Knowing God and knowing about God are two different things. The former is the result of salvation, achieved through faith in Jesus. The latter is a signpost, a breadcrumb, a marker on the path of salvation.
Scientific inquiry into the intelligence of God, as manifested in nature, is not an essential component of salvation. But salvation is an essential component of knowing God.
Scientific proof of God's intelligence in nature is not proof that He sent Jesus to atone for our sins and that belief in Jesus is the only method of getting closer to Himself.
As to your post's title: You seem to have, at most, a very superficial understanding of Christianity. I seriously question your ability to look at a group of Christians and produce an accurate characterization based on how those Christians incorporate ID into their belief system. Really! Was that anything other than a cartoonish hypothetical wherein you brilliantly point out in a sentence or two some serious flaw with Christianity that only you've discovered?
Do you think Christians are quiet when abortion clinics are bombed
Of course they aren't: we get to hear a media sound byte from ALL the major denominations declaring the action reprehensible and having no doctrinal basis. Does this happen when the bomber is a Muslim?
To be fair, some Imam will be interviewed telling us that Islam is against violence.
Two more will tell us violence is bad, but that we must look at the bombers reasons for acting out.
Five more will tell us that an ardent follower has been ruinited with Allah, having served his master well.
Thank goodness for sites like Memri that help us keep tabs on what Imams are saying in Arabic. Seems that more than once, several of those teachers have been found to be saying one message in English (Islam hates violence) and another message in Arabic (Allah needs warriors to protect Islam).
I just looked at what this can do with converting AI files into the XAML format for use in Avalon. Pretty neat. But nothing that revolutionary.
Vector and raster based drawing programs have been offering exports into various web vector formats (SVG, SWF, VRML)for years now. Most 3D apps also offer exporting to these formats. Plasma was created just for this purpose.
Seems to me, outside of Flash, vector graphics aren't really part of the web landscape. So why, with all these options available for creating them, aren't we seeing more and more of these vector viewables?
I believe the answer does not center around applications and formats. It centers around artists/designers and the nature of digital art. I'll use the drawing of a logo to help explain:
Picture a 1/2" diameter green circle with "Akion" placed to the right, slightly lower, in 18Pt Arial Black, color:slightly darker shade of green than circle.
Output this to any vector format, and you'll end up with a very small file that can be stretched nearly infinitely without suffering quality loss. A developer's dream logo. Just need one version of it, and it can be used practically anywhere (just resize proportionally).
But the client doesn't like this version of the logo. They want more snap, more pop, something more lively. So, the artist puts a well placed circular gradient on that circle, turning it into a sphere with an above light source. And just to complete the effect, a drop shadow beneath to make the sphere appear to float.
Output the file now and take a look at the size: wow, it nearly doubled. Not to worry, it's still half the size of its bitmapped sister.
Client is still not satisfied. Went in the right direction, just need more. So now the 3D treatment gets applied to the type: complete with beveled edges, a light source producing highlights and accents, and a drop shadow placed beneath. The sphere also gets a texture/deformation, little bumps and divots making the surface look like a golf ball. Client loves it - output file, finish this project.
Ah oh! What happened to the file size? It's now larger than the bitmap version. (Actually, an experienced artist would not be surprised, having been in this situation many times before.) Minimizing the graphic footprint means that the logo now gets outputted to a bitmap format, saving 10-15k. Designer/developer can no longer stretch the logo to fit all layout needs, so 3-5 versions are needed at various sizes. Client is happy, artist is happy, designer/developer is happy the job is done, but longs for the "perfect" and "most efficient" implementation.
In a graphic, there's a complexity threshold (number of objects, lines, fills, transparency, arrangement) that will determine the least sized format: less complex = vector, more complex = bitmap. Of course, the threshold will not be the same for every graphic.
A good SVG toolkit with STANDARDISED browsers (yes, I'm talking to you, IE) will mean we can finally tag a div as width="80%", put an image in it as "100%", "100%" and forget about how the image renders based on resolution.
I believe all browsers support Flash, so this can be done today. Being able to forget about how the image renders based on resolution is not a function of a SVG toolkit being implementing as a browser standard, but rather the complexity of an image. And every image needs to be dealt with depending on its complexity.
With the release of Google maps, NASA's Worldwind, and MSN's Virtual Earth, I don't expect ESRI's products to continue their dominance in the GIS market. Everyday brings new extensions for Google maps allowing the importing of GI data. At the minimum, I predict they'll lower the price of their products.
I know a couple people who work there and they say that tensions are very high.
face it, people have been borrwing and sharing ideas since the begining of time.
And they have been protecting ideas from the beginning of time. Do you really think a spear builder from the age of wood didn't keep his new technique for forming sharper heads a closely guarded secret?
it might take 500 more years but eventually people , even the people who have no idea what copyright/patents are/do, will be sick and tired of it. hell, people are already beyond the boiling point.
