Sandy

[quote name='Generic NPC #3']It's not even coming out in Japan till around mid-2006. It's definitely not hitting the US or anywhere else before then.[/quote] Actually, the Japanese release date for Final Fantasy XII is 16th March, 2006. No American or European dates are announced yet, but Square-Enix has said that it'll come out in Europe by the end of the next year, so it won't be that late. It's right before the release of PS3, too. ;) On behalf of the subject in hand, I don't know if I'll even buy anymore games this year... Mainly because I don't have that much money to spend, and also because there isn't that many games I want in the European market. Next year is a totally different thing, though. [B]FF XII[/B], [B]Shadow Hearts: From the New World[/B], [B]Dreamfall[/B], [B]Grandia 3[/B], [B]Soul Calibur 3[/B] (I'm pretty sure it won't come here until next year)... A whole plethora of great games! 8D The next year after that (meaning 2007) I'm planning on buying [B]Xbox360[/B] to accompany my PS2 and GBA, because it seems to have a few very interesting RPGs I'd like to get my hands on, namely [B]Lost Odyssey[/B] and [B]eNCHANT arM[/B]. ;)

[QUOTE=Ilium][COLOR=DarkRed] By the by, I take offense to being called 'You Americans' >.>[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Oh geez... Do you really think I meant it like that? :P You are [I]Canadian[/I], I get it! Don't you realize that I simply can't write "you Americans/Canadians/Mexicans/Brits etc." to every post of mine? I wrote it because I targeted my post [I]mainly[/I] to American people who I very well know live in the "oven of nations" (or something like that). I don't find it odd, really, I said it's odd to read about it, as I'm not so used to it in this part of the world. ;) There's nothing amazing about it, though, since I'm very aware that people from different races can breed with each other. ;P Stop taking everything so literally and personally, Illie! ;D

Too bad the teams were cancelled... It sounded like a very original idea that was never fully put to use. Uh, maybe that was the reason, Sage... X/ Stoopid me. But I have to say I'm a bit taken aback by the decrease of staff. Although the regural members behave well and contribute intelligent discussion, there's an increasing amount of new members who have yet to fully understand the rules, and so are causing a flood of spam - often without better knowledge, sometimes on purpose. I'm especially worried about the condition in the Adventure Arena, since only Ozy is in charge of the two massive sections... I trust Jamesy will correct that in the near future, though. ;)

[QUOTE=sakurasuka][CENTER][SIZE=1]I'm about... 80% Finnish. (Though I live in America.) The rest is made up of mostly French and Native American. I'm 5'1", blonde, blue-eyed and super pale. Obnoxiosly pale. Though I have so much Finnish blood in me, I've never been to Finnland! I really would like to learn Finnish, though. I'm taking it next year. (This year I've got Latin and Japanese, lol.) This thread was a really cool idea! Gets us back to our roots ~_^[/SIZE][/CENTER][/QUOTE] Hey, another member with ties to Finland! There's now like... three of us! ;P Minako is the third, by the way. However, I'm the only one here (to my knowledge) who is 100% Finnish. I'ts actually pretty odd to read how you Americans are half-this, quarter-that etc. Finland's a pretty inbred country, there's rather few immigrants in proportion to natives. I've noticed that the most interesting looking people have often a mixture of origins. My female friend's ex-girlfriend, to her words, was drop-dead gorgeous, being half-Japanese, half-Scottish (!). My friend told that her hair was black except for two natural red streaks in the front. Too bad she was a b****... :/

[quote name='Panda']If there is something I can do and do really well, it's floating on my back. I could do that all day long and not sink. [/quote] I'm the same way! I'm not much of a swimmer, I get tired pretty easily, but I love water, splashing it like a little child and diving and also floating. I'm light as a feather (that weights 55 kilos), so I find it sometimes hard to sink even if I wanted to. :/ There's this huge lake in the city I live in, and one of it's best beaches is practically next to the house I live in, but I have gone swimming there only twice this summer. Don't know why... Oh wait, I do! I [I]hate[/I] to go swim alone (although there's always dozens of people in the beach, especially in hot days), and my boyfriend isn't much into swimming, so I haven't had much chances. Seriously, swimming and horseplaying in the water isn't much fun if you do it alone... And especially the latter looks extremely insane to outsiders if done alone. ;P

