A blog by Tom Sheepandgoats (aka Tom Harley)
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Sean Carroll and the Den Yers – Mystery Solved After 15 Years: Part 2
(See Part 1) After 15 years I solved the problem of why Sean Carroll again and again calls those who deny evolution “denyers.” I did it, not the science way of devising hypotheses and then testing them. I did it the religious way, by awaiting new light from a higher authority. In this case, the higher authority is AI. 15 years after the dilemma appeared,…
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Sean Carroll and the Den Yers: Mystery Solved After 15 Years: Part 1
It took me 15 years to solve this mystery! 15 years of constant toil and nighttime tossing and turning! 15 years trying to solve the conundrum of the ages. At long last, i have solved it. Sometimes you find yourself asking the wrong questions. Sometimes you must wait for new light. The vexing question unfolded thus, in my post of 2011: He’s a smart fellow,…
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The Reproach of Child Sexual Abuse Falls on the Abuser
In Jehovah’s Witness congregations, victims, parents, or anyone else, have always been free to report allegations of child sexual abuse to the police. The troubling reality is that many chose not to do it. They alerted congregation elders and went no further. Why? Because they thought that by so doing, they might be bringing reproach on God’s name and the Christian congregation. That situation was…
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We Must Not Make a God of the Gaps
We Must Not Make a God of the Gaps “It was a dicey proposition introducing a monotheistic God in a polytheistic world. Could it be that the early Hebrew writers softened the blow by telling their tale in terms of already existing accounts? If so, this would be exactly what the apostle Paul did at the Areopagus in Athens, as related in Acts chapter 17.…
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Who Needs a Trillion Dollars?
Days ago. (June 2026) Elon Musk touched trillionaire status, the first one ever to do so. This inspired on social media the observation (even if with shakey math) that if he gave a billion to every person alive, he would still be a billionaire. I couldn’t believe that he was so selfish so as not to do that—I could use a billion. Others wished him…
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Alan Greenspan Dies at 100–Mentioned in Tom Irregardless and Me
No ax to grind here. It is no small feat to live to 100 years of age. He was a wit in his day, looked up to by all, until it all crashed. The debacle he presided over made an apt addition to chapter of ‘Tom Irregardless and Me,’ which I wrote in 2016: “An observer might well suppose that the entire purpose of the…
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‘The God of Truth Always Fulfills His Purpose’-Part 3
If the Holy Writings are in the language of poetry, [see Part 2] not the precise critical thinking language demanded by science, why is that? Possibly because poetry reaches a broader spectrum than does science. Jesus reduces the Mosaic law to two commandments, the first of which is “you must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with…
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‘The God of Truth Always Fulfills His Purpose’-Part 2
See: Part 1: The article appeals to those who like simplicity, who instinctively know that things reduce to simplicity. The common farmer knows it. The common factory worker knows it. But Einstein also knew it, with his E=mc2. Newton knew it, with his f=ma. Kepler knew it, with his laws on the planetary orbits. Smack dab in the middle of his scientific treatise, he burst…
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‘The God of Truth Always Fulfills His Purpose’-Part 1
The Watchtower Study for June 14 (2026), ‘The God of truth Always Fulfills his Purpose,’ was everything in a nutshell, a good overview of God’s purpose towards the earth. That aspect of living forever on a paradise earth resonates with some. It is a major drawing that few others have. We are to believe that God put humans on an earth tailor-made for them because…
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Tartarus: The Fourth Instance of Hell
Tartarus: The Fourth Instance of Hell Sometimes when discussing hell, I open with: “With a single exception, all instances of ‘hell stem from only one of three original language words. Find the meaning of those words, and you’ve found the meaning of hell.” Tartarus is the single exception. It occurs just once in Scripture, which is why it is the single exception. For the sake…