This page is dedicated to enlightening believers about why commonly claimed evidence for their god's existence doesn't actually demonstrate that a god exists, nor does it justify their beliefs at all.
(E) The bible is inerrant.
(B) The big bang needed a push from something beyond time and space.
(C) Humans are designed perfectly, so there is a designer.
(D) Everything… all of nature proves god exists.
(E) The universe is finely tuned.
(A) Accepting Jesus fixed my life.
(A) Jesus existed, therefore the bible is true.
(B) Jesus' miracles prove his divinity.
(B) This same applies to morality, hope, beauty and consciousness.
(A) The Earth is in a perfect spot, a perfect distance.. Too perfect..
(C) The Earth environment is all too perfect for life, for it not to be designed.
(D) The chances that all the exact events occurred… is beyond astronomical.
(8) I have personally witnessed God (or his actions), experienced Him first hand.
(A) God appeared before me. My testimony proves god.
(B) I've witnessed a miraculous event after praying.
(C) The supernatural is widely observed and documented, it proves God.
(9) The Kalam Cosmological Argument proves God exist.
(A) The KCA's premises really don't hold up.
(B) Even if KCA's did logically prove the universe has a cause, what is it?
(10) The Fibonacci numbers & golden ration found in nature prove a god exists.
(12) Arguments for God debunked in video.
(A) Eye-witness accounts. The later Gospels copied each other (adding variation) and the first was written (decades after Jesus supposedly died) mostly as a story being told via hearsay, not as an eye witness account. The bible notes many folks that saw Jesus and his miracles, but none are verifiable beyond bible claims. Among the anonymous 500 seeing Jesus risen not one had their miraculous account recorded. No local historians or anyone else outside the bible narrative even noticed Jesus, or the eclipse or the dead rising from the graves. The bible stories could easily be fiction of its times… made up exactly as a fictional story is.
To modernize the bible's witnesses, take alien abductees stories for example. They make extreme claims, often similar even, but they are dismissed out of hand as fiction, fraud or delusion. Such a response is CLEARLY the rational default to extraordinary claims, even though these eyewitnesses are alive and still claiming it! The bible's witnesses stand FAR from the level of credibility of living alien witnesses, yet they are believed without question. Absurd. If you don't believe thousands of living witnesses, its hardly valid to believe (often anonymous) ancient witnesses claiming magic & myth really happened.
(C) Water to wine, walking on water and the resurrection are unverifiable events, which have no verifiable cause. Even if there was a verifiable witness to such events (there are none), they become mysteries, which are not by default answered by divinity. This also applies to modern miracles, visions, experiences and prayers. They are beyond explanation, beyond inspection, beyond revealing a source. It is a mystery and mysteries do not equal "God did it". If you were to see a vision of The Faerie King, experience a powerful feeling and miracle with it, does this prove the Faerie King is real? Of course not. The images and events could be caused by forces you can't see. They could be anything and inserting you god myth as the cause is baseless & fallacious.
Further, an often ignored aspect of modern visions in modern humans is the conditioning people go through. Basically kids are brainwashed with stories & images for years and years, so its no wonder believers brains would show them visions of what has been drilled into their head. Our brains are perfectly capable of fear, guilt & stress based hallucinations, so such reported experiences aren't proof of god.
(D) Historic accuracy proves the bible true. An accurate recounting of people, places and events is what makes fiction seem real. There's no reason to believe the Bible writers didn't just insert fictional people and events into their real background. Spiderman stories are written into existing city environments, using real people and places. This doesn't prove Spiderman is real.
(E) The bible is inerrant. Even the first sentence in the bible "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth" doesn't match reality. Obviously, in the beginning the heavens (space and time) could be argued, but the Earth wasn't formed for another 9 billion years (NOT remotely the beginning). Yup even the very first sentence of the Bible brings into question its validity as a whole. This is just the tip of a massive iceberg. There are many, many flaws, errors and contradictions in the bible (for a SHOCKINGLY LARGE list click HERE ) and many apologetics excusing them. Even the fact that seemingly endless apologist excuses are needed to explain such a flawed book, is a blatant admission of the books failings. An inerrant book wouldn't need excuses or favorable reinterpretation, it would be clear. The kicker is that a flawed book couldn't be the creation of a perfect being, since such a failure would make him CLEARLY IMPERFECT. There is no doubt that bible is simply man-made and that there is no such perfect God.
(A) Complexity of biology shows design (DNA & variation) so it's evidence of God. Nature, via evolution and natural forces, is perfectly capable of creating complex processes and systems. This is science's current stance. If you wish to claim natural forces aren't capable of this you need prove science wrong. Your claim and lack of understanding of nature's potential doesn't allow for any valid conclusion to be made for design. Even if we as humans couldn't explain your complex biology examples, it becomes a mystery and mysteries don't equal "god did it" by default. You would need to further demonstrate a link between this mystery of nature and your yet unproven god.
As far as where the singularity came from, defaulting to a yet unproven magic god is a fallacious leap. Even if you did prove a god existed you would still have to prove s/he was the only possible cause. There is certainly no requirement that it be god, as long as the cause remains unknown. Perhaps the physics of nothingness dictates that something exist. Perhaps our universes energy is eternal in some form or another. Or maybe a rupture in another dimension or universe caused our universe. Or maybe eternal power slime did it. You can deny these ideas all you want but cant disprove them, so gods are CLEARLY not the default.
Here's an interesting lecture by Stephen Hawking about time in the universe, which summarizes the No Boundary Hypothesis. It denotes the possibility and requirements of a self a starting universe. The hypothesis needs testing but the observed conditions in our universe meet the criteria. It will remain plausible until some aspect is disproven. Yup, no god needed!
(D) Everything… all of nature proves god exists. Perhaps this is you looking at everything in awe and and not being able to understand how natural forces did all this. Or more likely since you have been told for so long that your god myth has done it all, your auto conclusion falls to "God did it". Either way, there isn't evidence by merely observing nature and pondering. Your interpretation of nature isn't evidence but rather just your subjective opinion.
In your claim "The universe proves God", nothing justifies the insertion of your favorite myth, …ANY imagined myth or cause fits too… including just 'natural forces'. So "The universe proves The Faerie King" is equally as valid. Further, I could also say "The universe proves that nature makes universes" and its equally valid.. or more so, because natural forces are all that is evident as causes.
(E) The universe is fine tuned.
There is an argument that the universe and its conditions are so perfect that the likelihood it could exist is basically nil. That is unless a designer were there to tune it just right. Well, how many universes have been made? What if all possible universes might exist as a multiverse? Our universe would eventually exist too, and of course all existing universes would be equally unlikely, so its a non proof for a designer.
