It's kind of odd to name your religion after an entity you don't believe in, no?
The main reason seems to reference to the story of the Garden of Eden. In that story you might notice that Yahweh lies about the tree of knowledge (he says it will kill you) and the Serpent doesn't. For some untold reason, Yahweh doesn't want Man to know as he does. For the Satanist, Satan is representative of self empowerment, whereas Yahweh is a symbol of the repression of the individual. A good analogy would be that if Christianity is Socialism, then Satanism is Anarcho-Capitalism.
Then again, I imagine "kind of odd" is a good description of most Satanists;^)
A lot of it is parody. If you can get your hand on some footage of LaVey doing rituals then do so. They would dress up in actual Haloween costumes and LaVey would play a circus organ. I found it to be hilarious. Even more hilarious is the reaction they would get from Christians. I suspect half of Satanism is one big inside joke. But there are many Satanists that take their rituals and spells seriously. I highly suspect they are just dumb and didn't get the joke. But perhaps I am the one reading to much into things.
If God, the keeper of the gates to heaven doesn't define what's good and bad then who the hell does.
Who defines 1!=0? There is no entity that can choose 1=0 through an act of it's own will. To a believer of a universal morality, your question is nonsensical.
I'm sure you've heard the phrase what would Jesus do? banded about many times. Thats religion, it's what defines religion.
I think it's pretty obvious that the OP assumed some sort of Moral Universalism/Realism. Your argument was made from a premise of Moral Authoritativism (your god defines right and wrong) and therefore it is not valid in the framework that the OP set forth. In Moral Universalism, god can no more make it right to eat babies than he can make 1=0. So you would be a bad person because you are doing things that are Universally bad.
You should look up Socrates discussion of ethics. God defining Good by his Will is actually quite illogical.
lesser prophet isn't really the best description. Not the last prophet is more apt. (Just look at the division between the Sunni and Shiite. It is a division about which way the lineage goes.) Jesus was given an incredible status in the Koran as he was still born of a virgin. He was a perfect creation of Yahweh like Adam. But yes, Moslems do not an cannot believe Jesus nor any man could be a god. Man-gods are antithetic to Jewish and Islamic theology.
It's really sad that this game would advocate the killing of non-Christians because of their lack of faith. That is in direct conflict with the teachings of Jesus. Rather, it is just like the teachings of Muhammad.
Actually from the Koran, Moslems are supposed to treat Christians, Jews, and other religions of The Book with the utmost respect. Nonbelievers and other religions like Hinduism not though, but they aren't to kill them. Deconverts from Islam are to be put to death. That's the closest thing I can think of.
That's not true. I beat the game without it. I also know a guy who beat the game with a Monk (didn't use the sword as well). What object are you talking about? Those pillars in the King of Shadows room? I hacked those apart without the sword. Now the true name scrolls OTOH, you can't beat the game without reading them AFAIK.
And I agree, the ending did suck royally, just like when Obsidian made KOTOR2. They set up for a sequel and barely coded an ending together.
It's not a long sword but a universal sword that anyone can equip. And you don't have to use it to beat the game. You can throw it in your inventory and forget about it.
There are certainly elements in the above review that are valid. A high-end system is required to get good framerates with all the graphics turned on at high resolutions. It's a very modern graphics engine that's designed to last for years to come.
I know the game has all this fancy lighting and shadows that I can't turn up else my FPS drops to 5, but as far as appearance, I think the game really only looks good zoomed out. I run at 1600x1200 and the textures are noticeably lower res during the close up cinematics. My future computer will make the shadows and lighting look better and the framerate smoother, but I don't think the game will really look better than now, which is so-so.
Doom/Quake? Yes; they had to run under DOS because Windows lacked an expedient way to do graphics programming (now called "DirectX").
Yes, Doom 3 uses OpenGL because it is a DOS game. If only ID made a Windows release using the awesome power of D3D.
