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Peer Review Process (was Evolution Stuff (was What is Religion, exactly?)) in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 30 2006 16:50 Profile #44
quote:
Originally written by Major:

There has been cases that God effects are lifes. Here's just one of the very many: Colonel whittlesey of the british army in World War 1. Had his troops repeat psalms 91 daily either by memory or reading it. No one in his troops died in battle. He fought for four years in battles. In which other regiments had only 10% survival rate. Note: Not all the battles were this bad.
Interesting. So because a superior officer to which these men were assigned at random dragooned them into repeating by rote a translation of a poem praising God by an ancient king, God spared them the pain of death indiscriminate of whether they believed in the psalms, what they were doing was acceptable, or anything.

If I ever meet your God, my last act as a free man will be spitting in His face.

...

quote:
Originally written by Major:

quote:
but it's rather pointless to try to argue that God trumps science because science has won every time. If God really didn't want science to be the truth, he'd be intervening.
First of all it's not "science Vs. God." It's how you interperate the evidence, either theory is science. (I think that there is more evidence for creation. But, that's just my opinion.)
One theory (creation) is very bad science, because it's not falsifiable, e.g. there's no actual way to test whether it's true. And certain theses of creation (young/flat earthers) are in direct contradiction of understood knowledge of the Universe.

In other words, if it's science versus science, the science of evolution wins. It's like tripping over a small rock and positing two theories from reason: your fall was the consequence of gravity, or your fall was a direct consequence of being hurled earthwards by an invisible giant. One of those can be tested by setting you up with another rock; another can be tested by finding another invisible giant. Kind of tricky.
quote:

quote:
Microevolution has been extensively, even excessively, documented. It happens. Mutation happens and has been seen too. Macroevolution from mutation has also been documented in labs. Speciation happens and we've seen it. All that's left is "irreducible complexity,"
No, there's more than that it's how they fit togather. For example have you ever seen a six legged cow live on it's own?
No, but that's not the only kind of mutation there is. Consdier sickle-cell anemia or white skin; either is a fairly recent (thousands of years) adaption to conditions in a certain part of the world. (Sickle-cell anemia confers strong resistance to malaria, while light skin helps prevent rickets in areas of the world with dark winters.)

And then there's completely innocuous mutations that don't do much as far as survival goes: double-jointedness, tongue-rolling, and so on.

Just because the first thing you think of when you hear 'mutation' is a six-legged cow doesn't make that representative of all mutation. In the biological sense, there are a wide range of mutations, some good, some bad, and some completely neutral. The bad ones tend to die off young and reproduce fairly little, the reverse is true of the good ones, and the neutral ones don't influence that much at all.

Those mutations pass down genetically from generation to generation. If a mutation is particularly favorable to an area (sickle-cell for the malaria zone, melanin-poor skin for Scandinavia), those with it will have their genetic material all over the place.

That's evolution. It's a simple matter of reproductive fitness, and it's plain common sense.

[ Tuesday, May 30, 2006 17:03: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Peer Review Process (was Evolution Stuff (was What is Religion, exactly?)) in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 30 2006 02:36 Profile #12
(DISCLAIMER: Christian theology unless noted otherwise.)

quote:
Originally written by GremlinJoe:

I know my religion is completly unreasonable. Jesus told about it himself, God did many of those things and still does many things in such a way as to confound the wise (plus other reasons). I don't think Christianity needs any explaination from a practical standpoint.
Yes it does. A fundamental point of proper Christianity is justification of faith.
quote:

God said that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to him.
God, in His wisdom, created the world - in other words, we could do the same thing if we studied on it well enough. Elevating a metaphysic system besides wisdom/logic to the godhead is an affront to the abrahamic God - because His universe is logical.
quote:
From our point of view in general everything about God is either backwards, contradictory, or insane looking. Unless you happen to get born closer to him than normal,even then he can turn into an enigma on you if you try to bind him by human logic.
But human logic is a product of God; it is the means by which we relate with God, and if we are created in His image surely our powers of reasoning are an aspiration to the divine.

quote:
It's not until one disregards appearences and logic as we know it and accepts that if God really does exist then, he is right and you may be wrong that any information about him can or will be given as to his nature or workings.
'he is right'? Nobody was arguing with God here!
quote:
[b]
He doesn't want people to understand and then believe, he wants them to believe and then he'll let them understand.
[/b]
It's late and I'm not the best biblical scholar, but I'm almost certain you're wrong. Faith without understanding is regarded as worse than understanding without faith; the latter may be wrong, but at least it's not as capricious and wicked as the former.
quote:

But whether you are born close to him or not he can't be fully comprehended or figured out ever.
The only major Abrahamic theology which complies with a fully inscrutable God is Islam.
quote:
So it's pointless to find a problem with Christianity or Judaism on the basis for want of logic, there was never intended to be any humanly discernable reasoning.
What a hateful denial of the glory of Creation!

quote:
I think of religion itself though as a complex series of beliefs. I often view modern science as a religion. Now this is from a none asscociated viewpoint. Think about it, No person has any real scientific proof that God even exists, just faith and a lot of what often appeares to some to be amazing examples of coincidence.
Coincidences are horrible reasons for God to exist; as Catholicism can attest to, there are precious few miracles in the modern world. I tend to hear Him justified more on the basis of subjective experience, which is more unreliable.
quote:
[b]Well, evolution hasn't any real scientific proof either does it.
[/b]
Nope. Just a theory, just like gravity.

quote:
There's a lot of superficial appearence that it happened, but no one has ever yet been able to get one dynamic of it into action or even explain it according to the logic it claims to uphold to.
What do you call animal husbandry, then? A fluke?
Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it can't be explained. Evolution can be explained more comprehensively and elegantly than any other theory for the same thing.

quote:
Nor has any evidence of it been found.
...? Yes there has. Consider the English peppermoth; it is a clear example for microevolution in recent memory. Macroevolution takes a fossil record to establish, but it kind of explains why you find some fossils only at one depth and others only at another.
quote:
Saying "well it took a million years" is no good explaination for why something strictly biological seems to have broken its own laws of function.
I'm afraid you'll have to rephrase that; it is not English.
quote:
[b]People in the "scientific" community will argue all day that it happened though.
They're excuse for a religion they can handle is "well this is science".
[/b]
Do you even know what 'science' is? You seem to be one of the people who equates it in a quaintly facile way with dudes in lab coats holding beakers. There's more to it than that.
quote:

Is it really?
Yes, and there's an overwhelming body of evidence for it, but you refuse to believe it because it conflicts with your personal revelation. Which leads to your next statement -
quote:
So what if it is true?
So nothing, I suppose, if you're absolutely unwilling to accept any objective truth. For the rest of the universe, though, it being the truth is jim-dandy.

quote:
[b]In its present state is it anything more than a religion? This is just an intersting pit of debate on what makes religion a religion, by the way.
[/b]
Not so much interesting as asinine. There are areas of science which have gotten religious in nature, I suppose, but your warped, ignorant, and self-congratulatory concepts of both science and religion impede you making a point on either - let alone both - that is anything more than vaguely annoying.

quote:
Edit: dear me I got little dyslexic there.
I'm a dyslexic, you coward.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
A Thousand Words in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 30 2006 01:01 Profile #6
Kingy, please take those down or mirror them. SA images incur horrible penalties on remote-linkers.

IMAGE(http://www.noosfere.org/heberg/dufour/nighthawks.jpg)
---

A voice reduced to a gravelly rasp by a lifetime of cigarettes. "Black, please. Yes, both of them." The solitary, time-worn attendant gave a single, brisk nod and went about his work.
A time passed. The street outside was empty, and the only sound in the lonesome diner - besides the near-silence of the attendant at his business - was the ticking of a distant clock.

Tick, tock.

"Elijah - that attendant looks familiar - one of those comedians, I think." The aging woman didn't turn to her companion, but simply gave a brief nod of the head to the man in question. He went about his business deaf to the conversation.

"I know it, Natalie. He used to be Larry the Cable Guy. I wonder why he still isn't."

"And I used to be Dave Chappelle," came a reply from the other side of the diner - a hollow and familiar voice from a worn frame slouched over the bar table. His face sagged with the sorrows of time. "People just don't have much to laugh about any more."

"Not since the war."

"No."

The tired eyes of all assembled drifted back out into space, staring at the cold and empty midnight street.

"Git'r done," the attendant said quietly, serving Wood and Portman their coffee.

There was no answer.

Tick, tock.

[ Tuesday, May 30, 2006 23:52: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Peer Review Process (was Evolution Stuff (was What is Religion, exactly?)) in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 30 2006 00:59 Profile #9
quote:
Originally written by Ash Lael:

I always come up against confusion on this point. I personally define religion as "a set of beliefs about the spiritual realm". Under this definition, Atheism and (proper) Agnosticism count as religions. This makes sense to me, since I see no difference between "beliefs about religion" and "religious beliefs", which is a distinction some people like to draw.