[QUOTE=celestialcharm] Now, our last name, which is my dad's is very weird and strange. I think it might be scandinavian or something. I was made fun of alot as a child for having this, it is 'Boddie.' [/QUOTE] I'm from Scandinavia and I can say that it quite likely isn't a Scandinavian name. See, none of the languages used here (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or Finnish) use the end -ie. I'm no linguistic, but I think it might be more of a Scottish/Irish name, or possibly even plain British. I'm not saying this to offend you in any way, I just think it's fun to guess where different names originate from. :)

[QUOTE=Epsilon][SIZE=1][COLOR=SlateGray]To view a full list of Administrators, Moderators, and Technical Support. Please direct to the front page. Scroll down to the table column above [i] 'What's Going On?'[/i] - Click [b]View Forum Leaders[/b], this link is listed next to the link [i] Mark Forums Read.[/i] It will then show all Moderators, Administrators, Team Leaders, and Technical Staff. I hope that was of help to you.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/QUOTE] Much, thanks!! Geez, could they have invented anymore trickier and out-of-sight place to put it?! But still, it's nice to know there [I]is[/I] one. ;)

[QUOTE=Chabichou][COLOR=#004a6f]I dunno.... disobeying seems more dangerous to me, as the result is hell. ... I [B]choose[/B] to obey God. Disobeying has consequences on the day of judgement.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] That's EXACTLY my point!! You are driven by fear! You fear that if you don't do [I]exactly[/I] what you are told to, you will suffer punishment in the afterlife! Well, here's a newsflash: you are [I]already[/I] living in hell! Living in constant fear is the most horrible thing I can ever imagine! How can you not question your god, if believing in him does nothing good to you? You choose to suffer in a mindless fear, for what? To get to heaven? How can you be sure you are going to go to heaven? Have you seen it? No, you believe you are going to go to heaven [I]because you were told so[/I]. You are jammed in a vicious cycle, and the only way out of it is to open your eyes to [I]this[/I] world you are living in! I'm not trying to convert you out of your religion, I am trying to get you to realize that there is so much more life has to give to you than religion! Can you ever achieve happiness if you choose to live under oppressing rules and obey everything others dictate to you? Isn't the point of living to be happy? I believe you aren't living for this life, you are living for a [I]possible[/I] next life. I'm extremely sad for you, and for all the people who feel the same as you... On the other hand I think you have chosen the easy route through life, but on the other hand I think you've chosen the most hardest route of them all.

[quote name='Break']...we cannot - especially as outsiders - interfere with how this country is run.[/quote] Well, you're partially mistaken. See, [I]we[/I] - as in you and me and others in this forum - cannot interfere with it, but there are such things as United Nations and other international organizations that can put a certain pressure on the countries that violate basic human rights in such a horrible way. Again, I'm not saying that they should start a war or anything, but make them see that there are less brutal ways of punishment - and that there are things that shouldn't even be punished. It's one of the upsides of globalism - people everywhere have the same rights. Of course, the change won't happen overnight, but I wish dearly that eventually people everywhere can live free from oppression and persecution coming from their own government. And I wouldn't worry too much about "intervening with the culture". Imagine how we all would live if there had been no revolutionary steps in the history. We would still live from the land, hunting and gathering, struggling to survive in the wild nature. On the other hand, it wouldn't be that bad a thought... But the world progresses, and so must we. [quote] I am only quick to condemn it because it is forbidden by God. There's something called obedience without question. And you're right, I probably don't know what a homosexual feels. But regardless of that, God says it's forbidden, so I condemn these actions. If you can't help the way you feel, God still expects you to obey him. It's a challenge you must face. And personally, I don't think abstinence is the biggest challenge.[/quote] [B]Chabichou:[/B] I'm sorry to say such an offending thing, but you've got one [I]sucky[/I] religion there! Don't you see that you aren't thinking things yourself?! You obey blindly, and that is one of the most dangerous things that a human can do! Guess what makes Islamic extremists blow themselves up in a crowd of innocent people? They didn't stop to question their actions, they just did as they were told! You, Chabichou, are being oppressed and diminished and controlled and forbidden to be yourself by your religion! I find it extremely sad that you do not see it yourself...

I might be horribly wrong, but there isn't any page where the entire staff working with OtakuBoards would be listed, is there? By staff I of course mean administrators, moderators and technical support. I'd personally would be very interested to know who are the mods and admins at this moment, as they seem to have changed quite a bit recently, and I honestly don't know how to conveniently see that without going through each forum and sub-forum one by one... So if there isn't such a list anywhere at the site, could some kind person who actually knows who are in the staff post the list in this here thread? It'd be much appreciated...

