This is where all the Church of God drama takes place. All the struggling for recognition,. All the blovating over prophecy coming alive. All the me but not you, us but not them, all the drama and trauma . All of it happens on this dot. These views, unavailable and unknowable by our parents generation helps me personally keep my own experience in perspective. Just sayin'. I kept that short n sweet but I suppose these two pictures equal 2000 words on perspective.
Earth and the Moon From the Surface of Mars
Earth from Saturn
Everything looks small if you are far enough away. Ask any mathematician.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteEverything looks small if you are far enough away. Ask any mathematician.
LOL Brilliant observation. Let the missing of the point and criticism of even this begin.
Well, which one of us is really missing the point?
ReplyDeleteMaking points about a point. Next you'll be holding meetings about meetings, right?
ReplyDeleteStuff that happens on planet Earth wouldn’t matter to you if you and your loved ones were safely somewhere else. Who would care about events on a dot millions of miles away? You probably wouldn’t even know about them unless the dot’s light went out, or the dot appeared to explode. On the other hand, if you happened to live in the center of the action, that might be a concern. Those who manipulated us based the manipulation on where we worked, ate, slept, and breathed. Knowing of other dots, you could meditate on being on another dot, millions of miles away, but that wouldn’t mitigate the very real pain in the here and now. It also wouldn’t keep you from worrying about prophesied pain or even death on your dot if you had reason to trust and respect the aspiring messengers.
ReplyDeleteBB
Maybe the point is that we aren't as significant as we believe. There may be many other solar systems and planets out there with intelligent life...quite possibly more advanced than our own.
ReplyDeleteHas there been sin on those planets, requiring a Savior to be virgin born (half God/half man) live a sinless life and die to blot out the sins of those planets? Is there a master plan for the intelligent life on those planets? Does each solar system have its own god and #2 man/sacrificial lamb? Did he die on a cross, or will he at some future date?
When you take a minute to think about it all, our self-invented ideas about religion and God are pretty pathetic. The size, scope and marvels of the universe are worth pondering. Point well taken Dennis!
Many posters on this site are far too brilliant, sure of their religious beliefs and all knowing to recognize their own smallness and lack of understanding. A few may get the point.
Our petty, made-up beliefs are extremely unimportant.
Atheists don't believe it's possible for other lifeforms to exist outside our own galaxy. Most atheists are close-minded, intolerant bigots.
DeleteSince atheism allows for non-designed forms of life on earth, there would be no logical reason to deny the same possibility elsewhere. The probability, maybe, but not the possibility?
DeleteThat is great Dennis.
ReplyDeleteI have some comments on the use of imagery in communications.
The posting reminds me of the IBM movie "Powers of Ten" that was shown as kind of a split sermon in our church area in 1977. Very impressive special effects at the time. About that time the first images from Mars (was it Voyager one?) were beamed to the Auditorium aswell and then forth to Jet Propulsion Lab.
From a greater scheme of things a huge cultural shift in paradigm occurred for humanity in 1969 when for the first time mankind was able to see real images of our blue planet from "outside" and to see it float in a see of tranquility. All alone as a unit.
1969 / There are many documentaries and studies on the paradigm shift into global consciousness when man was confronted with those picture of our blue habitat. (was it time magazine) Of course telecommunications and later the internet took this all a step further.
(As a side note. In those early days some students at Bricket Wood got awarded prizes for their revolutionary inventions for HAM radio. Ah yes, the early days of globalization.
I guess you are aware that before each and every wcg video production the picture of blue earth was shown appearing from darkness) I am not of the school that wcg people were sophisticated enough to have used this image deliberately as a psychological manipulative tool to introduce the "God perspective" or to promote Global or "Worldwide" consciousness. However I do think that this powerful image set the psychological stage for "sermons or message to follow that powerful iconic image.
Thinking about it. Most of the 1950 - 1960 people here would for video productions be more familiar with the introduction of the "pasadena campus" and the "mgm lion" to set the stage for the message. Interesting to see that in the 1970's that image for psychological setting was changed to hwa travelling and the image of blue earth. (culminating in the final image of the auditorium set in royal purple.)
(Perhaps our resident video producer or someone having studied humanities could comment on the above.)
