Rational Ramblings – [email protected]
Read 4th visit A log of exchanges between our 4th and 5th meetings. Me: Hi guys. Was nice to see you both again! I had a thought about something you said. It was that your church is monogamous but there were reasons for ancient prophets for having multiple wives. Does this include Joseph Smith or was he monogamous? Them: There was a time in modern church history where polygamy was practiced. Starting while Joseph Smith was alive and finishing in […]
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The Council Of Ex Muslims recently wrote a report on the various statements of staff of the iERA, the report claims they are a far-right extremist hate group. This report coincided with an announcement from the UK Charity Commision that they are investigating the iERA for its policies on invited speakers and payments to the charity’s trustees. The iERA have on numerous occasions had to distance themselves from comments made in the past by employees and even its own directors and founders. […]
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Read 3rd visit During the week I had sent my Mormon proselytiser a text message letting them know how far I had read (I am about 25% way through now) and they were overjoyed. I mentioned that I was trying to find a verse in the 2013 edition of the book but was unable to because the chapter numbers have changed, what I see in chapter 4 in the 1830’s edition might be in chapter 8 in the 2013 edition. […]
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Read 2nd visit My friends turned up today, we started with a really nice talk about how one of them used to love sailing a remote control boat when he was young, and how I had one of those water jet-pack experiences. I asked them about a couple of things that had occurred to me while reading the Book of Mormon. One of them was that it says the plates (the brass ones, not the later golden ones given to […]
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Read 1st visit Because I am back-posting these first two visits from memory they might be a bit short. I call them my Mormon friends not to be facetious, but because I think we really did become friends very quickly during our first meeting. These guys are so nice, and we just chatter and giggle through our meetings. From what I recall of our second meeting they asked if I would be willing to become a Mormon if I decided […]
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A few weeks ago I spotted a couple of young guys riding bikes. They were wearing cycling helmets, black trousers, and white shirts with ties. I knew instantly that they were Mormons. I’ve little or no knowledge of Mormonism so I thought it might be a good opportunity to learn. I stopped the car and introduced myself. I told them in advance that it is very unlikely I will become a Mormon, and that I am just interested in what […]
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I recall the hostility received by Dr Usama Hasan when he suggested the Quran was compatible with evolution, and specifically with human evolution. I never did read what he wrote on the subject, and was deeply disappointed and very frustrated when he appeared on The Jinn & Tonic Show back in January 2013 and I didn’t get a good enough opportunity to discuss with him the details of his views on the subject. As far as I am able to tell […]
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Back in 2011 I made this video about the claim that the expanding universe is mentioned in the Quran. The Arabic word used for expanding is not a verb but an active participle. So what does this mean? It means it is identifying an individual that either has done an act (perfect verb) or is in the process of performing an act (imperfect verb). Because 51.47 only has the expand/expanse word as an active participle and not a verb we […]
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Marie Curie was the first female to win a Nobel prize, the first person to two Nobel prizes, and the only person 8to ever win a Nobel prize in two different fields of science (Physics for radiation, chemistry for the discovery of Radium and Polonium) Henrietta Swan Leavitt was responsible for discovering predictable properties of Cepheid variable stars (standard candles). A discovery that enabled astronomers to calculate distances to very distant stars and led to the proof of other galaxies. […]
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On the London Dawah Movement’s last show (Fridays at 7pm UK time) there was some brief talk about the linguistic miracle of the Quran. It was claimed that there are 11 rhetorical statements in only 3 words in the Quran. Someone later emailed me and asked me what my opinion was on this claim, so I watched the video link they had provided. My immediate impression was that Imran was doing a lot of talking without actually saying anything; it […]
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