Eh no. Man was created and he leads his life as he wishes. Suffering is the consequence of man's actions. That's all there is to really, at least in my opinion. You'll understand better when I explain further.Quote from PhrozenDragon
No, all-caring was included in the argument, and that would lead to a purpose. If that's so, then God would want to spare us needless suffering. Which he has not done.Quote from Nekrodrac
Your whole premise is flawed since you never considered the purpose. Why did God create man as man presently is? That is the real question.
Religion is not about what makes God happy or not. I thought I already made myself clear on that. It's a way of life- a discipline. A test(or game as I would rather call it) makes all the sense in the world if you consider free will. Some may reach the goal faster than others and there are many paths to reach that goal.Quote from PhrozenDragon
If he is not all-good but all-powerful, then he created the whole world knowing we and all forms of life in it would suffer greatly (murder, war, betrayal, physical pain, etc.) when he could have avoided it entirely.
Since he is all-powerful, what purpose could he possibly give us? A test doesn't make any sense, since he will know from the start whether we (his creations) can complete the test or not. Anything that depends on us doing something for him cannot be the reason we exist, since he, as the all-powerful creator, will know from the start whether we can perform said task or not.
What you are referring as an all-powerful creator, I call it the Source whereby all life forms have originated. The presence of man on Earth is his own choice and he has simply forgotten how to get back to the Source. You get beings throughout our history that know where they've come from and seek to remind us of our origin and that's what we've come to call as gods. That's also how there happens to be so many religions with varying approaches.
Worship of that god or Source would presumably help us find our way back.
God created man because man wanted to.
That's my take on the matter anyway.
The basis of religion is to provide a discipline to reach the goal. But like I said there are many paths to that.Quote from PhrozenDragon
If he is all-good but not all-powerful, then he cannot have created us. True, he could still be here and try to make our lives better, and since he's not all-powerful he might be restricted in great ways with what he can do. What what kind of God is he then?
If he's neither, then he might well have created us, but there would be no difference between him and an alien with immense technological capabilities.
But alright, suppose the purpose we were created for is some nebulous concept that cannot be grasped by a human mind. Even if such a purpose exist, it is a purpose for God, not for us. How does the theoretical existance of such a purpose provide any basis for human worship?
In all of these cases in fact, the questions is what basis this provides for a religion, and for practiced worship of the deity.
You've added too much to my simple analogy. The knowledge that the mother based her advice on was perfect. She knows how much the child should eat and how much the brat shouldn't.Quote from PhrozenDragon
I believe I did.Quote from NekrodracYou forgot the pie. I'll take it you didn't get the idea. At all.
In this case, mom is god, and the pie could be considered the world I guess, or anything a human desires.
Your argument is that the mother cannot be held responsible for the actions of her child, since she specifically told him not to eat more than one piece of the pie. Which seems reasonable enough.
The problem with the analogy, which is why I also didn't mention the pie, is that the mother is not perfect, and did not create her child in the same sense that God would create man. She raises her child under imperfect circumstances and with imperfect knowledge. The child is also an entity of it's own, which is why the blame here can be placed on the child.
Consider then a computer program. If you create a computer program, and it doesn't do what you've designed it to, then it is entirely your fault and not the program. Free will is the counter-argument to this, which brings us back to the point I made above about god being either all-powerful or all-good.
Whatever ensued is nobody but the child's fault since the choice was his. You could blame the pie for making you sick (people readily attributing everything to uncontrollable desires) or you could blame the mother for cooking the pie in the first place (blaming the Source for creating something you might have used well).
Simple as that.
All-powerful and all-good god has been explained above.
Religion without god or gods is no religion at all. Your assumption was unfounded since I specifically said that the goal of religion is God or the Source.Quote from PhrozenDragon
You stated that the purpose of religion was to guide and help people. Traditionally, this is supported by "God decrees it". Since you stated that religion was just a tool that could be used right however, I assumed that God was not a necessary part of it: If God does exist, fine. If he doesn't, we can spread the teachings of the religion anyway, since it's a good message. If this is the case, then it's really the message in itself that's good, and God just a story used to convince people of the usefulness of the teachings. Whether he exists or not becomes irrelevant.Quote from Nekrodrac
How did you get to the last part? About religion helping to fool people? Because God doesn't exist or is imperfect? What if He/She exists then?
Religion is a tool because I don't think it is the only way back, plus there are numerous examples of how much shit religions around the world had direct implications in because some dumbasses wrongly used it; further impressing on the concept of it being a tool or means to achieve something.
That's about it.
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Yeah yeah I know the picture is suggestive, but I had a modding spree and this was produced from it. And no this is not going to be my regular mage gear throughout the game, just purely aesthetic (and for roleplaying purposes)
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Not only that but now D3 followers are more viable and have a decent/interesting backstory I guarantee I will have alot of fun killing demons with my bro-follower.
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As for being a threat to D3, I don't really see it. I facepalmed when in the beginning the dude just walked up the curved stairs like it was nothing with orcs literally jammed packed into it. Not is it not only realistic, there's no variety of the monsters.
Edit: Like other people have said, Blizzard dominates every genre it's involved in with gameplay not graphics.
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Yes, it's not that great, but I would like any critiques on how to improve (preferably pony wise)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceSxEjwXHcM
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Graphics-wise, I detest Borderlands graphics with the dark outline on characters and whatnot, the only exception to this for me is League of Legends. In addition to Borderlands-like graphics, it doesn't help that everyone looks like steroid-infused buff guy AKA Tychus Findlay from StarCraft 2 with 3-4 large cylinders sticking out of their backs, makes me wonder when they are going to fall over.
Gameplay-wise, looks a bit cheap. Whenever said Tychus Findlay person does his rocket-boost-of-awesomeness-and-lands-on-ground-causing-mini-earthquake I think of Halo: Reach, and atleast in Halo: Reach said move was realistic and you don't slam in ground after jetpacking.
Story/Plot-wise, looks weak. In Halo you have the Flood (all-consuming entity) and the Covenant (Council/Group of higher beings). In Warcraft you have the Burning Legion (endless demonic legion) and the Scourge (literally scourge of all life). In StarCraft you have the Zerg (ZERG RUSH) and the Hybrid (entity of unknown). Compare all these antagonist titles to the one in Firefall, the Medling... pales in comparison doesn't it?
I'm expecting this game to flop, but I'll try it out nonetheless.
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Now I've decided to do a FORUM CHALLENGE here on diablofans.com. This challenge will be based on the infamous My Immortal by Tara Gilesbie. What is My Immortal you ask? My Immortal is basically the horrendous fan fiction ever created on the internet based on the J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter universe.
The purpose of bringing this challenge here? Nothing really, I just thought it would be fun. Back 1-2 years ago when this was created/released I attempted to read it through but couldn't because it had so much fail in it, a complete butchery of the English language and the art of fan fiction in general. So, in addition of bringing this challenge here I will also attempt to reread this piece of 'literary work'.
And who knows? For any aspiring writers out there (like me) this might give you insight on what not to do when writing.
Anyways let's get to the FORUM CHALLENGE
The challenge is to basically read the whole fan fiction (Chapters 1 - 44) entirely, the cost? If you succeed you win Internet Pride if you fail you are rewarded with a hit to your Internet Self-Esteem.
So, as of right now, let the FORUM CHALLENGE begin!
Can you handle the Fail? (<--- BTW that's the link to the fan fiction)
-Anathemic One