Octopus Royalty

[B]1. If you believe in God, why do you believe?[/B] I believe in God, because I feel His presence in my life. I have regular conversations with Him through prayer and scripture reading. He leads me through situations that I could never have handled on my own. He works miracles in my life and in my family. He gives me inspiration for my art and writing. I could go on and on. Obviously, it can be argued that my help comes from something other than God, but I would not accept help from any but Him. He is the only one I trust. [B] 2. Why do you think others believe in God?[/B] Other people probably believe in God for the same reasons that I do, among others. Everybody has a different relationship with God, and there are lots of ways to communicate with Him, many of which I have never experienced. For instance, if you have the gift of prophesy, then you get God's message straight from His own mouth. And then of course, some people believe in Him, because they have nothing else to believe in. [B]3. The most popular conflict between faith and reason is usually on the evolution/creationism controversy. What?s your take on the issue? Can science be compatible with belief? Do you accept evolutionary theory?[/B] I have learned evolutionary theory in school and creationism in church my whole life. I have heard arguments that seem to reconcile the two sides. The truth is that I don't know what I believe on this subject. I don't buy evolutionary theory, because there are too many variables. Scientists think they can come up with some formula that will solve all the mysteries of the universe, but science is always changing its mind, always getting new information, new discoveries, etc. God, on the other hand, is firm, a solid rock, unmoving, unchanging. I won't pretend that I know all of the background and details about evolution or that I know everything about the Bible, but I will say that since I [I]don't[/I] know all of the factors to this, it is safer to believe in creationism. As for the mixing of the two ideas, it is possible that they can coexist, but it seems like most people who come up with something like that only do so, in order to avoid dealing with the conflict. To this day, I haven't heard one convincing argument from this side of things. [B] 4. What do you think are the most compelling arguments to not believe in God? Or, what do you think are the greatest challenges to peoples? faith. for instance; some people think the existence of evil, in light of an all-powerful, all-good God, is a tough question that theologians don?t have a clear answer to and may lead people to non-belief [/B] I think that a lot of people mischaracterize God because of something bad that happened to them, something they maybe couldn't make sense of. They will say that God is cold, uncaring, and angry, that he will punish you if you make one wrong move. They will say that since he supposedly "controls" the world, he must have been the one that gave cancer to that child or caused that earthquake that killed 20,000 people. They will say that God turns people into robots that run around saying only "iloveyouiloveyouiloveyouiloveyou" for all of eternity. That is exactly what Satan wants people to believe about God. Satan causes all suffering in this world. We allow him to do that by sinning, in that sinning is the act of separating oneself from God. In order to reestablish that connection, one must ask for forgiveness and express desire to once again be with Him. God is all about love and forgiveness and second/third/fourth...billionth chances. Mainly, what I say to people who have been mislead is this: read the Bible. I don't mean just skim on through, or read only the verses you are told to read. I mean read it book by book, in context. God is shown to be much different than what a lot of people (even Christians) make Him out to be. Science and math have been made into huge distractions. They are used to lead people away from God, away from what cannot be directly seen and from what cannot be proved. So many do not realize that those things are the most important of all. [B]5. Do you think there is such thing as ?reasonable faith?? Or, do you think they are in conflict?[/B] Many have said that faith is reasonable, or can be, but I don't think that's entirely true. If you only went by evidence, you would be led away from God, because there is really no "proof" of His existence, except for the spiritual interactions between Him and individuals. [B] 6. Lastly, if you believe in God. What evidence do you have in favor of your belief?[/B] Like I said, the only evidence I can mention is what I have personally experienced. The fact of the matter is that God gave us free choice for a reason. He wanted us to choose Him of our own free wil, not be forced to. It's easy for me to believe in that telephone sitting in front of me, because it rings and I talk to other people on it and there are records of my calls and I can touch it, etc. Therefore I pretty much have to believe in it, right? If God gave evidence like that about Himself, we would have to believe in Him, eliminating our free choice. [B] Oh dear, I'm not sure how well I answered those questions. There is so much to say, and talk about regarding these topics, and I often get carried away in my rambling. Please excuse me if I didn't make any sense, and feel free to PM me with any questions. I don't remember the exact locations of many of the Bible verses that support my answers, but I can provide them upon request.[/B]

