As a pastor, maybe you should be voicing your opinion instead of asking people to be silent, showing the world what it means to be a Christian instead of hiding behind a pseudonym. If you want to believe that the big bang started life, fine. If you want to believe that God created everything, fine. However, don't tell me to stop writing, and *don't* post as an anonymous coward when you're doing so.
I'm not trolling here, honest. There's a difference between the "most" conclusive evidence and conclusive evidence in and of itself. The person who modded me "troll" earlier might think that this is a matter of semantics, but it's in actuality a point of logic. Say I have an invisible friend. Say the fact that I talk to my invisible friend is the most conclusive evidence that he exists. Does that mean that the fact I talk to him proves that he exists? Not at all. In fact, in my example, the "most conclusive evidence" is pretty much bunk.
The theory of relativity has been proven with physical tests, as you say. Now, give me an honest answer to this: has the big bang theory been proven conclusively? What you're basically saying is that there is convincing evidence that the big bang happened, but it's not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, so we should take the rest by faith until the rest of the evidence is there.
From your link: "As they continued their investigation, Penzias and Wilson came to realize that they had stumbled onto the most conclusive evidence to date supporting the Big Bang Theory."
Doesn't exactly sound proven, does it? Evidence... support... theory... I'm bowled over here. Unless it's conclusively proven, it's a theory. End of story.
"Why is it that these ultra-fundamentalists (to borrow your phrase) can't at least acknowledge that what scientists observe what seem to be universal physical laws, and then draw their conclusions from observations using those laws?"
I'm sorry, did somebody observe a Big Bang while I wasn't looking? How can you observe "universal physical laws" and relate them to the Big Bang if the Big Bang was an extraordinary event (i.e. doesn't happen every millenia, or even every year)? Answer: you can't. The Big Bang is a "theory" that has not been observed in nature, so there's no way of telling whether it actually happened or not. Yes, you can conjecture this and that and look at various gases and the like, but there's no hard proof that it happened.
What gets *my* goat is that people call the Big Bang a theory, but get mad when people say that it's only a theory. Huh? The Big Bang requires just as much faith as does the existence of God.
If he did this, he *needs* to make sure that he doesn't tell anybody about the plan, else *he* could be in trouble for getting the minor on tape. Otherwise, wish I had mod points when I needed them!
Seriously, I've seen this one before - is this a *real* Time cover? I've seen a ton of goatse spoofs before, but whoever did this to *TIME* must really, REALLY not like their job (cuz they're just asking to get fired and sued up the wazoo;) )
Ah yes, the orthodox church. Must have just slipped my mind. Certainly, it's not a group that most NA Christians think about, despite the fact that there are some 50 million Orthodox Christians in the world;) Sorry to not include them.
As for the Coptic church: pretty much the same thing as the orthodox, but different words for the same concepts and different languages used. Pretty much the difference between Anglicans and Presbyterians, in other words (loosely). Anyway,from the Wiki: "Since the 1980s theologians from the two groups [orthodox & coptic churches] have been meeting in a bid to resolve the theological differences, and have concluded that many of the differences are caused by the two groups using different terminology to describe the same thing."
I guess I kinda bunched the Catholics & Orthodox churches together - they *are* very similar, despite outward appearances, and have been holding talks since the 60's about mutual recognition of each other's "religion." I think the original schism was mainly political, so it's not like there are huge gaps in theology between the two groups. Obviously i'm thinking like a protestant/evangelical and not a catholic, eh? Sorry to have missed anybody.
As for the "repent or go to hell, sinner!" comment: two different contexts. Jesus wasn't talking to "sinners," he was talking to his own disciples. He wasn't openly condemning somebody to hell, he was telling his guys what would happen if they didn't repent. This I hear a lot in church. But to actually go up to somebody and say to their face, "Repent or go to hell, sinner!"? That's pretty harsh. Never heard it used. Never.
