Profile for Kelandon

Error message

Deprecated function: implode(): Passing glue string after array is deprecated. Swap the parameters in drupal_get_feeds() (line 394 of /var/www/pied-piper.ermarian.net/includes/common.inc).

Recent posts

Pages

AuthorRecent posts
Why You Suck: Ancient Greek Edition in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #16
Oh no, Kel is responding to Synergy! Must be another fight! I wonder if I'll be irrationally chastised for this, too!

I have heard a few times that the moral of the story about Sodom is, "Don't gang-rape angels." If you must gang-rape something, make sure that it is not the blessed messengers of God. :P

quote:
Originally written by Synergy:

I'm curious if it has been unearthed at all, where the Greek predilection toward man-boy love took root.
I don't think that anyone knows exactly where it started, but it is definitely a Classical Attic thing, not spread through all of Greece at all periods. Classical Attic Greek culture became the overwhelmingly dominant culture in the time of Alexander the Great, but with some modifications, and I don't know in what manner the Hellenistic Age and the succeeding Eastern Roman Empire received this romantic heritage.

Homer (or so I'm told — I'm only just now reading the entire Iliad closely) has a perfect opportunity to describe some sort of man-boy love in the context of Achilles and Patroclus, but he doesn't play the romantic aspect up at all, so we can conjecture that Greek Dark Age culture didn't really have this man-boy thing as strongly.

We can see in comedy that other parts of Greece (Sparta, Corinth, etc.) had different stereotypical sexual tendencies. To keep this a family show, I won't go into details, but let me just say that Lysistrata (among others) gives some indication that Spartans were thought to enjoy doing their unnatural acts with women, which the Athenians found comical and perverse.

In Roman culture in the west — and I've spent the past year reading Latin love poems — man-boy love was still considered pretty normal, but man-woman love was also considered extremely normal.

quote:
It is fascinating to me how cultures take on entire attitudes, yet it seems likely they often originated with but one influential person or group early on.
I'd be interested to know what instance you're thinking of when this actually happened. The only one that's coming to mind right now is the story of the origin of the Castilian lisp — namely, that one of the old kings of Spain, maybe King Charles V, had a lisp, and everyone imitated him to be fashionable — which is untrue. This leads me to doubt such stories. That's not to say that this never happens, though; what instance were you thinking of?

quote:
I suspect misogyny taking place there, a reactive sexuality, not merely a natural preference for homosexuality.
There is some indication of this, if I remember correctly, but this is clearly not the only factor involved. No one says, "We screw boys because the alternative is women, who are gross." If I'm not mistaken, some suggest that, since men are just the most perfect creations in the universe, men being with men is unifying the greatest with the greatest, and that's why they do it. This is somewhat beyond my ken, though, and I know there's a lot more to it than that.

quote:
Or else there was something in the water that made them all gay
This distantly reminds me of a quote from DB that is just at the tip of my tongue. :P I can't quite recall it. Perhaps someone else knows.

[ Saturday, February 24, 2007 21:09: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Has anyone ever tried... in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #12
As far as I could understand, those ideas aren't scriptable. GF-style creation in BoA has been discussed here, starting about halfway down the page. The conclusion was that it's possible, though somewhat inelegant.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck: Ancient Greek Edition in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #2
To be fair, their ideas of "slavery" and "colonialism" were significantly different from the modern (and more repugnant) concepts, and they generally wanted man-boy love to be at least somewhat mutual. But the ancient Greek concepts of love and sexuality were, well, odd, to say the least. The Romans had a more familiar sense of things (though still different from our ideas in some ways).

One of the things that I like about studying the Greeks and Romans is that they are so incredibly similar to us in many ways but so incredibly different in other ways that they can be continually surprising.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #149
quote:
Originally written by wz. As:

The back-and-forth is pretty entertaining and doesn't waste my time at all. By all means, please continue to have the discussion publicly.
quote:
Originally written by Thralni:

I'm actually very interested in your discussion, so saying that your discussion probably waists people time is not entirely true.
quote:
Originally written by Ephesos:

Seriously, folks... take these 'discussions' to PMs. Nobody really wants to read it anymore, so you're wasting your time.
"Nobody"?

Aran: The original topic of the thread is coming through loud and clear. Thuryl is telling Synergy why he sucks. :P

[ Friday, February 23, 2007 23:05: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
On the Road to Weapons of Mass Destruction in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #2
Besides, they're in Africa. No one in America cares about Africa. They could have multiple Holocausts, and it wouldn't even make the front page here.

EDIT: A fixed link.

