Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution »
Posted By Neophile 1 year, 1 month ago in ReligionThe Church of England is to apologize to Charles Darwin for its initial rejection of his theories, nearly 150 years after he published his most famous work. The church will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin's ideas. It will call "anti-evolutionary fervour" an "indictment" of the Church."
The bold move is certain to dismay sections of the Church that believe in creationism and regard Darwin's views as directly opposed to traditional Christian teaching. The apology, which has been written by the Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, the Church's director of mission and public affairs, says that Christians, in their response to Darwin's theory of natural selection, repeated the mistakes they made in doubting Galileo's astronomy in the 17th century. (For a fascinating look at Darwin's evolving role in scientific thought, check out Charlie Rose's conversation with E.O. Wilson and James Watson below.)
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Mutainia1 year, 1 month ago
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PsychoHosebeastComment removed: Spammer, Abusive
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LaBurladora1 year, 1 month ago
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Green-Gal1 year, 1 month ago
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LaBurladora.
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Wrong church. Church of England is in England, the The Inquisition was mostly in Spain and other Catholic counties, though The Inquisition practiced in England, it was then still the Catholic Church, not the Anglican.
But you are right in another way, the Catholic church should apologize for Priests and Nuns for raping children and then declaring bankruptcy when victims came to sue, signing The Compact with Adolf and leaving millions to die, using Religious Tax Exempt Status to promote political ideology in America, and the list goes on....and on....
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mack0831841 year, 1 month ago
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mutainia, you are crazy. They have created the building blocks to life in a lab. It is a process, that takes time. It didn't happen over night the first time why would it happen over night in a lab. I do not understand how people can accept the accounts of a ancient book written by people with very little understanding of the world around them. I guess if you can believe that then I can believe that if I jump into the wardrobe there willo be a lion in there ruling a world full of funny looking creatures.
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aubergine0dream1 year, 1 month ago
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THANK YOU. You know, lightning was first thought to be punishment from god. Then the church got ****** at Franklin for inventing the lightning rod and "interfering with god's will". Come on now. If god is all powerful, he would bend the laws of physics and make lightning not hit lightning rods. Lets see. What else was explained poorly in the bible and been perfectly explained by science? like everything else.
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smithichie1 year, 1 month ago
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Darwin could have denounced evolution on his deathbed, he didn't, but if he did it wouldn't mean anything more than if Newton had denounced gravity on his deathbed, we would still be studying gravity today just as we study evolution. It seems more than a few people seem to think Darwin was the last word on evoluton, heck he didn't even know about genetics, that field had yet to be discovered and guess what? It fully supports evolution.
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aubergine0dream1 year, 1 month ago
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Jee well i wonder how Darwin could falsify that statement if he was dead. Church people make up that people "accepted jesus christ" all the time. When i die i will have a tape recorder in my room. "his smack" was one of the most influential discoveries of all time, not "hooey" you hick.
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NotreDameGalComment removed: Spam
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mdmkallen1 year, 1 month ago
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wildman65571 year, 1 month ago
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The Bible doesn't say a thing on HOW the heavens and the the Earth were created. Only that God created them. Who knows maybe the "days" in the Bible are not 24 hours, perhaps they are geologic epics. After all the word World in Luke where the whole world was enrolled obviously didn't include the Incas. If one is figurative then why not the other. If you accept that then evolution and Genesis fit together very nicely. So what you say is not end of story, it is just a Biblical interpretation which may or may not be correct.
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cjpack10201 year ago
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WHY NOT? GOD DID NOT JUST SAY LET THERE BE LIGHT. HE FORMULATED THE CHEMICAL FORMULA AND THEN THERE WAS LIGHT. THE BIBLE TELLS US ABOUT EVOLUTION ALSO. GOD THE CREATOR OF EVERYTHING, EVOLUTION TO. ACTUALLY AINT NO SUCH THING AS EVOLUTION IT HAS ANOTHER NAME, CALLED REVOLUTION. THE GOVERNMENT HAS A WAY OF HELPING EVOLUTION ALONG, DON'T YOU THINK?
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miramesa1 year, 1 month ago
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About time they apologized for SOME THING. They had kept the known world in darkness for so long it set us back many, many years.Now it's time for them to apologize for some of the other injustices they are responsible for.