On another video (start at 3 min 50 sec) … the altering of the parameters of this universe wouldn't necessarily produce a universe where life was impossible, though granted it will be notably different. Also a misunderstanding of the multiverse is explained.
During a T.E.D. Talk, the multiverse, string theory & apparent fine tuning all pulled together & explained.
(A) Accepting Jesus fixed my life. Whether it be substance abuse, horrible habits or crime, finding a positive guide when you are at rock bottom can get you back up. When I was 8 my grandmother died. I imagined my stuffed animals were suffering too, and they helped me through it by talking to me and comforting me. The fact is any new thing to latch onto can be a crutch to help you continue. I dropped my crutch once i felt better, you didn't. You traversing that harsh recovery doesn't demonstrate a god, but rather trading an old dependence for a new one. Indeed getting clean can be done in many ways, none of which demonstrates the process to be more than an effective tool. It certainly doesn't show a supernatural force at work.
(A) Jesus existed, therefore the bible is true. The divinity of Jesus is a myth, as its not proven to be fact either in the bible or by historians. He is not considered an historical figure as depicted in the bible, but rather some historians agree some ancient holy man (or men) might have been the basis for the bible stories.
(B) Jesus' miracles prove his divinity. Nothing even close to evidence verifies his miracles to have ever happened. This can even be tested. Not one person noted or wrote down the 3 hour eclipse for example. Not one person noted the mass resurrection in town either! These are things any and all local historians (or anyone) would have documented. Its found nowhere but the story of Jesus, which makes other aspects of it VERY dubious. There's no good reason to believe the whole death & resurrection event even happened beyond pure fiction. So citing the missing body as evidence is like saying Harry Potter's missing body is evidence of his resurrection power… it happened in fiction only. Even if the miracles were sufficiently witnessed, they would be mysteries with no way to verify how they happened. Even if they were facts, they don't demonstrate a divine cause of the event.
Here is a video which Zakir Naik gets debunked while preaching his scientific claims in the Quran.
Another video explaining 7 reasons Islam is false.
(A) It's interesting to note that many arguments or questions for the existence of God often used by Christians are concepts of love, hope, beauty, etc. as if those notions contain a definitive trump card explaining God. The same correlations they desire between God and love are also true of sadness, fear, hatred and other negative human emotions. It seems to me that since the New Testament insists (either nonsensically or pantheistically) that, "God is love," Christians think that if they can prove that love can't be proved but must exist, *somehow* God can't be proved but he must exist. The logic in this assumption is obviously and horrendously flawed, but so many apologists who should know better, still use it! It reeks of intentional dishonesty.
Science tells us about "love" and while love can't be precisely measured or even precisely defined, it is still a very real emotion created within the human brain. Feelings are electrochemical reactions in our brains arising from internal and/or external stimuli. Love and other emotions are clearly a function of the brain, despite some theistic claims of divinely caused emotions. To reinforce this fact, we know when you alter/damage the brain enough, emergent properties like love, personality & consciousness no longer function.
(B) This same understanding applies to morality, hope, beauty and consciousness. They're all emergent properties of our brains. Whether or not you believe scientific conclusions noting how our brain evolved to have these functions, the fact is they rely on the brain and not an external source. The evidence is in observing a damaged or disfunctional brain, where these emergent properties are often compromised or completely missing.
(7) The world, universe and humans are fine tuned to fit exactly where we are.
(A) The Earth is in a perfect spot, a perfect distance from the sun for life. Too perfect to not be intentional. Yes Earth is one of countless planets in the universe which ended up with the right size to: hold gasses, have a liquid iron core & be the right temperature to have liquid water. Life arose because our planet eventually provided a viable environment, just like billions of others in the universe. This chance event is just chance, not evidence of the divine.
(B) Without the Moon & Jupiter's gravity we wouldn't exist and the probability of this is too extreme to not be designed. There could be millions & billions of viable life enabling solar system variations in existence. Further, it's not as if moons or gas giants are rare. In fact they seem quite common, so citing intent from gods is baseless.
(C) The Earth environment is all too perfect for life, for it not to be designed. Actually, life adapted to the available environment. We (humans & life) evolved to survive on Earth. There is plenty if evidence for this & no evidence the world was made to fit us. Per the meme below, you are the puddle amazed at how everything fits you, but obviously you know full well, that's not how it works.
But if you don't grasp that life adopted to fit, let's examine this finely tuned by design premise. The universe is so hostile to life that to think we humans got this far is amazing. If we leave this planet, we die instantly unless we take our atmosphere with us. Cosmic radiation is deadly. The Earth is quite hostile as well. Seventy-five percent of its surface is covered with water that we cannot drink because the salt content will kill us. If we venture into the ocean or lakes, we have to take our atmosphere there as well. Just swimming in the ocean is dangerous to us from predators. Tsunamis are a danger if we live near the coast. Earthquakes and volcanoes constantly threaten us. We can't live at the poles because it's much too cold for our frail bodies and no food grows there. That leaves about 20% of the land mass that's accessible to us. Of that 20% there are mountains that are much too high to support our inefficient air intake system. And there are many desert areas that are much too hot for our inefficient cooling system. We must be very careful about the foods we eat because much of the plant life is poisonous. We must thoroughly clean our food to prevent the intake of bacteria. There are predators on the land that will kill us. We are constantly being threatened by viruses, bacteria and poisons.
FINE TUNED INDEED! We live on the razors edge and could be gone tomorrow.
*Here I will note the WATCHMAKER arguement, where typically the complexity of life is analogous to the complexity of a watch, which is designed. This argument has many flaws, most notably that nature is perfectly capable of such complex results and doesn't require a designer. This video utterly wrecks it.
(D) The chances that all the exact events occurred, to end up with us, is beyond astronomical. This same absurd use of probability applies to everything. The rock in the garden for instance. The same mind boggling chance for us is nearly the same for the rock ending up where it did. The probability for this event is basically nill… so yes you can see this is a useless & improper use of probability. Our existence is from natural forces acting on nature, which always has a 1 in 1 chance. Things existing because they didn't follow natural laws, would actually be have that astonomical chance.
A solid video debunking the argument from improbability.
(E) The above sections have dealt with specific elements agrued for design & probability. Following are refutations for the whole of the Teleological argument for God's existence.
(A) God appeared before me. My tesimony proves god. 1st, saying that you recognized somebody who no human could recognize suggests a manifistation from your own brain. Also, there are many thousands of alien abductees who claim first hand experience with aliens and because of this extreme claim, with only their story, it is dismissed. Why would god/jesus appearing to anyone hold more weight? Sheer numbers? Gods and dogma are drilled into heads through potent indoctrination. Further, believers are desperate to find him. Its not a stretch to believe the human brain could manifest such desired experiences, under sich conditions. And of course many such testimonies have been admitted fabrications and exaggerations. Yes, dishonesty and fraud is plausible too.
