What is Evangelism?

Cobbler has not used that phrase.

This reminded me of Yali's question.

https://www.mindmeister.com/93403763/yali-s-question-why-do-white-men-have-so-much-cargo-and-new-guineans-so-little

You are white, you never suffered discrimination, you were offered jobs because of lack of discrimination. You were fortunate enough to come from a stable background, your Catholicism allows you entry to the closed shop of Catholic job opportunities. How many job offers came from that closed community? And you live in a huge country with vast resources stolen from the indigenous population most of whom were massacred. Why shouldn't Sitting Bull's children be allowed to keep the wealth/land they'd accumulated?

The flip side of what you're saying is that those who are not as successful as you are inferior and do not deserve the same treatment as those who are like you. It's not a million miles away from what the Nazis were saying.

I've noticed a complete lack of empathy in your posts for those less fortunate than yourself. They deserve their poverty, they should have been born into a stable white family like you. Again it's not a million miles from what the Nazis were saying.

The woman living in my rental was white the fathers of her children I offered jobs to were African American.

I worked alongside African Americans and Hispanics in a factory job and as a laborer. Some were in supervisory jobs and some were laborers. There was only one thing in common among all successful employees and it was not race because I saw all races succeed and get promoted. The commonality is they worked hard and were mostly honest people. I didn’t have a job that paid a living wage till I was 40 and at 30 my first job was my own business. I always had a second job or third job. So have most of my relatives. I don’t know if I ever worked for a catholic, never asked them.

One time I went to apply for a second job at a factory. They said they hire through the job service you must apply there. I went there and tested and they said my hands were to slow to work an assembly job so I took a job as a feed truck driver.

Three weeks later a friend of my dad that worked at the factory told my dad that they are getting such losers from the job service that they dropped them and are hiring themselves. I applied at the factory and got the job. Worked one full time and two partime jobs the whole 7 years I was there. None paid a living wage, but the three allowed us to save money and pay off student loans with my wife’s full time job.

I made my employers wealthy while serving my country. I saw minorities and women doing the same thing. We had one thing in common, we worked hard, didn’t bitch about doing work that was beneath (because there is know such thing if it isn’t Drastically shortening your life). My father is dying from lung disease at 75 maybe from farming and I have a chronic cough but we have no regrets. We are thankful we were able to work hard and support our families. I am looking for young people like me. I already hired one of my sons (one is already an electrician and the another is a high school English teacher but they work for me partime still today. Nothing is below them either.)

Let's get something straight. I'm not calling you racist or homophobic, (you did display some ignorance about transgender issues but hopefully we can put that to one side.) Neither am I saying that you haven't worked hard and that you don't deserve your wealth.

What I am saying is that you, like me, benefit from white privilege, which you seem in complete denial about. It's not a case of just working hard, other factors come into play, white privilege, a stable home environment, social interaction with professionals and good luck.

I think there's a huge amount of people who have worked as hard as you, if not harder, yet are still struggling to make ends meet. Some of the poorest paid people work the longest hours yet have little to show for it.

When you attribute all of your success to hard work and your Catholic background, you're showing a complete lack of empathy and understanding for those, and there are millions of them globally, who are not as fortunate as you or me.

The link I posted is just one that came up when I posted Yali's question. It's an important one, why do Westerners like you and me have so much compared to a tribesman like Yali? The easy answer is that we're somehow harder working and inherently superior to people like him, yet the truth is more complicated.

Those of us who originated in the Eurasian plains had access to high protein cereal crops, domesticated animals, good communications and mineral resources that people like Yali did not have.

I'm oversimplifying, the truth is far more complicated and nuanced, but at the end of the day part of our success and status can be attributed to nothing but good luck in being born where we were.

Again, I'm not saying you don't deserve what you've worked hard to achieve, but if hard work was all that mattered Hispanic fruit pickers would be millionaires and Donald Trump would be on skid row.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 1.3 million gallons (4.9 million liters) of petroleum are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. A major oil spill could easily double that amount. Apr 23, 2010

Just as you are oblivious to the amount of destruction to our environment by corporations (oil in this example) you are oblivious of the crippling impact of corporatism on people and how it can leave them unwilling to work a job that they feel is unfulfilling.

