Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Great Flood

2007-03-24T21:27:15Z

RocketsRedGlare:

[[Image:Michelangeloflood.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''The Flood'', by Michaelangelo, detail from the Sistine Chapel, 1509.]]
The '''Great Flood''', or '''Deluge''', is the event recorded in Genesis, chapters 6 through 9.

Genesis describes the condition of mankind in the years following the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden:
:''"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."'' --Genesis 6:5 (NASB)
God had repented of His creation, and decided to destroy it; only Noah was righteous before Him, and God decided Noah and his family was to be spared the destruction of the world by a flood. Noah was told to build an ark, place onboard pairs of animals, and ride out the waters. The ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat, where Noah made a sacrifice to God, who accepted it and swore never to destroy the earth with a flood again, giving the rainbow as a sign of His covenant.

==Other flood accounts==
The vast majority of cultures around the world have remnants of traditions which state their ancestors escaped a great and cataclysmic flooding of the world. Many of these accounts involve a vessel carrying a few human survivors, animals, and a landing on a mountain as the waters drained away.

===Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh===
Excavations in the ancient city of [[Nineveh]] in 1853 unearthed 12 clay tablets detailing the story of a mythical king of Uruk named Gilgamesh, and written between 2750-2500 B.C. [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/index.html] Tablet 11 of this ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' had the hero learn the secret of immortality by going to the island of Utnapishtim, where he discovers that Utnapishtim is also the builder of the ark which carried man and animals on the seas of the flood.

:''Six days and seven nights came the wind and flood,the storm flattening the land.When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding,the flood was a war--struggling with itself like a woman writhing (in labor).The sea calmed, fell still, the whirlwind (and) flood stopped up.I looked around all day long--quiet had set in and all the human beings had turned to clay!'' [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm]

The tablet has remarkable similarites to the Biblical account, such as the collection of animals; the violence of the Flood; the landing on a mountain (Mt Nimush); and the sending forth of a dove. However, differences abound: the ark is cube-shaped; such a vessel actually being built would have been tossed and spun around severely in the waves. Utnapishtim refers to the gods being ''frightened by the Flood, and retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu. The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall''; a sacrifice by Utnapishtim after he left the ark collected the gods ''like flies over a (sheep) sacrifice'' [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm]. This is in sharp contrast to the God of the Bible, who is in total control.

===Chaldean===
Xisuthrus built a large vessel at the warning of the god Chronos, who spoke of a coming flood. Xisuthrus was to gather his family, friends, and two of every animal. Birds were sent out in search of land when the waters began to subside, some of which bore mud on their feet. [http://wovoca.com/myths-flood-1.htm]

===Zoroastrian===
The god Ahura Mazda warned Yima of the destruction of the sinful world, and to escape the flooding Yima was to build a ''vara'' with which to carry pairs of animals. [http://wovoca.com/myths-flood-1.htm]

===Hindu===
A fish, in gratitude for Manu saving its life from another fish, warned him of a coming flood and told him to build a boat and put many animals on it. During the flood, Manu threw a rope to the fish, which towed the vessel to a mountain, allowing Manu to tie the vessel fast to a tree as the waters swept away all remaining life. [http://wovoca.com/myths-flood-1.htm]

===Greek===
The Greeks had a tale of Zeus being enraged over a king's sacrifice of an infant on an altar in his temple, and discovering the depraavity of man in general. Zeus gathered a council of the gods, and together washed away mankind; only Deucalion, having been warned in advance by Prometheus, escaped by building a great chest whereupon he and Pyrrha escaped to safety, landing on Mt. Parnassus. [http://www.maicar.com/GML/Flood.html]. [http://wovoca.com/myths-flood-1.htm]

===Australian===
The Flood of the Aborigines was called the Dreamtime Flood, where the ark Gumana carried men and animals came to rest on the plain of Djilinbadu, about 70 km south of where Noonkanbah Station stands now. [http://wovoca.com/myths-flood-1.htm]