Now, let's say all the biochemical, toxin, drug, bodily stress, dream state, NDE brain fart and seizure based hallucinations didn't exist or weren't the best conclusions here (they are). Further, let's assume your experience/vision was very real with full sensory input… yes, it even spoke, was magical and recognizable! Great! Now what? You have to make sense of it, so to assess the cause you have to make assumptions. Why? You are merely a limited viewer… a spectator, and a biased one at that. You have no means to glimpse the source cause of the event. You will default to what you know and how you are conditioned to interpret sensory input.
The truth is that a tactile, auditory and magical experience with a mysterious man could have ANY imagined cause. Icelanders would say elves or faeries are playing tricks on you, while others would cite alien tests. How about eternal power slime? If you are skeptical and have integrity, the cause could truly be any imagined thing until proven. If you have chosen a cause, natural or otherwise, for any such visions, your conclusion is unjustified until you prove it. And no your testimony of such an unnatural and mysterious event doesnt somehow prove your believed cause is the real cause. Sorry, it only suggests that you in fact had an experience, which may well have been a seizure.
(B) I've witnessed a miraculous event after praying. And you've prayed thousands of times with no results… even the opposite result. You probably pray so often that there is always a chance for a coincidence. You ignore all the failures and recall the close coincidences. However, lets say something amazing and even miraculous happened, maybe right after a prayer. You still saw no god doing anything. What DID happen is you used your brain… you willed this event to happen. It is far more apt to investigate some kind of advanced brain ability than a myth who played no apparent part. Think about it.
(C) The supernatural is widely observed and documented, it proves God. Yes, strange events seem to happen. Call them ghosts, but that is presumptuous since we can't observe their origin, just their effect. I've heard theories of it being some kind of natural recordings of traumatic moments of dying minds. Strange, sure, but so is the idea of a stuck soul, when there's no evidence of a soul. Perhaps its a rift in time where our minds can interact with past or future minds. Stranger things have been claimed. The point is we can't default to calling such mysteries an evidence of gods, when no logical or physical connection is made.
(B) Even if KCA's did logically prove the universe has a cause, what is it? Perhaps the physics of nothingness dictates that something must exist. Perhaps our universe's energy is eternal in some form or another. Or maybe a rupture in another dimension or universe caused our universe. Or maybe timeless power slime did it. If you insist it must be some uncaused cause, you will need to show that uncaused causes weren't both natural and plentiful before the universe. Good luck with that.
You can deny these ideas all you want but cant disprove them, so gods are CLEARLY not the default.
(10) The Fibonacci numbers & golden ration found in nature prove a god exists? No. These patterns (along with many other interesting ones) are simply naturally occuring. Also many of the claimed instances are inconsistent, distorted or even inaccurate.
11) "Near death experiences prove a soul, heaven & therefore God". Hardly… Why are near death experiences (still living experiences) somehow pretended to demonstrate after death experiences? I could leave it there honestly and not be bothered further. Seriously… "Near death experiences prove after death claims" is a blatant non sequitur logical fallacy.
I'm no expert in the science, but this refutation below exhaustively cites & examines where the divine claims concerning NDEs fail scrutiny. It goes through the most commonly cited NDE cases, showing why they aren't evidence for souls and gods.
This refutation explains why NDEs can comfortably be dismissed as any kind of evidence for souls, the supernatural & gods. The explanations are natural and understandable after investigation. The ongoing research and reports by NDE "experts" are too often biased, misleading and cherry-picked, so the conclusions don't always tell the whole story. Until you've read through the link above, don't bother to argue this further, because your claims are addressed within. If you still aren't satisfied because your objection isn't explained away, it suffices to say its a mystery.. and a mystery does not equal "a soul did it" or "God did it". Ever.
(12) Video presentations debunking God arguments.
Its the most extensive effort in some time, but as it was filled with fallacies, faith & distortions (and no evidence), it fails. Believers are still unjustified in their belief, while atheists remain perfectly justified in not believing.


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Хурсанд-Калає () — село в Ірані, у дегестані Шуиїл, у бахші Рахімабад, шагрестані Рудсар остану Ґілян. За даними перепису 2006 року, його населення становило 14 осіб, що проживали у складі 4 сімей.

Клімат
Середня річна температура становить 10,81°C, середня максимальна – 26,13°C, а середня мінімальна – -5,51°C. Середня річна кількість опадів – 488 мм.

Примітки

Населені пункти шагрестану Рудсар

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
France: Iran's Uranium Enrichment Plans Are Close to the 'Red Line'
'It's always dangerous to flirt with the red line,' French foreign affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio on Wednesday
French President Emmanuel Macron and French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian attend an international conference on Libya at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 29, 2018Etienne Laurent/Pool via Reuters
Iran's declaration that it could increase its uranium enrichment capacity if a nuclear deal with world powers falls apart risks sailing close to the "red line", France's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
"It's always dangerous to flirt with the red line," French foreign affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio on Wednesday.
But Le Drian said plans to save the nuclear agreement remained intact.
Tensions between Iran and the West have resurged since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran last month, calling it deeply flawed.
Le Drian was speaking a day after Israel's leader urged France to turn its attention to tackling Iran's "regional aggression", saying he no longer needed to convince Paris to quit a 2015 nuclear deal between various world powers with Tehran as economic pressure would kill it anyway.
Macron to Netanyahu: Jerusalem embassy move led to people dying, didn't promote peace
Trump and Netanyahu are helping brew the perfect storm over the EU
For Obama, working with Netanyahu was like dealing with the Republicans, former aide writes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The largest, most comprehensive global generational study every conducted into the attitudes of Millennial employees at PwC.
What Happens When Your Company's Deep Smarts Walks Out the Door?
"By 2016, almost 80 percent of PwC's workforce will be comprised of Millennials."
What does leadership of the next generation look like, and how will we build a workforce for the future?
Welcome to a special Leadership Channel podcast on TotalPicture Radio from the HRO Today Forum at the Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia, PA.
Joining producer/host Peter Clayton is Dennis J. Finn the Vice Chairman, Global Human Capital Leader at PwC. Dennis has a strong background in the area of cultural change, people and leadership. He brings both a diversity of experience as well as global point-of-view to his leadership positions. His keynote at the conference focused on on PwC's global generational study, NextGen, which was released in April 2013. NextGen represents the largest and most comprehensive study of generational issues ever conducted.
