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Yes. organized Religion is the leading cause of Atheism.

It's refreshing to hear that there's some limit to your powerz.

Sad thing is Hamas would happily throw them off a rooftop. It is weird... israel is everything these lefties claim to want. Free speech, gay rights, civil society, womens rights, etc.... yet they support the violent primitive dothraki horde who grants no rights to its citizens.

Lucifer literally means lightbringer Read. And was Venus, not the moon.

Even the NT suggests it’s a personal journey. It reminds me of what my grandparents used to tell us growing up, “if you have to talk about how good or great you, or your way of thinking, are…..THEN YOU’RE NOT!” cormac

Divers from Naples, Italy have recovered a block of obsidian from the remains of what is likely a Neolithic, or New Stone Age shipwreck near the island of Capri. The natural-glass block is about the size of a very large book and weighs almost 17.6 pounds (8 kilograms). There are visible signs of chiseling on its surface, and archaeologists think it was an obsidian "core" that would have been used to make sharp-edged flakes for cutting. The divers, members of the Naples Police underwater unit, recovered the artifact on Monday (Nov. 20) on the seafloor at a depth of between 100 and 130 feet (30 and 40 meters) according to a translated statement from Italy's Ministry of Culture. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/chiseled-obsidian-recovered-from-neolithic-shipwreck-near-capris-blue-grotto

Today we've launched two new features on the main site: Live Search Now live on the main site is a revamped replacement of our dated site search (this is separate to the forum's search system). The new search box can be found above the main content (rather than in the header) and is a live search, meaning that when you start typing it will give you suggestions without having to submit the form. (The form can still also be submitted as before to obtain more detailed results). The default setting shows encyclopedia entries and news, but you can filter it by section using a separate drop-down on the left. Encyclopedia Returning from the early days of UM is the encyclopedia (previously known as to the A to Z of the Unexplained). While we obviously can't compete with Wikipedia, our encyclopedia will provide hub pages for each subject, offering a summary of that subject, a factual analysis, a ranking (based on the popularity of that subject) and links to related content across the site. At present there are only a small number of encyclopedia entries available but more will be added over time and these will be further integrated throughout the site. To view encyclopedia entries, you can search for terms like 'UFO', 'Bigfoot', 'Ghost' and 'Area 51' in the new live search on the main site. I hope you find these new features useful and as I say, keep an eye out for more updates in the near future. I'll be using this thread to announce additional tweaks and improvements of these two new features. Also, if you run into any errors, please let me know. Thank you. P.S. Big thanks to our Patreon subscribers for helping to make updates like this possible!

Lucifer was also a adjective for the king of Babylon in Isaiah. Not the Devil. I think it was a passive-aggressive throw directly at him.

"They". "These people". This is exactly the type of derisory, partisan rhetoric I was talking about a page or so ago. We are having a discussion about UFOs and the possibilities of alien life - we are not engaged in warfare or competing for political votes. And what has someone's views in this debate got to do with how they go about their daily lives ? What a bizarre comment. Please keep remarks like these off the forums.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:3-4 ESV). I've heard this one a few times.

We live on a hopefully generic planet. Drake's equation tells us could mean there are millions of planets like ours out in the universe. Just on our little planet we have the oppposite of nothingness, we have so much information and chaos going, that if there are millions of life filled planets, nothingness is just another idea in a swirling infinity of ideas. And while on this planet I subscribe personally to a goddess as my personal diety, its me conceptualizing a concept too large for my brain to comprehend. Assuming that gender duality exists as the all encompassing highest form of higher thought kind of falls flat. Other planets may have no gender, or hundreds, may conceptualize dieties in ways impossible for us to imagine. Humans like to ponder the universe for sure but we tend to believe in our importance and earth centrist understanding when we look to the universe for "something greater". Humans I highly doubt are the smartest, greatest offering the universe has to offer. So thinking mediocre evolved hominids corner the market in omnipotent beings and how they are constructed or think is laughable. We just aren't that interesting.

Happy Thanksgiving one and all! cormac

I wonder if they really care about the Palestinians or are they mentally unstable and engaging in pro formative display.

