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#1
Religion / Re: Evangelists
Last post by billy rubin - March 15, 2026, 10:07:25 PMi have zero problems with evangelists. if they approach me, i tell them that i am not interested and they thank me and walk away. or sometimes i discuss theology or scripture with them, if theyre open to conversation. i dont know why people are so hostile to them.
as a quaker in a big city farmers market, i had many conversations with roman catholics, reformed protestants, evangelical pentacostalists, baptists, ethiopian protestants, norse pagans, new age pagans, ISKONs, sunni muslims, witnesses, and on and on.
all of them were interesting to talk to. nobody ever berated me about the state of my soul, although i can see how that might be unwelcome. but it has never occurred to me anywhere i couldnt continue walking away from.
as a quaker in a big city farmers market, i had many conversations with roman catholics, reformed protestants, evangelical pentacostalists, baptists, ethiopian protestants, norse pagans, new age pagans, ISKONs, sunni muslims, witnesses, and on and on.
all of them were interesting to talk to. nobody ever berated me about the state of my soul, although i can see how that might be unwelcome. but it has never occurred to me anywhere i couldnt continue walking away from.
#2
Laid Back Lounge / Re: Doesn't fit under any othe...
Last post by Icarus - March 15, 2026, 04:19:17 AMSilver, if you are out there, this one is for you,,,,,,,,,,,,,
https://imgur.com/gallery/googly-eyes-make-everything-better-w3Su3Li
https://imgur.com/gallery/googly-eyes-make-everything-better-w3Su3Li
#3
Science / Re: new cosmology stuff
Last post by Recusant - March 14, 2026, 09:36:11 PM"Big Crunch" or endless expansion till the last stars go dark? The evidence of the past decade plus has seemed to favor the latter fairly strongly, but perhaps there's some support for the Big Crunch still. Which brings up speculation about a cyclic Universe, the Big Bang being simply the result of a big crunch, and so on ad infinitum.
"Universe may end in a 'big crunch,' new dark energy data suggests" | ScienceDaily
The paper is behind a paywall, but there's a preprint version available:
"The Lifespan of our Universe" | arXiv
"Universe may end in a 'big crunch,' new dark energy data suggests" | ScienceDaily
QuoteA Cornell physicist has calculated that the universe may be nearing the halfway point of a total lifespan of about 33 billion years. Using newly released data from major dark energy observatories, he concludes that the cosmos will continue expanding for roughly another 11 billion years before reaching its largest size. After that, it would begin to shrink, eventually collapsing back into a single point, much like a stretched rubber band snapping back.
Henry Tye, the Horace White Professor of Physics Emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, arrived at this conclusion by updating a long standing model built around the "cosmological constant." This concept was first introduced more than a century ago by Albert Einstein and has been central to modern predictions about how the universe will evolve.
"For the last 20 years, people believed that the cosmological constant is positive, and the universe will expand forever," Tye said. "The new data seem to indicate that the cosmological constant is negative, and that the universe will end in a big crunch."
Tye is the corresponding author of "The Lifespan of our Universe," published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
The universe is currently 13.8 billion years old and still expanding. Standard cosmology outlines two straightforward possibilities. If the cosmological constant is positive, expansion continues indefinitely. If it is negative, the universe would eventually stop growing, reach a maximum size, and then reverse direction, contracting until everything collapses to zero.
Tye's updated model supports the second outcome.
"This big crunch defines the end of the universe," Tye wrote. Based on his calculations, that collapse would occur in about 20 billion years.
[Continues . . .]
The paper is behind a paywall, but there's a preprint version available:
"The Lifespan of our Universe" | arXiv
QuoteAbstract:
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) measurements claim that the dark energy equation of state w ≠ −1. This observation can be explained by the axion Dark Energy (aDE) model of an ultralight axion plus a cosmological constant Λ. Despite a relatively large degeneracy, there is a high probability that Λ < 0. This negative Λ leads the universe to end in a big crunch. Using the best-fit values of the model as a benchmark, we find the lifespan of our universe to be 33 billion years.
#5
Religion / Re: Evangelists
Last post by GreenBlaze - March 14, 2026, 09:26:41 AMI am a Christian myself. Some people know how to do this correctly evangelising. Online is different from real life face to face. Different people have different approaches and not all church's preach this heavy style of hell and damnation, but they preach the message of love and forgiveness. A more Episcopalian/Anglican church may be restrained on this preaching of hell and damnation. Everyone is considered to have their own talents in the faith how to help, but may be some of these people do not have that skill and may be forcing themselves to do this thinking they are doing good, when they may not be and need to adapt or do something else. May be some to, they are doing ok for what they represent, these things need to be looked at. This is not what I attempt to do, I am not an evangelist myself.