PwC's NextGen study dispels many of the myths about Millennials that have existed since they first entered the workplace. For example, Millennials are often perceived as being less committed to their work. In fact, the NextGen study revealed that PwC's Millennials and non-Millennials are virtually equally committed to the workplace. And while the report did find some notable differences (for example, Millennials have greater expectations around support and appreciation from their organisations than their Non-Millennial counterparts) it is both those differences and similarities that are compelling PwC-and likely other organisations-to sit up, take notice and accelerate their pace of change.
TotalPicture Radio's exclusive coverage of the HRO Today Forum at The Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia is brought to you by TalentBox, the leading talent focused digital interview platform. Save time, cut cost, improve quality, share and collaborate with others, four big reasons to start using TalentBox for your next hire. Visit www.talentbox.me and get started with a free 45-day trial today. TalentBox: Where talent meets opportunity.
Welcome to a special leadership channel podcast here on TotalPicture Radio recorded at the HRO Today Forum at The Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Joining me today is Dennis J. Finn, the Vice Chairman - Global Human Capital Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwC). Dennis has a strong background in the area of cultural change, people and leadership. He brings both a diversity of experience as well as global point of view to his leadership positions.
Dennis, thank you so much for joining us today on TotalPicture Radio.
Dennis: Thanks Peter, great to be here and looking forward to the chat.
Peter: You participated in a panel discussion this morning with Peter Cappelli from the Wharton School and other executive leaders; very interesting conversation. One thing that you said that really stuck in my head was that there's a lot of people, a lot of talented people out there and companies really don't recognize the talent that they currently have in-house.
Dennis: Yes, I think the question you referred to, a person in the audience asked the question, what is talent and how do we measure it, and how do you make sense of the multitude of literature and messages -- and it's almost impossible for people to land on a definitive view of it.
We have 190,000 people in our firm at PwC all around the world, and I see great examples of where people didn't think somebody was highly talented or of huge potential; but then you put them in a slightly different environment, maybe with the right leader, maybe where they could find their passion and find what they really wanted to do, and all of the sudden we have a star on our hands and people say where did this person come from. How did we not notice that person before? I think what we've got to do is try and help people find what they're passionate about; give them an environment where they can perform; and then teach, help, and coach our leaders to figure out how to get that out of the current people they have because what you've just raised, my view is I see much more talent than I see fallen stars.
Peter: Another perspective that you shared on the stage this morning that I think is so important is that -- and again, this was referring to a question from the audience is that if you want to be an effective HR leader today you have to think globally even if your company perhaps is not a global organization.
Dennis: Yes, I know. I thought that was a great point made this morning by the whole panel. I'm not sure whether it's connected just to HR. I think it is a phenomenon for all people in business. If you want to be successful, then I think you have to have a global mindset regardless of where you are. I know that's difficult to get if you're in an organization or a company that is maybe in one town, but there's lots of things you can do to understand what's going on in the globe and around the world.
My point again would be for people who really are interested in learning new skills, being more effective, and giving themselves more marketability, then I would change organizations. I would change countries. I would change functions as often as you could without obviously jumping ship every five minutes. I think the opportunity to work in a different country or region, the opportunity to do different things and the opportunity to learn skills and build on your capabilities, I think is just super important going forward.
Peter: One of the things that was talked about in this session this morning is how the role of HR has changed over the last 5-10 years. From your perspective at PwC how has your role evolved over the last five years and what kinds of things are you working on today to help to create the next generation of leaders?
Dennis: Well, there are two things in there, Peter. Just hold the second part, the next generation of leaders, which I think is in itself a massive topic but we'll do that one. But the first part versus what was maybe what we were working on 5-10 years ago, I think with the multiple forces that are going on in the world, not the least of which is the rapid rise of technology and how that has transformed everything -- so you have these other forces of technology and the like and globalization, demographic issues, the rise of the contingent work force as well as mass pressure on margins, and people are asked to do more with less, people are asked to increase their output maybe without the same amount of resources. You've got this kind of pressure from the outside that's asking on the margins and pressures and stuff like that. At the same time you've got a work force now that has been enabled by technology that wants a different type of experience. So therefore, the nature of work that is done in organizations now needs to be disaggregated, and then we need to decide which parts of that work can be done through various mechanisms.
For instance, in PwC maybe 5-10 years ago we would have a traditional work force where everything is connected to an office or a client and the like. Now we're seeing much more a move to work that can be done in different parts of the world in centers of excellence and delivery centers. We're also looking at how we can use the rise of the contingent workforce so that we can not only play to what the market needs in terms of people who want to work in a different way, but we also need to increase the flexibility significantly in our own organization to allow people to work differently.
That allows them both (?) to stay with us longer. It allows them to live a life with maybe families and other demands. I think the summary of all that: we're looking at different workforce models. We're looking at significantly ramping up our ability to apply flexibility across the entire workforce. I think we're looking at ways to become much more global and much more connected including global mobility, which was always on the radar, but I think it's now well and truly on the plate.
Peter: Let's continue this with your perspective on how you're going to help develop the next generation of leaders for PwC.
Dennis: I think that's probably the single biggest challenge for us and for other organizations given it's very difficult for leaders to be able to navigate through the forces that are at play whether it's technology, generations, how to become more relevant, or how to take your cost base down. There are so many messages on leaders, it's difficult. At the same time, they need to create a cultured environment to create not only leaders of the future, but also to get the current job done.
At PwC we continue to invest heavily in leadership development, and we do that not only for the current leaders but we have programs in place so that leadership skills are built at all levels of the organization. You don't wait until somebody's in the leadership position to start to teach them those skills. I think, in particular, we're seeing a movement not away from technical skills, but instead of before 100% of energy on development would be probably more technical and specialized - now, that is the building of leadership and cultural relationship skills that are becoming much more important and again at a much earlier age.
Peter: I've heard a lot of leaders talk about hiring people based on fit within an organization because you can train people to do C++. You can train people in these various skill sets but if they don't fit into your culture, just hiring people because of specific skills really isn't going to give you the kind of quality hire that you're looking for.
Dennis: Yes, I think that's a great question. In PwC we had 1.2 million applications last year across the globe, which is an amazing number in itself; and then you think how do we process 1.2 million applications. We hired about 50,000 people last year. When you bring somebody into the organization, there are a number of things you're looking for -- the continuation of the culture and skills and the programs that you have, and the building of your entity to make it stronger and more effective and more differentiated. At the same time, if you just hire exactly the same people you already have, then you're really not getting the richness of new thinking. You have to find balance between to what degree can you stretch that boundary, and I think that's the challenge for all organizations.
If I hire somebody and whether it's one person or 50,000 people, we're hiring them to bring in something and maybe we're hiring them to bring in something we don't have, so just to bring in stuff that we already have defeats the purpose. I think when you join an organization, you want to be able to get something from that organization that you can then blend in with, but I would encourage all candidates and employers of candidates to look for what is the uniqueness in the individual or in the group of individuals that you're looking for that adds to the mix of your organization. And in time, your organization, if you add the right people with that extra difference, that extra difference eventually will add to the whole value proposition.