A couple of strangely optimistic and pessimistic sentences.
it's just another disgusting aspect to our materialistic societies.
I suspect that until matter generators are free, humankind will continue to place a large value on the information of designing and creating things.
This is probably the most articulate, well thought, and well meaning response I've read on slashdot.
Like the GP, I grew up in a Western (U.S.) Protestant Christian home, attending church practically every Sunday for the first 17 years of my life. However, my father instilled in me, just enough drive for truth finding and God searching that, inevitably, my spiritual quest took me outside the church. Far outside church.
The breaking of that first path was difficult, and I was soured by hypocrisy and shortcomings of what was supposed to be the way, the truth, man's most successful attempt at living according to God's will.
Looking back at that milestone, the feelings I have are similar to those of another developmental event; going through public elementary school. A very necessary experience made occasionally difficult by a bully or bad teacher.
I consider both those experiences as necessary developmental stages. Elementary school teaches us the basics, reading, writing, and math. Most churches teach us the basics of one of the world's traditional wisdom paths. Both of these institutions are a means to an end, not an end to a means. It's not healthy clinging to only a basic set of tools, rejecting any knowledge higher than grade school. And it's not healthy clinging to only one of the wisdom traditions that have attempted to answer man's most asked questions: who am I, and what is the meaning of life.
I believe Protestant Christianity does contain truth. Its exclusivity claims and attempts at monopoly that seem to tar the experience for many of its non/ex-members.
Flash is capable of installing spyware(besides some people calling Flash itself spyware)?
No really, I've done a number of Flash projects that required extensive ActionScript. I am not familiar with Flash's ability to install software on a user's machine.
Exactly my experience. Usually once, maybe twice a day, FF locks up, sending me to the task manager (actually, i use process explorer) to kill it. I used to think it was bad js code trying to be executed. I now browse with js turned off, but still have the lock-ups.
Slashdot Mirror
Knowing God and knowing about God are two different things. The former is the result of salvation, achieved through faith in Jesus. The latter is a signpost, a breadcrumb, a marker on the path of salvation.
Scientific inquiry into the intelligence of God, as manifested in nature, is not an essential component of salvation. But salvation is an essential component of knowing God.
This might clear things up for ya.
Scientific proof of God's intelligence in nature is not proof that He sent Jesus to atone for our sins and that belief in Jesus is the only method of getting closer to Himself.
As to your post's title: You seem to have, at most, a very superficial understanding of Christianity. I seriously question your ability to look at a group of Christians and produce an accurate characterization based on how those Christians incorporate ID into their belief system. Really! Was that anything other than a cartoonish hypothetical wherein you brilliantly point out in a sentence or two some serious flaw with Christianity that only you've discovered?
Except the Religion against Religion.
Just remember, pyroxide detonators only last one week. Maximum.
To be fair, some Imam will be interviewed telling us that Islam is against violence.
Two more will tell us violence is bad, but that we must look at the bombers reasons for acting out.
Five more will tell us that an ardent follower has been ruinited with Allah, having served his master well.
Thank goodness for sites like Memri that help us keep tabs on what Imams are saying in Arabic. Seems that more than once, several of those teachers have been found to be saying one message in English (Islam hates violence) and another message in Arabic (Allah needs warriors to protect Islam).
I just looked at what this can do with converting AI files into the XAML format for use in Avalon. Pretty neat. But nothing that revolutionary.
Vector and raster based drawing programs have been offering exports into various web vector formats (SVG, SWF, VRML)for years now. Most 3D apps also offer exporting to these formats. Plasma was created just for this purpose.
Seems to me, outside of Flash, vector graphics aren't really part of the web landscape. So why, with all these options available for creating them, aren't we seeing more and more of these vector viewables?
I believe the answer does not center around applications and formats. It centers around artists/designers and the nature of digital art. I'll use the drawing of a logo to help explain: Picture a 1/2" diameter green circle with "Akion" placed to the right, slightly lower, in 18Pt Arial Black, color:slightly darker shade of green than circle.
Output this to any vector format, and you'll end up with a very small file that can be stretched nearly infinitely without suffering quality loss. A developer's dream logo. Just need one version of it, and it can be used practically anywhere (just resize proportionally).
But the client doesn't like this version of the logo. They want more snap, more pop, something more lively. So, the artist puts a well placed circular gradient on that circle, turning it into a sphere with an above light source. And just to complete the effect, a drop shadow beneath to make the sphere appear to float.
Output the file now and take a look at the size: wow, it nearly doubled. Not to worry, it's still half the size of its bitmapped sister.
Client is still not satisfied. Went in the right direction, just need more. So now the 3D treatment gets applied to the type: complete with beveled edges, a light source producing highlights and accents, and a drop shadow placed beneath. The sphere also gets a texture/deformation, little bumps and divots making the surface look like a golf ball. Client loves it - output file, finish this project.
