof is to actually circle the earth, yeah... otherwise, it doesn't take that long.

[Saurdaukar]

Originally posted by GScholz
Science is still against their interests. It's not like Darwin is the most popular name in the Vatican these days.

More on topic; I didn't want to bring this up earlier, but I too found the "missing child" prayer thread a bit strange. Not because people were praying for the safe return of the child ... that's perfectly understandable, but because when the child was found people thanked Jesus. The parents even said something to the effect of "Jesus did this".

I thought: Poor "Bob". He did all the work, but Jesus got the credit. No wonder Jesus is so popular in Christian circles when he gets the credit for every good thing men and women do.

You dont understand this country at all, do you?