Peter: I think that's a great point and to your point I think people - hiring managers often go out and look for people that they're just comfortable with, that are like them, that have the same background that they have and so you're just continuing the same thing. You're not bringing in new ideas and energy into the organization.
Dennis: When I hire somebody personally, one of the things I say to them is I expect to hear something about you. If I drop you into our world and hear nothing, good or bad, then I wonder, have you added to the gene pool or you have you just blended into the fabric of the environment. You can say well maybe that's good maybe it's not good, but when I hire somebody I'd rather hear noise on that person -- even if the noise is this person is doing some things wrong. It shows me that there's energy and there's something there that we can either correct or even listen to because they may bring something that we haven't thought about.
But the worst thing I could do is hire a person and then hear nothing. I want to hear that they're doing great, they're not doing great, or that they're challenging. I want to hear something. Otherwise, it's like dropping a pebble into a lake, and then there's no ripples and so what happened. Where did you go? Why did I hire you? I want you to come. I want you to bring the thing that you've got. I want you to be authentic, and I want you to challenge what we're doing in a positive way to make us better.
Peter: Speaking about authenticity, that is certainly a topic that millennials are very interested in and very keen about, and PwC just completed a massive study on generational differences and the millennial generation. One of the headlines that really struck me from your study, Dennis, is by 2016 almost 80% of PwC's workforce will be comprised of millennials, so that's a staggering number.
Dennis: Yes, it's staggering but it's exciting for us -- people don't know or understand often that we're 190,000 people with an average age that's moved from 27 to 29 as turnovers came down, which is a great thing -- it means people are staying with us longer. That gives us enormous potential of energy of this generation which is incredible -- the most technical savvy, the most change agile, the most global mindset, and the most connected to the environment than probably any other generation of its time. We're very excited with our people and what they have to bring.
Peter: There were a lot of myths out there about millennials that your study really debunked.
Dennis: Yes, just to put it into perspective, it's been called now the biggest or the largest generational study that's ever been done in the world. It's 44,000 people, 300 detailed focused groups, interviews. We've had our live jams with the millennials with the leaders directly. It was over a two-year period. It was academically backed up by our great friends from London Business School. Lynda Gratton is a great authority and thinker in this space, and Sue Mohrman from the USC, plus a whole range of other professors and academic gurus who made sure that whatever we studied over this time we weren't drinking our own Kool-Aid or making up the story as we went along. It was a remarkable two years. We've just published the first wave of the findings, and probably one of the most significant myths of all is that this generation is not as engaged or as committed or as prepared to work as hard as other generations in the same workforce. You hear that a lot around the place.
Dennis: I can tell you that it was totally debunked from us from the study. It was 100% confirmed that this generation is equally committed, that there is no difference that they are totally prepared to work as hard. They are totally prepared to be as engaged and put the effort in.
The other things that we discovered that they're leading the way in many cases, not only for their own generation, but they're helping the Baby Boomers and the Xs kind of voice their opinion. As an example, we had 66% of the entire population across all generations said that they needed and wanted more flexibility.
Dennis: Global, across the entire world. We can talk about differences in countries later on because we also found some of that as well, but this is across the entire workforce. Again, there's a mass need for flexibility across the entire millennial and non-millennial generation. People want to have the ability to have a life. They want to have the ability to move their hours. They want to have the ability to work from wherever they need to work from to get the job done. The classic line that is coming through now is that - I'm sure many people listening would understand -- going forward, work is a thing not a place.
Ten or 15 years ago we went to work. We get in a car or a train. We went to work. Now work is a thing. It's not a place. You can work from anywhere and technology has enabled that. There's multiple things like that that I think has generated lots of discussion around what drives this generation versus other generations. The other key point I would think that is also interesting that probably of all of the fields that we studied, we did discover that we're much more alike than not. I would say almost 85% of the areas -- regardless of generation, even regardless of country, across the entire globe -- are very similar.
Peter: To me I find that so fascinating that people in Asia basically have the same concerns as people in the US or people in Brazil or people in the UK.
Dennis: Well, I think first of all the thing that was generically different regardless of geography was even though the same things are important to both groups (either millennials those under 33 or that mark versus those over 33), the same things were important to all. However, the waiting and the relevant ranking of what was important was different. Flexibility is important to both groups, but very important for the millennials. Team support, being in a team environment and being part of a team, also extremely important. The ability to be recognized and appreciated for what they did was massively important.
Dennis: It doesn't stick. Doing a job and waiting for somebody to call you in an office to review a piece of paper that has been written two days before or once a year is not going to wash. I think this generation wants real time feedback, they want to get it as it happens, they want it more regular, and they want to be appreciated for what they've done and what their contribution is.
There's a point that I just wanted to make on that. We'll come back to what the non millennials want, but the other myth is that the millennial generation are happy to have all discussions about business via social media. You think that people would say yes that's totally true -- they want that. We found that that is true for lots of things, but it's not true for career discussions.
Dennis: Right, 96% of the entire millennial generation across the entire globe said that for career discussions, when it was about themselves and their development and the things that affected them, they wanted it face to face, which is where again some of the leaders and managers were trying to have performance management and coaching discussions via email and text. I'm not sure that is the right way.
Peter: What are some of the differentiators across the globe with this study?
Dennis: To the question of are millennials the same across the globe, I think the answer is both true and false. I think the things that we just talked about are true and generically true. They all want more flexibility. They all want more appreciation. They all want recognition. They all want to be part of a team. However, in areas maybe where the culture is very strong, you see slight differences -- places like Japan, India, maybe even South Africa - particularly, some of their thoughts around social corporate responsibility and the environment is stronger in areas where maybe they've got more challenges. So the social corporate responsibility senses more important I think to them in some areas than others. We're still working on that piece of research as we want to understand in more detail the next wave of the insights. We're just starting to break it down by country and understand when a country's culture trumps the kind of global mindset.
Peter: How do these millennials want to get to the next level in their careers? What are some of the triggers? What are some of the things that they're looking for PwC to provide them as far as training or perhaps ex-pat assignments?
Dennis: The last one in particular triggers ..... across the entire population there is a significant increase in expectation or desire to be part of global mobility -- 37% put it as one of their highest and strongest expectations of joining; where for non-millennials, it was down in the low 20s. You have a population that both have a global mindset, want a global mindset, and want to join organizations where they can go and experience different cultures and travel with the organization, so global mobility is high on their list. In terms of other things -- career development and opportunities in compensation, which is also very important for them as it is for everybody else -- transparencies extraordinarily are both needed and expected.
Peter: Back to social media again.