Comments?
Religion is a set of gnostic beliefs prescribing an otherwise logically unreasonable system of action or presumed knowledge.

In other words, religion is a whirlwind of bellyfeel.

You're naturally going to dispute this, because you'd prefer to posit your own religion as reasonable (on account of you're one of a fool or a charlatan, and I haven't worked out which yet).

To be frank, it is impossible to produce any particular system of religious belief without recourse to gnosis (received truth) as opposed to logos (wisdom - gained through experience). (Part of this is because belief is inherently gnostic, but more on that later.) Empirical investigation will not turn up God or any but the most intensely rudimentary universal systems of ethics.

So you either reject your religion - your conception of God, what have you - or you partially or totally reject the wisdom principle and fill in gaps based on gnostic revelation.

I believe you would call that gnosis faith, the falsehood it adds up to a belief, and the house of mendacity that stands upon that falsehood and its comerades religion.

And there you have your definition, with other terms of use to have fun with when taunting second-class citizens.

Your definition, by the by, is completely useless. It presumes a concept of a 'spirit realm', specifically one radically linked to your own belief system (disqualifies most isolated native religions, incl. Shinto, due to the fact they don't regard the spiritual and the material as separate).

Even if we allow presumption of that concept, it also seems to posit that any sort of presumed knowledge constitutes belief, which is wholly absurd. Presumed knowledge only becomes belief when it is based on gnosis and as such will not be trumped failing the intercession of new gnosis.

Example: I presume to know gravity is an immutable constant.

If new experiments with, say, the lunar ranging array produce results inexplicable by my current understanding - and I still presume to know, in full knowledge of those experiments, that gravity is an immutable constant - that is belief.

My system of belief about the constant becomes faith, and my faith is a partial foundation for a religious approach to physics without foundation in the logical universe.

...

And that is religion, so far as I see it. It is a fairly jaundiced view, so allow me to mollify it a little: there are far too many gaps in understood knowledge for a little gnosis, and thus a little religion, to do any harm. I, myself, maintain the beliefs that alien life exists, clinical immortality will be plausible within my lifetime, and consciousness may have some seat beyond the brain.

With how little we understand about the world around us, a responsible citizen of the Earth could hardly go without filling a few things in on his or her own.

I do not, on the other hand, condone discarding empirical understanding in favor of gnosis. If it turns out however long down the line I haven't got an immortal soul after all, I'm certainly not going to remain steadfast in my error after it is discovered.

[ Tuesday, May 30, 2006 01:00: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Ghosts of Stalin in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Monday, May 29 2006 10:13 Profile #48
TM has a deep-seated philosophical incentive to be utterly opaque, and as such makes an excellent sparring partner for the half-assed.

That doesn't make him wrong.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Custom Names - images inside in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Monday, May 29 2006 10:09 Profile #34
IBTL posts are for cowards and women.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
My God can beat up your God! in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Sunday, May 28 2006 19:13 Profile #135
quote:
Originally written by Ash Lael:

Let's say Allah is a red apple and Yahweh is a green apple. Is there a meaningful difference between disagreeing over the colour of the apple and believing in different apples?
Your analogy presumes what you intend to prove (that the Koran and Bible are written about different Gods). A more accurate one would be Allah and Yahweh being the same apple - and one person believing it a red apple and another that it is a green apple.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Ghosts of Stalin in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Sunday, May 28 2006 12:23 Profile #39
quote:
Originally written by radix malorum est cupiditas:

My two cents on the topic of communism: the only place it has worked to create the fantasized utopia is on kibbutzim (which I checked with a quick Google search); where those who want the communist structure can go to live and those who detest it can leave. Communism has not and can not thrive in a society where people don't want it.
The same could have readily been said of democracy before the 18th century; its application in any meaningful sense was limited to small groups and city-states, both capable of expelling the truculent at will.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Ghosts of Stalin in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Saturday, May 27 2006 11:13 Profile #20
quote:
Originally written by The Worst Man Ever:

What memories, precisely?
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Ghosts of Stalin in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Saturday, May 27 2006 08:50 Profile #16
What memories, precisely?
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Ghosts of Stalin in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Saturday, May 27 2006 02:11 Profile #14
quote:
Originally written by GremlinJoe:

There's more than that! The old soviet Union has left behind the horrible shadow of Communism itself.
Yes: the Soviet Union invented communism.
quote:
Look at Korea for crying out loud.
Yes: the entirety of Korea is communist.
quote:
They'll be back, mark my words. I've been saying it for over ten years, Stalinist Russia will return and it will take America down. That demon ain't dead yet. Oh yes, that empire will return.
Yes: a defunct country that wasn't rich or powerful enough to defeat the US at a Mexican stand-off is going to come back after decades of stagnation and defeat it.
quote:
[b]
Damn communists. God Damn those BASTARDS. I HATE THEM!
[/b]
Yes: you have every reason to categorically hate all adherents of an ideology you have never personally encountered.
quote:

sorry, I'm old fashioned.
Yes: absurd, stupid, victim-miming histrionics are how they got things done in Eisenhower's day.
quote:
I'm really sorry,
Yes: you are sorry for something you saw fit to post.
quote:
I've seen horrible things done by communists.
Yes.
quote:
Good people brainwashed by their militaries.
Yes: this is somehow related, and unique, to communism.
quote:
Suffering unimaginable in the mind. I can't tell you how horrible it is to see someone otherwise a good person you'd like be on the wrong side and die all because he was convinced he had no choice in battle.
Yes: this, again, is related and unique to communism.
quote:
Lied into dieing for a place that never gave a damn about him.
Yes: the concept of civic duty was completely alien to the Soviet Union and all other communist countries, wherein the state had no theoretical obligation to its citizens whatsoever.
quote:

Well I just want to make it clear right here right now that I cared.[/qb]
Yes: you care about people you never met dying for something they believe in with all their hearts, and railing against that with all of yours demonstrates this swimmingly.
quote:

I never want to see a good person go to their death out of slavery to a lie ever again!
Yes: you're anti-military.
quote:
Some are still around, too confused to adjust to civilian life.
Yes: Soviet war veterans are completely incapable of rehabilitation.
quote:
Outside the state they served under.
Yes: adjusting to post-communist life has been impossible for the Russian military.

[ Saturday, May 27, 2006 02:12: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Custom Names - images inside in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Friday, May 26 2006 10:52 Profile #7
And the best way not to get one is to ask for one in public.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
My God can beat up your God! in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Thursday, May 25 2006 21:44 Profile #93
quote:
Originally written by Thou Shalt:

Who inscribes walls in the vernacular?
IMANIS·METVLA·ES

[ Thursday, May 25, 2006 22:09: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Dan Brown Book... in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Thursday, May 25 2006 17:38 Profile #19
quote:
Originally written by Drew:

I haven't read it, but I can't imagine that it's any better than those Left Behind books, and no non-believers I'm aware of ever made a stink about those.
slacktivist.typepad.com - although run by an evangelical - makes a pretty good case for making a stink about them.

quote:
Originally written by Ash Lael:

quote:
Originally written by Indifferent Salmon:

They are also scared by Harry Potter, which says even more.
I'd say it's more accurate to say people are offended by DVC than scared of it. But, yeah, people are scared of Harry Potter. Honestly, some people seem to have a near paranoia of anything that smells even vaguely of witchcraft or magic.

My favourite "crazy complaint" story remains the time when asked where I went for advice, I jokingly replied "My magic eight ball". We got two phone calls and a very formally worded letter over that (I think that's the most complaints we've ever gotten over one thing, too). People seriously thought I was involved in some sort of eight ball-oriented pagan practices.
Does it ever unsettle you a little being a member of a community that is, by and large, that damn stupid? :P

[ Thursday, May 25, 2006 17:40: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
BUGS! in Blades of Avernum Editor
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Thursday, May 25 2006 10:32 Profile #55
quote:
Originally written by Mc 'mini' Thralni:

quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

To Thralni's post, I can only react with an enormous *facepalm*.
And as for my reaction to that, you can see this as one of the major reasons I'm leaving this community. I said that particualir thing as a kind of experiment, to see what the people's reactions would be. It was as always, which disappointed me: intelorant and touchy. Instead of asking "what's wrong, how can we help" and that sort of stuff, its immediatly "facepalm." I know the internet is a vicious place, but still. At least from you guys, who seem intelligent enough (at least the majority) to understand this, you would expect a least a bit support. I guess I was really terribly wrong.