===Native American tales===
====Salish====
An ancient tribe suffered from a lack of game to hunt, and quarreled over hunting territories. Old men had dreams of the future, and these dreams involved a great flooding of the land. They built a large cedar raft and had it tied to Mt. Cowichan, where survivors rode out the flood. [http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore64.html]
====Chippewa====
Nanabozho made a serpent angry in Lake Superior, and the serpent caused a flood which sent the tribe fleeing for the highest mountains; from the Nanabozho built a raft and floated with other survivors until the waters subsided. [http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore111.html]
====Aztec====
The Creator told Tapi to build a boat, and place his wife and pairs of animals onboard it, as the Creator was going to flood the valley of Mexico. The water crested over the mountaintops, and receeded; when a dove was sent off and did not return, Tapi rejoiced. [http://wovoca.com/myths-flood-1.htm]

==Evidence==
Many people, including some Christians do not believe that the Great Flood had taken place, and have cited a lack of geological evidence for a global flood [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html][http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/other_papers/rapid_post_flood_speciation.shtml]. What is ignored in this statement is the fact that approximately 75% of the earth's land area is sedimentary rock (water-laid), as well as evidence from the fossil record showing animals which have died violently, as in a cataclysm, and buried so rapidly that normal biological agents could not completely dispose of the carcasses, as is done under normal observation.

===Fossilized tracks===
According to scientists, tracks can be fossilized under certain conditions: they must be laid down in moist, fine-grained sediment (such as a beach); the track needs to be exposed to the sun so that it may dry and harden, and one hard, the imprint must be buried for lithification [http://hoopermuseum.earthsci.carleton.ca/trackway/form.htm][http://www.cudenver.edu/NR/rdonlyres/eocduwg6h2lbh2t2dodpuddbzjllqbuo2mnlqiu4b4iyfizk2ofo33fxize7onhybfyou7eebjjbacbn7fd67uzddhb/wright.pdf], prior to erosion taking place by which the track is exposed.

Direct observation as to how tracks are made in accordance with the [[Scientific Method] contradicts this explanation. There is no known way for the sun to bake soft mud in such a manner as to prevent it returning to soft mud when water washes over the surface. Even in arid environments it has been demonstrated that tracks left behind in soft soil that has been baked by the sun will disappear during the next rain, even if that rain takes place a year later, such as in the Kalahari Desert of Africa. This photograph taken in Argentina shows dinosaur tracks across what appears to be a land parched by the sun [http://www2.ups.edu/faculty/veseth/watson/Toby/May2003/pages/Fossilized_savannah_and_tra.htm]; such land can be observed anywhere on earth when the sun dries out the water and the soil begins to contract and split. Under normal conditions both the tracks and the parched land would have been erased by the next rain.

Observation on dinosaur trackways in several examples [http://planetdinosaur.com/dinosaurs/anatomy.htm][http://pbisotopes.ess.sunysb.edu/lig/Field_Trips/hartford-basin/][http://www.charm.net/~edrtjd/kids/dino.htm] reveal a lack of clarity on trackways made near other, clearer tracks. The only explanation for this is the less-clear tracks were made prior to a wave of water washing over the beach, followed by the next set, and so on, until they were buried and preserved immediately. Such a demonstration is apparant in the January, 1993 article on dinosaurs from National Geographic (pg 16-17), where not only are five sets of tracks laid one after the other with water washing in between, but a layer of a different kind of sediment was embedded into the last set of tracks.

Fossilization has also occured with raindrops [http://www.grisda.org/colorado/images/04-11-12%20---%205b%20Fossil%20Trace%20-%20raindrops%20close.JPG]and other evidence of water action [http://www.grisda.org/colorado/index.htm]. For the preservation of such evidence in soft mud to survive being fossilized, such evidence must be buried rapidly by other material to remove it from the weather, and place it in a condition to allow the original material the trace was left in to harden into rock. The only known agent to allow this to happen is by destructive flooding.

