Mayjest
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Posts posted by Mayjest
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Yeah, custom ranks are cool. On another forum that me and my friends own (our UT and CS clan's one) we gave each other ranks in a 'round robin' type thing. We can't change our own though, so we end up having embarrasing personal messages in there. It's funny though, as long as it doesn't happen to me.
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It's a shame. I'm an atheist, and I can't respect any organization that invokes such idiocy by being against homosexuality, contraception, and gender equality. Better luck next time, I guess.
So what? The Catholic religion was founded on certain basic values and beliefs. A lot of these beliefs come from their version of the Bible.
I'm a Protestant, but I know that the Catholic Bible is not so different from my own. And, in Leviticus, the Lord your God commands a man to "not lie with another man".
The female clergy issue is another issue entirely. In my reading of the Bible, a woman must only submit herself to her husband. I guess Catholics imply this to mean they may not hold any office?
In a Christian's viewpoint, God has a path for every living being. Abortion is a means of human interference with God's divine path.
You are free to hold whatever beliefs you choose, but this pope is not going against anything written in his own religion.
Christianity also claims all are equal in the face of God, and that mankind has been made ruler over the earth (Genesis 1). How you should read the bible is not a one-way path - it's up for a lot of interpretations. The pope represents just one of these - and a very conservative one at that. To equal the pope's beliefs with those of all the other christian's out there is simply not correct.
I personally think the older books (Leviticus especially) were written so long ago, and are so bound by the morals and values of that time (over 4000 years ago) that I do not want to take what they describe all that literally. Leviticus also holds the following:
Do not eat any of the fat of cattle, sheep or goats
(This also shows it was worse to get daughters in those times - something which is completely nonsense in most countries today)A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.Ok, this has gone way off topic. Congrats to Ratzinger, sorry, Benedict, don't screw up, 1 billion people are counting on you.
Anyway. The whole leviticus in the modern era thing. There is a reason God sent Jesus. It's in the new testment specifically: that those with faith in Christ are no longer bound by the law. That means you can refuse to do anything that the book of leviticus says. Which I am quite happy about, as I love bacon!
On the women priests thing, I think that God will call to ministry who God will call to minstry, there are certain situations where it is impossible to a man to make as much progress as a woman.
Contraception wise, yeah kind of silly. The idea behind it is that only God decids if you get a baby or not, using contraception removes God of the power. Which doesn't make much sense to me (and I'm a Christian).
Abortion - big issue here, far too off-topic, so I won't go into it here.
Homosexuality, again big issue. But not everyone is perfect, i sin in my lust for girl just a homosexual will sin in lust for a man. Only thing that gets rid of the sin is Jesus, and he won't stop forgiving just because you fancy a guy rather than a girl.
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I bought myself a couple of Boktos (or whatever they're called, wooden solid katanas)), a Jo (4 foot stick) and Wadikazi (or whatever, the small sword), intending to go to a Kendo class. Never went. I also intended to buy myself a sword made out of bamboo (the ones that cushion the blow, rather than breaking someones arm). never did. I'll just stick with my karate i think ;)
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Wesleyan as in John wesley the evangelist?
Anyway. I'm in year 13 at Sixth Form Colledge, just finished 7 hours of prep for my Indepentent assignment for History tomorrow. Now my hand hurts. I'm off to Belfast for university next year though, so that should be fun. Cheap Guiness on tap. mmmm.
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One thing you have to remember about the vatican is that it is very slow. That Cathedral was probably ordered to be built around 1820 or something, and they've only just finished it. But yeah, the money could be better spent elsewhere. That's why the majority of the money in my church goes to charities (we cover the necessary expences, but we don't pay as much to the discese as we should do). And these are charities that we know will work with the money, as different people from the Church go on volunteer trips with them and help out. My best friends off on one such trip next month.
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1M 10k Exp lamps from the quest 'One small favor'... If you can bank them that is. That would be... 10b exp. :shock:
If not, um, 1m steel scimitars...