On a lesser point it always strikes me how people on holidays/vacations nearly always or on a daily basis check out the weather "at home" and sigh of despair when the people who chose to be left behind are enjoying nice weather too.
nck
I just started reading a book called Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Professor Yuval Noah Harari. I don’t know why but this post made it seem relevant, in particular to people who think they are extra special.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that people in the WCG/GCI & all her splinter groups have never, not once, called or came to visit me to check and see if I'm doing well, Is strong indication that they are not Christian. I know my comment has nothing to do with this post but my depression is more destructive than knowing where we are in the cosmos.
ReplyDeleteGive us a hint as to where you are and maybe someone can contact you.
DeleteThat stinks. Although I would expect it tells less about how they feel about you than it does about their programming. I know that probably doesn't help you feel much better now, but it does get better eventually. I've been there, and I'm here if you want to talk: Marthacog@gmail.com
DeleteOddly enough, nck, we’ve got some conspiracy kooks who believe the whole historic moon landing was actually impossible, so was filmed on some secret Hollywood back lot. It’s just crazy.
ReplyDeleteThe perspective of earth as a dot could also be a metaphor for what some saw as a great and powerful “work” but was in reality totally insignificant, except for the cartoonish efforts to assign great importance to it after the fact, and after virtually everyone has forgotten it, dismissed it, never knew about it, or weren’t even born yet. The apex of it was Garner Ted on Hee Haw, and most folks don’t even remember Buck Owens, let alone GTA or the father he outshone in so many ways, HWA.
BB
Worse thing... Being a BOT on a DOT !
ReplyDeleteI think I must have gone to thinking this when I read the previous post about Gerald Weston saying "The numbers don't matter." I do recall thinking at the moment, "You got that right" and wandered off into Carl Sagan land. lol. But then I get emotional holding one of my softball size Chondrite Meteorites coming in at 4.5 billion years old and having spent most of that time between Mars and Jupiter before ending up in my hands.
ReplyDeleteThat's the kid in me that I allowed to get crushed by religion before he got out again :)
Two things saved me, Dennis. One was my 9th grade English teacher and debate coach who taught us deductive and inductive reasoning.
DeleteThe other was something that I feel was given to us by God through African cultures, and that is rock n roll, which I’ve seen used to accomplish more good and unity than anything the ACOGs ever aspired to for themselves. The minute I heard HWA blanketly condemn the entire genre of rock music, I knew he had to be a false teacher. Anyone who ever has listened to Petra’s version of the old Argent tune “God Gave Rock n Roll to you” knows that this is true!
BB
Jacki Wiles, women's down hill skier, my client when home, broke her leg and is out of Olympics which has nothing to do with sTock and Roll. Maybe Crash and Burn though lol
DeletePhotos like those shown here remind me of scriptures like the following:
ReplyDelete"He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." Job 26:7
"For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else." Isaiah 45:18
This past year I watched several Astronomy DVDs hosted by a Spike Psarris, who said he used to be an atheist, but he no longer is one. The DVDs explained the uniqueness of each of the planets in our solar system.
John
Dennis, your pictures of our tiny planet bring these thoughts.
ReplyDeleteOur Creator works on both scales of the very large (infinite Universe) and billions of galaxies containing billions of stars. He also is the master of the very small. A estimated 10 billion extremely small mechanical proteins working together in each human cell. 200 million sperm, with one winner fertilizing the egg. Then the bizarre world of quantum mechanics.
We temporary animated clay models have very limited abilities when comes to understanding our God. "our thoughts are not His thoughts"
It's hard enough trying to explain human behavior.
Yes BB,
ReplyDeleteI understand.
When you watch NYC from Ellis Island NOTHING moves in NYC.
Not a sound, not a movement, not a bird can be seen heard or has relevance between those mighty towers.
Until one gets mugged at the metro in the dark or joins a partner for a romantic dinner.
nck
I read science fiction because I like the flights of imagination about the greatness of the Universe. HWA felt that fiction was a waste of time and should not be read - just other people's dreams. GTA read Western novels - Louis L'Amour - to improve his English as I remember him saying.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the average Armstrongist minister years ago would have upbraided me for reading Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. But to me it seemed like my imagination became dry, leathery and brittle when fed on an exclusive diet of somber or propagandistic WCG literature.
