Troy

Mr. One-who-answers-no-questions, you are the master of diversionary tactics aren't you? You can't find anything to support your alien invasion claim, but you can cherry pick text from an obsure text rather than answer a simple question. You could also include the entire text, the part that describes the relativistic nature of the speed of light. Better yet, just tell me if one plus one plus is two is a fact or not. Because pretending like you understand Einstein's theory put you in a small club of theoretical physicists. Plus it does not distract me from the fact that you have no response to my contention that there are indeed facts. So, is 1+1=2 a fact or not @Delano?

@Delano, one-who-answers-no-questions, a black hole is perhaps the exact opposite of a vacuum and nothing alters the speed of light. E, in the equation, is not a constant, but c is. But all of this is besides the point. I stated what are obvious facts. Is not 1+ 1 equal to 2 @Delano? Is that not a factual statement? Would you at least answer THAT simple question and thereby lay your objection to my statement to rest?

This conversation illutrates what happens when you mix fact with fantasy. So you two believe in Adam (and presumably Eve) as in the 1st two people on Earth the progenitors of all of mankind, who some omnipotent being ejected from the garden of eden, along with some other punishments, for eating an apple on the urging of a talking snake? Do you two, @Chevdove and @Pioneer1 believe this story... literarlly?

@Delano what temperature does water boil at room temperature at sea level? What is the speed of light in a vacuum? What is 1+1? We know these things because they are facts. It does does not matter what your objective reality is, these things will always be true, as long as you are in THIS universe... and we are all in this universe.

@Delano I don't waste my time on wild goose chases, but if you provided a source I'd read it. The fact that I have not heard about this alien sighting by now is not a good indication that it's true. Again, where did you learn this?

Chevdove this is my point. Everything YOU'VE expressed about your malfunctioning GPS is not supported by the articles. You are overreacting and jumping to conclusions. It is also telling that you cite you family friend as proof and when asked about specifics you say you don't understand what he said. Do you see why, with all due respect (if you were @Pioneer1 I'd be far less delicate 😉) this is can be viewed as sloppy thinking? Next time your phone's GPS starts acting up, simply reboot the thing.

LOL! I wish an alien would visit and reveal themselves. I just hope they come armed cause you know Earthling would try to kill them and steal their technology

@Cynique in the final analysis, at the most granular level, this is true. At a macro level, the kind of things we can observe like the tossing of a ball, we can understand these things. @Delano there are some facts, but probably not an objective reality. Both IMHO 🙂

Interesting. Also flood stories permeate civilizations all over the ancient world. Some believe they are myths that arose as a result of the end of the last ice age and the resulting sea level rise. @NubianFellow, @Chevdove I've been remiss not reacting to this statement, "As far as I know, no black publishing company has ever printed one bible. " There are a at least a few that I'm aware of; one has previously advertised on the website, My Bible Culture is one such company. Their products are well done and I would recommend their books to Christians.

@Delano would you care to provide a source? I'm not inclined to believe this amazing claim based solely because you say somebody from Harvard says it. Just because someone from Harvard says something does not make it sacrosanct.

Nubian, lighten up. I was being sarcastic. I could give an "F" about King James 🙂 Facebook poses no threat to Google. Google is THE Internet's gatekeeper and Facebook is at Google's mercy. I've actually noticed that Google has pushed Facebook down in search results. Today Google is the most frequently visited website. Google's YouTube is the 2nd, making it the most popular social media platform. You'd think that this would be more widely know, but all of media is at Google mercy, so we do see as many critiques of Google as many as we should. Facebook's demise is at hand. The user base is growing older -- not a good thing. Instagram will help them, but even Instagram is under pressure from new platforms like Tic Tok and others.

What if you are wrong? I'm not being trite by saying that. I could be wrong, but what difference does it make? The answer is unknowable or rather unproveable. As @Delano suggests we can use our intuition to gain this insight on this idea, but we will most certainly never be able to prove it. Again, the ball will fall. It does not matter if the reason it falls is beyond our comprehension. In fact. most people have no clue why the ball falls.