Just last week a church I attended had a sermon about this and I took the transcript for it and have seen this today and will share it in this thread-
See below-
Anyone who has ever watched a street evangelist in London, if I can call them that, would have observed that they plough a very lonely furrow.
When in full flow, they are often spectacularly ignored. Most people pass them by. Indeed, they often visibly quicken their step in order to do so.
Well, such defenders of the faith, however devout they may be, are often regarded as crackpots.
Now, they may, of course, be very good people. American style TV evangelists are another breed that attract similar criticism.
Audiences are often subjected to long ,loud, aggressive, judgmental rants that sometimes feel like, or more like mental illness than genuine evangelical zeal.
Now I am of course describing the extreme end of the evangelist spectrum but it is clear that any heavy handed attempts to advance the faith and win converts are often seen to be wholly ineffective.
And they're seen as futile because their methods feel forced, impersonal, and frankly cringe worthy to a modern audience. And one even starts to question the real motives of the evangelist.
Now, as one critical Christian voice has put it, evangelism frequently fails because it treats people as projects rather than individuals.
A point I think well made because it leads to a feeling of being used rather than of being welcomed and loved.
And sometimes evangelist strategies can seem to rely heavily on fear-based tactics. Now, evangelism, as you've heard, is the outcome of the story in this morning's gospel reading. Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. And we see Jesus breaking all the social, racial, and gender barriers of the time to offer salvation to a marginalized outcast.
And she's a woman with a check of history. We're led to believe that she is a promiscuous woman, but she fears judgment. She's clearly very needy and has a genuine spiritual hunger or thirst better analogy in the story. So when Jesus shocks her by speaking to her and asks for a drink, he then redirects the conversation to living water, offering her eternal spiritual satisfaction. and she is transformed by his words.
She recognizes him as a prophet and she goes back to her village with great excitement and becomes a witness for Jesus.
And for what it's worth, according to tradition, she is the first recorded evangelist. Now of course past and present there have been there are many people like this woman. They have made mistakes in their life and they know it. They have led disappointing lives.
They've let themselves down. Maybe they've let others down. They feel rejected, marginalized, unfulfilled, spiritually empty. They're lost.
They feel there must be something better, but they don't know how to get there. And many people are still looking for a deeper sense of belonging, but don't know how to articulate this. Now, over the years, I've had many rewarding conversations with individuals
who, after they realize that I'm not a psychological threat, reveal their often deep-seated spiritual cravings.
And these have usually been warm conversations and sometimes with virtual strangers,
people I've met while away and people I knew that I may not see again. And often people show their appreciation for the insights that have been shared. And that's two-way. It's reciprocal. We learn from each other.
And in these casual encounters, you never quite know what seeds might have been sown that may later come to fruition in some bigger commitment. But I do know this. Such conversations would never have been fulfilling or even had developed at all
if I'd gone in as if into battle to put it bluntly bashed them over the head with God.
By taking an exploratory gentle approach, God is slowly discerned in the depths of their lives. Even though initially individuals may not quite see it in those terms.
Yes, the deeper biblical dimensions may come later if and when their spiritual consciousness starts to expand.
Now I think we all know I guess many of us have had conversations like this. I think we probably all know that listening and talking to people on matters spiritual with an attitude of openness is always valuable and rewarding and it respects individuality and I've always found myself want to urge fellow Christians to talk to others openly about spiritual matters but keep the faith content soft at least in the first instance.
Most people have their own matters of ultimate concern. Deep life issues particular to them about birth or relationships, death, and of course for many people is the fear that their lives have no real meaning. Questions surface, why are we here and where are we going?
Scottish theologian William Barklay said, "Some individuals don't yet know the why of their existence." And very often people need guidance in exploring that. Now this of course what I'm describing here is not evangelism in the conventional sense but it is first and foremost about connection reaching out with love and understanding. It's being relational. It's about establishing trust.
Just as Jesus, you sense, connected with the woman at the well and established trust. I don't think I've ever really found it helpful to kick off by discussing the tenets of faith. We have to start where people are now, which means it's important to actively listen to hear their story.
And it could be a two-way process because we can learn from each other's spiritual perceptions.
And what surprises me in those sort of conversations I've had is just how much spiritual sensibility people start to demonstrate once they begin to open up. But conversely, I've noted how ignorant some are about religiosity and the spectrum of possibilities that it offers. And it's not their fault.
There are narrow views which have been received in early life and never challenged.
Intelligent people can hold infantile views about God instilled when they were younger and not surprisingly they have long since rejected them.
They are clearly not aware of the broader theological spiritual spectrum that exists. But then why should they be?
Perhaps we need to ask those at the margins what the church can do for them rather than telling them so that we are better able to help them in their spiritual search and help them to find the why of their existence.