Dennis: First of all, all generations benchmark their compensation on the net and how millennials are much more likely to discuss their compensation and really test it with the outside world much more than the non-millennials.
Dennis: Compensation is only one example of transparency, but to your question of how do you get on in here? How do you move up the ladder? What do I need to do? You cannot be thinking you've got a black box and that only human capital knows. You have to be transparent and show them a path and some will decide to take that path and some may not. That is also an option, but they want those options.
Peter: Are the PwCs of the world providing different types of options for advancement back to this whole discussion around flexibility.
Dennis: Well, I think we're providing much more now than we did 5-10 years ago. I presume and believe we will do it in the next 5-10 years and continue that story. The point there I was making earlier about how to build your capabilities is to challenge yourself and have the courage to do different things. One of the great advantages of PwC is we've got 190,000 people in 156 countries in approximately 700 offices all around the world doing massively different things, working for the best clients in the world whether you're doing auditing, assurance, tax work, or you've been advising. There's such a variety of opportunities not only do the kind of things we do, but to do it with clients who are all different from entertainment clients to banking clients to government to sporting companies to healthcare.
It's one of the great advantages that we have actually. It's complex to manage and it gives us all the things that you would expect when you manage something of that size, but there's so much opportunity and people can join us. You can have 50 roles in your lifetime -- all different, in different countries, in different areas. When you go to different offices around the world and you see the brand of PwC, it's amazing to go in and see a whole bunch of different people talking different languages doing similar things for major clients globally.
Peter: I want to return to something you touched on earlier which is retention. What did you discover in the study regarding retention? Obviously, that is top of mind. We're at HRO Today. Every conference I go to in recruiting this year there's a major focus on retention.
Dennis: It's a great question. We did with our friends from USC and London Business School tried to put some science around the decision to stay or go. What determines that decision making process? We found a bunch of factors that when you get all the data in, you start to categorize it. We basically found two groups of factors. The first one we call the environmental factors of which there were four. Let me just step you through them. The first one balance the work load. I want a life. I want to be able to do my job and do a great job.
Peter: That seems to be really preeminent with these millennials.
Dennis: Again, going back to the earlier conversation -- it's actually very important to everybody. I think the non-millennials, the rest of us like me and you, it's what we want as well, but I think they're just more vocal about demanding it. But as soon as you scratch the surface, you see everybody wants it. That includes a balance in your work and life, the impact on your work load, and the ability to manage what people are asking you to do. That was factor one: balance the work load. Factor two is doing meaningful, engaging work. The ability to do work that is both interesting and meaningful that supports your development, and that you're doing something with a purpose.
Peter: They want that immediately when they join an organization. They don't want to wait five years to get a good assignment. They want to be doing something meaningful from day one.
Dennis: Again, so does everybody else. As you probably get older and you put up with it more, but I think again this generation is leading the way for everybody in saying why are we doing this work? What purpose does it serve? Why do I do this? What value is it adding, which goes to the appreciation?
I read somewhere just recently - I think it was in a TED talk - when people don't have meaning or they don't feel that their work is purposeful or that they're not getting appreciation or recognition for what they do, it's the equivalent of taking someone's work and shredding it without reading it. If you don't acknowledge what they do or if you don't show/connect it to a bigger story, then effectively you're asking people to do stuff that nobody cares about. That is demoralizing. It turns people off. It turns millennials off faster than it turns the rest of us off. But to me that's then the challenge to all leaders to help create the understanding of the purpose of what we do and why and how it fits into the broader community. You can get two groups doing exactly the same thing -- one with a leader who does that, and that person's team thinks that they do have meaning, they do get recognition, and they do understand the importance of what they're doing. The next team doing exactly the same thing with a leader who doesn't point that out: they feel like there's no meaning, nobody cares about what we do, do we add any real value, and as a result engagement is down in that team. People leave and the story goes on.
Peter: Just to the importance of communication today and the fact that I think leaders really need to pay attention to this and really need to make the effort to communicate with their teams, the importance of the work that they're doing, and the results of the work that they're doing.
Dennis: I think it's a leadership challenge -- even though it's more prevalent at the millennial area because they're more intolerant to lack of purpose and lack of meaning. But if you go through organizations there are huge challenges - way higher in organizations where people have kind of lost their purpose and don't really know why they're doing what they do anymore. You kind of hear stories of people just deciding one day to go and do something totally different. I think it's on everybody in leadership positions and organizations around the world to try and understand and put context into the meaning and the purpose of your entity. And therefore then breakdown how everybody in that entity then plays a part in the achievement of that purpose -- because without purpose, then your relevance is questioned.
If your relevance is questioned, you're ultimately irrelevant. If you're irrelevant, it's not a good word. You don't want to be irrelevant. So that's three of the things we've talked about -- balance in work load, engaging meaningful work, and the third one is people and teams. They're millennials and non-millennials alike, but again more dominant in the millennial area. It's important to them to be part of a team and have supervisory - a good boss, a good leader of that team, and that team to work together in a cohesive way. Again, it's similar for non-millennials, but the millennials particularly had a large emphasis on that. Then finally of these factors that are environmental, competitive peer and job opportunities. You cannot disregard the need for compensation, but at a level of compensation just playing a bigger part.
In fact, we found that you're more likely to jump ship if other factors are not right from a millennial standpoint -- particularly flexibility, cohesion, the ability to do their work and wherever they want to do it from. But if compensation is way off whack, they'll leave for that as well. You need to look at this thing in totality. Those were the four areas: balance work load, engaging meaningful work, people and teams, and competitive peer and job opportunities. There were three other areas that we found will be called emotional drivers. These were: (1) thriving, (2) the sense of commitment, and (3) how satisfied you were with your job. The first one, thriving, was how the role that you were doing and your contribution, to what degree were you bouncing out of bed in the morning to get involved in this thing.
If you felt that was a high level and your sense of thriving was high, then you're much more likely to stay. This concept of are you thriving or are you just existing in the business. The second one was the commitment to the entity. If you're committed to the business or the organization and there's great purpose in what you do, again that is a major factor. Then the last one is how satisfied you are with the function of the role you personally play, in other words your job satisfaction. If you add the four environmental ones to the three emotional ones, those factors collectively determine whether you decide to stay or go. We then mapped out who was most at risk, which generations were more likely to place more load on different things, and that gave us many of the learnings we're talking about.
Peter: Is there anything in this study that really surprised you that really struck out that you were, wow, I didn't expect to see that?
Dennis: We need to understand that all generations generally want the same things. Everybody wants to have purpose in their life. Everybody wants to have flexibility. Everybody wants to have the right compensation. Everybody wants a great boss. Everybody wants to work with a great team. Everybody wants to have a purpose that get them out of bed and excited in the morning, right?
