My Explanation of Cain Being Sent to the Land of Nod

One of my relatives put on my FB page that there were no other people in "The Land of Nod" and that it did not say Cain lived there in the Bible. 
This is my answer.  I wrote it quickly, but if it is confusing in parts, that is because any justification for the story is confusing! 
You are right that Genesis 4:16 says Cain "dwelt in the land of Nod."  Of course, some versions of the Bible do not say "dwelt" but say "settled" in the land of Nod, which makes it sound even more like Cain stayed there. (I am answering as if I am taking the Bible’s words seriously.)
The only problem with Genesis 4:16, about Cain living in the land of Nod, is that it is followed by Genesis 4:17, which starts out with the word, “And” as if it is a continuation. “And Cain “knew” his wife and she conceived, and bore Enoch, and he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.” So, after going to the land of Nod, a woman was around and of birthing age, and Cain had many people around to build a city.
Some apologists say that Adam and Eve were not the first people on earth. Others simply say that Adam and Eve lived a long time and Eve had daughters who simply were not mentioned. But there is a problem with that: If you follow the story in Genesis, a lot of things happened after Cain left and before Eve had another son, Seth, in Genesis 4:25. No daughters were mentioned for Eve, yet later on, daughters of Enoch’s descendents are mentioned, so the most logical reason Eve’s daughters are not mentioned is that she did not have any, at least up to this point!
Adam was 130 when he had his third child, Seth. Therefore, if Adam and Eve were the first people, when Cain left, there was only Adam, Eve and Cain in the world for a long time, until Eve gave birth to Seth, because Cain was not around and no one else was around to impregnate Eve and they had to wait 130 years before Eve had another child (Seth).
I hope this is not getting too confusing!
Let’s backtrack on the story a bit. In Genesis 4:9. God says, “Cain, where is Abel? What have you done? I can smell blood under the ground.” God apparently does not know that Cain killed Abel. God is supposed to know all, but has to ask questions? But Apologists will say that God is just giving Cain a chance to fess up.
God said Cain will be a vagabond and fugitive for life wandering (Nod means wander) as punishment for killing Abel, so he is not coming back to the Garden of Eden to mate with Eve. Interestingly, before starting out for his wandering life, Cain told God he was afraid he would be killed by everyone he met. This seems to mean there were people out there, but apologists who subscribe to Adam and Eve being the first people claim that “Adam lived to 930 years and he and Eve populated the world. Poor first women in the world, having to give birth over and over! (In reality, half of the babies born died back then from horrid diseases, and the actual life span of men was about 27 years.)
As a solution to Cain being killed by all those people he would meet in Nod, God put a mark on Cain so that anyone who killed Cain would receive 7 times the punishment (notice God did not protect Cain from dying – he only punished those who killed). Apologists will say that Cain and God were talking about the future, and that’s why they talked about “everyone killing him.” There are an awful lot of excuses that have to be made to make this story make any sense at all! (With Founder's Effect, it still does not make any sense.)
Such a convoluted and confusing story should not be how “inspired writing by God” should turn out!

Will You See Your Aborted Fetus, Embryo, and/or Blastocyst in Heaven?

One paragraph below is a status I put on my Facebook, and some comments.  A few people "liked" it, but one was a friend who had a stillborn child years ago (I don't think about those things when I am inspired on a topic), and I think she took the post seriously instead of with the sarcasm intended.  With 7 billion people and no signs of slowing down (not even at 10 billion because people have not taken controlling population growth seriously), I really do not care if fetuses are aborted before 26 weeks.  Even though conservatives claim fetuses feel pain at 20 weeks, all they use for justification is reflex and also developing nerve fibers.  But the two hemispheres of the brain are not connected yet, so there is no way they can feel pain!  All these people who want to prevent abortion should support all forms of birth control, and also they should offer up their homes and take care of the babies that the women do not want to give birth to and pay all hospital expenses. The Right wants to make women slaves to childbirth again.  They are nipping away at women's rights all the time.  This "sacred" stuff is ridiculous.  The word "sanctity" was first used in the 1300s, so this is not a Biblical theme.  Yet, the Right and the USA does not rely on facts when enacting their laws anymore.  Hence, my post below on Facebook:

"I checked with several sites on the Internet, including Answers in Genesis. Aborted fetuses will make it to Heaven. I can picture them floating around in Heaven in their various stages – some looking like fish fetuses, some like little aliens. Can’t you picture it too?
Just think, some women's fetuses will be waiting for the mothers to reunite with them in Heaven! I wonder what they will say to each other.
If a fetus was forced to develop and then was born as a baby with some painful abnormality which caused it to die, it would be judged when it reached the Pearly Gates; which might just have a worse outcome than terminating the pregnancy when he/she was just a speck. I guess I don’t understand the frenzy to force women to give birth to them."