It is not just about the amount of money a job pays. It is the idea of becoming a slave to a monotonous repetitive task that is unfulfilling and insulting to a person's dignity who has been used in such a manner before.

Until you have had to shovel **** all day for next to nothing don't judge a person for not wanting another job.

Some people would rather live poor and have their own time than forfeit 60 hours a week and never have a waking moment for themselves. They have had their nose put to the grind and at some point swore they would never again be used in such a careless manner.

Until you have been disrespectfully abused for another person's gain you are not qualified to judge another person's choices. For, were you treated in the self-same manner, perhaps you would buckle too.

One example is the armed service. Many veterans who have seen combat are not only unwilling to work, they also have no will to even live.

They one day wake up and realize they were used as a pawn in a greater game that they are unwilling to play anymore...

Have you ever wondered why men have nipples?

It is because all men have undergone a sex change at one point...

Good point, Who performed it and why?

1.3 million gallons is a small amount for a country our size. The environment can easily handle that. More than that seeps into the oceans naturally. That much leaks into the ocean naturally of of Santa Barbra each year.

I started working 6o hours a week on our farm when I was 12 years old. I scooped a lot of manure. I threw a lot of hay bales. Got paid in room and board.

I worked on an assembly line doing the same task for 7 years. Hated it at first because I took the job as a temporary thing to get my wife through college while I farmed. It paid better than farming. After 2 years of feeling sorry for myself since I couldn’t find enough farm ground to rent to farm full time I recognized I might never get out of that factory and I better make the best of it or start a new career. From that day on I appreciated every job I had and my employers could tell. That’s when you start going someplace and get promotions and other job offers.

Eventually i did build a farm that grossed about 1.2 million annually in sales. Never netted much income though except for the last 3 years when I probably made a million total. Then I changed businesses.

I’ve experienced everything you suggested that I didn’t. I am thankful for all of it because I was successful at growing in character and wealth while I raised a healthy and successful group of 5 kids and a couple of foster kids.

My Great Uncle was in the first special forces unit in WW II.. There were over 100 men in his companythat went on a mission together and 6 returned alive. He was severely injured spent 13 months in a hospital and could never have children. But he was a very successful businessman and uncle to his nieces and nephews, and the greatnieces and great nephewsnephews.

When he was 80 he watched the movie the Devil’s Brigade (the movie about the first special forces Brigade) with us and told us where he was in the scenes he was involved in. All 40 of his nieces and nephews laughed and sobbed with him. We especially cried when he said he was standing next to his colonel who was murdered while receiving the white flag during a German surrender of troops in Italy. We never new what he went through and it was good for him and us. HE WAS VERY PROUD OF HIS SERVICE.

He died in a VA hospital. He still tried killing the nurses at the end as Alzheimer’s took over and his mind went back to the war.

He was one of the reasons I served. I never saw battle but I have close friends that served in Iraq that had similar experiences as my great uncle. I can only hope that I would have performed as valiantly as them if I was put into their situation.

I was always treated with respect by my employers when I earned it. I didn’t always give the proper effort and was treated accordingly.

I’ve buckled, picked myself up and drove on. Every time I’ve buckled I’ve looked back and realized it was unecesary and next time I’ll hang in there. Don’t buckle much anymore. I put it in God’s hands instead. Like my Great Uncle and parents did.

Everybody reacts to combat fatigue differently.

Source?

Arizona Department of Education removes 'evolution' from science texts because god
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/23/1766533/-Arizona-Department-of-Education-removes-evolution-from-science-texts-because-god

I wonder if Arizona's fundamentalist evangelicals might consider removing evolution from the book of Genesis?

Particularly these troublesome words... "Let the earth bring forth..."

And verses like this, "and God formed man from the dust of the ground"

To form something denotes "passage of time" and I wonder how many forms man took on before God was finished?

Considering God started with dust, it would seem a lot of forms gradually happened over eons of time...