Peter: Right, yeah, that is not unique consideration.
Dennis: Since time began I think that is generically the same. However, what is the higher ranking for each group I think is interesting? For instance the autonomy, in the same way that millennials have a higher need for working in a team, appreciation and recognition, they have a less need for autonomy, which I thought was surprising given technology was now going to free them up to work from anywhere. The non-millennials, GenX and Baby Boomers, had a much greater need for autonomy. They want to be left alone to do their work.
There are many things that are in the report and we can go through them or you can read them on our PwC websites. Probably the most important thing for me: I have three kids, 28, 26 and 23 -- all of them I believe are massively committed and engaged and are more talented than me and have more energy. I'm glad that the study has confirmed that this generation is as committed because the opposite I don't think did not resonate with me, and given that we have 190,000 people and we're the world's biggest professional service firm, I think it's good to know that we've got the right caliber of people. I also think as well when I think about this generation, they're children of the web.
Dennis: Handling the complexity of technology including the changing work environment, how jobs are changing, how to get a job now, what kind of job would you want, how is your career going to look......so much ambiguity versus maybe when we were looking. You could pick a career path and you thought that's the way it was going to be.
I think they're a remarkable generation. I'm proud to work with them in our firm. I think what we've learned here is that the millennial generation is almost fighting the fight for what the rest of us want. But just they're a bit more vocal about it, and they're less intolerant to just kind of keep your head down and do what we did. For that we should kind of thank them, and also understand that in the end, great leaders harness the power of all generations regardless of where you are.
To that maybe we should also reflect on the Baby Boomers and the older folk. We're living longer. We're around. We have great skills. There's a mass shortage of talent worldwide. While they have great experience, not everybody studies the Baby Boomers. It's almost like a word for those folk in that category that I think is just a mass group of talent that, together with the younger generation and the GenX, I think we have all the right skills to do what we need to do. I just think we got to put them in the right place at the right time and invest in technology to connect them all together and wrap it up with great leadership that can inspire, motivate and win the hearts and minds of everybody going forward to do something remarkable in the world.
Peter: Great Dennis. Thank you so much for taking time to speak with us today on TotalPicture Radio.
Dennis: Thanks to you Peter, and I look forward to doing it again and enjoyed the chat.
Dennis Finn is the Vice Chairman and Global Human Capital Leader at PwC. You'll find this interview in the Leadership Channel of TotalPicture Radio. That's totalpicture.com.
Thank you for tuning in to TotalPicture Radio's exclusive coverage from the HRO Today Forum at The Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania brought to you by TalentBox, the leading talent focused digital interview platform. Recruiters and hiring managers can use TalentBox to short-list the best candidates for any type of role all online. Simple to use, interviews can include video-based questions, text-based questions or multi-choice questions and can be fully customized to whatever role you're looking to fill. Visit TalentBox on the web at www.talentbox.me and sign up today for a free 45 day trial. We think you'll get the picture. Also, keep an eye out for new TalentBox videos and podcast interviews on TotalPicture Radio, totalpicture.com. Thanks for tuning-in.
There are major global forces impacting all businesses and communities around the world. Many of these forces already existed before the economic crisis; however they are now becoming much more prevalent. In addition, new forces are emerging which require us, as leaders, to both understand and build solid strategies for the future. If we can harness these forces and better understand the opportunity they present, the more likely our organizations and our related talent strategies will be positioned for success.
PwC is the largest professional services firm in the world, providing industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. PwC operates in 158 countries with approximately 190,000 people. You can learn more about PwC's global network of firms at http://www.pwc.com.
Download the PwC Millennial study from the sidebar.


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he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague."
Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so singular a rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and no part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his own, and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt it has received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness, or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are "nothing else but sin," for no confession short of this will be the whole truth, and if the Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty about making such an acknowledgment - it will spring spontaneously from our lips. What comfort does the text afford to those under a deep sense of sin! Sin mourned and confessed, however black and foul, shall never shut a man out from the Lord Jesus. Whosoever cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out. Though dishonest as the thief, though unchaste as the woman who was a sinner, though fierce as Saul of Tarsus, though cruel as Manasseh, though rebellious as the prodigal, the great heart of love will look upon the man who feels himself to have no soundness in him, and will pronounce him clean, when he trusts in Jesus crucified.
You can't come too filthy - come just as you are.
Cedar Springs adopted Lonsdale Elementary in 2003. Lonsdale, with more than 400 students PreK through 5th grade, only serves the Lonsdale area. Over the years, the racial make-up of the school, whose students are 100% free lunch qualified, has changed to primarily Hispanic and African-American children. Pray today for all the children that attend Lonsdale Elementary, their families, and their teachers as they begin this new semester.


Well everyone, winter is officially here! Unfortunately, there are some situations that could arise... What if your car breaks down during a snowstorm? What if you got stuck on the road late at night away from other vehicles? What if you ran off the road? Are you prepared? Weather is an uncontrollable variable... we know this. BUT, we can take the proper steps and be prepared for what the season has in store.
A Winter Emergency Kit is something everyone should have. Its a fantastic idea to keep some items in your trunk and others inside your car incase one of the unforseable situations happens to you.
'Survival Candle' and matches- These can burn up to 36 hours and can be used to melt snow for drinking or to be added to dehydrated soup mixes and hot chocolate.
Sudden weather changes and suden vehicle problems can make winter driving dangerous, but you'll be better prepared to handle these challenges with a good winter survival kit. Remember, if something does happen, yo uhave a better chanc e of being found near your vehicle. So stay there, and stay warm and fed with the items inside your kit!


It is a moment of dread. You're in an important meeting, and nature calls.
But what happened next in this case made the situation humiliating, Seneca Johnson says.
Johnson is one of the plaintiffs in a federal discrimination suit filed last week against Caterpillar Inc., one of the state's largest employers, over something they say happened at its Aurora plant.
"The Facility Manager grabbed Johnson's arm and refused to allow him to go to the restroom, telling him, 'Sit down, you can wait,' " according to the lawsuit.
Beyond that, Johnson and the others who are suing — Cory Jones, Eddie Jones, Columbus McGrew and Derrick Moore — accuse managers at the Aurora facility of being allowed to discriminate, harass, and retaliate against black workers. And they say Caterpillar didn't respond to complaints about discriminatory behavior.
Caterpillar employs about 2,800 employees at the Aurora plant, where the lawsuit says African-Americans are underrepresented in the work force and in management.
Some recent employment discrimination cases have accused supervisors of using racial slurs or committing other blatant racist acts. But most of the complaints that people call me with are more nuanced, similar to those outlined in this lawsuit.