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NotreDameGal1 year, 1 month ago
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For clarification Darwin renounced his theory of evolution on his death bed. Charles Darwin, the author of THE SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION in 1859 and the champion of evolution, renounced his evolutionary theory and became a Christian on his deathbed. This was reported by noblewoman Lady Hope who said she visited Darwin at his home in England at the close of his life. She described him as reading the book of Hebrews in the New Testament of the Bible. She also said that he regarded his writings about evolution to be questions that people made into a religion. Lady Hope said Darwin asked her to conduct a meeting outside a summer house he owned so he could hear the singing of the hymns.
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The Church of England should have done a little more homework before making such a huge error. Apologizing to Darwin for a theory he renounced himself. Catholics 1, Church of England 0!!!-
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danielrice201 year, 1 month ago
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NotreDameGal: That is an often repeated myth.
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"The story of Darwin's recanting is not true. Shortly after Darwin's death, Lady Hope told a gathering that she had visited Darwin on his deathbed and that he had expressed regret over evolution and had accepted Christ. However, Darwin's daughter Henrietta, who was with him during his last days, said Lady Hope never visited during any of Darwin's illnesses, that Darwin probably never saw her at any time, and that he never recanted any of his scientific views (Clark 1984, 199; Yates 1994).
The story would be irrelevant even if true. The theory of evolution rests upon reams of evidence from many different sources, not upon the authority of any person or persons."
Links:
Greig, Russell, 1996. Did Darwin recant? Creation 18(1): 36-37. http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/1315.asp
Yates, Simon, 1994. The Lady Hope story: A widespread falsehood. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/hope.html
References:
Clark, Ronald W., 1984. The Survival of Charles Darwin: A biography of a man and an idea. New York: Random House.
Yates, Simon, 1994. (see above)
Further Reading:
Clark, Ronald W., 1984. The Survival of Charles Darwin: A biography of a man and an idea. New York: Random House. -
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aubergine0dream1 year, 1 month ago
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YOU shouldve done a little more homework. I wonder how objective and unbiased this "report" mustve been. Of course anyone in the catholic church would make up anything to make someone so revolutionary (and who happens to go against their beleifs) seem like hes going back on his word. Religion is pathetic. Trust me read the book. And the Descent of Man. WOW YOU KNOW THE FULL TITLE OF THE BOOK and the year it was published. Why dont you read it a couple of times through? He had full belief in his theory and would never renounce it.
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PsychoHosebeastComment removed: Spammer, Abusive
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Bluedragon9121 year, 1 month ago
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Read this, it's written by a Christian group.
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http://www.users.bigpond.com/rdoolan/darwinconvers... -
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cjpack10201 year ago
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SORRY YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT THAT. AS A MATTER OF FACT DARWIN WAS TO BE A THEOLOGIAN AT FIRST. AND HE WAS LUCKY ENOUGH THAT HIS FREIND HUXLEY HELPED HIM TO GO WITH THE HMS BEAGLE FOR A MAPPING OF SOUTH AMERICA, THIS TURNED INTO A 5 YR JOURNEY IN WHICH DARWINS THEORY STARTING FORMULATING. WHEN HE WAS DYING HE SAID TO HIS WIFE EMMA, I AM NOT AFRAID TO DIE AND SHE REPLIED NOR SHOULD YOU BE CHARLES. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. I HAVE PROBABLY READ 40 BOOKS ABOUT DARWIN AND MANY OF WHICH HE WROTE HIMSELF. THE BIBLE IS A HISTORY BOOK ALSO. IT DOES NOT GIVE US THE DETAILS OF GOD'S PLAN. JESUS EVEN TALKED IN PARABLLES TO HIS DISICIPLES? HE DID NOT WANT MAN TO KNOW IT ALL. WRONG WRONG WRONG
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tkdcorey121 year, 1 month ago
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Actually Mack the experiment you are referring to is called the Miller-Urey experiment. It did create amino acids, I'll admit. But most modern geochemists agree that the atmosphere he used isn't remotely like the one that actually existed. Miller used a methane-rich atmosphere, and excluded oxygen-which was present. In addition, creating Amino acids is impressive, but it does not mean that God is out of a job. The right Amino acids need to combine in the right order to create a protein, and your still far from a single celled organism. Furthermore, several toxins were also created as a byproduct of the experiment, so it wouldn't have mattered if a cell did form, as it would have died anyway.