I always appreciated the view of the Universe held by Armstrongists - as a place to be inhabited. Planets to be terraformed. I have found nothing comparable among Protestants - especially evangelicals who tend to think they are "going to heaven" but don't seem to think any further about it.
BB. Queen became my most favorite during a "Refresher Program" rant against rock music showing Freddy Mercury. ! Loved Freddy M. Dee Snyder not so much. Gene Simmons son lives just across the street from me here on the Lake. KISS did a private birthday bash recently at clients neighbors
ReplyDeleteThere was a certain raucous Queen song, Dennis, that I used to listen to while drinking beer and reminiscing about my WCG childhood. It had to do with tying. Don’t want to say much more about the song because the legalistic judges will jump me. But if you are a fan, it is cut #2 from A Day at the Races. Still got it on vinyl, and break it out occasionally!
DeleteBB
NEO
ReplyDeleteI like your posting. On this blog I have taken the armstronist position on any subject one step further by secularizing them. In that light I see Elon Musk as one taking that dream a step further and take man into space.
Most of my arguments on this blog are with people who, even when I speak of todays succesful rocket launch, will argue that Musk planned the launch to deflect from the impending presentation of quarterly financial Tesla results.
They feel the confluence cannot be accidental, therefore he must be a fraud. I think he is just one of many propelling mankind forward by dreaming.
I would agree with detractors that one should be careful with the combination of dreamers and money. But I like m anyway.
Nck
Musk can go to Mars if he wants to, I will stick with Earth.
ReplyDeleteEven going to the Moon is dangerous.
The miracle of earth's Magnetosphere:
"As well as deflecting the solar wind, the Earth's magnetic field deflects cosmic rays, high-energy charged particles that are mostly from outside the Solar system. (Many cosmic rays are kept out of the Solar system by the Sun's magnetosphere, or heliosphere.) By contrast, astronauts on the Moon risk exposure to radiation. Anyone who had been on the Moon's surface during a particularly violent solar eruption in 2005 would have received a lethal dose"
Anon 2:28, do you hang out with a lot of intolerant atheist bigots? I agree, some can be pretty hard-core, but not as bad as a religious fundamentalist. Most atheists are open minded to new scientific discoveries, fundys, not so much.
ReplyDeleteI am not an atheist, but I doubt that I believe in your god.
BB, what do you think of ACDC?
I’ve got all of the albums that feature Bon Scott, Gerald, but nothing from the Brian Johnston era. In other words, I’ve got nothing from Back in Black forward. Basically, being a guitar guy, I love the sounds Angus squeezes from his Gibson SG. Sadly, last year we lost Angus’s brother Malcolm, who played rhythm guitar.
DeleteBB
Gerald Bronkar, most fundys believe it is possible for life to exist out in the universe and also, I don't have a "god".
DeleteTrue believers are the REAL starmen, and hopefully one day our little blue dot will leave this holding pattern around the sun we are currently confined to, and we won't need SpaceX to do it....
ReplyDeleteLook again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
ReplyDeleteThe Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
Making points about a point. Next you'll be holding meetings about meetings, right?
ReplyDeleteYour racist innuendo is pathetic.
Ever considered detox, 2:59?
DeleteBB
Boy, and here I thought it was just passing wordplay with a bit of punnage. Would never have known I was making a sociopolitical statement. :)
DeleteIt has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience.
ReplyDeleteWell, if so, why are so many astronomers corrupt? You should read the book by astronomer Halton Arp on that. But I know that nobody here reads intelligent books. They just piss on people who do. It's not what they want to hear. They have to have faith in the system. After leaving Armstrongism, it's all they have left.
The distant blue dot is a paradox. I have never been able to find a meaning that applies to the entire arc of its existence. It is a place of beauty and a place of ugliness. Why was there a tyrannosaurus rex? I cannot imagine a more terrifying monster. The geologic record is loaded with life forms that are a nightmare. Even Neanderthal was a monster. A lots of bad stuff has taken place on this planet. There was just no men around to see it. We only find the fossils that bespeak the violence.
ReplyDeleteI am perplexed about what was going on in the deep ranges of geological history. And fondness for the distant blue dot has to be tempered with this.
C.S. Lewis wrote "Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways."
Anon said: By contrast, astronauts on the Moon risk exposure to radiation. Anyone who had been on the Moon's surface during a particularly violent solar eruption in 2005 would have received a lethal dose"
ReplyDeleteAnyone who had been in Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79AD would have received lethal dose of Vesuvius...and did.
