Greetings from the Sandbox.

Welcome;Are you the onw fifth from the left in a white shirt and white cap, with sunglasses on the cap?

Welcome!What was your impression of the Great Pyramid?

I checked Tal's ISP. It's iraq.centcom.mil.--Percy

Please do! I think you could add a lot here and learn a lot from this forum. I am praying for all of you guys and am thankful for the work you do.

If you fly over the Pyramids, you've seen enough. It's dirty and you are hounded to buy everything from every vendor out there. They are also located right on the edge of Cairo, not out in the desert like the movie leads you to believe.I was very disappointed in my visit, though the Pyramids themsevelves were impessive.

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Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8

No offense, but I find your overt pro-death imagery a bit disturbing, and rather conflicting with your pro-Xian sentiments.How do you balance these rather polar moral positions?Also, you say you believe literally in 6 day genesis? I assume this means a 6K year old earth as well. Have you spent any time looking at the areas of Iraq which are dated older than 6K? What do you make of these age estimates?Sorry if I seem a bit forward, but you seem like a tough guy (and can take it), and your referral to Iraq as "the sandbox" seems to have rubbed me the wrong way.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

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No offense, but I find your overt pro-death imagery a bit disturbing, and rather conflicting with your pro-Xian sentiments.
How do you balance these rather polar moral positions?

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Pro death imagery? I guess you mean 1st Veteran's Battalion logo with the skull? It is what I do, kill people and break things.

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Sorry if I seem a bit forward, but you seem like a tough guy (and can take it), and your referral to Iraq as "the sandbox" seems to have rubbed me the wrong way.

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Nah, I don't mind. And it isn't just Iraq, we refer to the entire middle east as "the sandbox," minus Isreal. There's nothing deragotory meant by it, its simply a statement of fact. There's lots of sand here We refer to the entire eastern hemisphere as "across the pond."

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Also, you say you believe literally in 6 day genesis? I assume this means a 6K year old earth as well. Have you spent any time looking at the areas of Iraq which are dated older than 6K? What do you make of these age estimates?

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About 6-10K yes, but I believe this topic has an entire forum to itself? I've already read umpneen posts about the age of the earth and seen the examples of why it can't be over 10,000 years old and why it must be at least 4 billion. To answer simply, I don't think Carbon dating is quite as accurate as it is made out to be.

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Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8

Hello Tal:Thanks for sharing the pic with us. I am also a newbie here, so I can certainly appreciate your sentiment here: I am still trying to figure out, how to sound halfway sane. lol There is so so much to learn.
Enjoy your time here, and good luck in Baghdad. See you around on the boards. Take Care.Shaz

Among other literal and figurative imagery yes. This does not answer my queston. How do you balance that overtly antiXian moral practice with your spoken Xian moral system? Unless you are a satanist?Perhaps you can share a quote from Jesus which makes you feel that killing an breaking things is a worthy pursuit as a Xian. There's no sand in Israel? That's a new one. I think that just underscores what these euphemisms are about.In any case, this explanation does nothing for me. Sandbox is a place for kids to play. It is not serious. There are many many people dead and dying, and people like you and your opposite faction are doing the killing. That is serious.Let me put it this way. If I was in Indonesia right now working on relief efforts I would not refer to it as the "wading pool", or the "rock n roll capitol of the world". Such behavior is being callous and disrespectful of the death and suffering around you.You are also standing where people live (sand or not). That is their home. You were not exactly invited. Perhaps some respect is in order. Some humility? Yes it belongs in its own forum. I only mentioned it as you are in a unique position of being able to see human civilized areas that supposedly predate 6K, and have mentioned visiting other areas, so I wonder what you make of such things.Your response raises more questions of course. I assume you use modern equipment, including protective gear in your work. Why do you trust that they will work at all when materials science and assumptions which have gone into constructing your protective gear have the same source as those which go into carbon dating.Your entire persona confuses me, and I am honestly just trying to pin it down.You appear to be a Xian fundamentalist with no respect for death and suffering, indeed pursuing the acts of killing and destruction as your profession, using technology while at the same time pretending the knowledge used to create it must be false (not accurate) because it challenges a singular interpretation of writings which do not specifically give a date for the earth.Do you believe in heliocentrism, and if so, why have you rejected earth centered descriptions within the Bible?

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

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How do you balance that overtly antiXian moral practice with your spoken Xian moral system? Unless you are a satanist?

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I'm "allowed" to kill people in armed military conflict and in self defense.

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Perhaps you can share a quote from Jesus which makes you feel that killing an breaking things is a worthy pursuit as a Xian.