===Coprolites===
Coprolites are essentially fossilized dung, and according to science, the fossilization of coprolites "is dependent on their original organic content, water content, where they were deposited, and method of burial" [http://www.envs.emory.edu/ichnology/Dinocopro.htm], usually at a river or floodplain. Coprolites are trace fossils, and since they contained much organic matter when deposited, they would have been subject to destruction by insects, animals, and the weather almost immediately, as demonstrated by observation today.

===Black Sea theory===
In 2000, explorers discovered evidence that humans lived where the [[Black Sea]] now is and speculated the sea was created during a great flood <ref>http://archives.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/09/13/great.flood.finds.ap/</ref>. Dr. Robert Ballard expanded on this theory, postulating that the Black Sea was much lower during the Ice Age (including the finding of a beach thousands of feet underwater), and when the walls holding back the Mediteranean Sea at the Bosporus broke, the sea rushed in and drowned the inhabitants; those who survived told the tale orally, and according to Ballard this became the basis for the flood accounts of Genesis and Gilgamesh [http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ax/frame.html]. This theory is dependent on a localized flood, and not the world-wide flood as recorded in Genesis and many other cultural traditions.

===The Walmington Pike Fossils===

Dr Arthur Mainwaring of Walmington University has recently discovered a series of Pike fossils whose clear definition and regular spacing suggest the prescence of dramatic tidal shifts in keeping with the Biblical description of the Great Flood. Further analysis by Jones, Fraser and Godfrey shows that the fossils in question have a notional date ratio that could only be explained by the principals laid out in Yateman's Verger, a Victorian attempt to provide a scientific basis for the Flood. Hodges disagrees.

==References==
*Holy Bible, King James Version, as published by Kirkbride Bible Co. Indianapolis, IN (1982)
*Unger, Merril F. ''Unger's Bible Dictionary'', Moody Press, Chicago, IL (1966)
*National Geographic, ''Dinosaurs'' (article), January 1993.

==External Links==
*[http://www.maicar.com/GML/Flood.html Greek Myths: Deucalion and the Flood]
*[http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 11 (Flood Story)]
*[http://www.nwcreation.net/geologycolumn.html Geological evidence from Northwest Creation]
*[http://www.genesisfiles.com/Library.htm#B Genesis Files website]
*[http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/AnswersBook/global10.asp Was the Flood Global? Answers in Genesis article]
*[http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ax/frame.html Black Sea theory, from Dr. Robert Ballard and National Geographic]
*[http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore64.html Native American flood story]
*[http://wovoca.com/myths-flood-1.htm Colection of Flood myths]
===Fossil links===
*[http://www.rae.org/800Billion.htm Are There 800 Billion Vertebrate Fossils Buried in the Karoo Formation?]
*[http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/area/magazines/TJ/TJv14n2_KarooNon.pdf Karoo Vertebrate non-problem (.pdf)]
*[http://www.broadcaster.org.uk/section2/transcript/evolution.htm Science That Backs Up The Bible]
*[http://www.envs.emory.edu/ichnology/Dinocopro.htm Dinosaur coprolites]

==Notes==
<references/>

[[Category:Bible]]

Sweden

2007-03-24T21:13:10Z

RocketsRedGlare: /* Swedish Viking History */

'''Sweden''' is a small country in [[Scandinavia]]. The capital city is [[Stockholm]], which is also the largest city. Sweden has approximately 9 million inhabitants. With an area of 173,750 square miles (450,000 square kilometers), Sweden is a big country in [[Western Europe]].

Sweden is a constitutional [[monarchy]] and a parliamentary [[democracy]]. The prime minister of Sweden is 41 year old Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the Moderates. The Swedish parliament has 349 seats. [[Carl XVI]] is the current king.

