New Mars Forums

Cindy, I can understand your confusion.  I hope this will clear it up a bit!

    One of the main attributes of God is that He must be enternal, exsiting outside of time/space in order to actually create it.  Since God is not made up of material, but is rather a pure concousis then He has all information availible to Him at all instances.  He did not later "decide" to send His son, but rather used his son retroactivly as he exsits fully in all time, and it would make no difference when Christ was finally cruciefied. 
   As for the prophecys, (and the bible as a whole) are considered to be special revelation, as compared to general revelation (the watchmaker and other indirect means).  Special revelation is important as it is a direct means of contact to his plans and his decrees.  Also, He can speak to individual man, to further His plan as necessary.  (its ok to talk to him, but when you are talked to is that good?)And of course, it makes for a good warning when the people stray.  The bible also states that after the revelation to peter, that the word of god is complete and that there shall be nothing added on to it, even if some "heavenly" being demanded it to be so. 
    He is not reliant on anything, but anything He has created is reliant on him for exsitance.  That is why it is that we must obey what he commands, for He has given us his law and it is just.  It is just on the gounds that he is the arbitrator of the creation. 
     The penalty of sin is death, sooner or later.  And everyone sins.  The prophecys predicted the messiah to die sinless, to die to take the sin of his elect instead with him.  Who are the elect?  No one knows, save through special revelation.  It is not worthy to try and locate them as it is only for God to have predestinated them through grace. 
      Further, it is possible for people outside of christiananity to be saved though this grace.  The prohept Isiah declares the Gentiles (non-jews) to be able to partake in the company of the elect.  After all, Cyrus (persian commander) liberated israel and he is considered by Isaih to be one of the elect.  Nothing we do can save ourselves through His eyes, but He may make you one of His elect, and if you are so then nothing can change that, given that christ died for his elect. 

I hope that cleared up some confusion.  I certainly respect that some of you are atheist, angonisc, deistic or otherwise, but I hope this answers Cindys question well enough.

Are they truely illogical?  Time erases meaning to things like nothing else.

The power gird that failed in my area did so under a organization that was quasi government and quasi business.  Some would beg the question why we don't deregulate everything that concerns the ultilitys.  The truth is, we can't truly do so; govenernment and business are fused as one.  There is no clear line where business and government begins. 

Many times the state and society are one, but not always.  society often adheres to the social contract, where withen themselves they agree to give up some of their freedoms to insure other freedoms and their own survival.  Ultimately, there is no counter-culture, as when they rise to power, they become the state, simply by definition of the social contract.  The privillaged are those who have charisma, respect, and to some degree a following for that person(s).  Linage helps in gathering experience and education, but in the end it is the ideals and cohension of that following that determine what power the privillaged have.  It only takes an incredibly small number of "true believers" to move mountains, heaven and earth in a society given that most people just couldn't care less about ideals.  But there are always enough that do.

Even today, with all the information, less than 50% of the electorate in the USA voted during the presidental election.  out of that 50%, very few really had a sense of importance as to the value of their vote.  Senatorial elections are decided on extremly small porportions of the population, and that is where the more idealistic "crusaders" appear.  The senators that reapeatedly get in office have an highly idealistic organization behind them, ready to do allmost anything for their "cause".  They do care, and they do get their "hero" elected.  The general population, by and large, cannot even recall who their senator or rep is.  They just don't care enough, but these organizations are more than enough to keep these senators in power.

Who needs diary products?  Just look at the chinese!  They went without it for 3,000 years. 

As for meat, what about chicken?  some large mega farms produce a great deal of eggs and meat, although I don't know how much grain and meal they consume.

Powerless to be born, we rise for some unseen destiny
The might of man is not in himself, but only in his creator's creation.
But what is the good of destiny when all is naught
And all exhortions against the heavens futile?
Are we but unbroken puppets in the scheme
Or are we more than conquers in all our dominion?
Is it a pleasure of life or an pain of life?
All questions are cut short, as we are powerless to die.

You are absolutly right.  however, there is also a wave formation model in conjuction with the particle model. . . . . .I am not sure how they all interact.  There are some smart cookies on this site that will surely know, just wait and see!

soph, what are you talking about?

Show me the math!  I am desperate for info on NERVA.

If that is the case then lets do it!

Who are your heros and why?

So would I.  But man are not perfect angels. 

Amen.

That is what happens when the establishment of a country is destroyed.  Unfortantly, americans are not trying very hard to replace that establishment with anything that might someday challege them.  After all, many americans would love france to suck up to us for giving them so much assistance after WWII.  The problem with the marshall plan was that we expect the population of that country to be loyal to our forgien policy aims.  Unfortantly,  a weak establishment is rather prone to being overthrown.  Do we want puppets or do we want to consort with mighty nations that could conceivable challege us?  Personally I would rather see more nations like france, strong and on their feet. 

*we* is americans as a whole.

Then use idealism.  A mighty exhortion is always more attractive than a dry speech to the voters.  "New Frontier" "Holy Land II" will get more attention and arouse more people than anything else.  Proclaim your will to colonize mars as a holy crusade and the disaffected will notice.  Just look at how the NuclearSpace website works to get an idea how to turn an nonexsitant issue into something that people will give time and money to.  Ah, the idealism of the space program is the very cause for its exsitance, but is a very pragmatic idealism when it comes to poltics.

I like puppies.

I hate hand cream, I can't get over the thought of using it. 

I love cross country.

True.  Think about it, all their power relys on being what the world revolves around, an alternative will only destroy them.

*Them being the coal and oil establishment.

True.  Something also ingored is Nuclear power.  In my state, Ohio, 2 plants provide 11% of all the power used by my state.  JUST 2!!!!!!!!   They don't use any coal or oil at all.  In all ways, nuke is superior to coal and oil.  France has most of its eletric from nuke plants. . . . . . .I want it to happen here too. (america)