PS2/PS3? GameCube/Wii? Outside the scope of PC graphics APIs. But, most game programmers already know DirectX because it's been an industry standard since a bit after 1994. I'm guessing they would be appreciative if programming for game consoles didn't require learning a new API every couple years and just used the DirectX versions.
Yes, OpenGL is a PC graphics API. It was not born on another architecture and it was never ported to any consoles. It is definitely not something a person would ever use developing for a console other than the XBox.
But, closed-source APIs for a very specific hardware setup (i.e., ONE game console) given only to people who pay $dough for toolkits isn't exactly a "Linux Alternative." DirectX, on the other hand, supports most any arbitrary hardware setup - and currently powers PC, Xbox, and Xbox360 games, and Microsoft's XNA IDE makes developing accessible.
Yes, because the OpenGL spec would never allow for extensions for specific video cards.
Linux has an "alternative" to DirectX? DirectX generally kicks the pants off of OpenGL performance-wise, and graphics accelerators aren't built with anything else in mind.
Yes, because the PS2/PS3, GameCube/Wii, Doom/Quake are all very slow and would have been better with DirectX.
I can only speak for the Comcast cable service I have in my area.
The HDMI/DVI out of the cable box is HDCP enabled, so unless your monitor supports HDCP, then no for regular viewing.
However the cable box also has firewire out with HDCP disabled for regular viewing. You get no menu with this and you can't view PPV or onDemand media.
HDCP is a big ass raping. Instead of being able to use a $200 KVM switch to switch between various DVI sources, you have to get a $500+ piece of specialized junk to do it. HDCP doesn't prevent you from copying shit, it merely forces you to buy expensive electronics to do it.
It's the rejection of scientific truths like evolution, Hubble age universe, global warming,... that are found in a religion.
Now there are crazy environmentalists. They reject GMO crops, nuclear power, eating meat, anything not organic,... It's as bad as religion, it has the dogmatic thinking, the irrationality,... but it's not religion. Why not? These are not scientific truths, they are lifestyle choices.
Most importantly, do you have some evidence that Al gore is in the second group? Biotech did well under Clinton/Gore. Organic did not.
The Democrats are going to have to suggest some ideas for this "another way" you mention. It's not enough to simply say "your way sucks". You need to offer better ideas, or the Dems will get thrown out as soon as people sick of their mind control potion.
First of all, why are you bringing up the Democrats at all? What does that have to do with the discussion? I'm a registered independent. I didn't vote for your party on a national level (I did vote for some state office positions) because it has proven it's incompetence. I don't care so much about the rhetoric of plans as much as I care about the ability to carry them out. As far as I can tell, if the Democrats do absolutely nothing, that will be better than what the Republicans have been doing. This is how low the Republicans have set the bar.
And secondly, as someone that actually pays attention to politics and not the rhetorical garbage that one individual party spews out, various Democrats have given plans. If you have only heard one Democratic alternative then you simply haven't been paying attention. Either that our you only follow rightwing news sources. It is only the bullshit Republican talking point that the Democrats don't have a plan. (This is another reason I find it increasingly difficult to vote Republican, they synchronize their lies) What they lack is one coherent plan. And I can tell you exactly why this is the case. Because America lacks a coherent attitude and the Democrats are too scared to take the lead. But it's complete bullshit to attack the Democrats about their lack of coherent plan. The Republican's have no coherent plan. They are just as all over the map as the Democrats. Bush wants to stay the course without using the phrase "stay the course" and hand the mess off to the next administration. McCain wants to increase troupe level dramatically like we should have from the beginning, but will that even work now? Many other Republicans want to retreat without using the word "retreat". They are all praying for the Baker study to come through for them and give them a position to stand on.
Almost all of them are fucking cowards except representatives like Murtha and McCain that will actually take a stand on the issue. The rest of them are cowardly waiting for the populace to homogenize while our soldiers are dying.
Slashdot Mirror
KOTOR1&2 did it better than NWN2, IMO.