[ Friday, February 23, 2007 22:10: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #143
quote:
Originally written by Synergy:

adolescent curled-lip anarchist bravado
:P

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #135
I'm impressed. You actually conveyed, in the course of a post, the sense that you read and genuinely responded to a post of mine. This is the first time you have ever done so. I am satisfied with this discussion and finished. Perhaps next time we can actually have a dialogue. I might like that.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #133
"Concise" not so much the issue as "accurate." The term needed here is "absolute statement."

Synergy is very good at missing the point, so I imagine that he is being genuine in that last post and not actually phenomenally sarcastic, which was my first (rather impressed) reaction.

[ Friday, February 23, 2007 18:15: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
About Ed... in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #4
To see the end of his stay here, look around here. His last displayed name in his original account was &, and he was banned forever and a day.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #131
quote:
Originally written by Synergy:

I'm noting your increased use of superlatives and am unimpressed: "You NEVER have admitted to any mistakes on SW." "ALL your thinking is circular here."
Those are not superlatives.

This is what it looks like when someone nitpicks an irrelevant part of a person's post.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Bahssikava - technical problem - Khar-Grav palace in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #12
There is, of course, the warning at the beginning about god parties. Whatever error you encountered is probably random (i.e. it might not happen again with the same sort of party with a different save file).

But I'm glad you liked it, other than the trouble with god parties.

[ Friday, February 23, 2007 16:44: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #129
Since Synergy did in fact ignore my post, I'm not going to bother addressing him, anymore, but I do think it's worth pointing out a few things in order that readers not be confused.
quote:
Originally written by Synergy:

You guys don’t know me. It’s that simple. For all my many posts here, you really don’t have a clue how I’m communicating...still.
quote:
I’ll put this on the table. At this point, I see you as cheerless, virtually humorless, and ungracious, and somebody I would most definitely never want to meet in person. Way bad energy.
"You can't know someone online, so you don't know me at all, but let me tell you what I know about you from talking to you online."

quote:
Kel never bothered to qualify the statement with even one example. It’s as if by merely pronouncing all my thinking as such, it is so.
The astute reader will notice that this is completely removed from reality.

quote:
As I will elucidate, there is only one thing I could construe as circular in the point I was making in this thread. Unless you operate by the conceit that because something appears a certain way to you, it should to anyone else.
This is not an instance of circularity.

quote:
quote:
And Thuryl, apparently you haven't been paying attention. It's not what you say, it's how you say it.
This was entirely jocular.
I'm positively dying of laughter, now that I see that it is a joke. The punchline is so subtle! Such poise! Such mastery!

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #121
quote:
Originally written by Synergy:

Not this time. It may be your estimation that people working out differences is a waste of time for others to witness. but I often feel much otherwise.
I've gotten complaints before. Apparently people's opinions have done an about-face since last time, though, so I will respond publicly.

quote:
Here's your original statement in response to my thoughts contributed to this thread:
quote:
I've been trying not to point out the circularity in everything that you're saying

That was not my original statement in response to your thoughts in this thread. As I suspected, you ignored the majority of my post, including the part that contained the main point. Here's my actual post.
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

I've been trying not to point out the circularity in everything that you're saying, and so far I've succeeded, but let me at least point out that there's no inherent reason why relationships that you have online can't have profound effects on your life that are equally as powerful as those in the "real world." I know at least one or two largely online relationships of mine that were deeply significant in parts of my life.
You saw read that I called your reasoning circular, freaked out, stopped reading, and started posting things that had nothing to do with what I actually said. I did say the first part, but I also said a lot more than that, and you totally ignored it.

quote:
If you wish to clarify or modify your intent in starting with this, please do so publicly, as you made this statement publicly.

How would anyone else perceive someone's intentions, with this being his opening line to your thoughts on a topic?
My intentions were not to slander you, as you seem to be suggesting. That's a ridiculous idea. If I wanted to slander you, I'd slander you. I'd suggest that your reading skills are minimal, that your critical thinking is sub-par, that your credulity in the face of pseudo-science is embarrassingly great, or that you molest young children. I didn't, and I'm not doing so now, either.

My intention with that part of the sentence was to suggest that you might want to revisit your thinking on the matter and check it for any potential circularity it might contain. The post was addressed to you (note the quote in front), not to everyone saying, "Look everybody, Synergy's made a fool of himself again with circular logic!"

My primary intention in that post, however, was to address the point that you were making, which was that online relationships are inherently worse than in-person ones, which I don't think is true and have personal experience against. Hence the rest of the post.

quote:
Originally written by Synergy:

I don't acknowledge any mistakes here.
It must be comforting to think that you're perfect. In the real world, though, you're fallible like everyone else, and it'd be nice if you started owning up to it publicly sometimes.

quote:
I acknowledge a statement saying that everything I was saying was circular. I would love to see Kel elaborate on every sentence and point I made to demonstrate how he believes it is based on circular reasoning.
I suppose I was referring to every main point of every post in the thread prior to that (with the possible exception of the meaningless ones, like "ET, phone home"), not every word of every post, but that comes to almost the same thing.