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Tangent0011 year, 1 month ago
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The first single-cell organisms likely arose in an oxygen-poor atmopshere, it wasn't until much, much later that oxygen became more dominant.
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The generation of amino acids is an important step in a long chain of events leading to the first self-replicating molecules and eventually what science would consider life. Labs have created self-replicating molecules and Antarctic research has shown that complex chains of organic molecules can form in microscopic water chambers in deep-frozen ice.
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NotreDameGal1 year, 1 month ago
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So...you perhaps shouldn't have replied...It has never been proven to be a myth. What in the book would be grounds to refute this? Did they talk to Lady Hope? I have done quite a bit of research on this subject and my sources are confirmable and reliable. And yours? You stated you weren't even trusting of the book you mentioned yourself.
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NotreDameGal1 year, 1 month ago
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Charles Darwin, the author of THE SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION in 1859 and the champion of evolution, renounced his evolutionary theory and became a Christian on his deathbed. This was reported by noblewoman Lady Hope who said she visited Darwin at his home in England at the close of his life. She described him as reading the book of Hebrews in the New Testament of the Bible. She also said that he regarded his writings about evolution to be questions that people made into a religion. This is a fact.
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drdebvet11 year, 1 month ago
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Prove it.
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Prove that Lady Hope was there and that's what she heard.
If it's a FACT, then prove it.
But it really doesn't matter anyway. There is nothing....NOTHING....in the Bible that denounces evolution. Evolution and creation are NOT mutually exclusive processes. -
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pastorpat11 year, 1 month ago
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rivermint1 year, 1 month ago
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Wow , I am hoping that Jesus is more compassionate than that.
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I wouldn't harshly punish children for making a mistake , so I am asuming that a superior being with superior compassion would simply be able to correct any misconceptions without having to resort to pointless corporal punishent. A simple appearance and conversation might actualy do it in alot of cases. -
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thesilvershields1 year, 1 month ago
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Grow the hell up you low-life scum. This is why I loathe pastors, they have no idea what they are supposed to be doing. It is your job to 'guide' people, not to determine who has an opportunity to 'apologize' for anything. I will gladly spend eternity in whatever hell you have concocted in your mind as long as I know you are there and people like you.
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pastorpat11 year, 1 month ago
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Darwin's theory of evolution isn't even believed by scientific evolutionists. We have a national scientific laboritory in town and nearly all scientists here believe Darwin to have been ignorant of most facts but- the ends justifies the means
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Coatl1 year, 1 month ago
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Indeed, he ignored everything about genetics, yet he still found the way evolution was driven, and even when he didn't knew exactly how "descent with modification" worked, he guessed that it could make big changes. And so far, he was right!
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Bluedragon9121 year, 1 month ago
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Hello, but I think you should *read* this.
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http://crazytalk.typepad.com/bluegrassroots/2007/0...
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Jacob3451 year, 1 month ago
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To hefaa1 and the other Catholic bashers, the Church formally apologized as to Galileo in 1992. The Church of England is apologzing to Darwin in 2008. hefaa1, I think you need to learn a bit of math. 1992 comes before 2008. Also, the Catholic Church has always believed in evolution and felt it is compatible with the teachings of the Bible. That is, we believe a higher being, whatever that may be, created everything, but man has no idea just how long that took - most likely billions of years. Catholics also believe evolution IS God's work. And why not? Why is that so impossible? Why do holy rollers want to limit God's work and all that he can do? Everything has evolved. Stop being so backwards and pig-headed. All that being said, it should just be actual science taught in our schools and the religion can be taught in bible school, bible classes or at home.
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dissent1 year, 1 month ago
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"i think you need to learn a bit of math."
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i think you do too. galileo was before darwin by a few hundred years. but churches, whatever denomination, shouldn't just apologize to a cuppla guys. they should apologize to the whole human race for....