[QUOTE=sakurasuka][CENTER][SIZE=1]Even though my Bible tells me that's the way it is, I don't really have my own beliefs on all that yet. Am I a bad Christain? Maybe. Do I have doubts sometimes? Who DOESN'T? I am human, and I can't explain (Nor do I wish to know) how everything works. [/SIZE][/CENTER][/QUOTE] I don't know how the priests at your country preach, but at least here, where the Evangelic Lutheran Church is in power, the ministers practically [I]urge[/I] people to ponder and doubt on religious things! Probably because people here don't think about religion much, or just take it for granted, but also because many things said in the Bible don't apply to our days. I think the church here is quite mellow and pacifistic compared to some other countries, where it has taken extreme forms and caused much suffering to those who don't want to bend to it's morals. Here, religion is quite a private thing, it's not pushed to your face much if you don't want (except Jehovas, but because of that nobody takes them seriously), and I wish it would stay that way. So what if somebody doesn't believe in God or Jesus or afterlife? It's their own business, and they surely are very aware of their decision. And on the other hand, so what if somebody does believe in God and Jesus and afterlife? It's their own business, nobody should have anything to say about it! I see that the only problem in this picture is the whole "spread the word and make all nations my subjects" (free translation from the Finnish version) -thing that some Christians have taken literally. Throughout history that one verse has ended millions of lives and caused endless misery. I truly hope that modern Christians see the true consequences of "hitting people with the Bible"...

[QUOTE=Chabichou][COLOR=#004a6f] I would simply like to ask where the hypocricy is.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Oh [I]sure[/I], skip all the relevant parts and cling onto one word! Phooey... I haven't studied the Islamic god that much, but I thought it's in Islam's nature as well that love is a good thing. So how come love between two men or two women isn't a good thing, while love between a man and a woman is, although it's the same emotion? If that's not hypocricy then I don't know what is... And it's not flaming if I say I loathe you. [I]It's the hard truth[/I]. I have no respect for people who think they are above others, who have the nerve to undermine somebody else's feelings, who judge others without better knowledge etc. I mean, [I]honestly[/I], do you know any homosexual personally? Do you know what being a homosexual feels like? You are quick to condemn something you have absolutely no knowledge on! So, I'm not flaming you, I am simply angered and saddened by your ignorance and apparent lack of empathy for the feelings of other people!

