Kevin Saff wrote:

> Quasin wrote:
> 
>>Someone in Bible study last night said if the earthquake had lasted 
>>one second longer, the earth would have been thrown out of orbit into 
>>space.  Utter nonsense, but I'm trying to track down where this 
>>statement came from.  I'm not finding it on google.
>>
>>Anyone know?
> 
> the axis of the earth shifted about an inch, and the earth's rotation 
> sped by about 3 microseconds/day (about a thousandth of a second every 
> year).  This kind of thing is hardly unusual, on the geologic timescale. 
>   Google news for stuff like "earthquake", "axis",
and you do get a 
> fundamentalist alarmist article, though the author doesn't claim 
> anything like the statement you heard.
> 
> I imagine this person heard a version of this blown out of proportion 
> through a chain of two or three intermediate alarmists, who did not 
> bother to check their sources - an unfortunately common occurence.
> --
> Kevin Saff
> 
> 

Thanks, both of you.

Some of the folks in my Bible study group seem to take pleasure in 
believing and spreading supposed bad news about supposed persecution 
of Christians in USA or supposed worse ever events supposedly proving 
the world will end really soon, which they seem to delight in hoping 
for even though many of their own children are not saved by their 
definition of the word.

When I get a "Christian" rumor by email, I research it, so far I've 
always been able to disprove it easily with a bit of fact checking, 
and I hit "reply all" with facts and one or more web site they can go 
to for more facts.

That behavior has cost me some friends.  They WANT to believe they are 
suffering persecution.

I don't understand why.

Harder to counter nonsense statements made in a meeting, no time to 
fact check.  When I say, "that can't be true," based on a gut level 
sense of laws of physics or awareness of US law or whatever is 
involved, they don't believe me; they heard it on radio or TV. 
Usually on "Christian" radio or TV.
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 1/10/05 8:09:34 PM