Anything that happens in a particular ecology system affects all of the residents.
DeleteIt all continues to be real when we realize that everyone who was ever part of the Armstrong system was exposed to great dosages of philosophical and spiritual toxicity. WCG/AC and splinters were a puke-colored little dot unto themselves.
And, the toxicity all started when HWA “went he therefore in unto Dot” (his daughter Dorothy’s nickname!) Most of us missed out on that metaphor until “Tangled Web” brought it to our attention.
BB
Why was there a tyrannosaurus rex? I cannot imagine a more terrifying monster.
ReplyDeleteWell, you haven't met my ex.
Most atheists are close-minded, intolerant bigots.
ReplyDeleteThat kind of goes without saying given that most people are closed-minded and intolerant. Except for progressives. They are very tolerant. But only of perversions and other progressives. They are intolerant of everything else.
"The fact that people in the WCG/GCI & all her splinter groups have never, not once, called or came to visit me to check and see if I'm doing well, Is strong indication that they are not Christian."
ReplyDeleteThat's because they think it is the job of the ministers to go after the lost sheep. The ministers are supposed to be the shepherds. The people are just sheep. The sheep don't shepherd other sheep. They are not ALLOWED to contact you. They think they are serving God by NOT contacting you. Nobody came after me either. I don't take it personally. I know they think they are doing the right thing. I blame the idiot ministers (and one or two people who seem to have maligned me behind my back).
Hey Dennis,
ReplyDeleteOn the Jacqueline situation. Most of my postings from August were done from Garmisch, visiting those fairy tale castles over there. I sure hope I wasn't the one incurring bad karma by using the bobsled facilities there in summer. I am so sorry. I'm a great fan of Lindsey too.
I got to appreciate Queen at SEP. When we used a song for our performance. Did they play David Bowie's Mars song when the Musk car entered space. I know West Australian Police sent a ticket for speeding to Elon. 999 m p/h.
Baranadikto: I do agree. I said the same in my NYC post. Nothing doesn't really seem to matter until it becomes personal. The level of personalisation differs it seems. Now if a God has been able to personalize all our experiences through whatever means. Than it seems all does matter to him/her/it. (like that sparrow tale)
nck
BB
ReplyDeleteIt seems you and tangled web are fixated on one "Dot" taking the Dennis's Rohrschach test here!
nck
Thankfully, we know because the Bible tells us so this is God's Great Earth and we will have planets or maybe even solar systems and galaxies to rule over, if we only keep the Sabbath and clean meats, tithe and give special offerings generously, and don't call Mr Herbert W. Armstrong "herbie"
ReplyDeletePlus, the Bible tells us of what TRUE marriage is, in a GODLY way-
The "world" has it's eyes closed to it, but our Intergalactic God in His infinite wisdom includes incest, polygamy and sex slaves into the marriage equation, as well as having true marriage be between a rapist and his victims.
After all, we are God's Chosen Ones, and are given the awesome knowledge that trimming your beard is verboten. Also it's great that our Lord tells us that slaves need to shut the hell up and do whatever their masters tell them to.
Although Dennis' view of planet Earth is small, the stature of our planet is embiggened by our Glorious God and ... His Word!
As President Trump's prayer breakfast grows near, in these 'end days' I praise God for a President who knows that His Powerful Chosen Ones can grab women by the pussy, and they must submit. What a shame that Nancy P got away with record-setting treasonous talk yesterday, and Mr Trump didn't even grab her pussy to stop it.
Dennis pooh-poohs earth's miracle Geodynamo...
ReplyDeleteBut...
"The mechanism by which the Earth generates a magnetic field is known as a dynamo.The magnetic field is generated by a feedback loop: current loops generate magnetic fields...it needed a "seed" field to get it started" Hmm, who kickstarted it?
Dennis, be warned!
ReplyDeleteI just read the most scientifically advanced article ever, (at a YEC website) regarding the geodynamo, which PROVES the Earth and the universe are approx 6,000 years old.
Those 'Young Earth Creationists' had fancy irrefutable charts n stuff, and stated-
"...Humphreys has demonstrated with the remarkable success how his creationist model for the origin and operation of the geomagnetic field explains the magnetic fields of other bodies in our solar system, especially for the planet Mercury, a model consistent with the young biblical age of the earth and the universe of only about 6,000 years."
