I enjoy its commentary on current affairs.
Incidentally, I wanted to be an altar boy when I was eleven, so I went to the “recruiting” nun to apply. She said, “Are you willing to get up at 6am for the early Mass?” I said, “No” … and that was the end of it.
Not according to Francis Crick. 
The evidence for aliens and leprechauns is about the same.
Science fiction is science fiction, not science. A proposal like you suggest would be scientific only if there were data that could be explained by space aliens.doing genetic engineering, which of course there is not, as well as no evidence of space aliens visiting earth to raise livestock.
It reminds me of my total immersion in the WCG over thirty years from '69. Particularly the '80s heyday culminating in Flurry’s '89 disfellowshipment. Happy daze! What would you recommend from here?, that I won’t have already read? Germany is obviously still Assyria at the heart of the Beast.
How did you come out alive, man?!
It did. The WCG deconstructed itself. It is unprecedented in the history of cults. Although Schaeffer fils deconstructed his père. I went with the deconstruction and kept on going.
I’d never heard of it before this morning. But there is plenty of similar-sounding stuff I am familiar with here. If it takes deconstruction, there are people I would be glad to hand a crowbar, but they wouldn’t understand or would (maybe already do) think I am a heretic and untrustworthy.
Do you mean Francis and Frank Schaeffer? Did they have a connection to WCG or are they just another example of a cult deconstructed from the inside? [I missed their heyday, just a but too young, for which I am grateful. From what I know of the dadster and of myself, I could have been easily sucked in at the time. Instead I at least had time to hone my suspicion skills.]
I noticed Gerald Flurry still doing his thing on the telly a few weeks ago. He must about 150yo by now … what a trooper!
Still hates the RCC, no doubt; God bless him.
I bet!
“Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy” would be very entertaining; it’s a comedy. If memory serves, it’s all about how the Roman Catholic Church is going to take over Europe and start torturing and killing non-Catholics.
Sounds like a great read that promises to provide hours of fun and laughs for all the family.
Makes perfect sense … I mean, compare the spelling, for starters - “Germany” is so close to “Assyria” - how could you miss it?
The original WCG were famous for their free magazine, “The Plain Truth”, which was distributed worldwide. I remember seeing it displayed at railway stations down here in Australia in the 1970-80s. (Those were the days, by George!)
You can use the google machine to find selected archived copies of The Plain Truth, going all the way back to the 1930s.
No connection. Just a parallel.
This guy is a pivotal witness to ‘the changes’ as we used to call them.
Part of the witness.
@klax and @buzzard, thank you both for this. No wonder I have felt less and less comfortable in the church I have been a part of for ages. I have heard Haanegraff’s name and plenty of other stuff congregation members were “into”. I’ve been living on the fringe of the fringe for a long time.
To be fair, which I wasn’t earier, I’ve bee the fringe on the other end of the rug. Most people I know are not into this stuff but also don’t outright reject it.
Hello Kendel,
After I left school I began drifting away from my Catholic faith and Christianity in general. Several years later, it was the JWs (believe it or not) who got me interested in the Bible again. After I discovered that their Bible is a corruption of the original, I moved on to investigate other forms of Christianity, including the WCG, the Philidelphia Church of God, Baptists and Anglicans. But I found the theology of all of them wanting. It wasn’t until I began studying Catholic theology that realized I’d found the true Church (“the original and the best”, as they say). So I’ve gone full-circle and am a bit like a Catholic “Prodigal Son”. I’m so glad to have to have (re)found my spiritual home!
You’ve seen it all, Buzzard. And done it all. Glad you found a home at last.
I suppose the next think you’ll be telling me is that the aliens in Star Trek and Dr. Who aren’t real. For Pete’s sake.
There are probably aliens raising livestock in Area 51 as we speak.
If I claimed to know how to split an atom, but didn’t then go and split an atom, I wouldn’t expect anyone to take my claim to said knowledge seriously.
Similarly, if someone claimed to know how evolution works, but was completely and uttery clueless about how to achieve a rudimentary evolutionary progression such as producing a eukaryote from a prokaryote, then I wouldn’t take
their claim to said knowledge seriously.
And I haven’t even got to the challenge of actually producing a eukaryote from a prokaryote yet, which would be the true test of said knowledge.
I can’t take someone seriously when they claim the evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes was “rudimentary”.
And once again, you are confusing history with mechanism. We can know how evolution works without needing to know every tiny piece of history from the evolution of life.
Why don’t you first supply the prokaryote with a genome identical to those of prokaryotes that lived billions of years ago.
So people who claim to know how to split an atom need to go out and do it?
I’m willing to concede that we can’t rule out that some mysterious force or agent could have magic’d what we find in the historical record into being rather than natural causes. But that wouldn’t be in the domain of science and cannot count as a scientific answer. (For my money it wouldn’t count as any kind explanation at all to say that something we can’t study or predict brought something into being by means about which we haven’t the first clue.)
Events can be caused by things where we cannot study the cause directly, but we can examine the objective effects and draw conclusions, say, about the forensic M.O. of a cause or a Causer. Neither can we predict the next time the perpetrator (or Perpetrator) will act. We have some objective data and more than a first clue about the latter. The how is wonderfully mysterious though.
“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” -Colossians 4:6
This is a place for gracious dialogue about science and faith. Please read our FAQ/Guidelines before posting.