• Comment: If it is true that dead babies get an instant ticket to "heaven", then every Christian mass murderer of children is a "holy" martyr for sending those children to "heaven" before they could be corrupted by the world.

  Me: Yes, they do get that free ticket. But I think it would be a holy martyr only if the mass murderer claims he did it in the name of God to save them from this world. It's all in the interpretation, you know.
  Believe, me, I have heard repeatedly how corrupt our world is, and how awful it is to pay attention to "the things of the world." It's a recurring theme, so in a way, abortion is "saving babies!"

Fake Meat Controversies Explained

(This is an article I wrote that was posted to my town's online newspaper.)

Why do people have such strong opinions about vegans eating fake meat? The criticisms do not come solely from meat eaters; they also come from fellow vegans! Commonly, people ask:
(A) Why imitate the taste of meat when you say you don’t like meat?
(B) Fake meat isn’t a “whole food,” is it?
I answer:
(A) Most vegans could be happy on a vegan diet without any fake meat, but having it is one more added texture and flavor. Even though mock meat can taste a lot like real animal meat, there is none of the greasy or gamey taste and no gristle.
(B) Sometimes vegans are just in the mood to slap a fake burger on a bun and call it a meal rather than make a bean burger from scratch. Vegans tend to eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains, but we do not have to eat them exclusively! We’re just like anyone else; we like variety. The only rule for a vegan is no animal products.

Field Roast Frankfurter – Vegan

A meat eating friend commented that she would never eat a soy product because it might contain hexane. Hexane is a chemical that is used to separate oil from peanuts, corn, olives, and from the whole soy pod. Hexane is used at ADM, but ADM claims that hexane is used only in the initial stages of processing and is totally rinsed off. There is one study that disputes that, but only a trace of hexane was found. It is important to note that a person would have to eat about 1.4 million veggie burgers per day for 90 days to feel any neurological problems if there were that tiny bit of hexane! I am not too worried.
Further easing any concern is the fact that many of the main fake meat brands such as Tofurky, Field Roast and Amy’s are not made from ingredients that require hexane!
There are far more potent substances in real meat to worry about. Fats in meat are a serious health hazard as their effects quickly accumulate in the body. Three year olds have striations of fat on their hearts now because of the meat and dairy diet we think is “feeding them right.” We see the results of too much fat with the rise of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The American Diabetes Association states that a low fat vegan diet is better at reducing heart disease and diabetes than the American Diabetes Association diet. (Re-read that last sentence and let it sink in!)
When critiquing the effects of fake meat on the body, it is important to note the amount that is consumed. It is rare to see fake meat mounded on a plate as a main course. Mock meats are a treat rather than the norm with most vegans.
Phytoestrogens and Soy Protein Isolate 
This is a controversial subject and research has shown positive and negative effects from both phytoestrogens and soy protein isolate. Phytoestrogens simply means plant estrogen and soy protein isolate is concentrated soy that is separated from the rest of the plant. Skip the protein powders and high fat protein bars, eat whole foods in general, and these will not be an issue. They certainly are safer than the growth hormones found in factory farmed animals.
Real Meat vs. Fake Meat: The Comparison
Here is a comparison of one of my Field Roast Frankfurters to an Oscar Mayer Hot Dog. I chose my favorite mock meat with the “good brand” of hot dog I ate when I was a meat eater

Field Roast Chili Frank

Ingredients:
Filtered water, vital wheat gluten, expeller pressed safflower oil, organic expeller pressed palm fruit oil, barley malt, naturally flavored yeast extract, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, paprika, sea salt, onions, spices, whole wheat flour, garlic, natural liquid smoke, caraway, celery seed, ground yellow mustard, paprika oleoresin. Contains 0 mg of cholesterol.

Oscar Meyer hot dog ingredients: mechanically separated turkey, mechanically separated chicken, pork, water, corn syrup, contains less than 2% of salt, sodium phosphates, sodium diacetate (fungicide and bactericide), sodium benzoate (preservative), sodium ascorbate, flavor, sodium nitrite (additive, can form carcinogenic nitrosamines and trigger migraines).Contains 35 mg of cholesterol.

