BellGab.com Archive

Quote from: Bounder on July 01, 2018, 02:23:23 AM
I haven't been able to source it*, so the following may be apocryphal, nevertheless apropos:

"I guess there are never enough books." â€"Steinbeck


*except that it appears on merchandise sold at The National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, so my certainty quotient is up around "reasonably."

LOL. No, there aren't.  I've been trying to read a book on the Templars but it is so dry.  I got diverted and I'm currently reading a bunch of old novels from the British author, Dennis Wheatley.  The Black Magic series of novels and they are a lot of fun but oh so British.  He had an interesting spirituality which is one I'm in simpatico with.

Quote from: Bounder on July 01, 2018, 02:19:55 AM
He's the warmest, emotionally.  I always sense he's sincerely sentimental . . . and a touch #dadjokey.  A forgivable sin.

Yes he is.  He really seems like he enjoys the job and plus I like the fact that he reads the books that the guests write.

Quote from: TigerLily on July 01, 2018, 02:13:49 AM
Two great nights of C2C. So great to have Ian back

It is nice to hear an intelligent host on Coast.  He is better than everybody else on Coast save for Knapp.  I have never been the biggest fan of Ian especially when he has goofy guests but he brings a lot of interesting guests to the show as well.  I'm glad he is back!

He used to be a DJ on 96 rock here in Atlanta and I vaguely remember him from that time. He was silly but likable.

Quote from: Bounder on July 01, 2018, 02:10:21 AM
Kids are optimists; a good thing to be like!

Also: L'Amour and dinosaurs . . . you might enjoy Crichton's posthumous title, Dragon Teeth, about the founders of American paleontology (Cope and Marsh) at war in the literal Wild West.  A draft or two shy of the edge and polish he'd have given it while alive, still: sharp enough to cut an appreciable groove.

Oh thank you.  I bought it but it is on a stack to be read.  I'll put it at the front of the stack!!   I buy too many books!! 

Quote from: Bounder on July 01, 2018, 01:58:11 AM
Don't forget Robert Koldewey, the learned German excavator of ancient Babylon (the superb Ishtar Gate he uncovered -- which greeted Alexander the Great -- has been restored and is housed at the not-to-be-missed Museumsinsel [Museum Island] in Berlin), and his quite passionate conviction that the "third animal" depicted on city's blue tile was not a fanciful chimera but a recently extinct dinosaurid (specifically the iguanodon).

Oh, I'd love to go to the great museums in Europe. I'm still like a kid when it comes to this subject.  Maybe a bit a gullible but it is fun to speculate.  Thanks for the link!    Please post often!     

Quote from: Bounder on July 01, 2018, 01:46:26 AM
To support the origin claim we'll need a second edition and more scans in situ (I've got plenty of books and magazines "from the early 20th century" and they are not so theatrically aged).  That leaves the work of sorting out the contents of the shot, which looks much more like a man-made buckskin kayak (seen lying with its top toward us) and a Thunderbird totem than anything biomorphic.

Can't disagree but it would be cool if it was real.  I'm becoming redundant. 

Quote from: Dr. MD MD on July 01, 2018, 01:47:06 AM
There were dinosaurs. They just lived long before we did. The closest one one of our ancestors got to was probably the Wooly Mastodon.

So they say.  Conan Doyle wasn't an idiot and he held out the possibility.

Interesting you mentioned the Mastadon.  Louis L'amour wrote a book called Jubal Sackett that takes place in the 1600's and the character came face to face with one in the Tennessee Valley.  L'amour was obsessive in researching his books to every historical detail.  He didn't make shit up.

Quote from: TigerLily on July 01, 2018, 01:40:17 AM
He mentioned a few times that was one reason he was so "curious?" (Scared?) about life after death experiences. Obliquely, he alluded that he was worried about the boiling pits of sewage in Hell

Howard Storm's account is the creepiest one I've heard.  I know you aren't Christian but read this one and it will send chills down your spine.  He was on with Art and it was a great show. Foreword by Anne Rice.




https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCJZKO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Quote from: Dr. MD MD on July 01, 2018, 01:35:09 AM
Well, that totally proves it then!

I think it would be cool if there was a possibly of dinosaurs somewhere.  I guess you don't.  I'd like to believe but I'm not sure I do. 

You believe in all this conspiracy crap but whatever.  You've asked me to watch videos before and I did watch 1 or 2 so watch the one I posted.  That guy hasn't written a book about his experiences so what has he to gain?

Paulides took the theory more seriously than you have.

Quote from: Dr. MD MD on July 01, 2018, 01:26:34 AM
Not photoshopped at all!

Printed in an early 20th century magazine?  Have trouble reading? Here's a hoax pictured next to the genuine.



https://www.livepterosaurs.com/inamerica/blog/?p=1596

Quote from: TigerLily on July 01, 2018, 01:24:26 AM
This Jersey Devil allegedly spent a lot of time in the Pine Barrens too

LOL.  He's mired in the swamp.  I made sure!