To clear up any wrong thoughts on that comment I just made, I don't specifically mean the comment made against me, but all these sort of comments directed at many people here. espacially the zer-tolerance scheme people seem to have here against newbs who don't really know how to behave here, is quite stunning, if you ask me.

Its not only that, actually, its also the fact that when you ask people here what's wrong so you can change your attitude perhaps, all they tell you is "you are a bastard," and they expect you to learn from that. Now, I don't read minds, so teling me this is the must stupid, most irrelevant and idiotic thing to tell me. If you want to piss me off, than answer me this to a question which demands a totally different answer, like: "tell me exactly what is wrong, so I might change it." This community repeatedly failed to answer that question correctly.

But for the rest, I'll just shut up. My opinion isn't really relevant for the thread, and nobody listens to it anyway, as multiple threads can confirm. Apart from that, I already know this post will also be greeted with a "facepalm," which I think Slartucker (obviously) introduced, although I might be mistaken. The occasional post denoting what is wrong about my grammar will probably also pop-up now and then. I also know people will now chat about this, calling me gay or somthing like that. It depends if Alec or Salmon participates, I guess.
Homo.

In all seriousness, you don't seem to be taking offense at anything in particular. What's the problem here? You're more or less tripping over yourself to be pissed off at the rest of us. If that's what you want so bad, go right ahead, but besides a few snide remaks for my own amusement I'm not going to abet you.

And if this is some kind of pathetic thrash-out for adulation, forget it. You have neither been here long enough nor done enough to merit a committee of fawners begging you to come back. That kind of histrionic garbage certainly won't do anything positive; if you think it's necessary, by all means, see yourself out.

[ Thursday, May 25, 2006 10:36: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
BUGS! in Blades of Avernum
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Thursday, May 25 2006 10:32 Profile #55
quote:
Originally written by Mc 'mini' Thralni:

quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

To Thralni's post, I can only react with an enormous *facepalm*.
And as for my reaction to that, you can see this as one of the major reasons I'm leaving this community. I said that particualir thing as a kind of experiment, to see what the people's reactions would be. It was as always, which disappointed me: intelorant and touchy. Instead of asking "what's wrong, how can we help" and that sort of stuff, its immediatly "facepalm." I know the internet is a vicious place, but still. At least from you guys, who seem intelligent enough (at least the majority) to understand this, you would expect a least a bit support. I guess I was really terribly wrong.

To clear up any wrong thoughts on that comment I just made, I don't specifically mean the comment made against me, but all these sort of comments directed at many people here. espacially the zer-tolerance scheme people seem to have here against newbs who don't really know how to behave here, is quite stunning, if you ask me.

Its not only that, actually, its also the fact that when you ask people here what's wrong so you can change your attitude perhaps, all they tell you is "you are a bastard," and they expect you to learn from that. Now, I don't read minds, so teling me this is the must stupid, most irrelevant and idiotic thing to tell me. If you want to piss me off, than answer me this to a question which demands a totally different answer, like: "tell me exactly what is wrong, so I might change it." This community repeatedly failed to answer that question correctly.

But for the rest, I'll just shut up. My opinion isn't really relevant for the thread, and nobody listens to it anyway, as multiple threads can confirm. Apart from that, I already know this post will also be greeted with a "facepalm," which I think Slartucker (obviously) introduced, although I might be mistaken. The occasional post denoting what is wrong about my grammar will probably also pop-up now and then. I also know people will now chat about this, calling me gay or somthing like that. It depends if Alec or Salmon participates, I guess.
Homo.

In all seriousness, you don't seem to be taking offense at anything in particular. What's the problem here? You're more or less tripping over yourself to be pissed off at the rest of us. If that's what you want so bad, go right ahead, but besides a few snide remaks for my own amusement I'm not going to abet you.

And if this is some kind of pathetic thrash-out for adulation, forget it. You have neither been here long enough nor done enough to merit a committee of fawners begging you to come back. That kind of histrionic garbage certainly won't do anything positive; if you think it's necessary, by all means, see yourself out.

[ Thursday, May 25, 2006 10:36: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
My God can beat up your God! in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Thursday, May 25 2006 10:26 Profile #78
quote:
Originally written by radix malorum est cupiditas:

quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

Jesus spoke Aramaic.
At that time period, Judaism was split into two areas of the world. Israel and Babylon. Jews in Israel spoke Hebrew. Jews in Babylon spoke Aramaic. Jesus lived in Israel.
*blink*

Uh, around the beginning of the AD calendar, there were two significant Jewish communities: one in Palestine and another in Egypt. The ones in Egypt were hellenized - wrote in Greek and used it for everyday discussion and most formal writing. Aramaic, on the other hand, was the vernacular of Palestine at the time.