And if the bottle neck is data decompression and not disc reads, then the loading times will actually be faster.
LISP
Seriously, if an AI programmer can't write AI on a vector computer, then they are just a regular programmer posing as an AI programmer.
Not that I am saying all AI algorithms are easily vectorizable.
Vector computers are good for physics. That's what they were invented for.
AI can run well on vector computers. Ever heard of ELIZA on LISP. LISP runs well on vector computers.
The thing is though, you have to write your code in vector form.
Canadians have more guns per capita than Americans. You think they need better access or something?
The main reason seems to reference to the story of the Garden of Eden. In that story you might notice that Yahweh lies about the tree of knowledge (he says it will kill you) and the Serpent doesn't. For some untold reason, Yahweh doesn't want Man to know as he does. For the Satanist, Satan is representative of self empowerment, whereas Yahweh is a symbol of the repression of the individual. A good analogy would be that if Christianity is Socialism, then Satanism is Anarcho-Capitalism.
A lot of it is parody. If you can get your hand on some footage of LaVey doing rituals then do so. They would dress up in actual Haloween costumes and LaVey would play a circus organ. I found it to be hilarious. Even more hilarious is the reaction they would get from Christians. I suspect half of Satanism is one big inside joke. But there are many Satanists that take their rituals and spells seriously. I highly suspect they are just dumb and didn't get the joke. But perhaps I am the one reading to much into things.
Here's something interesting to watch. Their remarks seem to confirm my suspicions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcE9JZZgmc8
Who defines 1!=0? There is no entity that can choose 1=0 through an act of it's own will. To a believer of a universal morality, your question is nonsensical.
Again, please look up Socrates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma
LaVeyan Satanists (the majority type) don't believe any of the Christian mythology including Satan. Nice try though.
I think it's pretty obvious that the OP assumed some sort of Moral Universalism/Realism. Your argument was made from a premise of Moral Authoritativism (your god defines right and wrong) and therefore it is not valid in the framework that the OP set forth. In Moral Universalism, god can no more make it right to eat babies than he can make 1=0. So you would be a bad person because you are doing things that are Universally bad.
You should look up Socrates discussion of ethics. God defining Good by his Will is actually quite illogical.
lesser prophet isn't really the best description. Not the last prophet is more apt. (Just look at the division between the Sunni and Shiite. It is a division about which way the lineage goes.) Jesus was given an incredible status in the Koran as he was still born of a virgin. He was a perfect creation of Yahweh like Adam. But yes, Moslems do not an cannot believe Jesus nor any man could be a god. Man-gods are antithetic to Jewish and Islamic theology.
Actually from the Koran, Moslems are supposed to treat Christians, Jews, and other religions of The Book with the utmost respect. Nonbelievers and other religions like Hinduism not though, but they aren't to kill them. Deconverts from Islam are to be put to death. That's the closest thing I can think of.
That's not true. I beat the game without it. I also know a guy who beat the game with a Monk (didn't use the sword as well).
What object are you talking about? Those pillars in the King of Shadows room? I hacked those apart without the sword.
Now the true name scrolls OTOH, you can't beat the game without reading them AFAIK.
And I agree, the ending did suck royally, just like when Obsidian made KOTOR2. They set up for a sequel and barely coded an ending together.
It's not a long sword but a universal sword that anyone can equip. And you don't have to use it to beat the game. You can throw it in your inventory and forget about it.
I know the game has all this fancy lighting and shadows that I can't turn up else my FPS drops to 5, but as far as appearance, I think the game really only looks good zoomed out. I run at 1600x1200 and the textures are noticeably lower res during the close up cinematics. My future computer will make the shadows and lighting look better and the framerate smoother, but I don't think the game will really look better than now, which is so-so.
Yes, Doom 3 uses OpenGL because it is a DOS game. If only ID made a Windows release using the awesome power of D3D.