I changed my mind, I want 1 mil of the 10k lamps as well. I wish.
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I'd go with 500k Nature Runes and 500k Rune Med Helms. Easy money.
Or the 1 mil dragon stones. Would need to work on my crafting first, but just cutting them would be sweet exp.
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Loved it. Just a shame the wilderness one wouldnt work for me. Ah well.
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Man, this is gonna be sweet.
Look after Peter. Don't let him do anything stupid.
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Coldplay arn't bad. I just can't listen to them when I'm depressed or I turn vagely suicidal. Much better is to listen to heavy rock when depressed, then you become pissed at the world rather than yourself, and then the depression is turned into anger. But then I turn violent :shock:
I think it might be worth raiding my brother's CD collection and sticking ColdPlay on my Ipod. No idea which album he has though, I think it's parachutes.
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Love it. We want more!
off-topic: we (meaning I) also want another cabbagepalooza thingy! The last one was great!
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We don't have any problem like that - in fact it's more difficult to shut a couple of them up! I know a large (well, for my area/generation at least) amount of GLTB people (if you to Uni you should know what that stands for - or its GLB in some places). Well, more L than G, but maybe that's just me.
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Religion is man made. All God ever wanted was for His creation to love him back.
wow. In all the arguing over how the universe came into being, we kind of lost sight of the question. That just brought it back into focus. So I'm just going to say a couple of things and then move back the question.
My Big Band criticism: time being relative is kind of in my critic (it's based on movement). I'm sure if I thought about it hard enough I could add in a couple of sentances. If everything stops, time doesn't stop, but our knowedge of it does. Just the same, if time speeds up, our perception speeds up with it. So, if only one person speeds up, then they wouldn't realise that they are going any faster, so my argument should still work.
There's probably a flaw in that logic somewhere, but you know what? I couldn't care less. I've just done two hours of research into Napoleon's Rise to Power, and my head hurts enough as it is, thank you very much.
The Harold Morowitz thing: It was on a revision sheet I was given for my AS exams, I did a little bit more research, most of the information was on creationist websites, so I ignored it (I know, that was odd, coming from a Christian). I was presented with the choice of buying his books myself (and as it wasn't necessary for my exam - I was just curious - I couldn't be bothered) or reading a transcript of a court case he was involved in (the state vs some teachers who wanted to teach creationism or evolutionism, I can't remember which though). Where this transcript is I have no idea, and I read it over a year ago. In it, he said that the odds that are often quoted he still stands by, though he still believes that, despite those odds, human life evolved. I don't think I've used the correct terms, but essentially - despite the fact that his work was being used to disprove evolution and stuff, he still didn't believe in a God.
In philosophy, there is an idea called the falsification principle. Essentially, an argument has meaning (i.e. it is worth arguing over) when both sides are willing to accept that there is the possibility of evidence against thier argument. Neither side (both the religious and the scientific sides) are willing to accept any flaw in their argument. The scientists simply refuse to believe in a God, or indeed, anything outside what their textbooks tell them. The religious side, now matter how many times their logic is shown as flawed, or their laughed at, they will keep standing up and coming back for more. Both sides are refusing to accept that the evidence presented against them is in any way true. Using the falsification principle, this argument is worthless, and I propose we all shut up.
That's when happens when you do A-Level Philosophy and Ethics - you realise that everything you talk about it worth bollocks, so why bother talking?
Anyway, back to religion is made by man. I'm a Christian, yet I hate religion. Sounds odd, doesn't it? I think I refered to Dogma earlier in this topic (you take a good idea, and then build a belief structure around it). There are people on this earth who consider themselves religious because they turn up to Church and say the lines in bold while the Vicar says the ones not in bold. Other's believe they are saved because it's their birthright. Still others believe that being a generally nice person will help. Being a member of a religion will no help in anyway whatsoever. If you're a Christian, the Bible makes it clear that only those with faith in Jesus Christ will be saved. A Jew, even though you're born into the 'chosen people', even if you make the sacrafices etc, you still have to turn away from sin and obey God's call. A Muslin still has to make a personal commitment to Allah, and has to demonstrate it daily by praying 5 times a day. Just calling yourself Muslim will not get you anyway. Even then, you actually have to believe in what you are doing.