Hebrew was the province of theology. In fact, it was so unpopular as an everyday language that, around contemporaneous with Christ, there was a translation of the Bible into Greek for practical reasons. (The Pentateuch.)

The Babylonian Captivity was centuries before the period we're talking about. There was not a Hebrew/Aramaic split; there was an Aramaic/Greek split. Neither spoke Hebrew out of habit, and both shared it as a language of theology.

That you don't know any of this is fairly confusing.

And besides all of that, Jesus spoke Aramaic. Any and all direct quotes from the man (or the Man, I suppose) are Aramaic, as are those of his compatriots. Arguing that he wouldn't have is absurd.

...

EDIT: Also, I refer to it as Palestine beacuse that was its legal name; at the time it was a province of the Roman Empire referred to as Palestina. Israel was a country that had been defunct for some time.

[ Thursday, May 25, 2006 10:31: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Dan Brown Book... in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Thursday, May 25 2006 09:08 Profile #4
IMAGE(http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-fiction-239x251.jpg)

For God's sake, it says so on the damn spine.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
My God can beat up your God! in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 23 2006 20:48 Profile #65
quote:
Originally written by Pez:

Worst man,

get intelligent life because you are lacking it. My comment was sarcasm, and fairly obvious I might add.

Of course Mohammed never said he was God and Islam does not hold him out to be one either.

It was an unfounded statement...in otherwords their was NO BASIS FOR IT.
Fair enough. I withdraw the first part of my statement.

Also, 'intelligent life' does not mean what you think it means.

---

quote:
Originally written by Pez:

TM,

you are probably well aware of this next point and likely have even addressed it but part of the argument for the infallibility of the scriptures is that they are "God breathed". Of course, this is circular in that, once again, you must prove God exists (or have that faith) in order to accept this.
The infallibility of the scriptures as we have them is literally impossible. The addition or redaction of clauses and verses is well-known to history (and was common practice before people got the asinine idea the Bible was a literal document), and there have been a hundred Bibles compiled from a hundred canons by a hundred editorial committees.

So either you're wrong or God really has it out for the people who mistakenly believe they've got the right copy.

[ Tuesday, May 23, 2006 20:52: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
a4 is the best game yet in Avernum 4
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 23 2006 18:27 Profile #96
quote:
Originally written by Spidweb:

You can't win an argument with a customer.
Having to win an argument with a customer is usually a pretty sound sign you're doing something wrong, isn't it?

I've played and thoroughly enjoyed every Exile title, still love Blades of Exile, and thought Nethergate was magnificent. I appreciated the idea behind A1, because E1 was certainly showing its age at that point.

I speak for a significant section of your customers - a section, I have noticed, which is a little old (both in maturity and in terms of better things to do) to send emails to gamemakers - when I say that I don't get Geneforge. The way you manage semi-real-time gameplay is inelegant and ugly, and I played A4 only very briefly before having bile rise in my gorge - not only on the plot, which you clearly phoned in (there are a dozen people, plenty of them moderators at your forums, who probably would have furnished better ideas for free), but at the stream from something I like (Avernum, ultimately derived from Exile - some of my favorite games of all time) being crossed with that of something I don't (Geneforge).

I resent, and I believe the section I speak for resents, the periodic efforts to dumb down your games. The market isn't even pushing towards dumb any more; I don't get why you're doing it. I don't mean dumb in terms of plot; that's at least understandable, because you've had other things on your mind and I don't expect every one to be a winner there. I mean the continual, incomprehensible slide into mediocrity in terms of game mechanics.

Exile had hundreds of spells, dozens of weapon types [from three inherent weapon classes], and a dozen trainable and modifiable statistics. People are still finding new things to do with BoE (even though it allows very little access to game mechanics!). A4 plays like a lazy fantasy throwaway by a big, heartless developer.

Note earlier that I said a significant section of your customers. I'm not just a random curmugeon: I'm personally responsible for a couple hundred dollars of your revenue. I would buy a sequel to Nethergate; in fact, I would buy three damn copies. I'd buy an Exile 4. I'd buy another version of Blades. I'd buy something entirely different. I like your games, but the ones I like best - the ones I love - came before you got the idea your target demographic was 10 and under, and swearing and moral ambiguity and having more ways to kill a monster than you could count to using your toes were no-nos.