1. acting like they knew better
2. telling the rest of us how to live our lives when they didn't know better
3. for creating so much death and misery while telling the rest of us how to live our lives when they didn't know better
4. for making sure that the rest of us remained as primitive as they were for as long as they possibly could because they didn't know better even though they pretended they did and still do
there's probably a few others that should be added. fee free
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pastorpat11 year, 1 month ago
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the THEORY of evolution continues to evolveas the timeline is continually stretched out. Not because dat shows life to be older but because it has been proven to be impossible for such changes to have happened in such a short time.
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hefaa1Comment removed: Hard Banned
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pastorpat11 year, 1 month ago
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Jacob-
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Does "pig headed" mean "willing to actually think" rather than just be force fed bull crap? Evidence shows evolution to be bad-even fraudulent science. For the most part it is atheism trying to refute God and does a poor job of it. -
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pastorpat11 year, 1 month ago
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If you believe in the big bang theory, you should take not of the fact that it was atheistic evolutionists and not the church that had a problem with it. The fist and second laws of thermo dynamics require there to have been an "outside source" in order to create the bang.. It is imposible for it to happen from within.
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ljoy1 year, 1 month ago
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You are wrong if you think that you have to believe either evolution or the Bible. Evolution is the process of how life is changed not how it began. There is nothing about evolution that explains the creation. And for those of you who can't see that God didn't need to tell us every detail in the beginning when we couldn't have understood it ( Or didn't need to understand it) think about telling your children how they were created. Do you tell a two year old every detail? And do you think that just because we now understand the process of making a baby that it leaves God out of the creation of a baby? I think the Bible gave us a simple version of the creation that we could understand. Who knows maybe " Let there be light." was the Big Bang. Science does not explain away God. Science is merely a study of his work. Just because we have a slight insight into how it happened does not bring us anywhere near to understanding everything he has created. Whether or not you believe in God is up to each individual, but don't use science as an excuse not to believe because there is no conflict in God's story and science.
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thesilvershields1 year, 1 month ago
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Actually there are numerous conflicts, and despite what NotredameGal thinks, your comments are not intelligent. The Bible makes several statements known to be false, whether it is the fact that it claims the earth to be flat or that there is no afterlife (which cannot be determined, but contradicts other sections of the text). 'Let there be light' is a general myth from all religion's gods, it is not special or unique to the Bible, and has nothing to do with 'the Big Bang.' The Hebrew writers of the Bible did not have 'special insight' into God's plan. They devised their own myths after influence from previous Near Eastern thought.
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drdebvet11 year, 1 month ago
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Actually, ljoy, The Bible was NOT written by God. If it were, your post would have merit. But the Bible wasn't written by God, it was written by MEN. Men who wanted everyone else to believe what THEY had *decided* for everyone to believe. There are people running around right now professing to be writing the "word of God." Why don't you believe THEM? What makes the documents of the Human/Christian Bible the "word of God"? And what made it okay for those in power back then to disregard (actually destroy) other legitimate works just because they didn't like what was said in them?
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God doesn't need to put into writing what he/she wants us to know about our origins. It's too flawed a system. God has better ways of communicating.
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pastorpat11 year, 1 month ago
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rivermint
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Does God judge according to mistakes? No, because He is compassionate. Will He judge those who outright rebel against Him? Of course- He is a just and righteous God. The problem is that we have all outrightly rebeled against Him and have lived as our own gods. So judgment will come to us all. The GOOD news is (that's what gospel means) is that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was my judgment and anyone else who will repent and put their trust in Christ.-
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thesilvershields1 year, 1 month ago
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Nevermind the fact that Paul wrote that Jesus' death was a 'sacrifice,' and Paul never met the man. Jesus' so-called sacrifice is a common myth in many religions. There are numerous savior gods taking the form of man to 'rescue' humanity from something. The problem is uneducated people like yourself who have no idea about anything other than your Bible. You don't bother to educate yourself. That is far more unforgivable than any other 'sin' you devise.
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Bluedragon9121 year, 1 month ago
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Does that include the Church of England? Because this should look familiar...
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"The church of England rejected God several years ago. They have embrace many anti-biblical positions and, when Jesus returns, will have no opportunity to apologize."
So many contradictions...
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batatude1 year, 1 month ago
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I'm rooting for either:
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A) a comet or meteorite to hit us....proving that God doesn't mind destroying His own work
B) an alien visitation...proving that we aren't alone
Let's try doing good in the world...not to get into heaven...but just to be decent to others. -
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