Quite an interesting and original event you've whipped up, Shy. ;) I'm a bit worried if this will turn out to be as popular as you predict, but at least I'm totally in! I just wish that the deaths you mentioned wouldn't be as random as they seem to be... I mean, if one writes great posts with a lot of depht and character development and another writes only one-liners, and then the first one dies after few posts... It wouldn't be fair at all, even though this isn't a competition. But I hope this will be fun! I'm counting on you, Shy! ;) Okay, here's my character: ____________________________________________________________________ [CENTER][B]Code Name:[/B] [I]Melinoë[/I], after a Greek she-demon, who she closely resembles. The name means "dark mind" in ancient Greek. [B]Gender:[/B] [I]female[/I]. [B]Location:[/B] [I]Quebec[/I], the french-speaking part of Canada. [B]Age:[/B] [I]29 years[/I], born in 6th June, making her a Gemini in horoscope. [B]Appearance:[/B] [I]see attachments for pictures[/I]. Her skin is pale white from the right side of her body, and jet black from the left. Half of her hair is black and half white, in reverse sides. The iris of her right eye is dark blue, but her whole left eye is burning red except the black pupil. She is relatively tall for a female, but that isn't a surprise taking account her heritage. She wears a strange purple rubber outfit with several parts tied together by leather straps and chains. She also carries a long, red, spiked whip with a black scythe on the other end. The name of the weapon is [I]Phlegethon[/I], after the underworld river of fire. All in all, she is quite a disturbing and intimidating sight wherever she goes, so most of the times she keeps to herself. [B]Personality:[/B] Melinoë's behaviour is as [I]divided[/I] as her body. At times she is as frigid as ice, not revealing any emotions in any direction. But when she gets pissed off, her wrath burns hotter than any flame, and won't die down until she has settled the score. This makes her a very difficult person to be around (a "stuck up b*tch", some say, while others call her a "merciless she-demon") yet most people can't help but to admire her. What she feels within her, nobody knows but herself. Torn apart by her loneliness and her hatred of humankind, she prefers to keep it that way. But one thing all people who spend more time with her notice: she never smiles. [B]Biography:[/B] Melinoë was a result of a brutal rape commited by her [I]mother, Nemesis[/I] the She-demon of Vengeance, to her [I]human father[/I], who lost his life after conceiving her. Melinoë knows not what her father had done in order to face the wrath of her mother, but on the other hand, she doesn't care. She knows who her mother is too well, as she got countless visitations from her while she grew up in an orphanage in Canada. The nurses of the orphanage thought Melinoë's appearance was just a genetic mishap, but the other children were very afraid of her. Thus she grew up alone, without the company of her peers. The visits from her cruel mother where the only substance in her life. As Melinoë got older, her mother taught her the art of combat for self-defence, and also how to control her mental ability (which will be explained in the respective section). But when Melinoë turned eighteen, her mother abandoned her, without saying a word. Knowing that searching for Nemesis would be useless, Melinoë had no other option but to start living her own life. She could've used her powers for commiting crimes, she wouldn't have even had to worry about ever getting caught, but her mother's way of life attracted her more. She was disgusted by those who treated people unfairly, so she took the laws of the mortals to her own, two-colored hands, and became a notorious mercenary avenger. [B]Supernatural abilities:[/B] Being half-demon, half-human, Melinoë has gained a supernatural skill of [I]intimidation[/I]. As a child, she was constantly surrounded by an aura of fear, so weak that it didn't have much effect on adults, but with her mother's guidance her potency grew, and she learned how to control it. Now, as an adult, she can halt people with the sheer power of fear, make them whimper, cry, and beg for mercy. The weakness of the power is that those who have nothing to fear or lose are unaffected. In those cases she relies on the [I]Phlegethon[/I] and her martial, demon-style combat skills.[/CENTER]____________________________________________________________________ Here she is, hope you like her. ;) I know, she has much potential to be a villain, but consider her to be one of those "avenger"-type antiheroes. She also has much room for personality development, which I think will make playing her that much more fun. Who knows, maybe there's even somebody that can break through her emotional shield of ice and fire... ;) I think I'm able to write [B]daily[/B], or at least several times a week. My post will most likely be of the [B]M[/B]ature variety, mainly because of language and violence (have pity for the poor guy who tries to hit on Mel... ;P ). Phew, that took a long time to write! Now all there is to do is to wait for the event to start... ;D [B]EDIT:[/B] Added a full-color face picture of Melinoë.

Okay, I shouldn't probably write this reply, because I will have to do my very best not to FLAME Chabichou's ignorant little butt to blisters! *puts on a fake smile* Let me delve into your "reasons", Chabichou. [QUOTE=Chabichou]Oh, just the dozen or so reasons that have been pointed out repeatly in the past in other debates. Such as the fact copulation is naturally supposed to occur between a male and female, and no one is naturally gay, because as many have pointed out in the past, children of homosexuals don't turn out homosexual too, so it's not genetics folks. [/QUOTE] The fact that reproducion occurs only between men and women doesn't mean that sex between two men or two women is "unnatural" or "abnormal"! Huge majority of heterosexual couples have sex constantly without the intention of getting pregnant! You may call that "immoral" but no way is that unnatural. Besides, many animals have also been witnessed to practice same-gender sex, and although it's unusual, it's not unnatural as they are part of the nature. Same goes with humans. We homosexuals, like it or not, are part of the nature, we were BORN like this despite your "evidence". So what if it's not inherited? If homosexuality was inherited, there wouldn't BE any homosexuals as we usually don't have children! Still, it's in our genes, just not in the ones that pass to our possible offspring. So there goes your "evidence". POOF! [quote]The thing is love and lust are two completely different things. In a romantic relationship, there is both love and lust. So yes, a man can love another man, that's okay. Like two best friends, or two brothers, or a father and son.[/quote] OR as lovers! You simply can't deny that fact just because it doesn't fit into your belief! I know what I feel for my boyfriend, so how DARE you come to me and say that it's not real?! That it's just some perverted lust?! [I]You can't know that as you have no experience in it[/I]!!! [quote]Sex is based on both love and lust (well at least lust). So yes it's wrong for lust to occur between people of the same gender, (according to Islam). Now I believe there's several non religious reasons homosexual acts are wrong (both moral and scientific). But for me and other muslims, ultimately, it all comes down to the fact that God says it's forbidden.[/quote] Again, what might those "several non-religious reasons" be? It's wrong because some people don't like to watch two guys getting it on? So what, it's our business! Scientific reasons? I point to my reply on the genetic part. If the laws nature was against homosexuals, there simply wouldn't be any! And homosexuality isn't just the latest trend, there has been recordings of homosexuals throughout the history, despite the culture or location! I'm a full fledged atheist, so to me God hasn't said anything, but some ancient writing written by an ancient homophobe. I'm sorry that your lives are dictated so much by that (same goes to every other religion, so I'm not just bashing Islam). [quote]All these arguments about homosexuals loving eachother may be true. But God doesn't care if you love eachother, homosexual acts are still forbidden and hated. I know, it's the hard truth. [/QUOTE] Well, frankly speaking, I don't care about your judgmental, hypocrite god. To me, it isn't the truth! It's because of people like you, Chabichou, that my type of people get persecuted, tortured and killed like the two boys in this topic, and I [I]loathe[/I] you because of it.