What a bizarre couple of statements. President/Senator Joe Biden has a long history of supporting the right of Israel not only to exist but to defend itself against any attacks on its nation. Biden's also a self described Zionist, much like yourself. Also, every single action by the US GOV and US military since 10/7 unequivocal proves his administration is doing everything it can so the Israel GOV can achieve what they feel is necessary to defend their country. So, I personally have zero clue what you're ranting about when I read your rants on Biden. And I'm even more confused when I see the rants on Obama. Obama, IMO, was just a puppet POTUS. He's black, spoke eloquently and had a great smile and for this was elevated from Jr. Senator to POTUS. He holds no power or international influence anymore.

Evangelical Nihilsm.

Let me get this straight- he's blaming others and threatening to sue because they stopped business with him because of something he said? I think he's another guy that thinks freedom of speech means freedom from consequences. it also seems that he wants to bypass the free market system and have the courts force people to do business with him.

**** that closet Nazi.

In Ireland, where religion has played such a big place in its past, for better or for worse, fewer and fewer people are attending mass on Sunday, and even less are willing to commit themselves to the sanctified life of a priest. -- According to Father Flannery, the sexual abuse scandal surrounding the church is one of the main factors driving people away from religion, but also the fact that the institution is not aligned with modern-day society. “It’s hard enough getting young people to go to mass, and even more so when it is conducted by an 85-year-old”, he tells Euronews over the phone while remembering a recent church event. Coming up to Christmas, he explains that the world has become more “consumerist and materialistic” and that it’s hard for young people to “find a space in life to think about issues around faith, God, and the meaning of life.” Full article at EuroNews

How a man charted a new direction for his life with a one-year experiment

No, facts do.

Although I gave the video a laugh reaction, that was because I interpreted the post as a rejoinder to another poster's stock in trade. In actually watching the video, however, the speaker made a lotof sense to me. I think it was @joc who long ago lamented that there was only one reaction icon per customer, when some posts demand both a laugh (as a reference to our colleague's typical post) and also a "thanks" loving cup. Good talk. It works fine at 1.5x speed. If an hour long talk could be justly summarized in a bullet or two, then it would be a lousy talk. The title is an accurate description of the content, if the subject interests you, you will not regret the time spent listening.

No thanks. I’m not enabling this idiocy.

Not the first time something like that has happen. Must be horrible to live with such religious paranoia. My father is a mason. I've been in a masonic temple (helped move some stuff), the feeling in it was heavy but not malicious. Unlike a church which typically feels like a thousand judgmental eyes upon you.

Lead by example, not preaching is the Quaker way.

For many years, locals living in the Solomon Islands have reported stories of large rats that climb trees and crack open coconuts with their teeth. Because the rats went unstudied by scientists, it was unknown whether the rats were a unique species or even if the stories were true. In 2017, a team of researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago ventured to the islands intent on discovering the truth. They managed to observe several of the rats and even managed to capture one and collect skin samples, which they took back to Chicago. The observations suggested that the rats likely weighed on average 1 kilogram and measured up to 45 centimeters in length—approximately three to four times the size of common brown or black rats. Upon performing a DNA analysis on the skin sample, the team found that the rat was indeed a previously unknown species—they named it Uromys vika. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-team-first-ever-photos-vangunu-giant.html https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.10703

I don't know much about Islam, I've read a couple of Sufi authors and found them very helpful and inspiring, but that's about it!! But I do find it strange how Islam and Christianity have always been pitted against each other, even though they share the same roots..?

