You said: "The central theme of all religions is "this is how it is, these are all the answers, there is no reason for you ever to seek anything on your own, and anyone that says differently is Evil."
Um, no, it is "This is how it is, these are all the answers, feel free to seek out your own way as you will see the folly of it and return to me" (e.g. the parable of the prodigal son).
Then you said: "The way religion "sustains hope" is by convincing people that some "higher power" will come along and help them, implicitly reinforcing the notion that they are incapable of helping themselves. In reality, this is the opposite of hope. This is despair! Real hope is the notion that you can improve your own situation. Real faith is faith in yourself."
Actually the way religion "sustains hope" is by explaining how the world works in relation to God's laws (since he is the one who created it he should know how it "works" right?) and how by following God's instructions you can improve your own life. God is there to help you in some instances, but it is really up to you to make the decision and the effort once you have all of the "facts".
"It seems very strange that such a god would allow his message to be so distored. If he has the power to communicate with us, he could tell us directly in our own languages. The fact that he does not proves that he either does not want us fully understand his message, or he does not exist."
He has allowed translations of his text into pretty much every known tongue, the message is there for those who would seek it out, if there is a "mistake" in the translation God will provide the direction to those who would seek it out (e.g. the original greek or hebrew).
If he came out of the clouds and started talking to everyone who would still sin? Who would NOT believe? Would there exist any need for faith? Of course not, he wants to know how you would act if there was a true choice, by allowing his existance to remain a mystery he gives us this opportunity.
"Every other god or goddess worshiped by every other civilization throughout the history of mankind is a silly fantasy. Your god said so himself. (Except for that god of the egyptians who could turn wood into snakes, of course. He was just a wimpy god.)"
My God didn't say that, he said he is the one True God, and the other powers that be are not Gods but purport themselves to be. He went on to prove this by Turning Moses' Wood staff into a snake also and then that snake eating the Eqyptian sorcerer's snakes.
Every "miracle" that the eqyptian sorcerers could produce was then outshone by God's "miracles".
In every instance where God was pitted against the God's of other religions (notice this is the correct spelling) he completey decimated the competition and created followers out of those who would worship "false" Gods. (like the story of God vs the followers of baal)
"the monitor's refresh rate is essentially the limit on your FPS. It doesn't matter if you turn vsync off, though doing so will let the video card spew more frames to the monitor than it can handles (leading to tearing and a higher FPS measurement than you can see)."
So you're saying your monitors refresh rate is the limit of your FPS but if you turn off vsync you will get more FPS. Yah that was what I was saying.
I don't care about tearing, I care about 100+FPS, I can see flickering and stutter with 75FPS or less so tying framerate to my refresh sucks. That's why i'm kinda pissed about the FPS lock in Doom3, it's set to 60 FPS so it always looks like I am watching a flip book, now with a quad SLI setup I could get enough FPS to not see this, but alas it is locked... From what I read they really can't disable the lock because if they did the game would run faster with more FPS... seems kinda silly to hard code the game like this.. maybe for the console version it makes sense but for PC hardware? Bah!
"In the Real World, justice requires lots of money.
The measure of how just a society is rests on whether that money must be spent by the Defendant "
And OJ got the best Justice money can buy. I think you mean being proved innocent requires lot's of money, which is not the same as Justice in some cases...
"I am just going to buy the package of all episodes when the time comes."
That's a good point but at 12.99 x 3 is still less than 40 which is pretty standard for expansion packs when they are first released.
Eventually their licensing deal with Vivendi will expire and they will be able to only offer it via steam, that's when i'll be stuck making an expensive decision:(
buy it in the box and save your self 7 bucks, I am willing to actually buy this at 12.99, this was seen at Fry's electronics (if you have one near you).
only a bill, and it's going there to Capitol Hill, it's a long, long journey to the Capitol City, it's a long, long wait while it's sitting in committee, but I think it'll be a law someday, at least I hope and pray that it (won't), but today it's still just a bill.