Yeah, I'm sure you get letters that say 'Avernum 4 is the best ever'. I'm sure you also get letters thanking you for Homeland: Stone of Night. Not everyone has the time or the inclination to send you email, sir, and just because some of us don't doesn't mean you shouldn't discount us as customers.

For one thing, we aren't spending our parents' money. :P

[ Tuesday, May 23, 2006 18:29: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Show me the muscle in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 23 2006 18:06 Profile #33
quote:
Originally written by Jewels:

quote:
Originally written by The Worst Man Ever:

You are too old, fecund, and Republican for me to want to hear about your kegels. :(
27 is too old? :confused:
I'm 18. You could be... my cousin. :P
quote:

Besides, being fecund is the main reason I do kegels. Have to at least try to get back in shape.
What did I just say! :(

quote:
ps. Since you don't want to hear about it, you probably should't read this post.
Shouldn't you have put this at the top of the post? :P

:(
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
My God can beat up your God! in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 23 2006 18:03 Profile #58
quote:
Originally written by Pez:

OK, on unfounded statements. Mohammed did say he was God.
No he didn't, you dumb bigot.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Show me the muscle in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 23 2006 16:02 Profile #31
quote:
Originally written by Jewels:

I chase after anywhere from 2 to 8 kids at different times of the day, every day. Lots of lifting, stair climbing, running... plus some kegels and 'other' regular exercises to get the heart pumping.
You are too old, fecund, and Republican for me to want to hear about your kegels. :(
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
The Ultimate Survey in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 23 2006 13:12 Profile #62
What did you do last night?
—Plead the fifth
The last thing you downloaded onto your computer?
—Music.
Have you ever licked a 9 volt battery?
—Yes.
Type of music you dislike most?
—Skinhead punk. God-damn: bad and evil.
Are you registered to vote?
—I registered on April 20 through a pot activist booth.
Ever made a prank phone call?
—Nope.
Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?
—Dubious.
Furthest place you ever traveled?
—Scott's Head. Southern tip of Dominica. (I think that's what it's called.)
What's your favorite comic strip?
—Overcompensating.
Best movie you've seen in the past month?
—Boondock Saints is the only movie I've seen this past month.
Favorite chocolate bar?
—Crunch with caramel.
Have you ever won a trophy?
—I have actually posted pictures of me with a trophy.
Favorite arcade game?
—I don't really have one.
Ever thrown up in public?
—Yes.
Would you prefer being a millionaire or finding true love?
—I'll go with millionaire. True love never works out
If you had to spend a romantic evening with any sw member, who would you pick?
—Drew, if only to convince him of the errors of his New Dem ways with a good, solid porking
Do you believe in love at first sight?
—Lust at first sight, absolutely
Who do you think about most?
—The future. It is a horrible thing.
Which celebrity do you think is hot, both female and male?
—Natalie Portman and Edward Norton. Also, Uma Thurman and George Clooney.
What's the worst medical problem you've ever had?
—Avicide poisoning, crippling bouts of asthma, anaphylactic shock, sinus infection so severe as to require surgery, take your pick
What's your favorite sitcom?
—Who the hell watches sitcoms?
Hottest sw male
—Tossup between Thuryl and Stughalf
Last computer/video game you played
—Imperialism
Last movie you rented
—Personally? Dr. Strangelove, although that was forever ago
Would you rather dump someone or be dumped?
—Be dumped. I'd rather she be happy
Which sw member has the dirties mind?
—Jewels. I am too much of a gentleman to elaborate on why
Have you ever kissed someone and regretted it?
—Yeah, sure have.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

quote:
Originally written by Nicothodes:


If you had to spend a romantic evening with any sw member, who would you pick?
—If you're forced, it's not that romantic, now is it?
;)

[ Tuesday, May 23, 2006 13:23: Message edited by: The Worst Man Ever ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Ghosts of Stalin in General
Najosz Thjsza Kjras
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
 written Tuesday, May 23 2006 13:01 Profile #8
quote:
Originally written by Pez:

For those that think the cold war is over, look to Russia now. Thier current president and government are bringing back Soviet era symbols and exerting anti-american swagger in the political arena. And if you view a free press as a symbol of democracy, Putin is strangling that too.
*sigh*

http://www.exile.ru/2006-May-19/the_cold_war_timeline.html
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00

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