And this requires a sensitive relational bottom up approach. It's evangelism reimagined. And what I'm saying of course is nothing new.
But it seems clear that we need to tread carefully with those who are spiritually bereft in this troubled and disorientating world.
It's no surprise that there is currently so much suspicion and hostility directed towards our faith because it's so often wilfully distorted to support all kinds of warped ideologies.
And of course, there are many other spiritualities and belief systems competing for attention. But I sense and I believe something is waiting to be kindled in the hearts of people outside. They are looking to discover a depth dimension to their lives.
They are looking for living water.
We are called to help them in that search to invite them to engage with the beauty, the mystery and poetics of Christianity,
but hopefully reccast the vastly different t world of the 21st century. Seeking is a process. But our hope is that with our help, their search will lead them to see that we follow the ultimate source of truth and goodness. And hopefully they will come to drink deeply from this world.
Just last week a church I attended had a sermon about this and I took the transcript for it and have seen this today and will share it in this thread-
See below-
Anyone who has ever watched a street evangelist in London, if I can call them that, would have observed that they plough a very lonely furrow.
When in full flow, they are often spectacularly ignored. Most people pass them by. Indeed, they often visibly quicken their step in order to do so.
Well, such defenders of the faith, however devout they may be, are often regarded as crackpots.
Now, they may, of course, be very good people. American style TV evangelists are another breed that attract similar criticism.
Audiences are often subjected to long ,loud, aggressive, judgmental rants that sometimes feel like, or more like mental illness than genuine evangelical zeal.
Now I am of course describing the extreme end of the evangelist spectrum but it is clear that any heavy handed attempts to advance the faith and win converts are often seen to be wholly ineffective.
And they're seen as futile because their methods feel forced, impersonal, and frankly cringe worthy to a modern audience. And one even starts to question the real motives of the evangelist.
Now, as one critical Christian voice has put it, evangelism frequently fails because it treats people as projects rather than individuals.
A point I think well made because it leads to a feeling of being used rather than of being welcomed and loved.
And sometimes evangelist strategies can seem to rely heavily on fear-based tactics. Now, evangelism, as you've heard, is the outcome of the story in this morning's gospel reading. Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. And we see Jesus breaking all the social, racial, and gender barriers of the time to offer salvation to a marginalized outcast.
And she's a woman with a check of history. We're led to believe that she is a promiscuous woman, but she fears judgment. She's clearly very needy and has a genuine spiritual hunger or thirst better analogy in the story. So when Jesus shocks her by speaking to her and asks for a drink, he then redirects the conversation to living water, offering her eternal spiritual satisfaction. and she is transformed by his words.
She recognizes him as a prophet and she goes back to her village with great excitement and becomes a witness for Jesus.
And for what it's worth, according to tradition, she is the first recorded evangelist. Now of course past and present there have been there are many people like this woman. They have made mistakes in their life and they know it. They have led disappointing lives.
They've let themselves down. Maybe they've let others down. They feel rejected, marginalized, unfulfilled, spiritually empty. They're lost.
They feel there must be something better, but they don't know how to get there. And many people are still looking for a deeper sense of belonging, but don't know how to articulate this. Now, over the years, I've had many rewarding conversations with individuals
who, after they realize that I'm not a psychological threat, reveal their often deep-seated spiritual cravings.
And these have usually been warm conversations and sometimes with virtual strangers,
people I've met while away and people I knew that I may not see again. And often people show their appreciation for the insights that have been shared. And that's two-way. It's reciprocal. We learn from each other.
And in these casual encounters, you never quite know what seeds might have been sown that may later come to fruition in some bigger commitment. But I do know this. Such conversations would never have been fulfilling or even had developed at all
if I'd gone in as if into battle to put it bluntly bashed them over the head with God.
By taking an exploratory gentle approach, God is slowly discerned in the depths of their lives. Even though initially individuals may not quite see it in those terms.
Yes, the deeper biblical dimensions may come later if and when their spiritual consciousness starts to expand.
Now I think we all know I guess many of us have had conversations like this. I think we probably all know that listening and talking to people on matters spiritual with an attitude of openness is always valuable and rewarding and it respects individuality and I've always found myself want to urge fellow Christians to talk to others openly about spiritual matters but keep the faith content soft at least in the first instance.
Most people have their own matters of ultimate concern. Deep life issues particular to them about birth or relationships, death, and of course for many people is the fear that their lives have no real meaning. Questions surface, why are we here and where are we going?
Scottish theologian William Barklay said, "Some individuals don't yet know the why of their existence." And very often people need guidance in exploring that. Now this of course what I'm describing here is not evangelism in the conventional sense but it is first and foremost about connection reaching out with love and understanding. It's being relational. It's about establishing trust.