As such, religion was made by man. Inspired by God (or the Devil, if you swing that way), but the liturgy, and the annoying laws (e.g., in my Youth Group, I can't give one of my Youth Leaders a lift anywhere in my car. I'm over 18, so it's legal Child Protection Act wise, but the rules of the Church don't allow it) and the conflicts, little nitty-gritty bits that no-one understands, clashes in theology - down to human error.
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Don't know why so many PS2 fanboys love Gran Tourismo 3 and 4. Yes the graphics are incredible, but the game is boring to play. It's not fun.
Anyway, where to I start? Half-life (both), CounterStike (and source), Second Sight, most things of N64, Donkey Konga (it rules. you know it), Eternal Darkness, Max Payne (both), most of the Zeldas, a couple of Marios, you name it, if it's not 'generic sports game 20??' by EA, chances are I'll either own it, have played it, or really want to do both.
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Ok, looks like it's time I stept in again. but first...
Anyway, everyone here, including the religious people, must admit that religion is made by man... maybe not your own; that one's true. All other religions in the world, however, must be false, and so made up by man. One could argue that they're made up by "the devil"/"naughty little sprites"/"various other, outlandish gods"/"women" etc, but... .. yeah, shut up, I don't have all the answers.That's quite funny, I like it.
Quote:Life spontaneously arose from nonliving minerals.
Wrong. Thats abiogenesis.
Ok, we're going back to the big bang here. There was just atoms. No organic matter possible for the building of life - i.e. no protein. At the moment, there are many different kinds of proteins, the most simple one that we know about has over 600 amino acids in it (they're not all different, it's just a special pattern). I had to study this for my philosophy, so I should remember it. A bloke called Harold Morowitz was commissioned by NASA to work out the minimum amount of amino acids required for a protein to form (and hence, form life). I suppose they wanted to know so they know what they're looking for on Mars.
Before I go further, the generally accepted scientific/mathematic odds for nigh-on impossible are 1/10^15. That's pretty low. A 1/10^50 chance is so low that it wouldn't happen in 15 billion years (similar to the way we work out the odds of a dragon drop, 1/256 from steels, or whatever). Morowitz worked out that the odds of this protein forming from randomly moving, joining, separting (etc) atoms is 1/10^236. I'd say it's fairly unlikely that life formed out of the random atoms involved in the big bang. The big bang can account for the universe, and evolution can account for life since it started, but there is a huge hole in between these.
And don't start going on about the 'God of gaps'. I don't believe the big bang happened, and I don't believe that evolution got us anywhere either (though it does work today, even though it's minute).
Anyway, a couple of you seemed anxious about how I disproved the big bang. I thought of this one by myself after watching a program with Stephen Hawking on. I've put it to the head of physics and all the physics students in my sixth form, as well as the entire philosophy class. I also tried this out on another forum, on Ferion.com (space-type game) None has yet come up with a a sucessful answer.
My reply depends on the constant of time. Most believe that time is a constant. However, the Big Bang teaches (at least, I was taught it all those years ago) that it was the start of time. That's probably untrue, but I blame it on having a crappy physics teacher in Year 9. Anyway. You know how in movies or books, time supposedly stops, but some can still move (like in X-Men2)? Well, time hasn't stopped. As shown by the fact that some can still move (yet those who were frozen do not remember anything of that tiime, as far as they're concerned, there was no gap in time), our perception of time is based on movement. If everything in the universe (including the microscopic waves and whatnot) were to suddenly stop moving, we would have no idea. They could stop for as long as they want, and we wouldn't realise. When it all restarted, we would carry on as usually, with absolutely no idea. Typing this could have taken 150 years if time kept pausing, but as far as I know it's taken me 10 minutes.