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"Praise be the Lord my Rock who prepares my hands for war, and my fingers for battle." Psalms 144:1

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There's no sand in Israel? That's a new one. I think that just underscores what these euphemisms are about.

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When you go to the border of Isreal from the Egyptian side, you see nothing but sand. Indeed the entire Siani is a huge pebble fest. You cross the 20 feet or so of no man's land at the border, and poof. There's green grass, oragne trees, all kinds of green things. The difference is night and day. When you cross the border over into Jordan, poof, back to sand.Isreal does have its desert regions though.

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You appear to be a Xian fundamentalist with no respect for death and suffering, indeed pursuing the acts of killing and destruction as your profession, using technology while at the same time pretending the knowledge used to create it must be false (not accurate) because it challenges a singular interpretation of writings which do not specifically give a date for the earth.

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To the first part of your statement: Who says I have no respect for death and suffering? These "other faction" members want to commit martyrdom, I'm just helping fullfill their wish.You seem to imply that I accept some science (one that benefits being the boron carbide ceramic inserts to my personnal armor) but reject the knowledge used to create it.Just because I don't believe in the theory of evolution, doesn't mean I don't believe in the law of gravity.

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Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8

Your very choice of the word "believe" show us where you are coming from. We are not asking you to "believe" in anything, we want to know why you feel its ok to accept some scientific theories and reject others with no scientific data of your own. From a scientific point of view it's irrational.

I'm sorry, that still does not answer the question. Amish do not do this. Mennonites do not do this. I am not asking what gives you the legal right, I am asking how you can praise a man of peace who asked people not to kill, with a rather callous approach to killing others. I said a quote from Jesus. Yes, which is what makes my point valid. It is a part of the same region, has sand, and yet not part of the sandbox, why? Other regions also have areas of no sand and yet are part of the sandbox, why? That pretty much answers your own question.Do you know how many innocent people are killed by both sides? Do you have respect for them? Do you realize that referring to their land as "sandbox" is insulting to them? Maybe you could imagine someone invading the US to get at the KKK or some whacko evangelical group, killing your neighbors, and then referring to your home as the weedpatch.You are coming off as another ignorant thug, the exact copy of the people we were supposed to be replacing in Iraq. I am embarassed. Perhaps you should realize that you are not supposed to just be a killing machine. You are a representative of the US trying to help people that live in that "sandbox" to continue to live there. Someone else answered this already but I will repeat the point. You can't pick and choose science that you like on a whim. If you believe it works in the case of your body armor, you cannot simply say it doesn't work for carbon dating.You will note that I was not discussing evolution. I was discussing carbon dating. There is a huge difference. One is a general theory, the other is a procedure.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

But of course he can! Being ignorant of science is part of the fun of being a fundie. In fact one of the requirements of being a YEC is to be totally scientifically ignorant.

Be embarassed for some of the things you have posted, not about a soldier who is doing his job.FYI, "Thou shalt not kill" does not mean killing of any type is forbidden. It is understood, in the context of the bible, to mean "Thou shalt not murder".Jesus and his father are one remember?Surely YOU of all people can appreciate God the Father's willingness to war when necessary (all throughout the Old Testament) for his purposes.Did Jesus contradict the father when he said to turn the other cheek? No, he is talking about personal insults, not acts of violence or force.John 18:35-36: Edit: Changed a period to a question mark.This message has been edited by dpardo, 12-31-2004 11:51 AM

Be embarassed for what you just posted, not lecturing someone on something they did not say.Now go back and look at every post I made to him. Nowhere did I berate anyone for doing their job or even for killing.I was taking offense at his callous attitude toward those suffering around him, and his prodeath prokilling attitude. Comments such as "I kill, I break things" is not part of a soldier's job description. It is the self description of a thug.Be honest, if you saw a soldier of Hussein's say such a thing you would have said that was an example of the ignorance and thuggishness of his forces.That is not the only thing he said along those lines, which is insulting and inconsistent with the image we need to be displaying, and the imagery he proudly displays, right next to quotes from the Bible, are not consistent/appropriate as a Xian. Yes I know this is a valid interpretation. However pride is a sin, and pride in killing, even if the killing was necessary, is certainly not consistent with Xian ethics. Some feel he was not contradicting, but announcing a change, like the other changes he brought with him. Not that that is the only correct interpretation.That said, your citation does not support your claim. Jesus is saying his kingdom is not of this world and so there is no reason to fight.Now you find me where people are supposed to be haughty and boastful of their need to kill others, and use language that demeans the people they are fighting for.I am not anti military, nor anti killing. I am not even anti death penalty. I am against ignorant thuggery, and I am confused and curious by people that exhibit rather inconsistent moral principles.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)