A 1,400-year-old "possible temple" has been discovered near Sutton Hoo. Suffolk County Council said the find was made at Rendlesham, in Suffolk as part of an archaeology project. It is thought the temple could have been overseen by King Raedwald, who died in AD 625 and is believed to have been buried at Sutton Hoo. The discovery comes a year after the remains of a large timber royal hall were unearthed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67496541 Related:

Chinese hospitals have been “overwhelmed with sick children” as an outbreak of pneumonia escalates in cities across the country, including Beijing, according to reports. ProMed – a large, publicly available surveillance system which monitors human and animal disease outbreaks worldwide – issued a notification late on Tuesday detailing a reported epidemic of “undiagnosed pneumonia” in children. MSN Zhou Huixia, director of the children's medical center at the Seventh Medical Center of the Chinese PLA General Hospital, said during an interview with China Daily that the number of mycoplasma pneumoniae infections resulting in hospital visits began rising in May and has increased rapidly since August. "The wave has appeared particularly ferocious since the National Day holiday in early October," she said. "Compared to previous years, we found more patients with mixed infections, drug resistance and lobar pneumonia. "This wave is intense, and we are expecting to experience the peak of the outbreak throughout the next month," she added. China Daily

Geoscientist Elizaveta Kovaleva explains how she and her colleagues unraveled the mystery of the yellow desert glass. https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/372387/mysterious-yellow-glass-in-libya-traced-back-to-extraterrestrial-impact

I get the frustration but I'm in a good mood and all the negativity around protesting has me thinking of Monty Python 😁

They have to offend, because they are offended. Need everyone to know they are offended. Because that's how the USA is today. The offended make the news, and the other 99% have to work around them to get things done, while government, news, and big business, pander to the loud mouths and coddle them. We all have the right to protest, but we don't have the right to take away from others.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/project-2025-heritage-foundation/2023/11/21/id/1143159/ THIS^ is going to set the Left off into massive waves of hysteria. They're going to call it everything from a "coup" to a dictatorial putsch. Those who support it - like myself - recognize it as the ONLY way to stop the bureaucrats in DC from doing again what they did between 2017-2021. Opinions?

Although it's obvious that much of the "Democrats stuffing the ballot boxes" remarks from people on here are unsupported conjecture, a case from Iowa shows that it may also be projection. Not for nothing, it also shows that such schemes, when they exist, are recognizable and able to be proven in court. https://www.iowapublicradio.org/ipr-news/2023-11-21/woodbury-county-supervisors-wife-found-guilty-of-52-counts-of-voter-fraud

A Roman emperor has been branded transgender by a British museum, provoking uproar among historians. The North Hertfordshire Museum has decided to refer to the 3rd-century AD ruler Elagabalus as 'she' to be 'sensitive' to his pronoun preferences in a display. The council-run museum in Hitchin, which consults with the LGBT charity Stonewall, owns a coin minted in the reign and uses it in LGBT-themed displays. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12772931/Roman-Emperor-Elagabalus-transgender-referred-museum.html

There is a reasonably intact archaeological record of cultures in Anatolia that show a progression of structures that led to the type found at Gobekli Tepe. Starts with the Natufians, thousands of years before Gobekli Tepe. Harte

Word salad scale is more like it.

From what I can tell, we're nicer than the political section.

That just takes the fun out of everything.😆

That's what I said. Set up a transgender league and be done with it.

You keep saying this and it's starting to p*** me off. Now all you have to do is actually meet a Jew. Make friends with them. Learn the Old Testament from a actual Rabbi and teach Jewish children the Old Testament at a Friend's First Day School. There is nobody more supportive defender of the Jewish religion on here than myself because you Evangelicals and the Urantia douches actually chased the 2 Jewish members away with what my Quaker Clerk, who is also a Rabbi calls your ****ing "antisemitism in denial". And I've seen your posts saying Jews must accept Jesus even though he doesn't even come close to their idea of a Messiah.

Violent clashes break out in Dublin after knife attack that injured 3 children, one seriously November 23, 2023 LONDON (AP) — Violent clashes broke out in central Dublin on Thursday evening, with vehicles torched and riot police attacked, after a 5-year-old girl was seriously injured in a knife attack earlier in the day that also saw a woman and two other young children hospitalized. Irish police said the girl was receiving emergency medical treatment in a Dublin hospital following the attack outside a school. Soon after that announcement, at least 100 people took to the streets, some armed with metal bars and covering their faces. https://apnews.com/article/dublin-ireland-stabbing-children-9a75c71fbac34fe789220c684c5eb661

