What qualifications are required?

Ah, so it's not just me. Whenever anyone disagrees with you you launch into false accusations of incompetency and bias.Good to know.

Yet another pointless post where all you do is whine. Take a break and see if you can improve your posting skills.

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Hi EltonianJames,I read a few of your posts but didn't have enough time to read the threads to get an idea of the context, so though I couldn't see sufficient cause I'm going to have defer to AdminJar's judgment that a short suspension was called for. One thought that occurs to me, though, is that politely ignoring moderator requests isn't considered a big improvement over rudely ignoring them. At any given period of time we have from 50 to a 100 people contributing to threads, keeping things humming smoothly takes effort and dedication, and moderators who have been at the game for a while are usually able to spot the early signs of a thread about to spin out of control.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Frankly, I coudn't find sufficient cause either other than adminjar did not like me questioning his ethics on this board. This thread, begun by brian is about qualifications, specifically about who is qualified to comment on the Bible. As I have stated before, every is able to comment on the Bible as is every able to comment on the TOE.Having the ability is not the same as having the qualification, although several evos may disagree with that. I have also stated that I am not qualified to comment on the TOE except in general terms, hence you will not find me in the science areas trying to inject the Bible as a scientific document although I believe that there is much in the Bible that is science related.However, certain evos feel they are aptly qualified to comment on the Bible, citing a verse here or there in an attempt to use it to support their position which, when stood up against other verses of scripture, makes their argument fall flat and shows just how unqualified they really are.Crashfrog, (and others), seem to feel they are quite qualified in a number of areas and when I used cut-n-paste to show an example of that, jar started whining about me being off topic. Even a simple cursory reading of earlier posts will reveal any number of similar violations by evos that went unchallenged. At that point I questioned jars' ability to monitor in an unbiased and professional manner, (in a round about way), which apparently led to a short suspension which I am sorry to say I missed as I was away for awhile.I think the best thing for me to do is avoid and ignore both crashfrog and jar while doing my best to remain on topic, which is not always easy to do without adopting a policy of not responding to replies that may be a little off topic. I will work on that. So, getting back on topic here, both crashfrog and jar have shown that they are as woefully unqualified to comment on the deep things of the Bible as I am to comment on the deep things of the Toe.Enough said! Here's to hoping this thread can remain on topic and that all admins will behave in a totally professional and unbiased manner as they perform their admin duties.Peace!

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"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." Albert Einstein

Everyone is qualified to speak on any subject they have actually read about. They can be wrong if their source material is wrong, or simply because a layman is unlikely to have the depth of understanding of a trained professional, but faulty arguments can be shown to be faulty.I feel qualified to comment on both the Bible AND Evolution on a public message board, despite formal training in neither. If my lack of extended study leads me to make a faulty argument, or just plain be wrong, simply point it out, prove me wrong, and move on. Oh, give over! Quit whining about supposed slights from mods, and deal with arguments! You don't have to LIKE CF or Jar, but their arguments are seperate from your dislike.

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Every time a fundy breaks the laws of thermodynamics, Schroedinger probably kills his cat.

It's not worth complaining too much about the moderation. It's not that we don't listen. In fact, the moderation thread has given us lots of great suggestions, and if you have moderator related issues then that's the thread: General discussion of moderation procedures: The Sequel. But the moderators are just people like anyone else, biased and imperfect. By the way, one of our enforcement methods is to threaten to make people moderators. And if that doesn't work, we actually carry it out!

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Oh, no, mercy, mercy, not the mod job

More comments from others on how everyone is qualified so as long as they have read material regarding the given subject at hand.I prefer holding to a more stringent definition of the term qualification than others in this forum do, so sue me.