So how does this relate to the big bang? If time is a constant, then why did the dense cluster of atoms that started it all choose to expand/explode then? The TV show I mentioned earlier seeked to 'teach' how the dense cluster of matter suddenly started expanding. Apparently, there was another form of matter that, instead of attracting matter through gravity, it repelled other matter, thus forcing the ball of matter apart. Luckily for Stephen Hawking, this matter then decayed incredibly quickly, leaving on background radiation. As far as I'm concerned that part holds even less water than the rest of the argument. But, if it was that matter, then why did it start expanding then? Why didn't it start expanding 100 years previously? Why did it even expand at all?
Now, I am NOT placing a 'God of the gaps' here, as you accused me of earlier. I neither know nor care how God created the world, the point is that we are here, and have a job to do on this Earth before we leave it (no, I'm not talking about 'God has a plan', I mean the Great Commission - a job given to every human on this Earth). What concerns me is why this theory (which can be disproved) is taught as solid fact, while all religious theories are 'theory'.
And I'm serious about that. When we did evolution, we were told during the teaching that it was a theory. GCSE exams, no mention of the word 'theory'. It was treated as fact. With the Big Bang, we were told 'This is how the world was made, anything else is bollocks'. Again, no mention of the 'theory' of the big bang. In RE, when we did Hindus they specified several times on the exam paper about it being a 'theory' (e.g. how does the Hindu theory of creation compare with...). Thats what annoys me most about this.
Now, going all the way back to the first page, and the actual question. Was religion made by man? To anwer this I shall use the film Dogma, a brilliant;y underestimated film in my opinion. In it, the 13th Disciple (Chris Rock) says something like - "That's the problem with religion. They took a good idea, and built a belief structure around it." Meaning: the basics about Jesus being Christ, Muhammed being the prophet etc are all fine. The problem is when religion is created around it. Though in this instance he was referring to religion as in the Dogma of the Catholic Church (the order of service, how they elect the Pope etc), instead of religion in general. So maybe Dogma wasn't as good an answer as I though it was. Oh well...
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Once I was sitting at my computer, when I suddenly realised that my phone was talking from inside my pocket. I yanked it out, shoved to my ear and apoligised for ignoring someone who I assumed would be a friend. The lady at the other end said: "That's all right sir, but you've actually dialed through to the emergency services." Dang.
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The broken cart near rekella I quite like. Something like: "Travellers are perfectly safe here", or near to that.
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hmmm, where to start.
Could it be the day in year 7, back when I was 12. On the way back from Australia, visiting my cousins, the plane stops in Singapore. I start hurling. I've never had air sickness before, and I blame it on the airline food. Get to a hotel (it's a 3 day stop over), keep puking, plus my stomach hurts. Next morning, excruciating pain in my side, plus more chucking up. By now the airline food is gone, and I'm onto pure bile. Get the Doctor round. Acute Appendicitis. Ambulance to hospital (wheelchair and everything!), it's worse than that, instead of surgery the next day, it's the-next-operating-theatre-to-open-will-have-you-in-it speed. I was told later that they saved my life by around 30mins to 1 hour. But that ain't the bad bit. I didn't get much better. After a week we hoped I could fly back home, continue to recover in my own home. On the morning of the flight, the Doctor comes in, does a couple of checks. I have an absyss in my side (big collection of pus). No chance of flying home, I'd die on the plane. Another operation, another week of recovery. Then my wound gets infected. I think the worse day was when I was supposed to fly home. All the hope that I'd be off home, see my friends again, watch TV I actually understood, be allowed to eat (Nil by mouth for 3 weeks, I lost 3 stone. And I was only 6 stone to start with!), all those hopes dashed in about 2 minutes. Not good.
Then there's the time my girlfriend dumped me (I think everyone has this, boy, we're a bunch of saddos, arn't we). She'd just been diagnosed with anorexia, and 'couldn't cope with too much at once'. She then spent the next 4 months locked in her room revising for exams. Any wonder she had anorexia? To be honest, she was a worrying freak. Always concerned about something.
