RicOlie_2

259

Come on Frink, you only have four days left!

I come from a family of nine (two sisters, four brothers, two parents, and me). I have not started my own family, so I don't have any kids of my own, but how about the rest of us?

My reasons for not believing the following religions:

Protestantism: I don't believe in Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) because that makes little sense seeing as (a) it doesn't say that that ought to be the case anywhere in the Bible, in fact in 2 Thessalonians 2:15 it says that tradition is to be valued as well; (b) the books of the New Testament were not all completed until at least the end of the first century, were not compiled until the fourth century, and were not made readily available until the fifteenth century when the printing press was invented; and (c) I think the Church should be unified as suggested in the New Testament, which would be impossible with private interpretation (there are 41,000 Christian denominations!). I don't believe in Sola Fides (Faith Alone...I'm not sure if I got the Latin right) because again, that cannot result in unity which I believe is important. I have other reasons as well, but I don't have time to go into depth right now.

Mormonism: The lack of archaeological evidence of the events found in the Book of Mormon is suspicious, but otherwise, I have a lot of respect for Mormons and their religion and those I have met (including d_e ;) ) have given me a good impression of them overall. The polygamous Mormon sects are a different case though.

Judaism: This one is fairly obvious. I obviously believe the Messiah has already come and believe he dispensed with the fine details of the Mosaic Law and gave the next step up.

Islam: Despite what many insist, Islam is certainly not a religion of peace and this is apparent from the Qur'an. I believe in peace (though I think war is necessary sometimes), thus I cannot maintain the ideals of this religion.

Hinduism: I'm not going to even bother explaining. The same goes for the ancient Greek, Babylonian, Roman, Egyptian, etc. gods and mythology.

Atheism: The relative subjectivity of atheist's morals doesn't attract me very much. I believe that right and wrong are fixed and do not evolve over time. Atheists believe so many different things and my reasons may not apply to all of them, but I am also opposed to moral subjectivity because of all the potential problems that can spring from it; the certainty of the nonexistence of any god seems no more reasonable than the belief in such a god and atheism doesn't explain so many things (science may one day, but I doubt it); atheists (this is not necessarily a problem with atheism itself) frequently try to impose their "superior intellect" on us primitive religious, a trait I find greatly detracts from their cause, as I think humility is a great virtue that would solve so many problems if more people possessed it; and I cannot agree with the ideals and ideas held by many atheists since they conflict with many ideals and ideas that are positive and beneficial in my personal experience and examples throughout history.

Agnosticism: Not much to say about this one. Similar to atheism, but not as bad.

N-1g

P-1f

K-3i

darth_ender said:

twister111 said:

*wonders if anyone would be interested in an "Ask the Jewish person" thread*

 Forgot to respond to this.  If you are a practicing Jew, I know I would love to read (or watch gif posts) of such a thread ;)

 If you know your stuff fairly well and practice your religion, I know I've got some questions for you and would love to see such a thread.

Well said, darth_ender.

K-4h

S-2h

You had to work today? That's a bummer... :(

R-2f

Why isn't this in Off Topic?

Am I a memeber? What's a memeber anyway?

Well, merry Christmas to you too.

I think my biggest weakness is that I don't make enough allowances for paratrooping which allows you to drop your pieces all over the place.

I think his point is more that if a Muslim did the same thing, he would be able to get away with it without being mocked. I think he's pointing out that Christians can be mocked a lot more than Muslims can before there are consequences for the mocker.

P-2e

Well, I think one of the moves that was key to my downfall was when I moved my Gold General to 5b (turn 24) because that allowed you to go straight to the end of the board.

I also made a mistake when I belatedly began moving my King towards the corner and made room for him to go through beginning on turn 26 (I had only just found out about that strategy and probably would have made different moves in the early game had I been aware of what you were trying to do). While I was doing this I largely ignored your Silver General coming up towards me, so I was ill prepared when you got there.

Then of course I stupidly moved my Bishop to kill the promoted SG (I think that was my best option at the time, so it was really a series of stupid movies that culminated in the taking of my Bishop). I think that was a pivotal point of the game, as it gave you the upper hand for almost the rest of the game.

I then made a distraction with my pawn, which bought me some time, and I think that was a smart move, but you countered it well enough that it did very little to help me in the end.

Then I made a series of fairly good moves, but you paratrooped in your Bishop on turn 51 which gave you a huge advantage later and forced me to become defensive for the rest of the game.

On turn 55 when you moved your promoted Bishop to a square adjacent to both my Rook and your promoted Rook, you gained a further advantage since you had another valuable piece to drop behind my ranks.

From there it went downhill and I had very little in terms of strategy, as I was just fighting for my life at that point. I knew it was over as soon as you had two promoted rooks at the end of the board and it didn't last long after that of course.

Any thoughts on how I could have turned the game in my favour at one of these points in the game?

EDIT: I suppose that was more a description of the game than an analysis...

Alright, I'll go first (I assume it doesn't really matter).

P-2f

I'll go again if no one else wants to.

K-9b

I agree with Frink that relatively speaking it's a non-issue, but I also agree with Warbler that it is still wrong, and generally speaking it is more acceptable for someone to make fun of Christians than, say, Muslims.

B-6d

N-9c

TV's Frink said:

RicOlie_2 said:

Also, in countries in which Islam is the dominant religion, Christians and others tend to be killed for their beliefs all the time.

 I agree.  But keep in mind, for the most part I've been careful to say "in the US" as it's my general frame of reference.  Also, there's a big difference between some dope (me) on the internet badmouthing Christianity and someone killing Christians.

When I say "bashing Christians" is a first world problem, I'm referring to places where Christians are the majority and are doing a bit of whining, not where they are literally under attack for their beliefs.

 Makes sense.

TV's Frink said:

RicOlie_2 said:

When people try to convert me by attacking my beliefs, I get offended I guess, so I get your point. If they tell me politely that the Bible has mistakes in it and give me their reasons and respect me when I say "Nuh uh, I'm sticking with this," then I'm fine with that. It's when people try to force me to believe something that I get offended. They can debate me, and as long as they don't attack me for my beliefs or continually push their beliefs on me I'm fine.

Having said that, I apologize if it looks like I'm trying to force my beliefs on you, as I don't intend it that way.

 No need to apologize to me.  I'm not homosexual. ;-)

Glad to hear that I'm not creating any hard feelings between us. :)

I was apologizing because we have opposing beliefs on the topic and I was hoping I didn't sound like I thought you were a bad person for your beliefs, etc.