I also love getting together with friends. Ever since I moved away to college, I haven't had many chances to do that though. (Not having money, a car, or a driver's license probably has something to do with that.) So as a result, I spend most of my time alone. I get on the university's super-speedy internet. I watch the university's cable. They have an awesome movie channel that just plays good movies over and over without any commercials, so I've seen The Patriot like thirty times in the last couple months. I play my gamecube, which lately seems like it's had about enough. I may have to just get rid of it...:animedepr I write poetry and short stories and stuff. I sing/talk to myself. I eat. I have 19 all-you-can-eat meals at the food court per week. I often forget to exercise though, so yeah...I'm getting fatter as we speak. What else? I play on photoshop. I recently found some pages from a Chrono Trigger manga with cool pictures of Magus, so I had to mutilate those. Oh yeah, and sleep. Yesterday, I just slept all afternoon, because there was nothing else. I know. I need a social life.

[quote name='trentlondon']Definitely Evangelion. What with all the God vs. Mankind elements. I mean the freaking main bad guy is GOD. Only the Japanese could get away with something like that. And has anyone ever seen that hentai anime (though I think it was meant to be a hentai comedy) with the giant monster penis that killed women? I forgot it's title. If someone could let me know that'd be cool. And just fyi I'm not into hentai. One of my friends downloaded it for giggles. Ah. Just found it. Legend of the Overfiend.[/QUOTE] I didn't think God was the bad guy in that...did I miss something? The reason the show can be seen as controversial is that it raises the question, what is reality? Is there an objective truth? That in itself challenges the idea of God, because He [I]is[/I] truth. However, even though I am a Christian, I liked the show, because it demonstrated the importance of relationships in people's lives. (And it was pretty.)

Right now, I'm in the middle of the [B]Wheel of Time[/B] series, by Robert Jordan, but I'm still grieving his sad, sad death, so it's going kind of slow. I intend to read [B]Prince Caspian[/B] again before I finish WoT, though, because the movie is coming out soon, and I want to be able to tell which parts are true to the book and which aren't. I'd like to get my hands on the rest of the [B]Guin Saga[/B], too. I've only read the first three, and the last one was really a cliffhanger. I think there's a manga now, which I must have as soon as possible.

I can't get enough of the Rasmus OR Muse. Recently, I'm rediscovering the Cars, but my dad says they sucked in concert. (I believe him.) I'm obsessed with Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda. Their piano and violin music make my heart sing. I've been looking for music from Destiny: Dreamer's Alliance. I guess that was some performance in Australia, if anyone knows wth I'm talking about. I just listened to a song by Owl City called "Hello Seattle." It's great music...great lyrics really.

[quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Arial]Three pages and no one's brought up Bebop? [spoiler]Only two deaths to speak two here. First is Grin's, but to me his life was more poignant than his death. That Spike gave him an honorable send-off was fitting, I think. The other is quite obviously Julia's. The timing, combined with the John Woo homage, was impeccable, and it was a death I felt coming but didn't really see. They had me strung along, too; for a while, I thought they were going to make the fairy-tale ending plausible, and even well done, and to have that jerked away in one shot was absolutely masterful.[/spoiler][/FONT][/QUOTE] [spoiler]I hate Gren's death. He was one of my favorite characters, and what had happened to him and his friendship with Vicious was so sad, because he really believed in the good part of that guy, if there ever was one. (I always secretly hoped he would live and hook up with Faye;)) [/spoiler] Other sad deaths: [spoiler]Setsuko [/spoiler] from Grave of the Fireflies, I'd have to agree was probably the saddest. I watched that with my parents, and I had to beat the tears back. [spoiler]Tima[/spoiler] from Metropolis. I kept hoping Kenichi would catch her or something. I think the Ray Charles classic "I Can't Stop Loving You" during that one really made the difference though. [spoiler]The baby ohm from Nausicaa. [/spoiler] OK maybe that wasn't SUCH a big deal, but I felt sorry for the little princess. [spoiler]Vegeta's death in the Buu saga of DBZ, when he sacrifices himself to save everybody. [/spoiler] Also in DBZ, [spoiler]Gohan's death[/spoiler] in Trunks' future.