Sort of bad (in my opinion), last year (before I was 18, but still in year 13 at school), I found out that 3 different girls fancied me. Most would consider this a good thing. Unfortunatey, all of these girls are very close friends of mine (as in, we go out to dinner as friends, rather than as a date, type friends. These friends are very rare). Unfortunately, only one of these girls I would have said yes to. Saying yes to her would have resulted in losing the friendship of the other two (at least temporarily, but it's never fun having friends pissed with you), plus the loss of a good male friend who I knew liked her. To top it off, the one I liked was 14 (I was 17, nearly 18). There are many who would not consider this bad, but I'd spent the past 3-4 years preaching at my female friends going out with older boys (I mean a big margin, like 4, 5 or 6 years), and my older male friends going out with younger girls. A four year age gap is fine in your twenties, but in the teenage years? When both parties, especially the younger ones, are still developing physically? Not good. Plus, I couldn't go and be a hyprocrite after all these years. In the end I had to turn down all 3 within around 2 hours of each other (visiting each person's house - awful lot of driving). It's never fun having to do that, seeing that hope on their face when they realise why you're there, then the dissapointment that doesn't leave their eyes for about 2 weeks.
Still, they're over it now. I just hope that one girl will still fancy me in 4 years time...
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I'm a Christian, and so I'm sad and all cos he died. He was a good man, good leader, yadda yadda yadda, everything that is said as a given in this situation (hey, at least I give a damn, rather than most on this topic). But, I will be looking at this from the point of view of the Church (as I always will in matters like this). To be honest, I see nothing but opportunity here. As head of the Catholic Church, you'd assume that his ascension into heaven is assured, so I don't know why everyone is still praying. He's gone, he's already up there with the saints and the angels (and I'm not being sarcastic, I do really believe that), now lets start concentrating on whats happening now. The current candiadates for Pope present an interesting mix. Some of them are actually quite big on unity and faith in scripture! There's one bloke from Latin America who looks like a good one, and theres another one from Germany who's okay. The next Pope's gonna have far more problems than the old one, and will need to be a much more active force in the world. The Catholics need someone who can shoulder that burden.
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I saw the first episode, and I think the second. Found it kind of boring. Fairly unrealistic as well. Especially when the son (who I could have sworn was a girl) went round his Girlfriend's house (yeah, like a guy who looks like that has a girlfriend like that! :) ) and found her and another girl together. And for some reason he was upset. Completely unrealistic. :lol:
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Atheism requires more faith than any religion, as you have to actively reject any evidence for the existence of God. Accepting that God exists allows for proof against God, as (as a Christian) you also accept that there is a force working against God, who would want to disprove His existence.
And yes, there is evidence for God in the world. I have yet to see a credible theory to explain the existence of the world without Him. Yes, I have seen the Big Bang theory, and I can disprove it fairly easily, thank you very much. I wish they'd stop teaching theories as fact in physics lessons.
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Here goes (I know far too much about this)
First off, you have the basic three: Roman Catholic (the Pope), Eastern Orthodox (I think they have their version of the Pope as well. They may not anymore, but they certainly used to, it's one of the reasons why they separated in the first place) and Protestant. Easten Orthodox I am unsure as to whether they have fragmented much, Catholicism has only really fragmented on differences on issues (kind of like the Evangelical and Liberal clash in the Church of England, especially over homosexuality). Protestantism has many factions.
