₦airaland Forum

[quote author=hot-angel link=topic=4665.msg154575#msg154575 date=1136410769]Never heard of Risk.. but.. it's all good.[/quote]y-o-u--h-a-v-e--n-e-v-e-r--h-e-a-r-d--o-f--R-i-s-k-?
We must be living on a different planet. You do not know [b]the [/b]boardgame of boardgames, the one and only master of them all? The most high boardgame?
Go and seek knowledge at http://boardgamecentral.com/games/risk.html

[quote author=hot-angel link=topic=4665.msg154575#msg154575 date=1136410769]Monopoly is soo much fun! I wish i can find it online. And prolly play with people.[/quote]see http://boardgamecentral.com/games/monopoly.html you'll probably find something there

If you play Monopoly, keep a close eye on your cashflow and your credit rating (how much credit you can obtain by mortaging your land). Always think at least 2 rounds ahead.

My favorite board game is definitely Risk. We used to play that for hours while in University. Didn't have to go to the pub. Just one or two bottles of wine, friends and Risk. Lovely memories

@ chrisd

Sentience is more than the capacity to feel pain. The ability to feel pain could be an indicator for sentience early in the pregnancy.

Anyway, go and read the debate at http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=88699 you will certainly like it

panthress:
man i can't believe your sooooooo. hmm whatz the word, even tho it doesnt feel no pain or shite cmon its something u kno deep down u, is like u. is prolly a spittin image of u, r u going to be so cruel to kill somethin like you.

I'm probably going to shock you, but an adult chimpanzee is much more like me or you than a 3 week old fetus. The fetus does not yet have a functioning nervous system. No feelings, no sensations, no functioning brain, just a lump of divinding cells, busy assembling a [i]potential [/i]human being.

panthress:
itz juz like killin your self. i don't really u would kill yourself because u don't like the way u look or somethin, then would u want to kill somethin in your image.

It even less something in my image than a patch of my skin.

panthress:
thatz what i hate about the western world is puttin into pplz mind. the doc come say i no dey feel pain an u believ am so u go go kill your about to be pikin. u no dey shame man.
talk bak man

This has nothing to do with the western world directly. It is some misconceived representation of humanity that was introduced in Africa by the missionaries. Now the Africans are coming back to rechristen Europe.... ironic, isn't it?

goodguy:
Since no one has said anything convincing about the existence of aliens, I guess someone should be able to say something about this ---> Do vampires exist?

Yes, they most definitely do exist. They are a type of bat.
See http://bss.sfsu.edu/geog/bholzman/courses/fall99projects/vampire.htm

But, if you are referring to the undead humanoids that feed on human blood, the offspring of count Dracula, I'm affraid no convincing evidence of their existence has been found to date, so the preliminary conclusion is: no, they do not exist.

repose?

chrisd:
I think we already have the disease nfern "Christianity-in-a-bubble"

I would be very happy to hear about your reading of Christianity. Maybe we could reach a common ground.

chrisd:
What you think?

I think you're avoiding the unpleasant conclusions about the nature of God.

Good does not need to exist in opposition to evil. Good can be defined a a absence of suffering (maybe our Buddhist brethern were right after all). In the world of an all powerfull, all Good God, we would not even need the concepts of Good and Evil in the first place. These would be utterly meaningless to us.

wendytilda:
i saw the topic as "Christians:-can a non Christian go to heaven?"
I'm suprised to see u here too Nfery(with your arguments),I thought u are not a Christian or have u changed your mind.

Why? If I'm breaking any rules, I'm sure Seun will be on my back shortly. Anyway, I'm politely engaging my Christian brethern in this debate. I want to understand how exactly they arrive at their conclusions and what their motivations are.

chrisd:
God chose to create humankind free, and that evil is the result of our abuse of that freedom. Evil is not God’s fault; it is ours. This defence applies only to moral evil; natural evil does not result from the choices of free agents, and so cannot be justified in this way. Natural evil therefore poses a greater threat to belief in God than moral evil.

What is freedom?
What is use, what is abuse of freedom?
If god is omniscient, he knows that by creating man free, he would willingly introduce moral evil in the world. Where does that leave God?

chrisd:
A generic response to the problem of evil question its fundamental assumptions. It denies that God is morally good, casting doubt on whether he would prevent evil if he were able to; the second denies that evil exists, casting doubt on whether there is a problem to solve at all.

Yes, indeed and your conclusion is?

chrisd:
The conditions for being a good God, though, have nothing to do with moral goodness, because God is the wrong kind of thing to be described as morally good. Moral goodness is to do with fulfilling one’s duties, acting in the way that one ought to act. God, though, has all authority over Creation; he has no duties; there is no way that he ought to act. To describe God either as morally good or as morally bad is therefore a mistake; God is an amoral being. God’s perfection, then, does not imply moral goodness, and so does not entail that he will prevent evil from occurring.

So basically saying that God is good is meaningless. The only goodness we can have knowledge about is moral goodness, the goodness of God is unknowable to us.

layi:
GOD is actually coined from the word Good.