Ah oh! What happened to the file size? It's now larger than the bitmap version. (Actually, an experienced artist would not be surprised, having been in this situation many times before.) Minimizing the graphic footprint means that the logo now gets outputted to a bitmap format, saving 10-15k. Designer/developer can no longer stretch the logo to fit all layout needs, so 3-5 versions are needed at various sizes. Client is happy, artist is happy, designer/developer is happy the job is done, but longs for the "perfect" and "most efficient" implementation.
In a graphic, there's a complexity threshold (number of objects, lines, fills, transparency, arrangement) that will determine the least sized format: less complex = vector, more complex = bitmap. Of course, the threshold will not be the same for every graphic.
I believe all browsers support Flash, so this can be done today. Being able to forget about how the image renders based on resolution is not a function of a SVG toolkit being implementing as a browser standard, but rather the complexity of an image. And every image needs to be dealt with depending on its complexity.
With the release of Google maps, NASA's Worldwind, and MSN's Virtual Earth, I don't expect ESRI's products to continue their dominance in the GIS market. Everyday brings new extensions for Google maps allowing the importing of GI data. At the minimum, I predict they'll lower the price of their products.
I know a couple people who work there and they say that tensions are very high.
Adobe Illustrator
I suggest that you learn to live with the fact that the universe doesn't have a concept of right and wrong
It would be great if you could make an argument against universal absolutes without declaring one yourself
face it, people have been borrwing and sharing ideas since the begining of time.
And they have been protecting ideas from the beginning of time. Do you really think a spear builder from the age of wood didn't keep his new technique for forming sharper heads a closely guarded secret?
it might take 500 more years but eventually people , even the people who have no idea what copyright/patents are/do, will be sick and tired of it. hell, people are already beyond the boiling point.
A couple of strangely optimistic and pessimistic sentences.
it's just another disgusting aspect to our materialistic societies.
I suspect that until matter generators are free, humankind will continue to place a large value on the information of designing and creating things.
I'm having deja-vu or you copy-pasted this from one of your previous posts. Good story, that's why I remembered.
I can relate.
Probably the cheapest and most effective step a company can take towards improving computer security, would be to ban post-its.
lol
Apparently that's MS's thought also.
No, you're a language bigot bigot. Intolerant of the intolerant.
I don't understand this line of thought.
I am not surprised. You apparently, also didn't understand the GP.
He was asking why can't this be solved with programming/engineering rather than a new calendar.
Grrr. Being allied with the USA sucks.
Ya, I'm sure it's better being an enemy of the USA.
What right of yours is being negatively impacted by the FBI upholding copyright law?
There are people who can help you. You're not the only one with this condition. I know. I also used to be a geek that had only geek friends.
...zealot
Beautiful.
This is probably the most articulate, well thought, and well meaning response I've read on slashdot.
Like the GP, I grew up in a Western (U.S.) Protestant Christian home, attending church practically every Sunday for the first 17 years of my life. However, my father instilled in me, just enough drive for truth finding and God searching that, inevitably, my spiritual quest took me outside the church. Far outside church.
The breaking of that first path was difficult, and I was soured by hypocrisy and shortcomings of what was supposed to be the way, the truth, man's most successful attempt at living according to God's will.
Looking back at that milestone, the feelings I have are similar to those of another developmental event; going through public elementary school. A very necessary experience made occasionally difficult by a bully or bad teacher.
I consider both those experiences as necessary developmental stages. Elementary school teaches us the basics, reading, writing, and math. Most churches teach us the basics of one of the world's traditional wisdom paths. Both of these institutions are a means to an end, not an end to a means. It's not healthy clinging to only a basic set of tools, rejecting any knowledge higher than grade school. And it's not healthy clinging to only one of the wisdom traditions that have attempted to answer man's most asked questions: who am I, and what is the meaning of life.
I believe Protestant Christianity does contain truth. Its exclusivity claims and attempts at monopoly that seem to tar the experience for many of its non/ex-members.
Tolerance at its brightest? Or a second-tier, good-enough, implementation perhaps.
Flash is capable of installing spyware(besides some people calling Flash itself spyware)?
No really, I've done a number of Flash projects that required extensive ActionScript. I am not familiar with Flash's ability to install software on a user's machine.
How exactly is Flash a security threat?
Using force against anyone is insane
A true passifist nutjob.
You mentioned 'email', 'login', 'mail', and 'browser window' in two sentences with instructions.
You just lost 1/2 your users. They won't get it.
So wouldn't the REAL problem be email identity forgery?
Exactly my experience. Usually once, maybe twice a day, FF locks up, sending me to the task manager (actually, i use process explorer) to kill it. I used to think it was bad js code trying to be executed. I now browse with js turned off, but still have the lock-ups.
Ya...because real nerds are into land management.
...
ok