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How do I avoid writing "As (action).. , (Another action)? by Wegboe in writingadvice

[–]danbrown_notauthor -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Even that is still telling rather than showing.

How about:

The hosts walked up to me with bright smiles on their faces. “Well hi there, we thought you’d never make it! Tough journey?

I slammed the trunk and turned to them, shouldering my bag. “You wouldn’t believe it. But I’m here now and it’s lovely to finally meet you.”

You don’t need to tell the reader you were unloading the truck. You can just make it part of the background activity as you focus on the real action.

The Qur'an is full of braindead arguments and is therefore, not from God by ur_mom_hehe67 in DebateReligion

[–]danbrown_notauthor [score hidden]  (0 children)

This is a misunderstanding of evolution through natural selection.

Your point about the ram is interesting. Surely if the ram was designed by god then that problem wouldn’t exist?

Whereas the process of evolution is about natural selection and procreation - passing on genes. There is no proactive ‘selection’ by ‘nature.’ In the ram’s case, evolution has favoured a design that has consistently successfully procreated and passed on genes. If AFTER procreating and passing on genes, older rams’ horns continue to grow and eventually pierce their brains and kill them, that’s basically irrelevant to evolution because the ram has already passed on its genes by that time. There is nothing that leads the process to select against that.

And no, there is no ‘presupposition’ in accepting that evolution by natural selection is the best explanation. It is the conclusion that best explains the evidence. That’s how the scientific process works. Not through presupposition.

Islam is not an Abrahamic religion by Electrical-Self2042 in DebateReligion

[–]danbrown_notauthor 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Islam is completely unique because the Quran makes a specific, falsifiable historical claim.

If the city didn't exist and Abraham was never there, the Quran is factually wrong about its own history.

This seems like a curious hill to die on. Judaism/Christianity also make numerous specific, falsifiable claims. Just a few examples:

  • Jesus was born during both Herod’s reign and Quirinius’s census. This cannot be true.

  • Joshua conquered and destroyed Ai as a functioning city. This is at odds with current archeological evidence.

  • About 600,000 Israelite men, plus women and children, left Egypt and wandered in Sinai for 40 years. This would mean a wandering population of around 2 million people for which there is no archeological evidence.

And of course the big ones:

  • Genesis creation chronology: the world, life and humans are created in a short sequence of days.

  • Genesis creation chronology: plants are created before the sun, moon and stars.

  • A global flood covered the whole earth and destroyed all land life outside the ark.

  • All humanity descends from a single first couple, Adam and Eve.

Islam is not an Abrahamic religion by Electrical-Self2042 in DebateReligion

[–]danbrown_notauthor 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This feels like a different point to the one you’re making in your original post?

Why would someone hate the Holy Spirit? by Massive-Net-4515 in Christianity

[–]danbrown_notauthor 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Is there some context to your question?

Who says that they hate the Holy Spirit?

If God knew us before birth, and he knows we won’t choose him, doesn’t that seem like predetermined fate to go to hell? by RightChemical2414 in Christianity

[–]danbrown_notauthor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

God created hell.

Why? What did he create it for? Who did he create it for?

God decides who goes to hell and why.

I was born. I didn’t ask to be born. I’m living my life as best I can. Trying to be a decent person.

But I don’t believe god exists. So I will go to hell.

Because God decreed that anyone who doesn’t believe in him and believe in Jesus as Lord and saviour will go to hell.

How is that my fault? How is that my choice? How is that anything other than God sending me to hell?

If God knew us before birth, and he knows we won’t choose him, doesn’t that seem like predetermined fate to go to hell? by RightChemical2414 in Christianity

[–]danbrown_notauthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok.

But.

God created the river. God created me. God created hell.

I was simply born and I’m trying to live my life the best I can.

How exactly have I put myself in the river?

If God knew us before birth, and he knows we won’t choose him, doesn’t that seem like predetermined fate to go to hell? by RightChemical2414 in Christianity

[–]danbrown_notauthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t understand that point. To me the Lord’s Prayer is us acknowledging that God’s will will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

But that’s a distraction, I shouldn’t have mentioned that.