The whole point of saying that part of the post the way that I did was that I didn't want to explain precisely how each point was circular, because I don't really care enough to do so. I just wanted to suggest that the problem was there and move on to my main point. I freely admit that I have not justified my "circularity" comment at all, and if you don't want to believe it, you're within your rights to disagree (but it would be unwise not to go back and check your points for circularity now that it's been suggested to you). Ignore that part if you want to, but don't ignore the main point of the post.

quote:
Short of that, it's a hyperbolic statement which I would have a hard time as seeing as being intended to do anything other than belittle my integrity.
No, here you're being silly. Belittling your integrity sounds like this: "You're an idiot." "I can't believe that people come to you for treatment, you quack." "Your primary interest in the human race is in the backsides of kindergartners."

Hyperbole? Maybe. Belittling? No. I could do that much more directly if I wanted. Besides, why would I belittle your integrity to you? I was speaking publicly, but I was addressing you personally.

quote:
And Thuryl, apparently you haven't been paying attention.
I'm going to be very, very blunt: this is generally a dumb thing to say. Thuryl is far more perceptive than most people here, and I will readily admit that he is more perceptive than I am. When he says something (at least when he's not obviously trolling a debate thread, which this is not), I pay attention.

quote:
It's not what you say, it's how you say it. I make mistakes all the time, and quite frequently fess up readily when respectfully confronted with the possibility.
You have yet to do so on Spiderweb. And don't try to cop out by saying that you have not been treated respectfully here, because, while that may be true with regard to some members' treatment of you, it is not true with regard to my treatment of you.

quote:
When one is not given grace, honor, or dignity to do so, one might be far less inclined.
I'm not sure exactly what you're expecting. It comes across as wanting people to say something like, "O Great Mighty Synergy, Prince of Princes, King among Men, may I humbly suggest that you perhaps may have erred slightly?" I have treated you with respect, except in one or two posts, and for those posts, I specifically sought you out and apologized on AIM (while you were being particularly ungracious, I might add).

quote:
Speaking of which, I can't say I've perceived much of anything I'd call gracious from your camp toward mine for some time now, subtle and subdued though your style may be.
Treating people as simply manifestations of a group instead of as individuals is one good way to irritate them. Here you're thinking of Alec, not Thuryl or me. You might notice, if you're paying as much attention as Thuryl, that I called Alec out for what I perceived as hypocrisy in a recent thread — we are not the same person.

quote:
Anything you want to declare to me openly?
Yes. I'd like you to do me the favor of responding to the major points in this post instead of ignoring most of it and focusing on a single sentence or two, as you have frequently done in the past. The way to do that is to quote several sections of the post, particularly the parts most reflective of main points, and respond to each, as I've done here. If you can single out two or three main points, that's fine, but you should say something that addressed the whole post, not just some tiny little part of it.

If you ignore 95% of what I've said again, I'm just not going to bother to say anything to you anymore, because you'll just ignore it anyway, and I'll point out in the third person where I think you've gone wrong in future posts.

EDIT: Gah, longer post than I intended, but I think that a lot of this is important. The main point I'm making here is this: That post was not intended to belittle you, and trying to construe it that way is difficult and requires a lot of effort. It could only be interpreted as nitpicking your logic if you didn't read three-quarters of it.

[ Friday, February 23, 2007 08:20: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #110
See above about not wasting other people's time. IM me.

[ Thursday, February 22, 2007 23:28: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #108
Synergy, I'm disappointed in you. You're behaving like a child, and you've gotten upset with me for no reason at all. I thought we talked online. I thought we came to an understanding. I find now, sadly, that I was mistaken.

I disagree with you about a lot of things, but that doesn't mean that I think less of you as a person. One of my best friends in high school was a conservative Christian (and I'm just about the opposite), but we didn't let that get in the way of our friendship. Likewise, here, the fact that I disagree with you is not an indication that I'm trying to be mean to you.

The thing is, I'm pretty sure that the only part of my post that you read was the tiny part that said "circular reasoning." I urge you to re-read what I wrote and find the point that I was actually making, which had nothing to do with nitpicking your argument or putting things in black and white or any of the other things you've said since then.

Look, I don't want to waste everyone else's time with this. I sought you out before because I wanted to resolve our differences. If you want to unload yourself of the burden of the anger that you seem to carry against me, all you have to do is take down the walls that you've built up around yourself and just talk to me (ideally online). I'm here whenever you're ready.

[ Thursday, February 22, 2007 22:57: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
I like it, but... in Avernum 4
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #44
Alorael is the person who keeps signing his posts with the name "Alorael."