Sorry to throw this waaay off-topic. Lol - I guess I'm risking my karma for Jesus, aren't I?:)
Just to clarify: "When I'm God" was meant as hyperbole. I don't expect to ever become God. Okay, *now* flame away;) We Christians are used to it, what with the lions & such.
maybe you're misunderstanding the term "evangelical." There are three major branches in Christianity: Catholic, Protestant (lutheran, presbyterian and the like), and Evangelical (Baptist, Alliance, Mennonite, etc.) All of us are supposed to evangelise, but seriously, I've never actually heard somebody use the term "repent or go to hell, sinner!" used in all seriousness. I do have a peaceful religion; I don't usually evangelise unless somebody wants to, and I would definitely not condemn somebody for what they do - that's God's job. When I'm God, I'll judge others; until then, I'm just doing what Jesus asks of us: Love God & love your neighbour as yourself. I'm sorry if "my ilk" has offended you in the past.
Well, it's not so much a "sense of humour" as it is a matter of fact that Christians are bashed about every day, as evidenced by the grandparent post. If we tend to get a bit twitchy, well, who can blame us:) (I'm an evangelical, not a catholic, and I too found the passion to be extremely violent and bloody)
So the RIAA, the guys who sue 12 year olds for downloading music and would stop at nothing to retain the rights of their clients, say that allofmp3.com is legal, and you say that they're wrong. Well, what more can I say?
What are you talking about, not being legal for USians? From the linked site:
"Anyway, my friend and I were scouring the net looking for info on this site, and the controversy surrounding it. Here's the final word...from the horses'...well, I'll let you decide which part of the anatomy you insert there.
After checking with the RIAA and other licensing agencies, KCTL Kansas City; the radio station for KCTalk.com; has switched from paying $1.00 per song with Napster, to using the "pay per meg" service at allofmp3.com.
After the RIAA confirmed in an email that the service is in fact legal, just under a different contract due to the site being located in Russia, the switch was made immediately. All downloaded music from the site was quote "able to be used in a full broadcast and media capacity".
KCTalk.com just wanted to pass this information on to others that have been searching for a real site to download stuff from without paying arms and legs. Thank you to Dies Irae for pointing out this service.
Furthermore, KCTL has started replacing thier songs that were previously encoded at 128k, with the cheaper, yet better sounding, 192k that allofmp3.com provides. We have downloaded 9 songs, and have not quite used $0.75 yet. Great service!
Go, check it out. This radio station has done all of the "legwork" for us. Download, and be merry!"
If you watch the Animatrix (and consider it to be part of the Matrix canon), you'd realise that humans were just as brutal as the machines were, what with the machine slaughter & war on Zero One and all. Agent Smith wanted to destroy *everything* - the machines and the humans. In the end, the machines *weren't* the greater evil, simply because they were willing to compromise and sue for peace. Smith was not willing to do so.
Maybe you're right - depth is different from plot. But I'd rather have a short RPG with a terrific plot than a long RPG with a random quest generator and little to no plot.
A random quest generator does not count as "depth." Arena, Daggerfall & Morrowind were horribly buggy (it took them *how* long to get their games up to playable standards?), their graphics engines were awful (laggy, clipping all over the place; Morrowind was certainly pretty, if not fast), and plots nonexistent. Deliver one letter from one king to another king? Kill a big bad guy? This is a "plot"?
I own all three games, and feel like a sucker for keeping on buying them. I thought that morrowind would be better, but it's the same load over and over again. Some people like repetitive leveling games; I, on the other hand, prefer an RPG with a plot. There's no way Bethesda is gonna get *more* of my money.
Just so you don't think I'm trolling, KOTOR was decent, and Tales of Symphonia for the cube is pretty good too. Last *stellar* RPG for the PC in terms of interesting plot had to be the Fallout series (1 & 2), mostly because they were unique (i.e. post apocalyptic) and not the same old fantasy crap that every single gaming house is pumping at us lately. Planescape was awesome too, simply because it was unique as far as fantasy RPGs went.
But hey, let's keep on pumping out the "hits" - the next Fallout game is going to use the Obsidian engine too. Bloody hell if the PC RPG industry isn't shot.