This is a photo printed in an early 20th century magazine so not a photoshop.

The guest has clearly not heard recent claimed pterodactly experiences.  This one is from the Northeast.  Pennsylvania to be precise.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ0nRo0ApIU

I'm not saying I believe it but the witness seems genuine.

Quote from: TigerLily on July 01, 2018, 01:11:44 AM
Jersey Devil

Used to go canoeing in the Pine Barrens.  Never saw the Jersey Devil but  I was ignorant of such a beast at the time.  Maybe it is a Pterodactyl?

Quote from: GravitySucks on July 01, 2018, 01:02:03 AM
I had that mindset for several years. Leave it to God. And then we got Obama.  Tested my faith.  Still deliberating with the Big Guy over that one.

I know, GS.  I don't consider myself a good Christian.  I wish I was.  My wife, God bless her, has such a blind faith and I look up to her for it. Some days I think I'm destined for the Pit if there is one.  I'm still undecided on that.  I'm a bit of a heretic, to be frank. I have some odd beliefs but I've talked about that before so I won't bore you with them again.

Quote from: GravitySucks on July 01, 2018, 12:53:53 AM
I was not trying to insult mormons. I was stating my belief that most Mormons, and the same for many Catholics, are not Christian. I don’t believe they gained salvation just because they were baptized Mormon or Catholic.

Now the same can be said of any church, but I do believe that there are a higher percentage of Christians in protestant churches than in thes Catholic and Mormon churches. Doesn’t mean they aren’t good people.  The just don’t meet what I have been taught is Christianity.

There are a lot of Sunday morning Christians in all denominations but who am I to judge? Mormons and Catholics would call themselves Christians. I really don't want to go there.  I'll leave it to God.

Quote from: GravitySucks on July 01, 2018, 12:47:02 AM
You missed my point entirely.

No, I got it.  0% are Christians, right.  I had Mormon friends so I chose not to say anything about that.  The religion is wrong but most of them are good people, I think.  The secular world would not distinguish between the two either.

Quote from: Dr. MD MD on July 01, 2018, 12:45:57 AM
Let's not forget all the Jews posing as Christians too. 

Is that your newest conspiracy theory?  21st Century Man is really a Jew?  Who da thunk?  I did have a mom named Miriam but she was more Cherokee than Jew.  Nope, I come from an Anglo-Saxon Baptist background on both sides. You can do better!!

Quote from: Bluejay on July 01, 2018, 12:34:31 AM

ROTF!!!

Quote from: GravitySucks on July 01, 2018, 12:41:30 AM
The amount of Mormons that are Christians is less than 1%.

I tried to look it up but the best stat I got was 1.6% of Americans were Mormons.  I figured when you take the whole world into account less than 1% seemed correct.

Quote from: Bounder on July 01, 2018, 12:41:22 AM
As is the percentage of doctors and rocket scientists.

Especially on Bellgab! 

Quote from: Bounder on July 01, 2018, 12:17:17 AM
An anonymous genius scribe elevated at least the King James translation of Ecclesiastes to a level that cuts together with the best English written, making that portion of (how demeaning to call it "old") testament a thing to be glad we can read today. 

The whole affair is marred, of course, by the principle character's supernatural evil (making bears maul children to death, etc.) and the weird self-invalidating (and totally unparsable) dictates throughout.

Quite apart from the broken provenance of the books themselves.  The oldest fragments of the Christian epistles (and they're scanty) never get nearer than 150 years to the story they're telling and were made without the benefit of photography or audio recordings. To get a taste of this gap: start writing Art Bell's biography, sans both of those technologies, in the year 2168. 

You're also conveniently leaving out the third omnibus (Mormon's) without which the author of the universe appears bizarrely ignorant of the entire Western Hemisphere of his favorite planet.

More on topic:

Trump can't even get the chapter titles right!  That said . . . his actions do carry a worrying eschatological tinge.

You realize that the percentage of Christians in the worlds that are Mormons is probably less than 1%.

Quote from: TigerLily on June 30, 2018, 11:45:27 PM
Golly, gee. I sure am glad climate change isn't real. Thanks for setting me straight the other day

The climates are always in flux and so shall they ever be.  Enough of that though.  Not sure how long I can hang in there but I wanted to hear this show.

Quote from: GravitySucks on June 30, 2018, 11:27:01 PM
That’s one thing I like about the Southern Baptist.  They are independent and the preacher will normally say “Don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself and let the Holy Spirit reveal the truth for you”. Do I have an amen?


I guess this is better than talking Trump.