“Mechanically Separated” means pureeing or grinding the carcass left after the manual removal of meat from the bones and then forcing the slurry through a sieve under pressure. What is in the hot dog includes bone, bone marrow, skin, nerves, blood vessels in addition to the scraps of meat remaining on the bones.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has shown that a little fake meat is not worthy of the huge amount of criticism and ostracism that is given to a vegan who will admit to occasionally eating it!

Vegans and Fake Meat

This is an article I posted in our local online magazine.


Today we will examine vegan meats, also called faux meat, fake meat and mock meat.
The first vegan meat to discuss is seitan. The biggest controversy is how to pronounce it! Some say “Say–TAN,” hitting the T extra hard so it won’t sound like Satan, but a Japanese man told me it was pronounced more like a southerner would say it, “Sah-ee-tan.” Regardless of pronunciation, making seitan is tricky because it can come out rubbery, but there are people who can conquer it and love homemade seitan. The only seitan I have had success with is when I mail order Bacon Style Seitan Strips by Upton’s Naturals.
Kroger also has faux bacon called Lightlife Smart Bacon. In a sandwich they are great, but don’t expect either one to taste much like real bacon if you are thinking about eating it by itself. Fake bacon has not been perfected yet.


Field Roast is my favorite brand of vegan meat. Country Nutrition carries Field Roast “Celebration Roast” which looks like a small stuffed turkey or pork roast. I have fed it to my husband who eats meat all the time and he finds it tasty.


Country Nutrition also carries Field Roast Frankfurters, which taste similar to a hot dog but are not greasy and are very filling. They have great flavor and are wonderful cut up in casseroles.
Field Roast Italian Sausage has a touch of fennel and has fooled people with its taste and consistency. This cannot be bought in this town; you have to travel to Common Ground Food Coop in Bloomington or mail order it. It is worth it. We do have Tofurky Italian Sausage at Fairview Kroger, and at first it did not warm my heart, but then it made a great comfort food and redeemed itself in a faux sausage, canned artichokes, mushrooms and brown rice casserole.

Fake bacon bits can easily be made using (TVP) Textured Vegetable Protein, a little olive oil and liquid hickory smoke flavoring in a pan on the stove top.  I watched a vegan stop eating one of my pasta salads because he thought the bacon bits were real!

Wal-Mart has come through with some products, including Gardein Beefless tips, which are delicious and can be added to stews or stroganoff.


Butler Soy Curls must be mail-ordered, but they taste just like pieces of chicken and are 100% natural, contain the whole soybean, are non GMO and have no chemical pesticides.  I picked these out of a creamy dish to show their texture.

Finally, there is the old standby Boca Original Chick’n Meatless Patties. They are great as a mock chicken sandwich or cut up in pasta salads.

There is even a vegan gourmet ordering service at http://www.veggiebrothers.com/. Do click on the link! You will be amazed at how much the mock meats look like meals from an expensive restaurant.
There are more faux meats, but these are enough to show that vegans have many choices available to them. Now that we have discussed local mock meats, we will talk about the controversies surrounding fake meat in my next article.

Useful Information to Show Homosexuality is Biological - I Prepared This for an Upcoming Discussion With a Conservative

This article will show that homosexuality is passed down from the parents and is not a choice.  (I would not care if it were a choice, but my writing is an attempt to explain why laws denying homosexuals rights are wrong and are prejudicial or simply from ignorance.)  I took all this information from about 12 articles and study abstracts.

INTRODUCTION:  There are many ways people are born homosexual, and we are in our infancy in researching this subject.  Conservative websites downplay the number of gays in the world, because they are trying to discourage further research into the subject, to hide the results from us.  They skew the results of past tests, claiming that because gene sequencing is the same when one identical twin is straight and one is gay, then it “proves” it is not genetic and that’s the end of the story.  (Actually, that’s just the beginning of the story.)
In the studies the word “environment” is used, but the conservative sites see that word to mean the social environment, when in the experiments the environment often meant the chemical environment in the womb. 
The conservative site never mentions the huge subject of epi-genetics, which is research that is currently exploding with new information about genes.  Epi-genetics involves epi-markers that are on genes (epi-markers wrap around DNA and make the decisions for that part of the DNA – whether it is turned on, turned off, partially turned off and when it is expressed).  So even though the gene sequencing is the same (order of adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine), amino acids such as cytosine can be turned on or off depending upon whether an epi-marker is wrapped around it or not, regulating it. 