Our pet fascist, fraudster, political agitator, and habitual criminal was surprised to find himself arrested once again. English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson was pepper-sprayed by police as they arrested him at an antisemitism march in London. Robinson was detained by dozens of officers near the Royal Courts of Justice, from where the demonstration began on Sunday, after march organisers said he would not be welcome. The 40 year-old, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, uploaded a video on social media of his partially closed eyes after officers used the synthetic pepper spray. He was still in police custody on Sunday evening, A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “The arrested man resisted as officers attempted to put him in handcuffs. He was warned repeatedly before PAVA spray was used. Following its use, officers gained control of him and handcuffs were applied.” Tommy Robinson pepper sprayed by police during arrest at march against antisemitism | The Independent

The statement is fallacious because he has clearly not provided data and evidence that confirms 'beyond a shadow of a doubt' that UFOs 'are not man-made'. It's not sound reasoning, it's simply not true.

Yep, my Aunt Nancy was a member of the Eastern Star. Awesome food and annual cruises. What more could you want? There’s also the DiMolay organization for young adults who eventually want to become Masons.

I was watching a YouTube video on the Kaaba in Mecca. And a question popped in my head. Muhammad supposedly styled Islam after Judiasm, and Christianity. Using elements of both. But what was his background with either of those? From my quick searching, it doesn't seem he was a dissatisfied Jew, or Christian. So was he a pagan Arab before becoming a Prophet of Allah? Was he raised worshipping multiple gods with small stone idol/shrines? Where did his knowledge of Judiasm and Christianity, come from? From his time as a merchant? He supposedly was around 40 when he had his encounter with Allah telling him to be a Prophet. What was his religion before that? More curiosity, and I'm not trying to make some kind of "Gotcha!!".

LOL, yes, I think I can sense the hidden agenda here.

Tall White Nordics? Or the Annuckleheads?

They were both the children of addicts in denial. I learned later it's genetic. My biological is a success and my grandson who's with me now for holliday. @Piney's_Little_Ninja just graduated top of his class in the U.S Army medic school at Ft. Sam Houston and is leaving for Boston on Sunday for trauma nurse school. He always wanted to be me and now he surpassed me and in 6 years he will be here serving here.

Obviously I am not suggesting what Hancock is that this all just appeared out of nowhere. As I said, there is no question they used stone to make structures before Urfa, but so far the precursors do not account for the leap in social/organizational complexity seen in the Urfa sites, i.e. a "civilization", which GT is but one of several which at least one, Karahan Tepe, is thought to be even older ("much older" according to some of the excavators). Of course it is expected this region would share cultural similarities and show evidence of contemporary social and material evolution which on balance would be all that is required to have built the Urfa structures. But this is not the precedent that is missing but rather a demonstrated social/organizational complexity substantial enough to account for such large complexes which in and of themselves do, for now, just "appear overnight". The answer would be either a group one day became particularly motivated to make something well beyond what had ever been seen before or there are more intermediary sites yet to still be found which I have always argued the latter. The first and most sophisticated phase at GT dates to c.9500BC. Most of the sites noted in the video date to this time or later which none of the dates for any of these are absolute so there is little value in saying a site dates to c. 9700BC vs c 9500BC anyways. It appears he is often confusing the dates the sites were founded with the dating of the structures themselves or is misusing one of the later occupation dates for GT. He notes the tower at Tell es-Sultan (Jehrico) as an example though it dates to c. 8300BC, some 1000yrs after GT. WF16 was occupied from c. 9800BC-8200BC which the "megastructure" he refers to dates to c. 9300BC or later. Qermez Dere c. 8500-7900BC. Hasankeyf Höyük, "10th millennium". Jerf el Ahmar 9200-8700BC. Hallan Cemi c. 9500BC. The only site directly related would be Cakmaktepe which apparently dates to c. 9900-9800BC though I am not finding any papers on this site to review these findings. To take these dates at face value, this is good news as this would give a good 300+ yrs of development still yet to be found which is ultimately at the very least what is predicted by the Urfa sites anyways.