== Swedish Viking History ==

In Sweden the [[Viking]] Age was getting under way by the 9th century, and vast repositories of Roman, Byzantine and Arab coins attest to the wealth and power Swedish Vikings accumulated over the next century. Vikings traveled mostly to the east, making their mark in Russia, as well as trading with (and pillaging) Byzantine territories. They also traveled west and there is considerable evidence of artifacts (such as coins) on the North American continent. Vikings pillaged villages all over Ireland, and are the antecedents of many living Irish men and women, such as the former Taoiseach of Ireland, Charles Haughey and his cousin Sile de Valera, pop stars Bob Geldof and Phil Lynott, and artist Charlie Whisker. Dr Philip Owens, an anthropologist at the University of Ringpiece, has recently located traces of ancient Viking gatherings on the remote islands of Humphreys, Slocombe and Rumbold. Remnants of a small settlement (called Ektorp) exist on Newfoundland which include the remains of small dwellings, deteriorated furniture and cooking utensils.

Christianity only took root in the 11th century.

== Christianity in Sweden ==

80% of the inhabitants belong to the Evangelical [[Lutheran Church]] of Sweden named The Swedish Church (Svenska kyrkan in Swedish). This church is very different to other churches because it has decided to marry [[homosexuality|homosexuals]]. This Church is considered a [[liberal]] Church and does not protest against abortions, divorce, and other conservative issues. About 5% of the Swedish population belong to "family-values" Christian churches. Many Swedes are [[atheists]].

Sweden has 18 weeks of free [[abortion]] and 4 weeks during which women need to get special permission to be allowed an abortion. Swedish politicians are currently discussing whether foreign women should be allowed to have an late term abortion in Sweden, and much suggests that the parliament will vote in favor of that proposition. In the 1960's the government decided to reduce in school education about [[Christianity]]. In 2000, the Evangelical [[Lutheran Church]] and the government were separated. Before that, all children were born members of the church, except those whose parents took an active decision against it and both left the church. Even if a child were not christened, he or she became a member for life, having to pay a small tax to the church.

In 2005 a Swedish Baptist priest Åke Green was charged with, and found guilty of hate speech, when preaching Biblical teachings regarding homosexuality. He was imprisoned for one month and then acquitted.

== Politics ==

Sweden has high taxes and strong trade unions. Even if Sweden has now got a new government instead of the old one, socialistic one, it's still a country where socialism is strong. Fredrik Reinfeldt says that he is not going to destroy the Swedish model - in fact he says he likes that model - he only wants make some small changes. Although one of the parties in the government alliance is named "The Christian Democrats", no decisions have been made to make Christianity stronger in Sweden.

Swedes are paying 65% of their wage, in taxes, if we count ALL taxes (not only the income tax), the jobless rate is, according to the new government, 17%. The new government are counting everyone that is out of job (except of they who are over 65 years old, under 18 years old, handicapped or ill), the former government lost the election because of many reasons, but the strongest one was that they had cheated with the jobless rate and maked it look lower than it actually was.
A lot of the money that comes from taxes goes to the unemployed. Everyone in Sweden got right to have a home, food, water and clothes. Even if the reason is good (to save people from a life on the streets), this costs a lot of money.

== Is Sweden a democracy?==
Krister Renard, a Swedish author, schoolteacher and member in the Swedish organization "Word of Life", describes Sweden as a "totalitarian democracy". Sweden has fair elections, but all childs are teached in school that socialism (less or more) is the only way to go if you don't want people to die, hungry, on the streets. The history of christianity are teached in school, but their is not much said about today's churches, and the teachers are often very negative to christianity and teaches a wrong picture of it. Especially, they are negative to conservative christianity which is described by the teachers as "something that a majority of the swedish christians fortunately do not support" (that's a quote from a swedish teacher in Society Science).
Approximately 80% of the population between the ages of 18 and 65 are members in a trade union. If the government were to try to reduce unemployment and other welfare benefits, trade unions would surely strike perhaps triggering an economic meltdown far beyond that of an ordinary recession.

A totalitarian democracy is a very good sentence to describe Sweden.