Parents are the reason babies are gay.  Here are two ways fetuses develop to become homosexual.

1.   HARDEST PARAGRAPH TO UNDERSTAND, BUT IT IS COOL!  The embryo gets genes from the mother and father, and the epi-markers that were on the mother and father’s genes are supposed to be destroyed when the sperm and egg join to become a blastocyst, so that new epi-markers can be made in the fetus during development.  Every once in awhile, an epi-marker from the mother or father slips through to the developing embryo.  If the father passed on his epi-marker to a girl embryo, she will develop more masculine tendencies and be likely to be attracted to women.  If she gets a huge amount of testosterone in the womb, she will get some masculine physical characteristics, such as more masculine private parts.  Now this is interesting:  If a woman passes on her epi-marker which wraps tightly and suppresses or shuts off the signaling from the developing brain of the fetus to absorb excess testosterone, the fetus will not absorb it as much.  If this epi-marker from the mother goes to a female fetus, she will tend to grow up to be very “fit” and fertile and have a lot of babies.  They have noticed that families that have alot of homosexuals also tend to have sisters and female relatives who have a lot of babies!  Now, if the mother is having a boy, the fetus gets the pre-natal epi-marker from the mother, and he will tend to be feminized.  He may or may not be gay, depending on the amount of testosterone that is suppressed and resisted. 
If the father passes on an epi-marker from his prenatal genes, the son will grow up to be a straight man, but if the epi-marker goes to a girl in the womb, she will most likely be lesbian.  He gave her his epi-marker that wrapped loosely around the DNA that is thus “turned on” and signaled in the brain of the developing fetus the absorption of a lot of testosterone in the womb. 
 
2.  Mothers who have many sons are more likely for each successive son to be homosexual. The female mother ends up with male chemicals in her system while pregnant because the male fetus produces H-Y antigens, and since she is female, those are seen as a foreign substance.  She gets them in her bloodstream and builds up antibodies to fight these male substances, and then the antibodies can travel across the blood brain barrier to the fetus’ brain and altering sexual orientation. 
These antibodies get stronger with each pregnancy and the H-Y antigens of subsequent male fetuses have a decreased ability to masculinize the brain,thereby allowing the fetus to be more feminized.

STUDIES

LISTING OF STUDIES

They have so many studies going right now with twins with blood samples, tissue samples, DNA methylation sequencing (methyl groups attach to cytosine as epi-markers and can suppress them) and Next Generation Sequencing(very fast mapping), High Density Resolution Images of the epi-markers themselves and studying the epi-genomes of semen of fathers of lesbians.  There have been hundreds of studies on rats and primates and plants (because you can’t ethically pour chemicals on human fetuses). They are currently working on the International Human Epigenome projects that will map all markers, so results should become more known to the public soon.

FROM HERE DOWN IT IS EASIER TO UNDERSTAND

***We know from studying rats that exposure to sex hormones in the womb during a critical period in brain development affects future sexual orientation. By manipulating hormone levels during this time, scientists can make rats engage in homosexual behavior later on.  So you can see this is physical!  Not chosen at all.

***In mammals, a group of geneticists altered the sexual preferences of female mice by removing a single gene linked to reproductive behavior. Without the gene, the mice exhibited masculine sexual behavior and attraction toward urine of other female mice. Those mice who retained the gene were attracted to male mice.  Physical!

In a Swedish study, they used an MRI Scanner and discovered that the brain of a homosexual is symmetrical where a straight man is asymmetrical.  A lesbian brain is like the straight man’s brain, asymmetrical, and the straight woman is like the homosexual with a symmetrical brain. Physical!

They have measured in “adrenal hyperplasia” where there are high levels of testosterone in a female, the women are more masculinized with more same sex attraction.  That should prove that chemicals such as testosterone affect sexuality.  Physical!

1. There is more blood flow to the brain of one twin.
2. The nuclei in three parts of the hypothalamus are different in gay men than in straight, either larger or smaller.
3.  The cells and neurons are more densely packed in homosexual brains than straight men’s brains.
4. The number of nerves in the homosexual brain is more similar to straight women.
5. Gay men's brains respond differently to a serotonin inhibitor.
6. Lesbians do not blink as much when startled and are the most similar to straight men.  Straight women have a much stronger startle response.  This response is in the limbic system and cannot be controlled. Totally physical!
7. Gay and non-gay people's brains respond differently two pheromones.
8. Finger length ratios between the index and ring fingers have been reported to differ, on  average, between straight and lesbian women.
9. Gay men and lesbians are significantly more likely to be left-handed or ambidextrous than non-gay men and women;Hand preference is observable before birth.
10. Gay men have increased ridge density in the fingerprints on their left thumbs and pinkies.
11. Length of limbs and hands of gay men (white men only) is smaller, in general, compared to height.