I was never a big Baptist though I was born into that faith. I'm more or less nondenominational at this time. I like some things about all denominations but I hate other things.   I like the ceremonial aspects of the Greek Orthodox, Episcopals and even  the Catholics for example communion.  I don't like the idolatry and false doctrines that run rampant in them though. I like the preaching of some of the Southern Baptists like Johnny Hunt and some of the Pentecostals .  I like the Sabbath doctrine of the Seventh Day Adventists. I like pork though so I'm glad you brought up St. Peter's dream.   

Quote from: Dr. MD MD on June 30, 2018, 11:13:13 PM
Yeah, well I've had it with these mystic code people who want to keep all the treasure maps to themselves. The central tenants of Christianity aren't that hard to understand. :

Dan Brown is full of shit.  We probably really don't really disagree about the central tenets of Christianity.  John 3:16

Quote from: GravitySucks on June 30, 2018, 11:03:36 PM
And as far as dietary laws go read up about Simon Peter’s dream with all of the animals coming forth from the sheet.

Ok, I can buy that then.  I'm certainly no expert and don't know Acts as well as the Gospels.

Quote from: GravitySucks on June 30, 2018, 10:57:44 PM
Protestants were originally people that left the Catholic church.  The amount of baggage they drug with them varied. Lutherans kept child baptism and vestments for example. Anabaptists were probably the closest thing to the orginal churches.

The old testament was included because that is the prelude to Jesus’ incarnation. None of it woukd have context without the Old Testament.

The reasons that most protestant’s have trouble with Catholicism is primarily because the priesthood has placed themselves as intercessors between God and Man. Add in the idolatry, statuary that was basically loot given to the Catholic church when he declared the Holy Roman Empire.  These statues started out as pagan gods.  Other non-biblical issues are of lesser importance. Like Immaculate Conception, purgatory, limbo, praying to saints, keeping of relics, and lighting of candles (among other indulgences).   Protestants also do not believe the host and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The Catholic church incorporates customs from indigenous peoples in order to be accepted throughout the world.

This is way more information than I needed to provide to be ordained in the Church of the Latter Day Dude.

Sorry you had to write that all out because I completely agree with most of it though I would expand on your middle paragraph.  I agree that part of the reason it was included was to give context for Jesus but I imagine you'd get an earful from most pastors and priests that much of the Old Testament is relevant for other reasons.  I know the Southern Baptist preacher I see with my wife and the Penetecostal preacher we used to go to would argue with you on that point.  Johnny Turner Hunt is the Baptist preacher we go see often.  He was the head of the Southern Baptist Convention too.

FIFM!!  My bad.  Getting tired.

Quote from: Dr. MD MD on June 30, 2018, 10:45:44 PM
Or maybe they wouldn't have gone to Jewish temple because they actually understood the difference between what they were saying and what Jesus was saying and knew that they weren't Jewish anymore, unlike you seem to be able to grasp. Real Christians would just settle for the new testament. The Torah should only be studied to understand the difference.

Then why put the Old Testament in the Bible?  They didn't leave it out because it was no good.  Psalm 23 is not relevant anymore?  That is news to me and much of Christianity.  Really? LOL! Oh great MD knows better than the rest of us.  Sorry MD, that doesn't wash.  Try better!

Quote from: GravitySucks on June 30, 2018, 04:11:34 PM
I disagree. They stopped observing the Jewish sabbath. They stopped going to Temple. They stopped following the mosaic code of laws as laid out in the old testament. They stopped following the dietary laws.  What part of Judaism did they retain?

James was killed by the Jews.  Paul had to be smuggled out of town to avoid being killed by the jews.  I am sure others were killed by the Jews as well, I am suffering a headache so I cannot remember everyone’s fate.

     I respectfully disagree. Of course Jews persecuted them because the Apostles agreed Christ was the Messiah as foretold in the Old Testament. The Pharisees and mainstream Jews didn't.  As for the rest of your comments, yes, some of the Mosaic law was not necessary.  Some of it I understand but much of it I don't. The reason why the Apostles didn't go to Jewish Temple was because they would have been persecuted. No, they would not have offered sacrifices because they believed Christ was the only sacrifice necessary under the new Covenant. Jesus still believed in the Sabbath and he made no statement that Sunday should have been the Sabbath rather than Saturday.  As far as I know, the seventh day of the week has not changed from Saturday to Sunday.  God did not rest on the first day of the week.

  Seventh Day Adventists and Messianic Jews continue that tradition. In my opinion correctly.  As far as dietary laws, it is true that modern mainstream Christians do not follow those laws but the early Church did as do the Seventh Day Adventists and once again the Messianic Jews. Many of the "Christian" traditions that we are used to now were made up by Rome and are not found in the Bible.  Funny that many Protestant churches don't think Catholicism is real Christianity but that is where we still get most of the Christian traditions from.  What's that all about?  If the Old Testament was completely negated, why include it in the Bible?  Why not just settle for the New Testament?

Quote from: malachi.martini on June 30, 2018, 02:57:05 PM