dwarfie76

Kindred spirits then :) That's all fine and dandy. I could accept that. However it knocks out the fundamental Christian concept of redemption. If the sins were all part of God's design plan, there would really be no need to atone for them (in God's eyes any way, it's probably pretty important to the people you've sinned against). Most branches of Christianity teach that you can be cast into Hell for sinning - although they mostly have different opinions about just what sins are bad enough to get you there. Now an all-powerful God who created us with a foreknowledge of the sins we commit, would also have foreknowledge of the sins we would fail to seek forgiveness for. Thus creating some people which he would know would never attone for their sins, seek forgiveness, accept the lord into their lives or do any of the other things that are our supposed tickets through the pearly gates. So we come back to a determinist viewpoint. Everything has been set in stone by God. Some will be saved, some won't and there is nothing we can do to alter our path. Free will and the JudeoChristian model of God are incompatible. I'm not inclined to think that there ever was a "why". Just natural forces conspiring to form us in the same way that wind and rain conspire to erode a rock.

He knows we will mess up. Being God he has known we would mess up from the time we were created - even before our grandparent's grandparents were created. So knowing that we would mess up we were created with that destiny anyway - by God presumably - I don't see how "sin" can be viewed as anything other than preordained destiny if you accept the notion of an all-knowing God.

Unless you are sounding out a scenario where you knew before you even met your friend, perhaps even before they were conceived, that they would choose chicken on that occasion, then that would require your friend to have already chosen the chicken. If your friend habitually chooses chicken over steak, you can make a pretty good guess as to what she will eat, but that's not the sort of omniscience that Christians and other theists ascribe to their version of God. You're making perfect sense - in terms of what us humans can concieve of in terms of "knowing" something. If you and I were lunch buddies for forty years and every day I ate chicken, and we went out to lunch and on the way all I could talk about was how much I wanted chicken for lunch, we look at the menu and I say how good the chicken sounds - you can be 99.99% sure that I will order chicken. But all you are basing your knowledge on is my past behaviour and what I've told you. You don't actually have any preordained knowledge of the events that will follow when the waiter approaches our table. That sort of preordained knowledge is what anyone believeing in an "all-powerful, all-knowing" God must accept that that God posesses. The paradox in itself is not really a problem. You're right in that an all-encompassing deity would be able to handle such paradoxes with ease. The problem arises when one turns their thoughts to the concept of "sin". According to the church's teachings, we "sin" when we act in a way that is contrary to God's wishes of our own free will. If I was created by an all-powerful deity, then they would know my every thought, word and deed in advance. In fact they would have created them along with me. Even though a God might give me "free will" he would know exactly how I would use it in every moment of my existence. So any choices that I made would, in fact, have been made by God. Following from that, any "sin" that I may commit would actually have been "god's will" rendering the very notion of "sin" quite redundant. So I believe that either God is not "all-powerful and all-knowing" or that free will and sin are a logical fiction.

Start out with the point you're trying to make. For example, the point of "The Tortise and the Hare" is that taking your time and doing things properly leads to a better outcome than rushing headlong into it - slow and steady wins the race. So pick out what your main theme is and build your story around that. Once you have an idea for the point you're trying to make, then you can pick out some animals that fit the part - like Necro said, make sure your animals have the inherent traits that you're trying to convey. But the most important thing for any piece of writing is to get other people to look at it and offer advice. My wife's been writing short stories for magazines as a hobby for over ten years and she still gets me to read over them (sometimes a dozen or more drafts) before she submits them.

Boyfriend or no boyfriend, tell her how you feel. Don't try to "make a move" or anything because you'll come off looking like a jerk. Just be open and honest about your feelings for her and see how she takes it. If she doesn't feel the same way then she's hardly going to be receptive if you start putting the moves on when you're watching a movie. If you handle it in an upfront and adult manner, then even if she's head over heels in love with her current boyfriend and doesn't see you as any more than a good friend chances are you'll still have her as a good friend after the fact. Try to put a move on her unnanounced and you'll end up with a knee somewhere more than a little uncomfortable.

"infinity" moments haven't passed before now. At least not with respect to our universe. Time is a physical property of our universe, bound by the physical laws and constants of our universe. Prior to the existence of our universe there was no time. So no "moments" passed before the big bang. (Note my use of "big bang" is just pretty much shorthand for "creation event"). Since the big bang, a finite amount of time has passed. However should this universe cease to exist, time - as it relates to our universe - will also cease to exist. Relative to any other universes that may exist our "time" is either zero or infinite depending on which way you wish to slice it. We are here, ergo there was a beginning. What that beginning may have been is the interesting part.

Indeed. There is little evidence, aside from theory, to support the big bang. However there is even less evidence to support the existence of a divine creator. I find it strange that believers in a creator often use the fact that the evidence supporting the big bang theory is limited and inconclusive as somehow being "proof" of the existence of a god. Which brings us to an interesting paradox. Most theists believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing god. A god that planned the universe out in minute detail and who remains aware of all that it contains. Any such being would undoubtedly be fully aware of all the decisions that each of us will make during the course of our lives and the consequences those decisions will have. Leading to a very deterministic point of view. My problem with this line of thinking is that the notion of an all-knowing deity naturally precludes anything other than a determinist theology. And a determinist theology cannot account for the notions of free will and sin. Or at least under a determinist theology either free will cannot exist or 'sin' is planned and accounted for by god from the outset. So while I can acknowledge that there may have been a supernatural 'beginning' to the universe as we know it, the idea of an interventionist deity doesn't stand up to any sort of rigorous scrutiny.