Are you kidding me? If I left a roll of film around (cuz I don't have digital), somebody developed it, & turned it into a blog with a funny story attached to it, i'd think it were freaking hilarious! I'd want the pictures back, of course, but as long as they weren't crude about it, I could really care less.
...but only 20 games? The DS has 41 games right now, not to mention all the compatible GB & GBA games right now. Yes, I'm a Nintendo fanboy, but all the hardware in the world isn't going to help you with 20 games at launch.
Then again, the fact that the DS is $200 USD (i'm in Canada) pretty much guarantees that I'm not getting a DS either;)
Bottom line: DS has Metroid Hunters and a Mario game. Sony has to pull out a couple A-list games for release date or else they're going to falter on the starting line - this might not be the end for Sony, but seeing as how they're already behind in terms of games, it ain't gonna help.
"If it is the bomb that Duke has found, the question now is what, if anything, should be done with it?"
OF COURSE! It all makes sense! THIS is how Duke Nukem came to be - what with the radiation and all... explains how these planes crashed, anyway. Now we just have to wait for the aliens to come and steal our women, and the FUN will begin! Dibs on the laser trip mines!
These were the changes mentioned on this/. page The issue isn't content control; the issue is this guy vandalising extremely boring articles which are not pieces of well-known information, let alone interesting.
Layzie Bone (biographical page). I inserted "born 1973", but a quick Google search reveals that he was born in 1977. Layzie Bone? Who the heck is this person?
Magni, from norse mythology. I said that he was commonly depicted wielding an axe or a spear. In fact, Magni was the only person other than Thor himself who could lift Thor's hammer, and Magni is commonly associated with that weapon. Interestingly, the fact about Thor's Hammer is in the Wikipedia entry (though they call it by the proper name, Mjollnir), yet nobody seemed to notice the incongruity that a god whose special power is lifting a hammer would be depicted with an axe or a spear. If you're relying on Wikipedia for your knowledge of Norse mythology, you're in the wrong profession. Anybody familiar with Norse mythology could disprove this in about five seconds; if you're not, then chances are you wouldn't care
Empuries, a Mediterranean town, I made the site of sadly lost Greek ruins. The Greek ruins are true enough, but they aren't lost, sadly or otherwise. This travel site helpfully informs us that Empuries has "lots of free parking close to the ruins" as well as a cafe and a museum at the archeological site. In other words, he added "lost" to the page. Wow. *Huge change here*
Philipsburg, PA, became located at the junction of U.S. highway 233 and state route 503. Not U.S. highway 322 and state route 504, as most maps show. Um, yeah. REEEEEAL important, folks.
Bernice Johnson Reagon, while apparently a prolific author, never wrote Georgia in Song. In fact, Amazon lists no such book by any author. Who?
Slashdot Mirror
As a pastor, maybe you should be voicing your opinion instead of asking people to be silent, showing the world what it means to be a Christian instead of hiding behind a pseudonym. If you want to believe that the big bang started life, fine. If you want to believe that God created everything, fine. However, don't tell me to stop writing, and *don't* post as an anonymous coward when you're doing so.
The theory of relativity has been proven with physical tests, as you say. Now, give me an honest answer to this: has the big bang theory been proven conclusively? What you're basically saying is that there is convincing evidence that the big bang happened, but it's not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, so we should take the rest by faith until the rest of the evidence is there.
Doesn't exactly sound proven, does it? Evidence... support... theory... I'm bowled over here. Unless it's conclusively proven, it's a theory. End of story.
So the Big Bang has been proven and is no longer a theory? Funny, I missed the front page announcement on every athiest paper in the world.
I'm sorry, did somebody observe a Big Bang while I wasn't looking? How can you observe "universal physical laws" and relate them to the Big Bang if the Big Bang was an extraordinary event (i.e. doesn't happen every millenia, or even every year)? Answer: you can't. The Big Bang is a "theory" that has not been observed in nature, so there's no way of telling whether it actually happened or not. Yes, you can conjecture this and that and look at various gases and the like, but there's no hard proof that it happened.