==Some Notable Swedes==
* [[Alfred Nobel]], instigator of the [[Nobel Prize]]
* Greta Garbo, actress
* ABBA
* Roxette
* Dag Hammarskjöld
* [[Anders Celsius]]
* Astrid Lindgren
* Carl von Linné
* Fredrik Ljungberg
* Henrik Larsson
* Stellan Skarsgård
* Saint Bridgid
* Lars Magnus Ericsson
* Gustavus Adolphus (king, founder of Gothenburg etc, died 1632 in the Thirty Years War)
* Björn Borg, tennis player
* Olof Palme
* Ingemar Bergman

==References==
*[http://www.sweden.se SWEDEN.SE]
*[http://www.svenskakyrkan.se Svenska Kyrkan]
*http://www.lo.se
*http://www.moderaterna.se
*http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=913&a=324428
*http://www.gluefox.com
*[http://www.historyofnations.net/europe/sweden.html History of Sweden]
* Forte, Angelo. Oram, Richard. Pedersen, Frederik. ''Viking Empires''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005
* Hudson, Benjamin. ''Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in North America''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
* http://www.livetsord.se/default.aspx?idStructure=918
* http://perkornhall.se/LivetsOrd/index-eng.htm
* http://www.skattebetalarna.se
* The author to this texts own experiences
[[Category:Countries]]

Tony Blair

2007-03-24T20:58:57Z

RocketsRedGlare: /* Personal */

'''Tony Blair''', full name '''Anthony Charles Lynton Blair''' (born May 6, 1953) has been the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] since May 1997. He belongs to and is the current leader of the British [[Labour Party]], having been elected to the party leadership in 1994 following the death of his predecessor, [[John Smith]].

While the Labour Party is a self-described "democratic [[socialist]] party"<ref>[http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php?id=labourdemocracy]</ref>. Blair coined the phrase "[[New Labour]]" to distinguish his own pro-[[market]] policies from the more [[collectivist]] platform of his predecessors. He also used the phrase "[[The Third Way]]"

In the 1990s in particular, Blair was seen as a charismatic leader. His liberal policies and "slick" media image led some commentators to compare him to [[Bill Clinton]], though there is no suggestion that his private life resembles that of his American counterpart.

A combination of Labour's new-found moderation, Blair's personal popularity and the deep unpopularity of the Conservatives under [[John Major]] resulted in a landslide victory for Blair and his party in the 1997 general [[election]], ending 18 years of [[Conservative]] government. Labour easily won re-election in 2001 and, less convincingly, in 2005.

Tony Blair has stated he will step down as the party leader in time for the Trades Union Congress conference in September 2007 <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5322094.stm]</ref>.

During Blair's tenure as Prime Minister, the [[Labour party|Labour]] government made the Bank of England independent, allowing them to set the nation's interest rates (which had previously been set by the Chancellor of the Exchequer), and has introduced a national [[minimum wage]], in 1998, which has gradually been increased over time. Scotland has also gained a devolved Parliament, and Wales a devolved assembly, and limited attempts have been made to devolve power to the regions (although these have not been successful).

One of the most controversial aspects of Blair's premiership has been his commitment to and support of George W Bush and the Iraq war, which has strongly divided opinion, both in the Parliament and among the British people. His strong support of America and President Bush in particular have set him apart from most European leaders, especially with the parties of the left (including his own Labour Party). This has come at considerable political cost with his own popularity suffering greatly, and the government only surviving the 2005 general election due to a weak and unpopular opposition Conservative Party.

== Personal ==
[http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page4.asp] The son of a barrister and lecturer, Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh, but spent most of his childhood in Durham. At the age of 14 he returned to Edinburgh to finish his education at Fettes College. He studied law at [[Oxford University]], and went on to become a barrister himself. before entering politics. While at college Blair played in the rock group Ugly Rumours (named for a a Grateful Dead song). The group -- which, according to rock critic Paul Morley, sounded like "five Swedish cats discussing semantics with an existentialist trouser press" -- once supported Clock DVA at London's Marquee Club. Blair married his wife, Cherie Booth QC a barrister in 1980, and they have four children.