So if god made the universe, who made god? Natural selection has been actively observed over only a handful of generations. Given the age of the universe, and the rapid rate at which such small creatures move through generations, natural selection easily accounts for their complexity. At any rate, whether or not natural selection occurs or not has absolutely nothing to do with the formation of the universe. And what about all the faults, imperfections and redundancies present in the human body? What do they say about God's winderful design?

I'd say that happened before the first post :D

Are people really so mathematically inept that a simple subtraction needs to be represented in graphical form?

Which would be why my local supermarket sells 2kg bags of sugar for more than the price of two 1kg bags? There are examples where this is not true, but in general, bulk sells for less. (Go into your nearest Sam's Club or other bulk store if you don't believe me) "In general" is a lot different to "always". Go to your nearest dictionary if you don't believe me.

A terrorist attack involving stolen nuclear weapons is unlikely to be in the form of an actual nuclear blast. It's far more likely that a terrorist organisation would simply use the radioactive material in conjunction with conventional explosives to produce what's known as a "dirty bomb". Basically a conventional bomb which distributes large volumes of radioactive waste over a wide area. The advantage to this is that you don't need to have a working nuclear warhead - just the insides, or even a few spent fuel rods from a nuclear power station would do.

Ow man... papercuts dude.

It's quite possible that it will be. At any rate the scarcity and means of accessing water (and coal) in the real world is vastly different to that in the runescape world. Everything is scarce? More correctly it would be everything (at least as far as resources are concerned) is as scarce as everything else. I really don't see what point you're trying to make. You say it takes time to gather a resource... but that time is going to be spent doing one thing or another. Using your "everything is scarce" line of thought then the time taken is redundant. It takes much the same amount of time to fish an inventory of lobsters as it does to mine an inventory of coal. Remember again that I'm not saying that runescape doesn't have an "economy" of sorts. No need. My point has already been made. Which would be why my local supermarket sells 2kg bags of sugar for more than the price of two 1kg bags? Which is another difference from a real world economy. In the real world - aside from very specific intstances - most people are only interested in the finished product. I have no desire to boost my farming level to a point where I can grow wheat and raise chickens for eggs, then work on my cooking level to make a cake - when I could just go out and buy one.

Chevrons are one of the oldest heraldic symbols. It's more likely a pure coincidence that a flag in runescape features white chevrons on a red background, and a car manufacturer also uses the same in their logo. But nice find :)

It's been being predicted since the first century. I'm sure there are more certain things to worry about from day to day.

You mean the price of essence goes up for bulk lots? It's a convenience factor. Someone will happily pay 50k for 1k essence because 1k essence is something you can actually achieve a level or two with. However anyone trying to sell 7 essences would have a hard time giving them away because people don't want to waste the time it would take to complete the trade.

No it's not. The boards, and all the threads on them are available to any and all members of tip.it. They are "owned" only by the owners of the forums - which ain't you mate. So anyway, you can't handle someone having the gall to actually point out the (many) flaws in your posts so you tell them not to post? That's not very grown up of you is it? And as for spam... you were the one who started the thread which is exactly the same as every other runescape economics thread on the boards. As I said before, if you can't handle a discussion of your post, which involves both congruent and dissenting ideas, then go whine about it in your livejournal or something.

I'm sorry... who made you king of the forums again? I'll post what I like where I like thank you very much. If you want complete control over what does and doesn't get posted then I'd suggest putting your whines on your livejournal rather than here.

At 13 you are quite capable of doorknocking your neighbours and doing enough odd jobs to scrape up $5 per month. I know I used to pull in about $10 - $15 per week just mowing lawns, washing cars, walking dogs - pretty much anything my neighbours wanted done, but preferred giving a dollar to the kid next door to actually doing themselves. And that was nearly 20 years ago - I presume the rates have gone up these days. As for the credit card issue, sure you can't get one (hopefully) until you're 18. And even then you should probably wait until you're in full time employment before you do. But credit cards are not the only means of paying for members. It takes a few minutes to go to the post office and have them make out a money order for you to post off - no age limits or credit card worries.

You're of the opinion that we have an unlimited supply of fresh water? On which planet is this? Of course it's "an" economy. The point is that it's not an accurate model of current, real-world economies as was alluded to earlier.

Mmmm... I want this. Bacon on my baked potatos. Roast lamb to go with the rosemary you can currently farm.

I agree that there are elements of supply and demand. You are going to get that in any situation where people are trading items - virtual or not. But as an economic simulation it's worth next to nothing because the value of the GP can't be backed up effectively against a commodities market where there is no finite limit to the amount of resources in the market. You can observe some aspects that are also found in a real-world economy, but I'd stop a long way short of calling it an "economic simulation"

It's still an 'economy', however the unlimited nature of resources is one of the things that make it next to useless in comparison to a real economy. Likewise the lack of a central treasury, taxes, interest rates, fiscal policy etc, etc, etc.

They're bags of milk. How more special can that get? Could be bags of *insert alcoholic substance here* Oh we have those in Australia. In fact we invented them. 8)