Religion and Ethics Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: floo on November 04, 2016, 11:15:18 AM

Title: If you had a time machine........
Post by: floo on November 04, 2016, 11:15:18 AM
...........where would you like it to take you?

I would like to go back 2000 years to see if anything claimed for Jesus had any truth to it, as Christianity was a big part of my life as a kid, until I lost my faith at 19.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Nearly Sane on November 04, 2016, 11:20:20 AM
Good topic, probably to watch the run up and aftermath of the death of that other JC, Julius Caesar
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Gordon on November 04, 2016, 11:23:51 AM
Good topic, probably to watch the run up and aftermath of the death of that other JC, Julius Caesar

I've been to Skara Brae, twice in fact - to see it in 'operation' would be my choice.

http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/

Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: BeRational on November 04, 2016, 12:03:57 PM
I've been to Skara Brae, twice in fact - to see it in 'operation' would be my choice.

http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/

I would do all sorts of serious historical research, immediately after I win the lottery ( a few times )
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: wigginhall on November 04, 2016, 12:18:37 PM
I'd like to see Stonehenge in operation, being used by the people then.   Probably quite different from our expectations.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Harrowby Hall on November 04, 2016, 12:34:11 PM
We have had this subject before. I shall give the same answer as I gave the first time.

I would like to go back to Saturday, 21 October 4004BC. I would like to meet and get to know the people living at that time. The following evening, I would invite them all to come and join me and we would watch the Creation taking place. If there is space in the time machine, I would invite Sassy to come with me. She could do having a break.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: ad_orientem on November 04, 2016, 12:43:19 PM
Mid 8th century, perhaps. I could introduce Charlemagne's father to the condom.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Brownie on November 04, 2016, 12:52:18 PM
LOL at that one ad_o.

I don't think I'd want to go back in case anything went wrong with the time machine and I couldn't return!
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: jeremyp on November 04, 2016, 12:55:09 PM
Mid 8th century, perhaps. I could introduce Charlemagne's father to the condom.
Then we would almost certainly all cease to exist.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: floo on November 04, 2016, 01:32:59 PM
LOL at that one ad_o.

I don't think I'd want to go back in case anything went wrong with the time machine and I couldn't return!

Don't worry, the Time machine is guaranteed to bring you back to the present at your command.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Brownie on November 04, 2016, 02:33:10 PM
The Jurassic era please.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: floo on November 04, 2016, 03:09:07 PM
The Jurassic era please.

Why?
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Anchorman on November 04, 2016, 03:59:35 PM
Geeky bit first.... I'd go back to the last years of Akhenaten's rule and see just who DID succeed him (I have a very good idea)......and forward it ten years to find out exactly why Tutankhamun's tomb was filled with stuff that didn't belong to him. (Possibly) less geeky bit.... I'd go to the Beeb in the mid 70's and stop the numpties who erased over 100 William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton Doctor Who stories....
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: floo on November 04, 2016, 04:01:01 PM
I would like to go back to the 12th century to discover if a historical figure is an ancestor of mine, as is supposed.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: SqueakyVoice on November 04, 2016, 05:07:25 PM
.... I'd go to the Beeb in the mid 70's and stop the numpties who erased over 100 William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton Doctor Who stories....

There's something very intriguing about the idea of an actual time traveller going back to rescue a fictional one...
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: floo on November 04, 2016, 05:56:59 PM
I would like to see how our world ends, just to discover if the 'end timers' predictions are the nonsense I believe them to be.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Brownie on November 04, 2016, 06:09:59 PM
There's something very intriguing about the idea of an actual time traveller going back to rescue a fictional one...
I found that very touching.

'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure' was ace.  Or should I say, "Most triumphant".
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Anchorman on November 04, 2016, 06:21:58 PM
I found that very touching.

'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure' was ace.  Or should I say, "Most triumphant".



Nah.....'Ace' was the Doctor's companion.....see wot I mean about geek?
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Brownie on November 04, 2016, 07:11:46 PM
Why?

I have a fascination with dinosaurs, would love to see them close up (as long as I was well protected).  Went to see "Walking with Dinosaurs" at the O2 some years ago and was enthralled, that's the nearest I will ever get to the real thing.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Maeght on November 04, 2016, 09:06:02 PM
Watching the building of the Pyramids would be fun.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: torridon on November 04, 2016, 09:19:06 PM
I would like to go back to the 12th century to discover if a historical figure is an ancestor of mine, as is supposed.