As well as being leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister, Tony Blair is also the [[MP]] for Sedgefield, a constituency located in [[County Durham]] in North East England.

Tony Blair is a committed church goer and strongly religious, a fact which is often lampooned and contrasted with the morality of his policies in the British media . His wife, Cherie, is a Catholic, and Blair himself occasionally takes Catholic communion at Westminster Cathedral although he is officially Anglican. Although there have been rumours of his conversion to Catholicism, he disagreed with Pope John Paul II on the morality of the Iraq War.

{{stub}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Political people|Blair, Tony]]

Tony Blair

2007-03-24T20:54:58Z

RocketsRedGlare: /* Personal */

'''Tony Blair''', full name '''Anthony Charles Lynton Blair''' (born May 6, 1953) has been the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] since May 1997. He belongs to and is the current leader of the British [[Labour Party]], having been elected to the party leadership in 1994 following the death of his predecessor, [[John Smith]].

While the Labour Party is a self-described "democratic [[socialist]] party"<ref>[http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php?id=labourdemocracy]</ref>. Blair coined the phrase "[[New Labour]]" to distinguish his own pro-[[market]] policies from the more [[collectivist]] platform of his predecessors. He also used the phrase "[[The Third Way]]"

In the 1990s in particular, Blair was seen as a charismatic leader. His liberal policies and "slick" media image led some commentators to compare him to [[Bill Clinton]], though there is no suggestion that his private life resembles that of his American counterpart.

A combination of Labour's new-found moderation, Blair's personal popularity and the deep unpopularity of the Conservatives under [[John Major]] resulted in a landslide victory for Blair and his party in the 1997 general [[election]], ending 18 years of [[Conservative]] government. Labour easily won re-election in 2001 and, less convincingly, in 2005.

Tony Blair has stated he will step down as the party leader in time for the Trades Union Congress conference in September 2007 <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5322094.stm]</ref>.

During Blair's tenure as Prime Minister, the [[Labour party|Labour]] government made the Bank of England independent, allowing them to set the nation's interest rates (which had previously been set by the Chancellor of the Exchequer), and has introduced a national [[minimum wage]], in 1998, which has gradually been increased over time. Scotland has also gained a devolved Parliament, and Wales a devolved assembly, and limited attempts have been made to devolve power to the regions (although these have not been successful).

One of the most controversial aspects of Blair's premiership has been his commitment to and support of George W Bush and the Iraq war, which has strongly divided opinion, both in the Parliament and among the British people. His strong support of America and President Bush in particular have set him apart from most European leaders, especially with the parties of the left (including his own Labour Party). This has come at considerable political cost with his own popularity suffering greatly, and the government only surviving the 2005 general election due to a weak and unpopular opposition Conservative Party.

== Personal ==
[http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page4.asp] The son of a barrister and lecturer, Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh, but spent most of his childhood in Durham. At the age of 14 he returned to Edinburgh to finish his education at Fettes College. He studied law at [[Oxford University]], and went on to become a barrister himself. before entering politics. While at college Blair played in a rock group named Ugly Rumours (named for a a Grateful Dead song). The group -- which, according to rock critic Paul Morley, sounded like "five Swedish cats discussing semantics with an existentialist trouser press" -- once supported Clock DVA at London's Marquee Club. Blair married his wife, Cherie Booth QC a barrister in 1980, and they have four children.

As well as being leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister, Tony Blair is also the [[MP]] for Sedgefield, a constituency located in [[County Durham]] in North East England.

Tony Blair is a committed church goer and strongly religious, a fact which is often lampooned and contrasted with the morality of his policies in the British media . His wife, Cherie, is a Catholic, and Blair himself occasionally takes Catholic communion at Westminster Cathedral although he is officially Anglican. Although there have been rumours of his conversion to Catholicism, he disagreed with Pope John Paul II on the morality of the Iraq War.

{{stub}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Political people|Blair, Tony]]