That was very spiritual of you LOL! I'm always begging the universe for something... a good woman, more money, the death of Facebook 🙂 This and the rest of what you wrote is basically the idea behind The Secret. Have you read that book? Interestingly, I have never thought of it this way before, but I agree with he statement. Indeed it is no different than say social media. People tout the "power" of social, but that is because they have been trained to think that was by the social media marketers and they don't know anything else. Of course I prefer the Thines and Thous in the KIng James Version: Deuteronomy Chapter 20, verses 1 - 20 1 When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, 3 And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; 4 For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. 5 And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. 6 And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. 7 And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. 8 And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. 9 And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people. 10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. 11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. 12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: 13 And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: 14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. 15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. 16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: 17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: 18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God. 19 When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege: 20 Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.

Yes, everything including you question to me and the words I'm typing now. It is all deterministic. As @Delano said our sense of free will is an illusion -- a elaborate one to be sure. It is so complex, that to our simple minds it is indistinguishable from free will or randomness.

@Cynique you know if you throw a ball one can determine precisely where it will land given enought information about the weight of the ball, your strength, wind speed, angle of release, etc. It is a relatively minor calculation once you have all the info. Im suggesting, as Del implied, that even your very decision the throw the ball could be predetermined with enough information. The idea that you "decided" to throw the ball is an illusion. No different than the ball "deciding" to land on the ground after sailing through the air.

Yeah happens all the time. We used to think they were Gods, then aliens It was probably just a weather ballon...

This has to be true (I think) But this does not mean there is a reason for anything, and it means everything that happened or will happen could be determined provided we had the computational power.

This is really a follow up to a conversation that divereged from the inherent beauty of Black women to spirituality. Often we hear the phrase, "Everything happens for a reason." The phrase is bandied about so much it is a cliche; a catch-all, used in place of an actual explanation. No matter how bad the event: "Everything happens for a reason." Death of a child, genocide, a fender bender, lost keys, running into an old flame or meeting a new one; "Everything happens for a reason." Of course this means that the Universe, Zeus, Jehovah, or (insert your favorite deity) had a hand in it. Does anyone believe this? Does everything really happen for a reason? Why?

Thanks for the elucidation @NubianFellow I mostly ageee with what you wrote (though it is not sentiment I typically express publucally (save my closest friends who mostly feel the same way). I do not know about all the religions out there to be confident enough to make this statement. Surely there is some overlap with your definition of spirituality and some religion ou there, but again i dont know. @NubianFellow do you pray? Of course i don't mean in the conventional sense as to some mythical omniscient deity...

@NubianFellow (or anybody) what does "spirtuality" mean to you? While I get you reject religion in totality. Spirtuality implies a belief in a spirt or soul. Do you believe we have eternal non corporeal soul? Do you believe "we are all one?" Do you believe in a God. What hapoens after we die? While I don't follow a religion for the reasons you stated and more. I do believe there is more to our existence than what we can perceive, but that is probably nothing more than wishful thinking; a hope that after we kick the bucket that there is more than us just turning to dust... religion seems to be a more eloborate, ritualized manifestation of that same hope. That is why I don't come down as hard as you do on folks who follow a religion. Some people need the structure and certainly and my world view would provide little confort. Of course I draw a line and woukd come hard on religious folks who wanna force their relgion on others, which the leadership generally wants to do. The masses however just need something to believe in, to help them endure the often shitty existence here on Earth.

...yes he always does 🙂

@Delano😉 @Chevdove not all cell phones use GPS in their navigqtion systems. Also did you actually read the article? It said unless you were in the extreme northen hemispheres the impact is negligible and that is assuming the magnetic field has any impact on cell phone nav systems -- and that is a big if. Clouds have no impact on the satellite systems or the earths magnetic field. Civillian system do not have same level of accuracy as milliarty systems. Maybe when we have self driving cars, but i assure your your cell phone is not nearly as precise as a military grade system. You should have asked your relative how the earth's magnetic field impacts your GPS system. Besides what does having an aerospace degree have do with it? I have a degree in electrical engineering which is actually more related to the subject. But you don't need a degree to understand the concepts. Since he said exactly what was in the article, please copy and o3aste the part that says cell phone GPS systems will malfunction because of the current state of the earths magnetic fields.... I'll wait.... It was just a coincidence your system failed when you heard the story.

I'm overwhelmed. Y'all may as well he speaking Greek. But i will print this out and try to understand what ya'll are talking about-- when I'm well rested.

Naw @Cynique, @Pioneer1was combining the words "Silly" with "Cynique" to get "Sillique," like "sillioneer" or "sillelano"

@Pioneer1 men are better at navigating than women (on average). Dependence on GPS only makes one's ability to navigate worse.