Just as Jesus, you sense, connected with the woman at the well and established trust. I don't think I've ever really found it helpful to kick off by discussing the tenets of faith. We have to start where people are now, which means it's important to actively listen to hear their story.
And it could be a two-way process because we can learn from each other's spiritual perceptions.
And what surprises me in those sort of conversations I've had is just how much spiritual sensibility people start to demonstrate once they begin to open up. But conversely, I've noted how ignorant some are about religiosity and the spectrum of possibilities that it offers. And it's not their fault.
There are narrow views which have been received in early life and never challenged.
Intelligent people can hold infantile views about God instilled when they were younger and not surprisingly they have long since rejected them.
They are clearly not aware of the broader theological spiritual spectrum that exists. But then why should they be?
Perhaps we need to ask those at the margins what the church can do for them rather than telling them so that we are better able to help them in their spiritual search and help them to find the why of their existence.
And this requires a sensitive relational bottom up approach. It's evangelism reimagined. And what I'm saying of course is nothing new.
But it seems clear that we need to tread carefully with those who are spiritually bereft in this troubled and disorientating world.
It's no surprise that there is currently so much suspicion and hostility directed towards our faith because it's so often wilfully distorted to support all kinds of warped ideologies.
And of course, there are many other spiritualities and belief systems competing for attention. But I sense and I believe something is waiting to be kindled in the hearts of people outside. They are looking to discover a depth dimension to their lives.
They are looking for living water.
We are called to help them in that search to invite them to engage with the beauty, the mystery and poetics of Christianity,
but hopefully reccast the vastly different t world of the 21st century. Seeking is a process. But our hope is that with our help, their search will lead them to see that we follow the ultimate source of truth and goodness. And hopefully they will come to drink deeply from this world.
#6
Laid Back Lounge / Re: Doesn't fit under any othe...
Last post by Ecurb Noselrub - March 13, 2026, 07:04:03 PMA pack of coyotes lives on the ranch behind my house. On occasion one or two come into our neighborhood. They howl together in the evening. The sound can be a bit unnerving.
#7
Religion / Re: Evangelists
Last post by zorkan - March 13, 2026, 12:00:47 PMThey keep me out of town centres these days, standing in the main square shouting into a microphone.
London, Birmingham, Coventry are the worst I know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxoTbIxr7Vs
I could lose it and get arrested myself.
The loving god might also burn me in hell.
London, Birmingham, Coventry are the worst I know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxoTbIxr7Vs
I could lose it and get arrested myself.
The loving god might also burn me in hell.
#8
Laid Back Lounge / Re: Doesn't fit under any othe...
Last post by Icarus - March 13, 2026, 04:52:27 AMThe biggest swamp with the most alligators is not in Florida. The Okefenokee swamp in the state of Georgia is the winner in this regard. Bigger swamp, more alligators.
Not to say we don't have plenty of gators. We do Lake Hancock is about one mile long and half mile wide, It is believed to have as many as 10,000 Gators. That lake is about 12 miles from my house. That particular lake has an exceptional population of the beasts. Most lakes have perhaps 3 or 4 of them and some lakes have none at all. And No, I have never had a gator invade my yard. Gators are dangerous only during mating season and when the mama gator has new hatchling in early summer.
Gators are not the most intrusive nuisance animals hereabouts. Coyotes are. They are clever, hungry, nocturnal and murderous to small dogs, and cats that live in the fringes of the city.
Not to say we don't have plenty of gators. We do Lake Hancock is about one mile long and half mile wide, It is believed to have as many as 10,000 Gators. That lake is about 12 miles from my house. That particular lake has an exceptional population of the beasts. Most lakes have perhaps 3 or 4 of them and some lakes have none at all. And No, I have never had a gator invade my yard. Gators are dangerous only during mating season and when the mama gator has new hatchling in early summer.
Gators are not the most intrusive nuisance animals hereabouts. Coyotes are. They are clever, hungry, nocturnal and murderous to small dogs, and cats that live in the fringes of the city.
#9
Laid Back Lounge / Re: Doesn't fit under any othe...
Last post by Recusant - March 13, 2026, 04:24:08 AMIn my opinion Florida is a fairly pleasant place, given air conditioning. Skip the theme parks, there's enough history and scenery to spend time on. Agreed on Saint Augustine and the Keys. The little Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park generally is worthwhile, etc. Of course my visits there weren't during hurricane season, nor in summer. 
#10
Religion / Re: Evangelists
Last post by Dark Lightning - March 12, 2026, 04:49:35 PM
Back in the '80s I knew a guy who made knives as a hobby. He was headed out the door (his house) and a couple of evangelicals approached him. He said he was on his way to a Satanic ritual and showed them the knife he was going to sacrifice the baby with. He's a big burly guy and makes a great crazy face. They took off running.These days, he'd be arrested for brandishing that knife.