That is more a less a racing certainty.  All living Europeans are descended from everyone alive in Europe from before 1400AD.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: SweetPea on November 04, 2016, 09:21:55 PM
Geeky bit first.... I'd go back to the last years of Akhenaten's rule and see just who DID succeed him (I have a very good idea)......and forward it ten years to find out exactly why Tutankhamun's tomb was filled with stuff that didn't belong to him.....

Can I travel in your suitcase, Anchorman?

and

Watching the building of the Pyramids would be fun.

Something we agree on Maeght! :)
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: SweetPea on November 04, 2016, 09:37:21 PM
I'd like to go back maybe 10 years before my father died. There are so many things I'd like to ask him that I never got round to asking him when he was alive. My mother spoke a lot about her family..... we knew every nock and cranny about her side of the family; but my father said very little about his family. It wasn't until after he died that we discovered he had an aunt that he'd never mentioned. He did share some of his war stories with us, though. He drove Churchill a couple of times and related some funny anecdotes about him. Some of his experiences and adventures in Canada were quite hair-raising, he was lucky to survive one situation.

It's just strange thinking there is stuff my siblings and I will never know.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: T8-eh-T8 on November 05, 2016, 12:48:36 PM
I'd definitely want to go forwards rather than back.

I'd want to see how history treats Blair. Make sure that our future society understands what a terrible human he was. Would love to see how we are doing as a species. Be nice if we didn't dedtroy ourselves.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Anchorman on November 05, 2016, 02:21:37 PM
Hmmm; Forward? Well, I'd like to be there on that first Independence day when the Saltire and the European flag replace the union flag....!
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: T8-eh-T8 on November 05, 2016, 03:21:10 PM
I'd rather view a time where the notion of nationality and nationalism are seen as the anachronism they are.

Where we can look back with twee nostalgia at the idea that a person's worth can be defined by the accident of the location of their birth, and the myopia of nationhood is but a dwindling memory. 😀
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Brownie on November 05, 2016, 06:55:13 PM
That's a lovely idea, T8, I'd sort of like to see a time like that too with qualifications:  that we are not all the same, we are individuals and that diversity is celebrated.

Utopia.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Owlswing on November 05, 2016, 08:41:48 PM

We have had this subject before. I shall give the same answer as I gave the first time.

I would like to go back to Saturday, 21 October 4004BC. I would like to meet and get to know the people living at that time. The following evening, I would invite them all to come and join me and we would watch the Creation taking place. If there is space in the time machine, I would invite Sassy to come with me. She could do having a break.


If this post is on the level, you disappoint me HH - I thought you had more sense than to be a Creationist!
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: T8-eh-T8 on November 05, 2016, 08:47:28 PM
Yes, the celebration of the individual is key.

I sort of think that is the basis of Christian belief. Of course religion desires homogeny, which defies the celebration of the individual. Which may be why religion is Gods biggest enemy, it is man-made, it is corporeal, it is non-spiritual.

Religion is the antithesis to God.

Ironic that humans create God and then devise a system to administer God which then diminishes God, n'est pas?
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Owlswing on November 05, 2016, 08:51:11 PM
OP - this is already known - it was a lap-dance club for Druids!

#6 - late May 1993 to deliver a condom to Mr and Mrs Bieber

#12 - YES - to both

#17 - Oh ACE - top lady!

Being Pagan I agree with Floo - I would really like to know what really happened - but I will take a little bet - if I went back and found that I was wrong I would come back and admit I got it wrong - here's the bet - I'll bet the Christians wouldn't!
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Brownie on November 05, 2016, 09:07:16 PM
Yes we would, there'd be no point in doing otherwise.
However, let's face it, we aren't able to time travel (atm).

I've read accounts of people travelling in time and space after taking some drugs.  (Apparently the Native Americans incorporated that into some  ceremonies.  Naturally everyone would say it was  hallucination but to the person, it was real enough.

Yes, the celebration of the individual is key.

I sort of think that is the basis of Christian belief. Of course religion desires homogeny, which defies the celebration of the individual. Which may be why religion is Gods biggest enemy, it is man-made, it is corporeal, it is non-spiritual.

Religion is the antithesis to God.

Ironic that humans create God and then devise a system to administer God which then diminishes God, n'est pas?

Oui.  Agree with all your post.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: SweetPea on November 05, 2016, 09:41:30 PM
Yes, the celebration of the individual is key.

I sort of think that is the basis of Christian belief. Of course religion desires homogeny, which defies the celebration of the individual. Which may be why religion is Gods biggest enemy, it is man-made, it is corporeal, it is non-spiritual.

