Jonathan H. B. Lobl

If any place on Earth is truly cursed.....

Victors write the history -- and the mythology.

Yes.

Yes. Just so.

Double the covenant? Where does that leave Christians? You do trace back through Abraham, Issac and Jacob; don't you? Not if the Covenant passed through Ishmael. As memory serves, Jacob cheats Esau. It keeps getting better.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/jordan-palestinians-condemn-provocation-as-jews-allowed-into-temple-mount/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2019-06-02&utm_medium=email It's hard to remember. Jerusalem means City of Peace. Then again, God is Good.

I live in New York City. Years ago, when they came out with the Beneath the Planet of the Apes movie -- I was fascinated to watch Taylor -- played by Charlton Heston -- find his way into the NYC subway system and emerge in Grand Central station. Of course, the starting point of this journey, was the Statue of Liberty. Did any of this constitute history? Past or future? No. It did not. These landmarks existed first. Then, they made the movie.

My reply vanished, so I will repeat it. There is no need for quarantine. They are doing it themselves. A few months ago, there was a measles outbreak in Brooklyn Yeshivas. The people who have religious exemptions from vaccination. I hope you didn't think that all the fools are Christian. They do come in other varieties.

A side issue. At the 8 min. 45 sec. point -- the speaker specifies the lineage of Abraham, Issac and Jacob as being the line for God's people. He does this based on Exodus. Islam, of course, traces back through Ishmael. A video, supposedly based on objective history should not be so blatantly culturally biased. Taking the story at face value, as though it were history, there is a problem. Ishmael was the older son. In that culture, the older son always inherited. That gives some weight to Ishmael's descendants. By the rules of that culture -- of course, the older son inherited the Covenant.

Consider the children who die; because their parents thought prayer would heal them. Consider the rewards, of being an anti-vaxer. Sick children. Sick adults. Consider the smallness of the minds -- the wasted potential -- of the stubborn ignorant. Where Bible study and belief are all that matters. You want to deprive the pious, of the fruits of science? Don't worry. They're way ahead of you.

We are an Interfaith Church. I think this is a Pagan Voice worth hearing. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2019/05/do-we-need-pan-pagan-clergy-i-dont-think-so/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Pagan&utm_content=37

In my understanding, a god which neither helps, nor hinders, is irrelevant. It changes the basic question. The opening question is -- Does God exist? From this, we go to a flat statement. It doesn't matter whether or not God exists. Even the question of God's existence, is meaningless. It's a three part transition. I don't know. I don't believe and I don't care.

Basic reasoning applies to all these issues. 1. There is the proven. 2. There is the possible but not proven. 3. There are high and low probabilities. 4. There is the impossible. 5. In addition, There are values. Does it matter? Obviously, I'm putting my own bias on display. I won't pretend neutrality. Truth is important. When I have a bias, I'm upfront about it. Pretending objectivity, does not serve Truth. Something basic. Does God exist? God's existence is not proven. God's existence is possible. God's existence is not likely. God's existence is not impossible. God's existence is not important -- to me. We can do the same with theses other questions. I choose -- Is Earth being visited by alien spacecraft? I assume this is what you mean by UFO. Are such visits possible? Yes. Are such visits proven? No. Are such visits likely? A split answer. The bulk of such reports are very unlikely. Earth would be getting more traffic than Grand Central Station. Individual reports? Still unlikely -- but less so. Are such craft impossible? No. Does it matter? Yes -- to me. Regardless of the issue, if we follow the same rules for evidence and reason -- we come up with a responsible answer.

I think the real question here, is invisible assumption. Religious, philosophic or cultural. Do our lives matter to us, because life has value unto itself? Or because we are an image of God? Invisible assumptions. Is this, our current life, important to us, because it is the only life we can be certain of? Or is this life nothing but pre-after-life existence? What is more important? Life? Or After-Life? Is life the same thing as Pre-Death? I think that metaphysics comes out of those invisible assumptions. Which is one reason to start with basic questions. What do I believe? Not, what I should believe, or want to believe. What do I really believe? Why do I believe that? Do I have a good reason for that belief? Am I motivated by fear? Am I motivated by cultural pressure? By a desire to fit in and belong? Have I been intimidated? Or do I really believe that? Before we ask questions about -- How many angles can dance on the head of a pin -- we should ask if we believe in angles.

For the sake of clarity -- could you give an example of metaphysics being helpful? More helpful than the social sciences? In fairness, I could be overlooking something obvious. I'm still not seeing it.

There are other possibilities. For instance, God is real -- but not good. Scripture proclaims the goodness of God. That does not make it so. Seriously. Why do we say that God is good? Because God says so? That's meaningless. Is God subordinate to goodness? Then God is not all powerful. We can't have it both ways. There is still the argument based on God's nature. God is good, because it is his nature to be good. Please. Have you read the Book?

Or, God could be a fantasy.

I think a lot depends on presupposition. If we begin by assuming, that God wants everybody to understand Scripture -- it's a miserable failure. If we assume that Scripture is exactly what God wanted it to be -- then well done. Mission accomplished. According to the Young Earth Creationists -- God created the Earth young -- in ways that would trick and deceive us into thinking that the Earth is Old. A trickster god. The kind of malicious deity, that would enjoy all the confusion and conflict caused by Scripture. Drum roll please. "God is not the author of confusion." Bovine Manure. IMO Of course, if we simply accept that God did not create the Bible -- that ideology driven people -- for what ever reasons -- were behind all of it -- we can stop wringing our hands.

That is the model on it's way out. The current word in favor is "oscillating". In this model, there is a "Bang". Not an explosion. A sudden expansion. (The word they use is "inflation".) According to this model, there is a Bang -- followed by "inflation" -- followed by slowing expansion -- followed by contraction -- ending in "The Big Crunch". Rinse and Repeat. (oscillating). This is why they were taking the new measurements and calculations. Two discoveries. 1. The Inflation was not slowing down. It's speeding up. 2. There isn't enough mass in the Universe to stop the expansion. That leaves the possibility of Cosmic geometry. They asked, if Space really is curved, maybe the expansion ends up where it started? The consensus is no. Don't ask me to explain. The math is beyond me. The consensus is that the Universe will continue to expand, until Entropy is the final result. They refer to this state as "Heat Death." This assumes that the values for Dark Energy remain constant. There is no expansion of space within a galaxy. That is because the gravitational forces within a galaxy, serve to prevent Dark Energy, from expanding space. If this is so, the Universe will end in Heat Death. If this changes -- if space inside the galaxies starts expanding -- the Universe will end in "The Big Rip". As to the multiverse -- As yet unproven speculation. There are different models for this. All unproven. I find the arguments interesting. There is no proof for any of it. The math is beyond me. It hurts my head.