Is the next step, allowing a child to play one of these games will then be considered "contributing to the deliquency of a minor".
Also, IF these laws ARE upheld, what would be the legal status of giving away games to minors, or allowing them to come to a LAN party?
As I have kids who play these games (which i allow as a parent knowing full well to what they will be exposed) and host LAN parties every month or so with underage attendees, am I now criminally liable for what some people might consider not appropriate for minors?
"Why you expect the educational system to properly educate children when all the money is stripped away from education and given to deadbeats and welfare recipients is beyond me"
Why do you refer to our military as "deadbeats"?
Welfare has been cut back quite a bit thank you, beginning with Clinton and the reforms he started (intimately familar with these cuts and reforms and agree they helped change welfare from a free ride to a way back onto your feet).
Please don't be greedy, i'd buy the "episode" for 10 bucks, maybe for 15, I won't buy it for 20.
I can go buy a full game for 20 bucks (just got startship troopers which is turning out to be decent but fun) and often wait until they are that price until I do buy a game.
20 x 5 episodes = 100 bucks for the "full" game?!?! um no, i'd rather buy 5 different games, or 2 gotta have games as soon as they are released and enjoy years of mod enjoyment...
"Sure there is...to keep you from installing that one copy you purchased on 1,000,000,000 computers."
You can install your steam account (which loads all of the games you have unlocked) on 1,000,000,000 computers, this is allowed through steam, you can then make all of those computers in offline mode and play with them on a lan, I do this all the time at home (well with 3 systems not 1,000,000,000).
You CAN'T play ONLINE with all of those installations at the same time.
That's the difference.
There are some difficulties getting it to work, but yah it can be done on a lan.
"So you're saying everyone who pirates movies and music has no intention of buying it anyway, they're just law breakers?"
No, i'm saying there is no lost sale, so that point of the parent's argument is moot.
If you mean to say that anyone who has ever downloaded a movie is completely unlawful, should be locked away and all of their equipment confiscated, I think you need to relax a bit, this isn't murder, this is watching a movie...
like back when there were drive ins and the young people who couldn't afford to drive in would sit outside the fence and tune in their radios or read lips.
Good thing IP laws didn't exist back in Da Vinci's day or you would have to pay 5 bucks to the Da Vinci estate everytime you saw an image of the Mona Lisa or flew in a helicopter.
Yah I did, all 3 chapters for 20 or 30 bucks (I think 30) couldn't pass up on the price and i'm glad I didn't, great game.
I'll check out the rebuild, hopefully it will let me install as I tried to to install the 1.67 patch when i first loaded the game (downloading the patch not through in game option) and it wouldn't let me, then i noticed it came as 1.67 out of the box.
"These weapon characteristics have been kept faithful to the original game."
I always found ammo for the pistol, machine gun and shotgun to be in plentiful supply in the original SiN game... seeing as how killing any character made them drop ammo.
I agree with what you have said and also thinking about it seems to be a very difficult question to answer (true freedom to practice your religuos tenets or restrict that freedom to possibly protect the populace).
I would have to say that the answer depends on how you interpret the constitution and what it's intentions were, which makes me glad I am not in a position of power to decide because it is one decision that will restrict one party (as in persions, not political)either way it is decided.
Slashdot Mirror
You said:
"The central theme of all religions is "this is how it is, these are all the answers, there is no reason for you ever to seek anything on your own, and anyone that says differently is Evil."
Um, no, it is "This is how it is, these are all the answers, feel free to seek out your own way as you will see the folly of it and return to me" (e.g. the parable of the prodigal son).
Then you said:
"The way religion "sustains hope" is by convincing people that some "higher power" will come along and help them, implicitly reinforcing the notion that they are incapable of helping themselves. In reality, this is the opposite of hope. This is despair! Real hope is the notion that you can improve your own situation. Real faith is faith in yourself."