In England, you have:
Church of England: Established Church of the State, reigning Monarch is the head, but day to day runnings are performed by the ArchBishop of Cantebury (currently Rowan Williams (I think that's how you spell it), with assistance from the ArchBishop of York. Large Church, so differences of opinion inside it. For instance, my Church is considered a fairly Evangelical (supposedly right-wing church), yet we couldn't care less about women Vicars or the problem of homosexuality. We think that God will call whoever he wants to become Vicars, if that includes women, who are we to argue. On homosexuality, we know that the Bible (not just Leviticus, but the New Testament as well) calls it wrong, we can read. Our point: Who cares? We all sin in different ways, that much is made clear as well. So they sin by fancying men, it doesn't make a difference. We all need the grace of God just as much. Meanwhile, there's a Church down the road that doesn't much like women vicars (women can serve elsewhere, their Youth Leader is a woman), but it can't be 'official'. They don't like homosexuals much either (the Jeffry John fiasco, did more harm than good for the homosexual cause I think. but that's another story)
Baptist: Churches under the Baptist title are also called 'free' (well, the one down my road is anyway!). I think that means that they're not affiliated with any major Church.
Methodist: Started by John Wesley (1800s I think) during the Welsh Revival. I think it was the Welsh Revival. 2 Million Welsh people became Christian, and the methodist Church came out of that.
Quaker: No idea when, how, why or who started it, but they're different. Ardent pacifists (they won't hit back even when you hit them), they have a simple Church (usually just a hall, with a vase of flowers. No cross, no pews etc). I think they make a really big thing out of Communion.
Salvation Army: not just a Charity, this is now considered a Church group. They eshew (is that spelt right?) communion almost completely, prefering worship and action. Again fairly simple surroundings.
Forgot one: begins with P, either Presbetaryan (spelling?) or Pentecostal (I think that one) - commonly known as a 'black church'. Gospel Choir, lots of signing, Amens and Hallelujiahs during Sermons. Brilliant atmosphere. Some of my best city friends go to these Churchs. Note that you don't have to be black to go, it's just that the congregation usually are.
That's the basic ones that I can remember off the top of my head. Any questions, and I'll ring up my mates that go to those Churches.
Oh yeah, there's similar Churches like this in America, I think their CofE might be the Presbetaryan I mentioned earlier. The name rings a bell, I just can't remember where they go. Ah well.
P.S., shamelessly advertising my Church here, but if you live in England, specifically the Hertfordshire/around Chorleywood/Rickmansorth/Watford area (you'll know where it is if you live there, trust me), and are 14+ (i think some younger ones come as well) then come to ChristChurch in Chorleywood on Friday 22nd April. We do a big worship type event thing between 8 and 10 PM. Somehow, our Youth Leader has managed to persuade the ArchBishop of Cantebury to come along! Hence why I could remember his name. Come along, make yourself known to the tall(ish) Irish bloke who will be involved somehow (whether speaking, welcoming or whatever). He's the Youth Leader, tell him you're from here and you know me (call me by Mayjest). He will probably have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll let him know =). Oh yeah, and if you do want to come, don't bring you're parents. This is a youth event, and we want to show the Archbishop what we do every month. we don't want a bunch of parents trying to network with the head of the Church of England! I'd advertise our website, but I don't think we're allowed. Plus I don't think it's been updated since before Christmas.
Yes, I am well aware I went a lot off topic there. I really didn't mean to, I just didn't stop. Hopefully I have enough on-topic material at the top to warrant this post being saved.
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You know those little bars in people sigs? The ones that say:
LIVESTRONG supporter
Or something similar? I've seen a few going round, including Gmail and Firefox. Is there a website where you get them from or did these people make them themselves? And if they did make them themselves, can I steal some? Please?
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I like it...
The Simple Things In Life
in Off-Topic
Posted
Walking to/from your house or a friends house in the middle of a thunder storm. The type where you're soaked through as soon as you step out of your house, before you get to your car. So You figure, sod it, I'll walk. Thats a good feeling.
Hanging out on the common playing football with your mates.
Sun shining, windows down, driving along with the music loud, and two of your greatest friends in the car, just driving for the sake of it, not really aiming for anywhere.
Sitting (anywhere), girlfriend in arms, just realzing in each other's presence. Sure, it's not simple to get there, but once you're there, it's pretty simple.
(goes all [grime]y and Christian now, feel free to disregard). Peaceful setting, out of doors, where you can just worship God. That's a good feeling.