[QUOTE=are i][COLOR=DarkRed] The same goes for believing that non-Christians will eventually go to Hell. If you really believe in Christianity, than you believe in the ultimate dividing of the people into either Heaven or Hell. [/COLOR][/QUOTE] That's not actually true, see at least in Lutheran teachings there is no Hell, there is only God's heavenly paradise which opens to those who repent their sins and succumb in front of God and Jesus. What happens to the others then, you might ask? The Lutheran church preaches of eternal oblivion, meaning that the soul loses it's immortality. The medieval concept of fiery infernal Hell doesn't fit into this scene at all. I know that Catholic people have it differently, but isn't that one of the many issues the two churches have been fighting over for centuries? I know it's wrong to generalize all Christians into one (and again I apologize if it seems I've done that) because Christiany has divided into so many parts: Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican and all the sects that have separated theirselves from it, like the Mormons and Adventist etc. I reckon that not even all Christians realize how divided their own religion is...

Heh, don't even get me started on Finnish last names! I know the whole language sounds almost impossible to understand to foreigners, because we pronounce letters differently and our words are long as hell. :P My own surname, Hietanen, is quite ordinary here, but I want to take a classical example from one of our former ministers: her full name is Tytti Isohookana-Asunmaa. Try to say [I]that[/I] aloud... ;D

Um, I wasn't being dead serious, Dagger. I'm sorry, but it's my bad habit to throw snarky retorts like that one... Of course I'm not saying that Bible is full of bs, there are many interesting historical documents and beautiful poetry contained within it, but that's exactly why I was trying to point out that it's wrong to call it "solid". Btw, I understood the word as a synonym to "consistent", I'm sorry if I translated it wrong... Boy, it's really hard to keep up a light-hearted debate with such a topic... :/ I wish people wouldn't take everything I say so seriously, because to me religion is not that grave issue.

[quote name='sakurasuka][CENTER][SIZE=1] I just would rather not argue, because it wastes time that neither of us should really waste. (Also, you run the risk of being outsmarted by a 14-year-old ;P Just kidding, Sage! Lol.)[/SIZE'][/CENTER][/quote] But we aren't arguing, we're debating! There's a clear line between those two! ;) I'm not judging anybody according to their beliefs, I just like to think that people should at least give their believings and disbelievings a thought, like you obviously have. ;D To be outsmarted by a 14-year old? Meh, that has happened before... ;P I'm really not the smartest person out there, and I tend to say things I regret later, but I think I've figured this religion-issue out pretty well to myself. I don't see any divinity or "God's work" in my every-day-life, all I see is people, their actions and the consequences that follow. The natural cycle of life, and all that... You might say that the cycle in itself is God's big plan, but why do you insist on bringing up all these miracles and divine interventions then? I have a very pantheistic approach to my atheism; I don't believe that there is any higher forces out there, I believe that life in itself is the "highest power", in all of its forms. This whole globe we live in... it's a pretty darn miraculous thing, but it has nothing to do with mythical feats or prophets or angels. It's just a big ball of pure life. ;) PS. I wasn't trying to generalize Christians, I just didn't want to type "some of you Christians" over and over again. I thought it was self-explanatory that I wasn't talking about the whole bunch...