What gets *my* goat is that people call the Big Bang a theory, but get mad when people say that it's only a theory. Huh? The Big Bang requires just as much faith as does the existence of God.
You mean the Big Bang, right?
If he did this, he *needs* to make sure that he doesn't tell anybody about the plan, else *he* could be in trouble for getting the minor on tape. Otherwise, wish I had mod points when I needed them!
Obligatory Nelson quote: "Ha ha!"
Seriously, I've seen this one before - is this a *real* Time cover? I've seen a ton of goatse spoofs before, but whoever did this to *TIME* must really, REALLY not like their job (cuz they're just asking to get fired and sued up the wazoo ;) )
As for the Coptic church: pretty much the same thing as the orthodox, but different words for the same concepts and different languages used. Pretty much the difference between Anglicans and Presbyterians, in other words (loosely). Anyway,from the Wiki: "Since the 1980s theologians from the two groups [orthodox & coptic churches] have been meeting in a bid to resolve the theological differences, and have concluded that many of the differences are caused by the two groups using different terminology to describe the same thing."
I guess I kinda bunched the Catholics & Orthodox churches together - they *are* very similar, despite outward appearances, and have been holding talks since the 60's about mutual recognition of each other's "religion." I think the original schism was mainly political, so it's not like there are huge gaps in theology between the two groups. Obviously i'm thinking like a protestant/evangelical and not a catholic, eh? Sorry to have missed anybody.
As for the "repent or go to hell, sinner!" comment: two different contexts. Jesus wasn't talking to "sinners," he was talking to his own disciples. He wasn't openly condemning somebody to hell, he was telling his guys what would happen if they didn't repent. This I hear a lot in church. But to actually go up to somebody and say to their face, "Repent or go to hell, sinner!"? That's pretty harsh. Never heard it used. Never.
Sorry to throw this waaay off-topic. Lol - I guess I'm risking my karma for Jesus, aren't I? :)
I attend one. In fact, I've never used the term used *at all*, except on Slashdot posts and Futurama.
Just to clarify: "When I'm God" was meant as hyperbole. I don't expect to ever become God. Okay, *now* flame away ;) We Christians are used to it, what with the lions & such.
maybe you're misunderstanding the term "evangelical." There are three major branches in Christianity: Catholic, Protestant (lutheran, presbyterian and the like), and Evangelical (Baptist, Alliance, Mennonite, etc.) All of us are supposed to evangelise, but seriously, I've never actually heard somebody use the term "repent or go to hell, sinner!" used in all seriousness. I do have a peaceful religion; I don't usually evangelise unless somebody wants to, and I would definitely not condemn somebody for what they do - that's God's job. When I'm God, I'll judge others; until then, I'm just doing what Jesus asks of us: Love God & love your neighbour as yourself. I'm sorry if "my ilk" has offended you in the past.
Well, it's not so much a "sense of humour" as it is a matter of fact that Christians are bashed about every day, as evidenced by the grandparent post. If we tend to get a bit twitchy, well, who can blame us :) (I'm an evangelical, not a catholic, and I too found the passion to be extremely violent and bloody)
So the RIAA, the guys who sue 12 year olds for downloading music and would stop at nothing to retain the rights of their clients, say that allofmp3.com is legal, and you say that they're wrong. Well, what more can I say?
"Anyway, my friend and I were scouring the net looking for info on this site, and the controversy surrounding it. Here's the final word...from the horses'...well, I'll let you decide which part of the anatomy you insert there.
After checking with the RIAA and other licensing agencies, KCTL Kansas City; the radio station for KCTalk.com; has switched from paying $1.00 per song with Napster, to using the "pay per meg" service at allofmp3.com.
After the RIAA confirmed in an email that the service is in fact legal, just under a different contract due to the site being located in Russia, the switch was made immediately. All downloaded music from the site was quote "able to be used in a full broadcast and media capacity".
KCTalk.com just wanted to pass this information on to others that have been searching for a real site to download stuff from without paying arms and legs. Thank you to Dies Irae for pointing out this service.