Friedman, whose firm has uccessfully represented female and African-American financial advisers in sexual harassment and racial discrimination cases against Merrill Lynch, says she decided to take on this case because she saw similarities.
Still, it took "enormous courage" for these men to file this discrimination lawsuit because they have effectively put a scarlet letter on their resumes," Friedman says.
"I really admire their willingness to do something to change the outcome, and they are doing it without somebody hurling the n-word," she says.
Johnson is still working for the company. He was demoted after he filed a grievance over the restroom incident but has since been reinstated to his job.
"I hope that by filing this lawsuit, Caterpillar will judge African-Americans on our work — not by the color of our skin," Johnson says.


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2015 Year 89 Mins 5.4 Imdb
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Cole and Marmalade are back to remind us that we adore our feline furbabies so very much. This list is so accurate and hilarious! How many of these things have you done? My cat's new favorite thing to do is share my sushi! She loves salmon skin rolls and goes cat-crazy whenever she smells it. I'll have to take a picture of her eating from my chopsticks and frame it. A big 16×20 for my wall! Purrrr-fect!
Cole & Marmalade are amazing cats! Both rescues, now they spend their days basking in the warm light of fame on YouTube, where their videos amuse and inform people around the world. You can see more of their amazing and hilarious work on their YouTube channel, or visit them on Facebook!


Today is the seventh Sabbath, and day number forty-nine in our count to Pentecost, the fiftieth day. Tomorrow is the Day of Pentecost.
Leviticus 23:15-16 You shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the Wave Sheaf Offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days.
God entered into a covenant with Old Testament Israel on the Feast of Weeks, (also called the Day of Pentecost in the New Testament), giving them the Ten Commandments engraved on two tablets of stone. We have seen that Jesus Christ consolidated the Ten Commandments into two Commandments. He took the first four and combined them together as the first and great commandment. And then He brought together the final six Commandments to establish the royal law which states, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself.
James 2:8 If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well.
At Mt Sinai, God gave us the codified Ten Commandments. God's purpose in giving us the Ten Commandments is so that we can have an orderly and peaceful society, and begin to put-on His character and likeness—and be as He is. God does not expect us to be living in fear, oppression and want. He does want us to be His representatives among mankind. With the coming of the New Testament Day of Pentecost God's people were, for the first time, enabled to live in accordance with His Law. God's Spirit is the means and the motivation that make it possible for us to keep the Ten Commandments.
Deuteronomy 4:5-8, 13 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who has God so near unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? … And [God] declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.
Matthew 22:36-39 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself.
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all together with one accord in one place.
Why is the Church of God divided – when Jesus Christ calls for unity? Do we not realize that by breaking God's Royal Law – when we do not love our brothers and sisters in the other groups – that we are also breaking God's first and great commandment to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind? This is a serious matter and time is growing short.
Contrary to the lip-service being paid to, "We are all a part of God's Church," we should all recognize that there is a unspoken pressure for members to primarily remain loyal to their organization and not go traipsing about to fellowship with their neighbors in other Church of God groups. Thankfully, there are a growing number of saints who are extending the right hand of fellowship (Galatians 2:9) across the artificial boundaries of corporate organizations—because to wait for the church leadership to do so may prove to be too late.
Who was immediately inspired by those first Christians on that first Day of Pentecost? The answer is: Devout men, out of every nation under heaven (Acts 2:5).
Why are so few taking notice of God's Church today?


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EU charges against Amazon could accelerate Big Tech antitrust scrutiny in the US
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European regulators' decision to bring antitrust charges against Amazon.com Inc. could be a harbinger of developments in the U.S., with regulatory uncertainty likely to extend well into 2021, legal and industry experts say.
In charges announced Nov. 10, the European Commission accused Amazon of violating EU antitrust rules by using data from third-party sellers on its platform to compete against them with its own retail business. The majority of sales on Amazon's site are sold by third-party merchants.
Amazon faces similar allegations in the U.S., where lawmakers have alleged that the company is undercutting small businesses by using data from third-party sellers to inform its own products.
"We disagree with the preliminary assertions of the European Commission and will continue to make every effort to ensure it has an accurate understanding of the facts," an Amazon spokesperson said in an email to S&P Global Market Intelligence. "Amazon represents less than 1% of the global retail market, and there are larger retailers in every country in which we operate."
The European charges are the latest effort by regulators there to restrain the market power of U.S. tech companies. EU regulators are also looking to enforce a new set of rules that would require online platforms to verify the identities of sellers before their services can be used.
Industry experts say the charges come as no surprise given that Europe has taken a lead role in tackling competition issues related to Big Tech, and similar actions could be brought in the U.S.
"Given the ongoing state and federal investigations into Big Tech, U.S. enforcers could well raise issues similar to the EU in a case against Amazon," Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute in Washington D.C., said in a Nov. 10 email.
While it is unclear whether U.S. regulators would wait to see what happens in Europe before considering their own case, the competitive issues raised in Europe are a "long-standing monopolization concern," and similar concerns could form the basis of a U.S.-based antitrust case against Amazon, Moss said.
Alex Petros, policy counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit public interest group Public Knowledge, noted that there has been strong bipartisan support for more stringent antitrust regulations throughout 2020, and that is likely to continue under an administration led by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden.
Petros said the Biden administration will likely pursue the U.S. Justice Department's current lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit, which alleges that the company illegally maintained monopolies in general search, search advertising, and general search text advertising markets. The Federal Trade Commission has also been examining Amazon's relationship with third-party sellers.
"I would not be surprised to see something from the FTC or the DOJ along these same lines," Petros said in an interview. "I think you are going to see some bills out of the House, I think you are going to see some bills out of the Senate. You'll see some serious movement in this area in 2021."
Amazon shares ended the day down 3.46% at $3,035 while the Nasdaq lost 1.37%.
Amazon's Seattle campus. The e-commerce giant is pushing back against allegations by the European Commission that it is using third-party sellers' data to compete against small businesses that sell goods on its platform.
Harbinger of things to come
The charges add to a series of efforts in the U.S. and abroad to address competition issues around Big Tech that is unlikely to slow in the coming year, industry analysts say.
"I think this is a continued theme where the E.U. is more and more focused against Big Tech players with Amazon front and center, so it's not a shock to the Street that they continue to ratchet up the monopoly talk," said Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, in an interview. "Ultimately it's a harbinger of things to come when you look at what Amazon as well as every Big Tech company is facing not just in the E.U. but in the U.S."
Mark Shmulik, an analyst with AB Bernstein, said the European Commission's charges could result in substantial fines of as much as $4 billion or $5 billion and "guardrails" around where and when third-party data can be used. But he also cautioned that it will be very difficult to prove that Amazon is engaging in antitrust activity. "The bar is so high," he said.
Katie Arcieri