[quote name='Zeekan']The Bible does make some solid readin.[/quote] Like the parts where it tells you to stone your wife if she cheats, while in the other parts it tells you not to kill? Very solid, indeed...

[quote name='Chabichou][COLOR=#004a6f']So no matter what you say, no matter how hard you try, you're not going to make them (including myself) accept that homosexual acts are okay.[/COLOR][/quote] I beg to disagree. Asides religious base, you only think homosexual acts are wrong because you don't know any gay people personally. You surely have seen homosexuals in television and in the streets, perhaps in your school/workplace, but once you get to know a person who is a homosexual, you will realize that he or she is just the same as any heterosexual - a human being. (I'm basing this assumption to the fact that in my experience homophobia is a fear of the unknown just like any other phobia.) I know you are going against the [I]actions[/I] here, but by that you are directly saying that the love I feel for my boyfriend - as a homosexual, in the romantic sense of love - is false; that it's not real, because love comes from the God (or something like that) and God wouldn't approve us. Or because we only are together because we want to practice our filthy homosexual perversions. Well, here's a newsflash: we really [I]do[/I] love each other, like any heterosexual couple. With devotion, with passion, with caring, even with a bit of jealousy. If you have the nerve to come to me and say it's not right, then I think you're being ignorant and close-minded. I honestly believe that in time, homosexuality will be a fully approved variety of human life, because if we gay people stand up for our rights, generation after generation will be born to a world where love and sex aren't just things between a man and a woman.

[QUOTE=duStAnDteArS]umm excuse me! im not al little kid for your F.Y.I. i know a hell of a lot more then you about how it can screw up a persons life ... fro life so get off my case ok both of yall or idiots im sry to be so rude but its true.... :mad: [/QUOTE] I have [I]no[/I] idea what I said that was so offending... :/ I called you a little kid, because you surely are behaving/writing like one! Even if you are fifteen I'd [I]still [/I] call you a kid, cause in that case I'd be six years older than you. And you cannot say you know a lot more about the issue than I do, simply because you don't know me. But my point here is that I was actually defending you and you exploded on my face, so let me never do [I]that[/I] mistake again.

[QUOTE=Who?] Sorry, but the only reason I defended my beliefs aggressively is because it by all means looked like you were attacking them aggressively.[/QUOTE] I'm not aggressive to the least, I'm actually quite amused at this moment. ;D This thread is going way too fast for me to keep in the pace, btw. People are quoting each other criss-cross, and I'm not even sure whose points I'm arguing against... X/ But this thread will surely end like all religion-themed threads before it: some excessive offending, few flaming replies, and a lock/deletion from a mod. So much for the civilized debating... ;) I hope this doesn't go that far, though. Bah, I'm all out of things to say! Well, not exactly, I'll say this more: no, I don't have evidence that a higher force doesn't exist, but I believe I have evidence that the Biblical God isn't the only true God - there are at least four billion people in the world who don't believe in Him (much more if you count the people who belong to a Christian Church just because they were born into it). There were many religions before Christianity, and there will be many more after it. And guess what, they [I]all[/I] claim/claimed/will claim that their God/gods/deities/spirits are the authentic ones! This leads back to the humane need to believe in something bigger and more powerful. Christianity is just one of the countless forms that this need appears in. I count myself one of those humans who don't feel the need, but I'm not saying I'm any better than the ones who do. In real life I couldn't care less what people believe in, as long as they respect other people's beliefs and non-beliefs. I know I haven't been too respectful in this thread, and I apologize, but the insults are things I wouldn't say to a true believer's face in the real world. This is internet, the Mecca of free speech, and here I tend to say aloud whatever comes to my mind. So I apologize again if I've offended anyone. I'm off to bed now, as it's 4 AM in this corner of the world...