Furthermore, KCTL has started replacing thier songs that were previously encoded at 128k, with the cheaper, yet better sounding, 192k that allofmp3.com provides. We have downloaded 9 songs, and have not quite used $0.75 yet. Great service!
Go, check it out. This radio station has done all of the "legwork" for us. Download, and be merry!"
If you watch the Animatrix (and consider it to be part of the Matrix canon), you'd realise that humans were just as brutal as the machines were, what with the machine slaughter & war on Zero One and all. Agent Smith wanted to destroy *everything* - the machines and the humans. In the end, the machines *weren't* the greater evil, simply because they were willing to compromise and sue for peace. Smith was not willing to do so.
Maybe you're right - depth is different from plot. But I'd rather have a short RPG with a terrific plot than a long RPG with a random quest generator and little to no plot.
I own all three games, and feel like a sucker for keeping on buying them. I thought that morrowind would be better, but it's the same load over and over again. Some people like repetitive leveling games; I, on the other hand, prefer an RPG with a plot. There's no way Bethesda is gonna get *more* of my money.
Just so you don't think I'm trolling, KOTOR was decent, and Tales of Symphonia for the cube is pretty good too. Last *stellar* RPG for the PC in terms of interesting plot had to be the Fallout series (1 & 2), mostly because they were unique (i.e. post apocalyptic) and not the same old fantasy crap that every single gaming house is pumping at us lately. Planescape was awesome too, simply because it was unique as far as fantasy RPGs went.
But hey, let's keep on pumping out the "hits" - the next Fallout game is going to use the Obsidian engine too. Bloody hell if the PC RPG industry isn't shot.
Are you kidding me? If I left a roll of film around (cuz I don't have digital), somebody developed it, & turned it into a blog with a funny story attached to it, i'd think it were freaking hilarious! I'd want the pictures back, of course, but as long as they weren't crude about it, I could really care less.
Then again, the fact that the DS is $200 USD (i'm in Canada) pretty much guarantees that I'm not getting a DS either ;)
Bottom line: DS has Metroid Hunters and a Mario game. Sony has to pull out a couple A-list games for release date or else they're going to falter on the starting line - this might not be the end for Sony, but seeing as how they're already behind in terms of games, it ain't gonna help.
OF COURSE! It all makes sense! THIS is how Duke Nukem came to be - what with the radiation and all... explains how these planes crashed, anyway. Now we just have to wait for the aliens to come and steal our women, and the FUN will begin! Dibs on the laser trip mines!
Can I vote for the intro for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War? Most compelling short I've seen in 2004.
Motherfucker! I just sprayed Coke across my work computer! I'm sending you the bill ;)
Layzie Bone (biographical page). I inserted "born 1973", but a quick Google search reveals that he was born in 1977. Layzie Bone? Who the heck is this person?
Magni, from norse mythology. I said that he was commonly depicted wielding an axe or a spear. In fact, Magni was the only person other than Thor himself who could lift Thor's hammer, and Magni is commonly associated with that weapon. Interestingly, the fact about Thor's Hammer is in the Wikipedia entry (though they call it by the proper name, Mjollnir), yet nobody seemed to notice the incongruity that a god whose special power is lifting a hammer would be depicted with an axe or a spear. If you're relying on Wikipedia for your knowledge of Norse mythology, you're in the wrong profession. Anybody familiar with Norse mythology could disprove this in about five seconds; if you're not, then chances are you wouldn't care
Empuries, a Mediterranean town, I made the site of sadly lost Greek ruins. The Greek ruins are true enough, but they aren't lost, sadly or otherwise. This travel site helpfully informs us that Empuries has "lots of free parking close to the ruins" as well as a cafe and a museum at the archeological site. In other words, he added "lost" to the page. Wow. *Huge change here*
Philipsburg, PA, became located at the junction of U.S. highway 233 and state route 503. Not U.S. highway 322 and state route 504, as most maps show. Um, yeah. REEEEEAL important, folks.
Bernice Johnson Reagon, while apparently a prolific author, never wrote Georgia in Song. In fact, Amazon lists no such book by any author. Who?