Religion is the antithesis to God.

Ironic that humans create God and then devise a system to administer God which then diminishes God, n'est pas?

Yes, 'religion' is man-made..... but don't through the baby out with the bathwater..... Jesus Christ is very real.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: T8-eh-T8 on November 05, 2016, 10:23:33 PM
My darling Sweetpea

My point was to highlight the difference between the human and the divine. As in the natural verses the supernatural.

No baby, no bathwater. I accepted and rejected nothing.

Just suggested that we, as humans, have hiccupped God? By trying g to define the literally indefinable?

(Ok, I hope you remember me as fondly as I remember you, and as such give me the benefit of the doubt and trust me when I say I am both honest and earnest, just like to do thought exploratikn, hence my admiration for you 😀😀).

Ok again, I really don't know what God is?

I come at this from the inside, the religious, the establishment.

But hand on heart, i don't know what God is?

I will consider an by response in the same vein as the question. Not pointing fingrrs, just looking for some clarity

PS, apart from the others I used to love you to the most Sweetpea 😍

My goodness I bad to edit a lot dye to tablet posting rather than of😣
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Harrowby Hall on November 06, 2016, 06:53:02 AM
If this post is on the level, you disappoint me HH - I thought you had more sense than to be a Creationist!

I'm not a Creationist, but Sassy is. She has so many brickbats thrown at her on this forum that I thought I would give her a treat.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: torridon on November 06, 2016, 08:52:53 AM
If you had a time machine........

I'd be happy currently to go forward just one second in time.  Just so's I could clear up this confusion in my head - does the future exist ?
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Owlswing on November 06, 2016, 09:26:06 AM

I'm not a Creationist, but Sassy is. She has so many brickbats thrown at her on this forum that I thought I would give her a treat.


And I thought that she could sink no lower!
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: SqueakyVoice on November 06, 2016, 02:01:32 PM
If this post is on the level, you disappoint me HH - I thought you had more sense than to be a Creationist!

I thought HH had something much more like this in mind...

http://www.theonion.com/article/sumerians-look-on-in-confusion-as-god-creates-worl-2879

Quote
Members of the earth's earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, looked on in shock and confusion some 6,000 years ago as God, the Lord Almighty, created Heaven and Earth.
...
"I do not understand," reads an ancient line of pictographs depicting the sun, the moon, water, and a Sumerian who appears to be scratching his head. "A booming voice is saying, 'Let there be light,' but there is already light. It is saying, 'Let the earth bring forth grass,' but I am already standing on grass."

"Everything is here already," the pictograph continues. "We do not need more stars."
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Walt Zingmatilder on November 06, 2016, 05:08:58 PM
OP - this is already known - it was a lap-dance club for Druids!

#6 - late May 1993 to deliver a condom to Mr and Mrs Bieber

Blimey Owlswing...You've done the research...such commitment to comedy.

I'm beginning to see you in a completely different light. 
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: SweetPea on November 06, 2016, 05:46:25 PM
My darling Sweetpea

My point was to highlight the difference between the human and the divine. As in the natural verses the supernatural.

No baby, no bathwater. I accepted and rejected nothing.

Just suggested that we, as humans, have hiccupped God? By trying g to define the literally indefinable?

(Ok, I hope you remember me as fondly as I remember you, and as such give me the benefit of the doubt and trust me when I say I am both honest and earnest, just like to do thought exploratikn, hence my admiration for you 😀😀).

Ok again, I really don't know what God is?

I come at this from the inside, the religious, the establishment.

But hand on heart, i don't know what God is?

I will consider an by response in the same vein as the question. Not pointing fingrrs, just looking for some clarity

PS, apart from the others I used to love you to the most Sweetpea 😍

My goodness I bad to edit a lot dye to tablet posting rather than of😣

Thank you, T8 for those kind sentiments; as I said on the EU thread, I've missed your interesting topics and expressive writing. :)

Ah, the God question. It seems to me to be far easier to relate to Jesus Christ than to God. It's so easy to think of God in human terms and that He should think and act as a human. How can we as beings with a 3D level of consciousness even start to perceive God and understand how He really works. Jesus taught the way to God was through Him on the spiritual level, but it's the other aspects of God that can be a struggle to understand.
 
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Harrowby Hall on November 06, 2016, 08:24:32 PM
Squeaky Voice

Got it in 1.

You can have a Gold Star.

Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: T8-eh-T8 on November 06, 2016, 08:55:54 PM
SweetP

I secretly feel that Jesus was much more like Moses and Mohammed than the Greeks would have us believe. Don't get me wrong, I love drug fuelled sodomy as much as the next man, we have lots to be grateful to the Greeks for, but they did rather take over Early Chritianity and mould it into a certain shape.

Mind you better than those Latin types who took over, with their limited language and dismissal of the mysterious.

Ah well. At least we can ponder God. Nature has a tendabcy to provide an in built self destruction mechanism for various species. When they become to successful something kicks in to trim the herd. Perhaps that is what God is? The thing which stops us from developing into a Nietzsche style superman. Keeps us in our place as it were.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: ad_orientem on November 07, 2016, 02:53:28 AM
I'd rather view a time where the notion of nationality and nationalism are seen as the anachronism they are.

Where we can look back with twee nostalgia at the idea that a person's worth can be defined by the accident of the location of their birth, and the myopia of nationhood is but a dwindling memory. 😀

Gag! All we need now is for someone to play John Lennon's Imagine. ::)
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: ad_orientem on November 07, 2016, 02:56:03 AM
Yes, the celebration of the individual is key.

I sort of think that is the basis of Christian belief. Of course religion desires homogeny, which defies the celebration of the individual. Which may be why religion is Gods biggest enemy, it is man-made, it is corporeal, it is non-spiritual.

Religion is the antithesis to God.

Ironic that humans create God and then devise a system to administer God which then diminishes God, n'est pas?

Unless you're some sort of Iconoclast you can separate the physical from the spiritual. They belong together.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Walter on November 07, 2016, 02:54:42 PM
I'd definitely want to go forwards rather than back.

I'd want to see how history treats Blair. Make sure that our future society understands what a terrible human he was. Would love to see how we are doing as a species. Be nice if we didn't dedtroy ourselves.
I like Tony Blair, T8ty. Not sure about you though?
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Brownie on November 07, 2016, 03:11:51 PM
History should view Tony Blair as an all round person, not just, for example, the Iraq war bit.  He did a lot of good when he first elected, or I should say his government did.  No-one should be in power too long, they think they can walk on water after a while.  We saw that with Mrs T.

Having watched the start of David Attenborough's Planet Earth Series 11 last night, which was spellbinding, I wouldn't mind being able to flick through some of evolution and view it from a distance.

Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Walter on November 07, 2016, 03:28:05 PM
Planet Earth ll

wouldn't miss it for the world

outstanding
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Nearly Sane on November 07, 2016, 03:30:13 PM
Planet Earth ll

wouldn't miss it for the world

outstanding
scary snakes
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Walter on November 07, 2016, 03:38:06 PM
scary snakes

was watching through my fingers. But the incessant background drumming music nearly had me turning it OFF.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Walter on November 07, 2016, 03:40:33 PM
Then I remembered the MUTE button ahh!
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Walter on November 07, 2016, 03:44:10 PM
BTW NS,

all those snakes, its a result of THE FALL. What do you expect?
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Brownie on November 07, 2016, 05:12:22 PM
Those snakes will not be forgotten in a hurry.  They were inescapable, I was glad to see one poor little lizard get away.
I kept thinking, "Where is Superman when a lizard needs him?".  Indiana Jones came to mind too but I can't quite figure why.

Walter:  "...all those snakes, its a result of THE FALL. What do you expect?"
There was something Armageddonish about it all, like one of those old paintings with chaos, mountains, storm clouds, lightening and an anthropomorphic God in the sky.  Appealed to my imagination.  I kept thinking of Nicholas Marks too (you won't know him, Walter), who described his ideas in a pictorial way.


(My husband didn't like the crabs.)

Can't wait for this week's episode.
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Nearly Sane on November 07, 2016, 05:13:24 PM
Time and the changes


http://tinyurl.com/jlya4em
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Walter on November 08, 2016, 08:54:59 AM
Time and the changes


http://tinyurl.com/jlya4em

I think she is married to Richard Dawkins
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: Anchorman on November 08, 2016, 09:23:33 AM
Still prefer te late Mary Tamm as Romana 'I'........
Title: Re: If you had a time machine........
Post by: ippy on November 08, 2016, 11:55:28 AM
It'd be interesting to find out what happened to the princes in the Tower, I'd have to send someone else to find out, purely on the basis I'm a devout coward and considering the tortures in those days, being locked up forever in the Tower or having my head chopped.

Just think of all of those Richard the third societies if they found the truth? I suppose they'd have to close down?

ippy