Yes, OpenGL is a PC graphics API. It was not born on another architecture and it was never ported to any consoles. It is definitely not something a person would ever use developing for a console other than the XBox.
Yes, because the OpenGL spec would never allow for extensions for specific video cards.
Yes, because the PS2/PS3, GameCube/Wii, Doom/Quake are all very slow and would have been better with DirectX.
I can only speak for the Comcast cable service I have in my area.
The HDMI/DVI out of the cable box is HDCP enabled, so unless your monitor supports HDCP, then no for regular viewing.
However the cable box also has firewire out with HDCP disabled for regular viewing. You get no menu with this and you can't view PPV or onDemand media.
HDCP is a big ass raping. Instead of being able to use a $200 KVM switch to switch between various DVI sources, you have to get a $500+ piece of specialized junk to do it. HDCP doesn't prevent you from copying shit, it merely forces you to buy expensive electronics to do it.
Given that NPD does track Wal-mart now, the results are pre-skewed by this effect if at all.
I am pretty sure that isn't true anymore.
Ah the Bouncer was NOT a launch title. Not even close. It came out about 9 months after launch.
I bought that piece of shit. After that I stopped reading video game magazines.
But yeah, most of those games were not launch titles. The only good US launch titles I remember were Tekken and Midnight Club.
People have natural biases to accept what they already agree with and be more critical of and/or ignore that which they do not.
If that is all the news is truly for then it is as useless as a White House press conference.
Because you referenced two completely transparent, Orwellian-named bullshit sites. Do you even know who funds them and what credentials they have?
And most US journalists are left leaning (relative to the US mean) because they are educated and live in urban areas. It's a demographic coincidence.
It's funny how the most biased people in the world scream about the bias they perceive.
They were in charge of the Louisiana National Guard.
And they sent them to Iraq.
They were in charge of Homeland Security and FEMA.
The were responsible for FEMA being run by a horse show judge.
Not that Louisiana politicians have a clue.
No, you see, you have it backwards.
... that are found in a religion.
... It's as bad as religion, it has the dogmatic thinking, the irrationality, ... but it's not religion. Why not? These are not scientific truths, they are lifestyle choices.
It's the rejection of scientific truths like evolution, Hubble age universe, global warming,
Now there are crazy environmentalists. They reject GMO crops, nuclear power, eating meat, anything not organic,
Most importantly, do you have some evidence that Al gore is in the second group? Biotech did well under Clinton/Gore. Organic did not.
First of all, why are you bringing up the Democrats at all? What does that have to do with the discussion?
I'm a registered independent. I didn't vote for your party on a national level (I did vote for some state office positions) because it has proven it's incompetence. I don't care so much about the rhetoric of plans as much as I care about the ability to carry them out. As far as I can tell, if the Democrats do absolutely nothing, that will be better than what the Republicans have been doing. This is how low the Republicans have set the bar.
And secondly, as someone that actually pays attention to politics and not the rhetorical garbage that one individual party spews out, various Democrats have given plans. If you have only heard one Democratic alternative then you simply haven't been paying attention. Either that our you only follow rightwing news sources. It is only the bullshit Republican talking point that the Democrats don't have a plan. (This is another reason I find it increasingly difficult to vote Republican, they synchronize their lies) What they lack is one coherent plan. And I can tell you exactly why this is the case. Because America lacks a coherent attitude and the Democrats are too scared to take the lead. But it's complete bullshit to attack the Democrats about their lack of coherent plan. The Republican's have no coherent plan. They are just as all over the map as the Democrats. Bush wants to stay the course without using the phrase "stay the course" and hand the mess off to the next administration. McCain wants to increase troupe level dramatically like we should have from the beginning, but will that even work now? Many other Republicans want to retreat without using the word "retreat". They are all praying for the Baker study to come through for them and give them a position to stand on.
Almost all of them are fucking cowards except representatives like Murtha and McCain that will actually take a stand on the issue. The rest of them are cowardly waiting for the populace to homogenize while our soldiers are dying.