Electoral Politics: A Losing Game

And you have no scriptural evidence that those people at the time of Cain’s expulsion were not all descendants of Adam and Eve. There was plenty of time from the birth of Abel until the expulsion of Cain for there to be hundreds of people. You seem to have come to the conclusion that Cain killed Abel when they were both in their 20’s

The appointed seed was not replaced until Adam and Eve were 130 years old. Many could easily believe God didn’t wait 100 years to replace Abel. There are many theologians who believe Cain was about 100 years old when he killed Abel.

There is no scriptural evidence that Adam was the only created man in the Bible. I just don’t need that happening to account for a multitude of people out to kill Cain. With just one Adam it allows a better understanding when original sin is mentioned, Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and death passed upon all men, for all that have sinned.”

What are “Doctors of the Church”? Is that some special gift of the Spirit? Just because a theologian has an interpretation doesn’t mean they are correct. Those “doctors” disagree amongst themselves about just about everything. I have been a student of the Bible for the last 30 years, I don’t assume any interpretation of any man is correct if I cannot line it up with the Bible (KJV). I don’t give much credence to any “Doctor of the Church,” Job 32:21-22. Sounds like some flattering title.

You seem to say it like it’s a bad thing.

Just imagine if the situation were such that we could be absolutely certain that no individual could ever produce more value than what the strong leader allows.

I prefer a world where everyone is known to produce more value than my lying eyes could recognize. I can’t have that yet so I settle for less, but not as much less as you seem to think everyone should

And for some reason I get a strange sense of deja vu again…

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And? I can admit it’s not clear and feel fine.

No. I’ve come to the conclusion that no one knows. And guess what? It’s not that important a detail with regard to faith.

And zero who know.

That applies to you as well.

This makes no sense. You mean to say if you can’t line it up with your interpretation as all interpretations, by definition, would be based on the Bible.

Yeah. They only lived at a time much closer to the events depicted than you, and could read and write Greek, Latin and in some cases Hebrew. You claim to have studied the Bible for 30 years yet admit ignorance with regard to the Doctors of the Church. 30 years and not once did you come across the names Aquinas or Augustine?

Not a bad thing. Nobody would hire anyone if that wasn’t the case. Just not paying income tax doesn’t equal a non contributor.

Inflation, price gouging by wholesome corporations, a proxy war with Russia , the scam of a healthcare system designed primarily for profit and not health and on and on and on…and your satisfied? OMG!

Yeah our late stage capitalistic system is the root of many bad things.

Just imagine the situation were major corporations were mainly concerned with short-term profit and enriching the people who already have more than enough, typically at the expense of the working class. Oh wait, we already have that and it’s working out wonderfully.

Democratize the enterprise as Richard Wolff would say.

Of course it is. It’s also at the root of many good things.

I guess I would prefer more concern over long-term profits and more concern for a beneficial direction for society.

Would you?

How could that be achieved?

The American system is as imperfect as the people within it. Any system that claims to do better than that has my suspicion.

I regret the fatal mistake of attempting to defend the godless Ayn Rand with an analogy to the Bible.

As a result of my comment @zecarlo helped me take our posts way, way off topic. I will make no comment to his last post to me. I will give him the last word. His last post addressed solely me without mentioning any Bible verse. This is as good a place as any to put it to bed. I will not defend myself on this thread of any of his statements or subtle accusations. I will only defend the Bible, if I feel it is being attacked.

If he so wishes to continue this back and forth, he is free to start a new thread and I will vigorously engage him there. Not here.

And again, I regret where he and I took this thread. Please forgive me.

This is an easy one to forgive.

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I think we could do much better and we have done so in the past.

In the past we had a strong middle-class, now it’s fading away fast.

As far as late stage capitalism’s good things it has produced, it’s like what have you done for me lately?

You are forgiven

I completely agree, and I’m completely OK with not having much of an opinion about who is a contributor and who isn’t. I don’t need to know.

Water diamonds paradox, “value is subjective”, we trade to get a benefit - each party in a financial transaction should receive more value than they gave, at least from their perspective in the moment.

I don’t actually believe that value is subjective, I do believe in a Day of Judgement, where all of the moral debts fall due and everything is all hashed out. But value is subjective enough for now to work with that.

I would be less willing to be kind and smile at strangers, etc if I didn’t believe in a Day of Judgement where the kindness could come back to me in multiples. My contributions that are financially rewarded might not leave me anything when it matters most, especially if I got way more money than the value I produced. Which reminds me of a rich man, a camel and an eye of a needle.

I prefer to view my own positive contributions as small and my negative contributions as large, and to do the opposite with others, usually. That’ll get more bang for other people’s bucks from the dumb, carrot and stick donkey side of me, when applicable

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I hope so

That’s probably true.

Was there a time before this strong middle class? Where did this strong middle class come from? Why is it fading?

The Internet probably. Warmth and air conditioning probably. Standard sized barbells, bunches of stuff.

Don’t get petty in judging a thing that has such an effect on so many ways of lives

What is that? It sounds terrible. Makes me think it was named by someone with an agenda

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Yes. The states lost their representation. Id give it to the state houses though, not the governors.

With a purple state the process of choosing their two Senators would probably get pretty painful and could drag on for quite some period of time. But I do suppose it would best represent the people.

With the Governor picking the Senators it could be done without much trouble. He could be sworn in and immediately appoint the Senators.

I do think there is a good argument for only a single Senator for each state. It would line up a little better as a republic government. A single executive to run each state, with each state having a single voice to represent them in the US Senate.

It’s an internet forum with five posters, relax. People can disagree on biblical interpretation without it being the end of the world.

We were talking about the Bible, not politics. And I’ll disagree with anyone and don’t have a problem with anyone disagreeing with me. Isn’t it the whole point of the forum?

I am. In 20 years I’ve been able to come from taking out multiple pay-day loans to being comfortably upper-middle class. I did this by developing skills that were in demand. Even if you have no real ambition, at a minimum ANYONE with average intelligence can get certified to teach and live a decent middle-class life. I’ve been able to do things that never in my wildest imagination as a kid did I think I’d get to do.

Oddly, you still haven’t told us what would be better. You just criticize with no solutions. You seem like a bitter little teenager stomping his feet and saying life isn’t fair.

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The biggest problem is that we were a single conversation that was way off topic.

This has been my interpretation of OP based off of every post he’s made since he came here. He even clogged up the Heavy Metal Thread arguing how much he dislikes other people’s taste in music.

Luckily, the first ammendment gives one full rights to bitch about everything under the sun; this one just took it too literally.

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