Can anyone say at this point in reading this information that homosexuality is not physical and biological?

Westboro Baptist Church is Coming to our Town!

Big excitement in our town!  The Westboro Baptist Church is supposed to come picket three churches in our town this coming Sunday, June 1st. 

Being an atheist and watching YouTube videos about how Michael Moore brought his Pink Mobile filled with gay people to a protest of Fred Phelps and embarrassed Fred until he fled, and Thunderf00t sat down and interviewed Shirley and her two daughters, and Zinnia chatted with Shirley during a protest, I was thinking our counter-protest would be the same, and was planning some clever and funny zingers.

I was deciding which T-shirt I would wear, "Friendly Atheist" or my vegan essentials T-shirt with all the reasons to be a vegan on it.  My "Vegan" T-shirt won out in my mind.  Animals come first, plus I still want to be a bit closeted in this town.

Now that plans are evolving, a t-shirt is the least of my worries.  Our town is getting quite riled up at the thought of anyone harming our churches, and blockades and bullhorns, etc. are being discussed.  Although there are posts about making sure we stay nonviolent, the tone of the posts have me worried that we may be the town that loses it with Westboro Baptist Church. 

I just hope everyone stays safe and there is no violence.  There is no reason for our town (we have a lousy reputation) to worry about "showing what we are made of."  It could reflect very badly on us.

But we will see.  Many may not show.  I will be outside one of the churches. 

By the way, they have come to picket Central Baptist Church because it states you can be forgiven after you sin.  Apparently, that is too encouraging for people to sin and too liberal for Westboro Baptist Church!  Believe me, Central Baptist is a conservative church that I normally would not support, but I am picking the lesser of two evils!

I will report on the outcome!

Are Holy Books Appropriate for School? Can They Be Made Age Appropriate?

We have rules in the United States that a child can bring their religious books to school and read them if they have spare time.  I support this right, but recently I wonder if I should not support it, because I wonder if we are being honest with ourselves when we allow the Bible or many of the other holy books in schools. 
Many Christians monitor what their children read closely and want books like Harry Potter and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn banned. Of course we do not allow children to bring Playboy to school because of the adult content.  What would parents really think about the contents of the book below if they did not know these sentences came from the Bible?   
_________________________________________________________
These were the spoils which remained of the plunder taken by the fighting men: 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and as for persons, 32,000 young women who had had no intercourse with a man.
When two men are fighting and the wife of one of them intervenes to drag her husband clear of his opponent, if she puts out her hand and catches hold of the man by his privates, you must cut off her hand and show her no mercy.

“Look, I have two daughters, virgins both of them. Let me bring them out to you and you could do what you like with them. But do nothing to these men because they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
Then because of the dire straits to which you will be reduced when your enemy besieges you, you will eat your own children, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord has given you.

Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out.

Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother’s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD; so He took his life also.

You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.

. . . he pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose organ has been cut off may become a member of the Assembly of God.

Whoever utters the name of the Lord must be put to death. The whole community must stone him, whether alien or native. If he utters the name, he must be put to death.

And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, “Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.”

Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their genitals – as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions.

If some of the town worships other gods:  Put the entire town to the TORCH, livestock included, as a burnt offering to the LORD your God.  

When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished.  If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property.  

When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.  

As you approach a town to attack it, first offer its people terms for peace.  If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor.  But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town.  When the LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town.  But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock and other plunder.

If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father.  Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.

If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife.

Lo, a day shall come for the Lord when the spoils shall be divided in your midst.  And I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle: the city shall be taken, houses plundered, WOMEN RAVISHED; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city.   

And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? ... Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

Yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.

Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be RIPPED UP.

Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

And when he hath MADE HER to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.  (God required abortion)

Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. 

So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.

________________________________________________________

If you have read all of these sentences from the Bible, what age would you think this book is acceptable for schools?  3^rd grade?  6^th grade?  11^th grade?  Perhaps college?  Not at all?

Harry Potter and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn don’t look so bad now, do they!

(Taken from www,Evilbible.com, www.biblegateway.com, www.skepticsannotatedbible.com)