Maybe creationists need to edit these references to evolution and many more from the Bible so it aligns with their narrow and close minded views on how God formed life on this planet.

Oh, and when it says, "God created man in his own image?"

What image is God?

Spirit, which "has no form or comeliness..."

https://www.livescience.com/5422-natural-oil-spills-surprising-amount-seeps-sea.html

Arizona's proposed change:


What is wrong with the change?

The word "evolution" denotes gradual change while "biological diversity" could be construed as, poof, there it is...

"Evolution" denotes always moving to a goal which implies intelligence. Random mutations don't always lead to a goal of higher complexity or adaptation to the environment because extinction or ending evolution is always a possibility so, bio diversity is more accurate depiction of what is happening during natural evolution by random sources. I think she is more accurately depicting what is going on and actually supporting your point of view of random introduction of new information rather than intelligently derived introduction of new information of a creationist or ID point of view.

What do you think?

If they are hungry, instead of starting an amoral heartless government program, feed them.

If they are sick, instead of starting a morally blind government program, take care of them.

If they are strangers, invite them in to your country as fast as you can assimilate them into society to maintain security and the American way.

The American way is for rugged and successful individuals who live lives based on Christian values (they learned at home and in school) to take care of the poor and weak individuals. That builds communities that are intimate and moral.

Teach that pattern and you will have the most successful civilization ever. We built this country on this pattern. Let's keep going.

Evolution does not have to be guided by "intelligence"... and it does not have to be random either.

It can be guided by gravity and magnetism, take for instance sex. Not all sex is guided by intelligence; contrarily, it is guided by magnetism and gravity. Not all pretty people are smart.

Bio diversity implies or can be construed to mean that it somehow just popped into existence...

Evolution started with chemicals that through magnetism and gravity formed into compounds and then into structures, just like words start with syllables and then form sentences, paragraphs then entire books. Not all books require intelligence, some of them are pretty trashy and they are written completely by an animalistic urge and blind compunction.

Words are perhaps even a product of numbers.

Magnetic waves have patterns with which to "over time" organize elements into intricate forms.

And before spoken words there were mere thoughts and intentions.

Things evolve, they do not just pop into existence already fully grown and diverse. Nearly all languages evolve and take years before they are ever written.

Music is comprised of waves and vibrations at certain frequencies. Through gravity, time and tempo and ideas driven by harmonic and magnetic patterns, these waves form tones and a spectrum of instruments are devised to play them. Then composers write, and musicians practice and "over time" a performance is accomplished.

Songs just do not pop into existence all on their own without the process of music's "evolution". (if so, a lot of sound engineers would be out of a job.)

Not all music requires intelligence, sometimes it only needs a beat and an attraction to a certain melodic phrase or cadence. Time signatures are merely a form of gravity.

It is not like the body of the world's music all was "created" at the exact same moment. That is just as preposterous as believing in creationism.

Each instrument was designed at different times and each style has different eras.

Bio diversity was not created all at once but it evolved. Bio diversity is the produce of evolution and to dumb down that truth is not an act of "intelligence". No creator is needed for evolution to occur, only gravity and magnetism which the Earth has plenty of.

Bio diversity is a product of our Earth and if that is intelligent design, well then, the Earth must be pretty smart.

Could you give me an example of one that had no intelligence behind it.. Even animalistic people have intelligence.



Yes it is a product of the biosystems on the Earth. Some body wrote that code.

Who wrote the code for up and down and shapes like squares and spheres or do they simply exist on their own?

Animals have intelligence but sometimes even sophisticated animals rarely use it.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the telephone book requires only automated listings that require no intelligence to compile, just a program.

Gravity, attraction and magnetism are just like tones and squares, they simply exist like cold and hot.

A volcano can get hot, what is the intelligence behind that?

The earth uses balance and isostasy to regulate its surface. No God is needed to make the wind blow.

I could list a few posts here on A2k that took no intelligence whatsoever to post.

Why and how does Gravity, attraction, magnetism, tones and squares, exist?

How are you able to even perceive them and have a conversation about them with me?

No you can't and, that is my point.