Yeee-Hah! Praise be!
LOL!
Oh man 8:24,
ReplyDeleteYou won't be driving Tesla in the Kingdom. The hipster's beards prove that the message is for this time.
By your standards it seems that God is a man of action and cannot be the author of "the lost art of dating".
Your syntax REVEALS to me that you might be the one who gives us the regular systematic update of the seven churches, or maybe not.
Nck
How about a “sin tax”, nck, on those seven deadly churches?
DeleteBB
Dennis, you really need your own message board for all your Evilution, Aron Ras Hair, Adam Smith Said, Geocentrism, Steady State, Einstein Was a Putz and Koko B Ware Shoulda Been World Champion followers to quibble on. Youd get a lot more interplay to enjoy in that setting.
ReplyDeleteSeed their, whole my yet understood, has some good theories brewing. It is childish to plug in "God did this part" when time and study will shrink the role of a god once again. The god of Job has been shrunken down to almost nothing as we now understand what Job could not. So it will ever go. Seed fields don't need a god to turn them anymore than the universe needed a god to go bang. The god of the gaps in explaining phenomena will shrink to nothing in time and for most already has.
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:24, occasionally there is an anonymous post that is worthwhile and entertaining. I relate closely to your last post, but sometimes am not sure when you are being sarcastic or telling us how you really feel.
ReplyDeleteMy compliments! We probably have much in common.
Dumb ads word thing. "Seed theory, while not yet fully understood..."
ReplyDeleteDon't forget- Wadsworth, Ohio is on that itsy bitsy dot!!!
ReplyDeleteNck, despite any caps you've proffered regarding my syntax, I will honestly and unequivocally say that never here or anywhere else have I written or spoken anything even remotely resembling an "update of the seven churches"
ReplyDelete(All I can think of in that vein is the 'church eras', and I don't remember if HWA came up with that himself, or if he got it from Wolverton or elsewhere- maybe from Herman Hoeh who authored the kooky 19 year time cycles that HWA glommed onto and made money off of.)
RSK, you've outdone yourself in trying to insult Dennis.
ReplyDeleteNot insulting Dennis. Just saying this sounds like message board fun. Blogspot comment threads are harder to keep up with.
DeleteOhh, I get it. I called them "followers" so it sounds like I'm picking on Dennis instead of just listing off the funny responses he gets. I should have said "commenters".
DeleteBB
ReplyDeleteThat has been done. The indulgences payed for that nice building on top of St Peters. And before that they burned goats.
1:39
So the revelation was true. Since it was clear that, perhaps you might not have been the one, as I said!
I was referring to the anonymous who on occassion lists the 5 major splinters and with thunderous authority lists an update on their going ons. I haven't seen him for about a month. But a "market correction" was in order since it got a little repetetive for lack of transparancy on the part of the "defendants."
nck
In my speech at the UN I will insist that Aron's hair has to go.
ReplyDelete"Atheists don't believe it's possible for other lifeforms to exist outside our own galaxy. Most atheists are close-minded, intolerant bigots."
ReplyDeleteWhat? Where did that BS originate? We atheists are convinced that life is the inevitable outcome of evolution throughout the universe!
Allen Dexter, I have had atheists tell me that life outside this solar system would be impossible.
ReplyDelete3:38, are you just funnin’? Were these atheists scientists? Do you think “atheists” are monolithic, and that the ones you spoke with are spokesmen articulating the view of the entire group?
ReplyDeleteBack when I was an atheist, I firmly believed that there were living beings outside this solar system, and that when they arrived here or we developed the technology to visit them, it would confirm nontheistic evolution, definitively prove that the Bible was a fraud, and that God did not exist. Also, just so you know, I came up with that on my own, and none of the other atheists I ever met had volunteered or shared that explanation with me.
We have constants on planet Earth which make life as we know it possible here, but what is to say that there couldn’t be a different set of constants elsewhere fostering, let’s say, intelligent non-carbon-based life forms that breathed ammonia?
No intelligent person, theist or atheist, would say that it is impossible for life to exist in a different part of an unfathomable universe that we know so little about. However, if those other life forms exist, they may not have rectums from which to speak.
BB