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"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." Albert Einstein

Another way to look at is that there's a full spectrum of qualification, and that one way to improve your knowledge on a topic, and thereby your qualifications, is to discuss it. Granted, some people like to have greater assurance than others that what they're saying has some basis in fact before putting fingers in motion, but on the other hand ignorance seems scant justification for cutting yourself off from a source of learning. Sure, you can learn just by lurking, but you can learn faster by entering the fray and risking being wrong.--Percy

The mere fact that you refer to the scientific method as cold hard steel is to me a clear indication that you most likely have a completely close-minded attitude when it comes to the truths revealed in the Bible. I understand that I could very well be wrong in that assessment, but I truly doubt that I am. Bait refused due to overwhelming putridity.

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"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." Albert Einstein

quote:

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The mere fact that you refer to the scientific method as cold hard steel is to me a clear indication that you most likely have a completely close-minded attitude when it comes to the truths revealed in the Bible. I understand that I could very well be wrong in that assessment, but I truly doubt that I am.

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Can I be blunt? If you are going to stick around, you are going to have to accept that for many of us the bible is just a book of stories - some of us many have been believers, other have never been. We are "close-minded" in the sense that we have read the bible and it cannot be literally true, not without Goddunit.

Correct me if I am wrong but I gather that it is your contention that if one does not at least have the ability to read Hebrew, let alone Aramaic (Chaldee), and Greek, they are somehow unqualified? Kind of eliminates most preachers and teachers of the Gospel in the entire western world, not to mention the original apostles of Christ, doesn't it? And you think I'm arrogant? Look in the mirror my friend. I am quite sure you won't see me in there.

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"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." Albert Einstein

the point was that you were not willing to even investigate it and didn't know where to begin. you came in an set unreasonable standards and i decided to elevate them and turn the tables against you.but here's the irony. if i were actually claiming your strawman of my argument, i'd be a total hypocrite. i don't read hebrew (yet -- i'm gonna start learning in about a week) and i don't read greek.however. transliterated editions, inter-lineal editions, and both the greek and hebrew texts can be found very, very easily. as can the basic hebrew alphabet, and if you look a little harder, the vowels.for instance, we have a new member here named theus. he signs his messages with the equivalent of "sincerely" in various languages, followed by his username. he replied to me last night, and his sincerely there was in hebrew.

quote:

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בתםים
Theus

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he spelled it wrong, slightly, (wrong mem) and so i corrected his spelling.

quote:

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בְּתָמִים

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and then since the word commonly denotes perfection when it's used a different way, and then he basically signs his posts "god" i made a bit of a pun in greek in return:

quote:

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Esesqe oun umeiz teleioi wz o pathr umwn o ouranioz teleioz estin

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now, i don't speak hebrew OR greek. i don't read hebrew or greek either. but i'm familiar enough with the tools of biblical study and the translations that i could figure out what he was getting at.surely, as a pastor, you've been trained in actually investigating the scriptures on more than just a cursory level? surely you've been made familiar with the tools that are at our disposal even if we're unfamiliar with the original languages? surely you know what written hebrew LOOKS like, right? even if you had just found the alphabet, something very readily available you could have seen that my signature said "ar_ch" at the very least, and then easily connected it to my name here. faith did that, and she's not a pastor.my standard is not that you have to read hebrew or greek or aramaic or latin. my standard is that you have to read it with an investigating mind, and some knowledge of the tools available for your use.anyone can read the bible and think they know what it says. we've been told its stories since we were young, even if you grew up athiest (i did). we all know it's an apple that adam eats, and a whale that eats jonah, and that god wrote the bible. what i'm asking is that people look a little closer and appreciate it for what it REALLY is, and not the stories we've all heard about it. because it never says "apple" and it's not a whale.all i'm asking is that we read the bible like concious adults with the analytic brains that god gave us. and that we're willing to look deeper and investigate beyond what we're sure we know about it.

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אָרַח

that's exactly right percy.i learn so much here. not just by what others post, but by what *I* post. half the time, to make an argument, i have to look all kinds of information up, double check stuff, etc. this is stuff i wouldn't have even thought of before.

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אָרַח

that's a tautology, charles.of course it can't be true with goddunnit. it's about what godd's dun.