[QUOTE=Ganymede] Of course some of us children are hard headed and stubborn so He will continue to punish us until we understand what we do is wrong. [/QUOTE] Well isn't your god a jolly ol' fella? ;P Takes to the spanking scene, does he? I'm sorry, I'm abhorrently offensive now, but I blame for the lateness and my lack of sleep. I'm currently in a hyperactive way-past-bedtime -mood. ;D What you must realize, Ganymede, is that you simply [I]can't[/I] convert me, or Ilium, or Kamuro, or any of us who admits being an atheist, just as we can't convert you. You try to sound convincing, and I bet to your ear you do, but to me you sound just as "brainwashed" as dustandtears (meaning that you repeat words that are taught to you). We don't share the same beliefs, although we both have strong trust in ours, and getting another person with strong beliefs to change them is quite impossible. So I'm not going to even try. The reason I keep replying to this thread is that I simply find it entertaining. ;) Debating[I] is [/I]fun, although it rarely gets you anywhere. Yet, pointing to my first snarky comment, I must wonder your perspective of the world. You aren't even repeating the "God gave us free will"-mantra, you're going totally Old Testament! God punishes, God makes you pay until you learn, God causes bad things to happen so we'd respect Him! You are quite the gleamy-eyed zealot, aren't you? Like we humans are mere toys to this one almighty presence, that does what he likes to us. Well, I think you're utterly, horribly mistaken. People [I]do[/I] have free will, but it wasn't "granted" to us. We are as free as the bird in the sky or the ant in the dust, because we are like them! A species of animals, highly developed and [I]on top of the evolution[/I], but still animals. People who are all for the Creation seem to forget all the evidences that us humans haven't always been around. It's been proven that once this world was nothing but a ball of molten lava - that's the way the planet formed. It's been proven that once this world was covered under water - that's the way life began. It's been proven that once this world was ruled by enormous reptilians - the dinosaurs, do they ring a bell? With modern technology the fossils can be dated to be millions of years old. There has been no findings of human remains from that long ago. Wait, could that mean that us humans [I]haven't [/I]been around since the beginning of time? Surely you can believe that the ancient fairy tales such as The Creation and Noah's Ark to be true to the word, but don't be surprised if you get amused smiles and snarky remarks in return. And you can curse us non-believers with all the divine wrath you like, we will still live totally normal lives, lightning-bolt free. ;)

[QUOTE=Baron Samedi][size=1]Perhaps the Adam and Eve story is true, and as we currently are, we are but a poor reflection of super-intelligent ancestors with three legs and numerous eyes. I feel so retarded and deformed...[/size][/QUOTE] That very same thought has crossed my mind few times too. ;D And if God created A&E to his own image, think about what kind of a God two billion people are worshipping! An [I]alien[/I] God!

[QUOTE=Who?]And I suppose you get this attitude from the idea that because something, anything, is simple, it must be wrong? Get off your pedastal, dude. And don't accuse Christianity of simplicity, because I can assure you that when you start learning about it, it's a hundred times as complex as Atheism. God doesn't always intervene straighforwardly like that (barely ever, in fact), but it does happen.[/QUOTE] I'm not standing in any pedestal, mind you. I just wish people would stop taking things for granted and began to think for themselves! I believe that even the events at 9/11 could have been prevented if the hijackers had stop to think "is this really what our god wants us to do?". After all, they did it because they believed they had to in order to serve their god. Defeat the enemy of their god, and all that. I'm not saying Christianity is simple, either. I think it's overly complicated, for example the Trinity stuff: "Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are all one but they are also three, separated but not apart" etc. (sorry, I have to translate these things from Finnish in my mind, so they might not be accurate in English). I was saying that blind belief is simple, no matter what religion we are talking about, and people who shut their eyes from all other options are very simple in my opinion as well. And I have studied Christian religion in school, for twelve years! I've also studied many other religions as well, and I can't say I find any evidence that any one of them is the only true religion. Atheism isn't really a religion, so you can't accuse it for being simple. Atheism is the [I]opposite[/I] of religion, [I]not[/I] to believe in any higher force. It's very complicated to actually have to figure everything out by yourself in your own mind, not just look from some book for answers. ;P It's great that you get comfort in believing something, but you don't have to be so agressive in defending your faith - it will only make you look like you're uncertain. ;) [B]Sakurasuka:[/B] Don't you think that there might have actually been researches about evolution after Darwin? ;) You're speaking like he is the only one who has ever studied the subject! I'm no researcher so I have very little understandment over the micro- and macro-whatnots, but to me, [I]any[/I] theory with at least some effort to solve the Big Mysteries of the Universe with one's own brain exceeds the one where "God just made it all happen like that". I'm not saying that the Theory of Evolution is the ultimate truth, but still you Christian people seem strangely offended and aggravated by it. Makes you doubt, does it? Makes you use your [I]own thinking[/I], does it? Scary, huh? ;P