Actually the way religion "sustains hope" is by explaining how the world works in relation to God's laws (since he is the one who created it he should know how it "works" right?) and how by following God's instructions you can improve your own life. God is there to help you in some instances, but it is really up to you to make the decision and the effort once you have all of the "facts".
"It seems very strange that such a god would allow his message to be so distored. If he has the power to communicate with us, he could tell us directly in our own languages. The fact that he does not proves that he either does not want us fully understand his message, or he does not exist."
He has allowed translations of his text into pretty much every known tongue, the message is there for those who would seek it out, if there is a "mistake" in the translation God will provide the direction to those who would seek it out (e.g. the original greek or hebrew).
If he came out of the clouds and started talking to everyone who would still sin? Who would NOT believe? Would there exist any need for faith? Of course not, he wants to know how you would act if there was a true choice, by allowing his existance to remain a mystery he gives us this opportunity.
"Every other god or goddess worshiped by every other civilization throughout the history of mankind is a silly fantasy. Your god said so himself. (Except for that god of the egyptians who could turn wood into snakes, of course. He was just a wimpy god.)"
My God didn't say that, he said he is the one True God, and the other powers that be are not Gods but purport themselves to be. He went on to prove this by Turning Moses' Wood staff into a snake also and then that snake eating the Eqyptian sorcerer's snakes.
Every "miracle" that the eqyptian sorcerers could produce was then outshone by God's "miracles".
In every instance where God was pitted against the God's of other religions (notice this is the correct spelling) he completey decimated the competition and created followers out of those who would worship "false" Gods. (like the story of God vs the followers of baal)
"the monitor's refresh rate is essentially the limit on your FPS. It doesn't matter if you turn vsync off, though doing so will let the video card spew more frames to the monitor than it can handles (leading to tearing and a higher FPS measurement than you can see)."
So you're saying your monitors refresh rate is the limit of your FPS but if you turn off vsync you will get more FPS. Yah that was what I was saying.
I don't care about tearing, I care about 100+FPS, I can see flickering and stutter with 75FPS or less so tying framerate to my refresh sucks. That's why i'm kinda pissed about the FPS lock in Doom3, it's set to 60 FPS so it always looks like I am watching a flip book, now with a quad SLI setup I could get enough FPS to not see this, but alas it is locked... From what I read they really can't disable the lock because if they did the game would run faster with more FPS... seems kinda silly to hard code the game like this.. maybe for the console version it makes sense but for PC hardware? Bah!
"a make-believe thing people in power use against the masses to keep them scared"
Weird because God says don't worry about the people in power, obey his commandments and instruction above all else.
"Since when is tobacco smoking illegal?"
"It would be wise to remember that what once seemed radical can soon become typical."
"How many people have YOU heard of being sued for $150,000 for trading music?"
i aa+sues++songs&btnG=Search
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004679.php
From TFL
"For example, the RIAA is seeking $150000 in damages for each song recorded "
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=google+r
Here I did the work for you now you can stop your hyperbolic defense of your statement that nothing has changed....
"In the Real World, justice requires lots of money.
The measure of how just a society is rests on whether that money must be spent by the Defendant "
And OJ got the best Justice money can buy. I think you mean being proved innocent requires lot's of money, which is not the same as Justice in some cases...
"I am just going to buy the package of all episodes when the time comes."
:(
That's a good point but at 12.99 x 3 is still less than 40 which is pretty standard for expansion packs when they are first released.
Eventually their licensing deal with Vivendi will expire and they will be able to only offer it via steam, that's when i'll be stuck making an expensive decision
"Or a video card that will output at a 400hz refresh rate."
Which would only matter if FPS are tied to refresh rate, which it doesn't need to be, just turn Vsync off.
buy it in the box and save your self 7 bucks, I am willing to actually buy this at 12.99, this was seen at Fry's electronics (if you have one near you).
"If you have your XP system doing a cold boot in 20 seconds, congradulations."
:)
I do
"I've ever seen codified in law."