That is, he is member 335, who changes his displayed name regularly.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #102
Alo: That was exactly the purpose of my last post to Synergy. I'm surprised that you didn't pick up on that.

[ Thursday, February 22, 2007 19:47: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Cheater! in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #32
I very rarely used the editors in the Avernum games, perhaps once per game. I have used the editor in BoA rather a lot more.

I do save a lot, frequently under different names, and reload a lot. A4 was the first game in which I didn't do that as much, as I assume that it was for many.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Soda in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #34
I don't ever have soda at home, but when I go to restaurants or parties I usually have some. I think the net result is that I drink some Sprite or Sierra Mist about once a week.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
The first to figure it out gets a cookie! in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #12
I suppose you have my meaningless approbation as well.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Disturbed's Believe Album in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #3
Excalibur, don't double-post. While you're at it, make sure that you only post even one post when you have something useful to say.

Technical specs would be of some use here.

[ Thursday, February 22, 2007 17:48: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Round Table on Morality, Theology, and Ethics in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #54
quote:
Originally written by Dintiradan:

Once again, this only disproves the notion of an omnipotent god whose sole purpose is to eliminate all evil whenever possible as quickly as possible, where evil is defined by us.
Apparently the age-old question that I was addressing wasn't clear. I wasn't trying to speak to, "If God cares about us and wants us to do good things, why do good people suffer?" I was addressing, "If God exists, do we have truly free will beyond God's choices?" The answer is definitely no, under the usual constraints, but that only shows how absurd the usual constraints are, and a probabilistic universe is the easiest way out of this problem.

quote:
To clarify, what exactly do you mean by 'free will'?
The ability to make a decision not controlled by God. With "controlled," I am referring to being compelled into our decision by God's conscious choice, whether we know that we are compelled to do so or not.

quote:
Originally written by When That Was:

Kel: It gets worse. What if we accept the many-world interpretation and say that God created an infinite or nearly infinite number of branching universes? (Yes, we're mixing physics and God. Both will survive.) The many worlds cover the spectrum from completely good to completely evil. What does that mean?
What does it mean? What does it have to do with anything?
quote:
I've always found it most personally satisfying to believe that somehow our understanding of good and evil is too limited to be meaningful to God, but I'll admit that I don't lose sleep over it and that if I were losing sleep I'd probably look for a better answer.
This leads to another one of those awful questions: If we, as you then say, cannot truly understand good and evil, can we truly sin? It seems unacceptable to damn a person for sin committed in ignorance, but God seems perfectly capable of doing things that seem unacceptable if we reason along these lines.
quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:

Put together, the Biblical answer to the problem of evil seems to me to be that it is a problem of poverty of imagination. We can't think of anything that could justify the bad things that happen. The Biblical God simply says, But I can.
This is one of the choices as to answer this far more difficult question ("Why do good people suffer?"), of course: simply giving up. I dislike the idea that there are things in the universe that humans in principle cannot understand, but I don't have any rigorous proof that no such things can exist. I find this answer totally unacceptable, but I can't give any good reasons why. I find, "We don't know right now, so let's stop thinking about it at the moment," much better than, "We can't ever know, so let's never think about it again."

I should add to all of this that I don't actually believe in "God," just for the record. I much prefer my own take on religion, which is loosely influenced by modern humanism and loosely influenced by traditional Greco-Roman religion (in which "belief" was simply not an issue). But these would be my objections, were I a theology student centuries ago.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Has anyone ever tried... in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #8
Well, both are strange and otherworldly, and certain magic-using vahnatai have been called "shapers" since before there was such a thing as Geneforge.

On the other hand, Jeff has stated pretty emphatically that the two worlds are different, unless I am grievously mistaken.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Bahssikava - technical problem - Khar-Grav palace in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #7
In lieu of responding to your e-mail, I'll post here.

I'm glad you enjoyed Bahssikava. There is a sequel, which you can get here. Let me know what you think of it; I've heard a lot of feedback from people who didn't like or didn't play Bahssikava, and, as I expected, they didn't like Exodus. The few people who liked Bahs, played Exodus, and told me what they thought have for the most part liked Exodus, I think, but it's hard to tell from so few responses.

EDIT: With regard to the Fly-Retreat bug, I have a guess that the script is choosing the wrong direction to start in, and I'll check the code again, but I don't have time now and won't for quite some time. Someday there may be a fix, though.

[ Thursday, February 22, 2007 18:08: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Why You Suck in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #97
quote:
Originally written by When That Was:

—Alorael, who isn't quite sure how Kel and Syn started picking fights with each other in serious threads. It's become quite a habit, though, and it's unfortunate.
This is not a fight. Don't call it that. Disagreement is not even remotely the same as a fight. You, on the other hand, have annoyed me now.

[ Thursday, February 22, 2007 17:16: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00

Pages