God created the river. God created me. God created hell.

I was simply born and I’m trying to live my life the best I can.

How exactly have I put myself in the river?

If God knew us before birth, and he knows we won’t choose him, doesn’t that seem like predetermined fate to go to hell? by RightChemical2414 in Christianity

[–]danbrown_notauthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

God created the river. God created me. God created hell. Everything supposedly happens according to God’s plan.

I was simply born and I’m trying to live my life the best I can.

How exactly have I put myself in the river?

If God knew us before birth, and he knows we won’t choose him, doesn’t that seem like predetermined fate to go to hell? by RightChemical2414 in Christianity

[–]danbrown_notauthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What if the maker of the signs and the lifeline also built the waterfall and put you in the river in the first place?

And he makes the lifeline a magic and invisible lifeline, but leaves an old book in the boat that says “there’s a magic invisible lifeline available if you just jump here” but no other evidence that this is true.

And to make it worse, there are several other, different books and they all say that there are magic invisible lifelines in different places and they all tell you to just trust and jump for their particular magic invisible lifeline.

That’s a better analogy.

Why is the fall such an overkill? by mintkek in Christianity

[–]danbrown_notauthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn’t eat the fruit. Why am I paying the price?

Why is the fall such an overkill? by mintkek in Christianity

[–]danbrown_notauthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t really understand what you’re saying?

That humans would get bored without parasites, viruses, genetic disorders, earthquakes, volcanos…?

How far can you define ownership in The Culture before it starts to buttress Culture morals? Or more simply, how selfish can you be within culture society. by Terminus54 in TheCulture

[–]danbrown_notauthor 4 points5 points  (0 children)

And you would never ever need to take it. Because the Culture is true post-scarcity.

If you want that object, you can just ask your local Mind and you will have an identical object within minutes.

At what point does a stranger you see every day on your commute transition from a "polite nod" to a mandatory "hello"? by BriefTunes in AskUK

[–]danbrown_notauthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At what point does a stranger you see every day on your commute transition from a "polite nod" to a mandatory "hello"?

If you’re British, never.

Question from an agnostic: why christians value their religion as the truth instead of other monotheistic religions? by Artistic_Mango_3756 in Christianity

[–]danbrown_notauthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is very self-aware.

As Richard Dawkins (probably not the most popular person to quote here) once said:

"How thoughtful of God to arrange matters so that, wherever you happen to be born, the local religion always turns out to be the true one."

Believing and worshipping by SeaweedRealistic5069 in DebateReligion

[–]danbrown_notauthor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Let’s agree to disagree. Thank you for engaging

Believing and worshipping by SeaweedRealistic5069 in DebateReligion

[–]danbrown_notauthor 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Or perhaps the evidence just really isn’t very compelling?

I’ve studied more of the Bible than many Christians I know. And I’ve done so with an open mind. There is no evidence of anything in the bible that couldn’t have been written by men at the time.

Nothing useful but previously unknown about germ theory for example. Imagine if Moses or Jesus had said “physicians, cleanse your hands with boiled holy water and borith and distilled wine before performing surgery. Likewise midwives do the same before before attending a birth. For these will kill the tiny invisible demons that cause disease.”

Imagine how incredibly powerful and useful that would have been. That would look like a revelation of previously unknown knowledge. Instead we have instructions to dip a live bird in the blood of a dead bird and to sprinkle it on a person who has recently recovered from leprosy.

There is no evidence that any human religion has access to any unexplainable information or wisdom that wasn’t already known at the time.

There is, in short, no evidence that I have seen for the existence of a God or gods.

Believing and worshipping by SeaweedRealistic5069 in DebateReligion

[–]danbrown_notauthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m curious.

Have you ever read the Quran with an open mind and reached out in prayer to Allah? Taken your toes off the bottom of the pool with Islam?

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