I think it is still just a bill,
only a bill, and it's going there to Capitol Hill, it's a long, long journey to the Capitol City, it's a long, long wait while it's sitting in committee, but I think it'll be a law someday, at least I hope and pray that it (won't), but today it's still just a bill.
Is the next step, allowing a child to play one of these games will then be considered "contributing to the deliquency of a minor".
Also, IF these laws ARE upheld, what would be the legal status of giving away games to minors, or allowing them to come to a LAN party?
As I have kids who play these games (which i allow as a parent knowing full well to what they will be exposed) and host LAN parties every month or so with underage attendees, am I now criminally liable for what some people might consider not appropriate for minors?
Can this law be any more subjective?
"Why you expect the educational system to properly educate children when all the money is stripped away from education and given to deadbeats and welfare recipients is beyond me"
Why do you refer to our military as "deadbeats"?
Welfare has been cut back quite a bit thank you, beginning with Clinton and the reforms he started (intimately familar with these cuts and reforms and agree they helped change welfare from a free ride to a way back onto your feet).
Please don't be greedy, i'd buy the "episode" for 10 bucks, maybe for 15, I won't buy it for 20.
I can go buy a full game for 20 bucks (just got startship troopers which is turning out to be decent but fun) and often wait until they are that price until I do buy a game.
20 x 5 episodes = 100 bucks for the "full" game?!?! um no, i'd rather buy 5 different games, or 2 gotta have games as soon as they are released and enjoy years of mod enjoyment...
"Sure there is...to keep you from installing that one copy you purchased on 1,000,000,000 computers."
You can install your steam account (which loads all of the games you have unlocked) on 1,000,000,000 computers, this is allowed through steam, you can then make all of those computers in offline mode and play with them on a lan, I do this all the time at home (well with 3 systems not 1,000,000,000).
You CAN'T play ONLINE with all of those installations at the same time.
That's the difference.
There are some difficulties getting it to work, but yah it can be done on a lan.
"So you're saying everyone who pirates movies and music has no intention of buying it anyway, they're just law breakers?"
No, i'm saying there is no lost sale, so that point of the parent's argument is moot.
If you mean to say that anyone who has ever downloaded a movie is completely unlawful, should be locked away and all of their equipment confiscated, I think you need to relax a bit, this isn't murder, this is watching a movie...
like back when there were drive ins and the young people who couldn't afford to drive in would sit outside the fence and tune in their radios or read lips.
Good thing IP laws didn't exist back in Da Vinci's day or you would have to pay 5 bucks to the Da Vinci estate everytime you saw an image of the Mona Lisa or flew in a helicopter.
"I think you got the Diamond Edition."
Yah I did, all 3 chapters for 20 or 30 bucks (I think 30) couldn't pass up on the price and i'm glad I didn't, great game.
I'll check out the rebuild, hopefully it will let me install as I tried to to install the 1.67 patch when i first loaded the game (downloading the patch not through in game option) and it wouldn't let me, then i noticed it came as 1.67 out of the box.
Thanks!
"These weapon characteristics have been kept faithful to the original game."
I always found ammo for the pistol, machine gun and shotgun to be in plentiful supply in the original SiN game... seeing as how killing any character made them drop ammo.
"If I shop lifted a DVD, why do I need to buy it from the retailer?"
If you shop lifted the DVD then you wouldn't have boughten it fromt he retailer in the first place, so there is no lost sale here...
I have 1.67 and it does ask for a CD, FYI (I actually got the game as part of a bundle with a vid card and the installer WAS 1.67, asked for CD).
It's funny that all of the below posters neither read the article (which truely drives home the point of Irony) nor understand Irony.
:P
note I didn't say it was Ironic
John Titor, is that you again?
I agree with what you have said and also thinking about it seems to be a very difficult question to answer (true freedom to practice your religuos tenets or restrict that freedom to possibly protect the populace).
I would have to say that the answer depends on how you interpret the constitution and what it's intentions were, which makes me glad I am not in a position of power to decide because it is one decision that will restrict one party (as in persions, not political)either way it is decided.