Is it, I didn't know. I have not seen any etymological entries indicating that God stems from Good

layi:
Evil is the absence of good/GOD.

Truth be told, GOD is not the one punishing people..albeit old testament wrtiers of the bible had lil revelation as per the person and work of satan. He is the accuser of the brethren and doer of evil.

So God splits himself up to allow evil to exist. Why?

layi:
GOD's commandments and principles are like an hedge round us. If u break...the serpent would bite. GOd isnt an evil doer. U get evil as a result of your disobedience..a consequence of your action...a principle in line without laws of nature.... law of "cause and effect"

Ultimately, evil are the acts that harm others. Are you changing the meaning of the word evil to disobedience?

chrisd:
Calm down a bit nfern. It is not rules of God, just that a lot of persons misinterpret God's word. Seen a lot of that happening.

I'm calm, don't worry. You cannot possibly maintain that God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent, while at the same time evil exists on this world. This is just impossible.

layi:
Then the judiciary is also evil for condemning a criminal.

The judiciary would be evil for condemning a criminal if:
* they know beforehand what the criminal is going to do
* they have the power to prevent the criminal from commiting his criminal act
* they chose not to act, thus allowing the criminal to do harm
* they condemned the criminal afterwards, even though thy could have prevented the criminal act in the first place
This is not only evil, it is also wicked
Now apply the same logic to your God

nicetohave:
It is called foolishness, because what exactly do you call good works? no man can be justified before God by the works of the flesh because all our righteousness are as filthy rags before him, a condemned man cannot ransom himself except with his life, so if you refuse the offer of redemption then the price is to pay yourself, etenal death!

If that is the case, than your God is pure evil. By no stretch of the imagination can an all good God do such a thing.

chrisd:
This approach leaves us entirely unable to communicate with the modern world. This also dishonors God by refusing to use the minds and the knowledge He has given us. Assuming that faith is not rationally explainable or justifiable, you end up with a compartmentalized mind. Thus your faith does not connect with anything outside it. This movement has had a strong effect on evangelical churches. Remember that the term "leap of faith" comes from an existentialist philosopher (Kierkegaard), not the Bible; and "ya gotta believe" is the motto Peter Pan, not Jesus.

This is exactly what I've noticed with nicetohave. As a medical doctor, he surely does have the intellectual power and rationality to pass his studies and apply that knowledge to his everyday life. When it comes to matters of religion, he refuses to apply those same reasoning skills because it would lead to conclusions that he does not like to. A compartimentalized mind, indeed.

Either you abandon that backwards anti-intellectual reading of the Bible or you remain a walking contradiction and - in some cases - a menace to the advancement of the human race. I have had extremely meaningful and deep discussions with a parish priest about the meaning of the divine and God. But that was a man that lived among the poor and the oucasts, not some fire and brimstone paster who likes to show off in BMW X5 bought on the tithes of his poor suffering flock.

alheri:
This is MERCY.

And an honest person who tried to do good all his life, but does not believe will go to hell for all eternity. What do you call that?

nicetohave:
Are you qualified to judge that which is wicked or not?

Why would I be less qualified than anyone else?

nicetohave:
meaning he either has sincerely got his commentary on the origin and compilation of the gospels wrong or he his making an attempt to discredit that which cannot be discredited, both ways what i have read above is utter baloney

Right, one needs to be a true _(tm) believer before one can comment on the Bible, regardless of one's accademic credentials.
Again you come with statements like utter baloney without substantiating them. Why is it utter balony?

but if you honestly repent on your death bed, even after having commited the most atrocious crimes against humanity, you will go to heaven. This is wicked.

nicetohave:
MOST LIKELY: a feeble attempt by man to explain away his source and life

Meaning?

Visa and mastercard have already implemented this in Belgium (and I guess in many other countries as well). Nothing new

Do not assume that they will not know your pin. I won't enter into details here - I might give some people unsavory ideas - but it can and has been done.

AbbeyMarie:
@ Nyferyn. Thank you for referring to me, how elbaron explained atheism. I was under the delusion that atheism meant only that you believe there is no God, and that cleared it up for me.

My pleasure

AbbeyMarie:
It seems to me that either way you must take a leap of faith. Either you must take a leap of faith that God exists, is real and created us all.

No. What I'm saying is that atheism is simply the lack of God belief. As for the cause of us and the universe being here, we do not know for certain, but the Big Bang Theory is currently the best supported explanation. In the case of atheism, when confronted with something that cannot readily be explained, you must honestly conclude that you don't know. Faith is belief without evidence. Atheism requires no such thing.
In your case, you must have faith that (1) God exists and is real, (2) God created us all.

AbbeyMarie:
Or you must take a leap of faith saying, God might not exists. If God doesn't exist, then we are all basically screwed either way no matter which leap of faith you take, because we will be nothingness.

I already said that this does not require faith at all. Why would we be screwed? We would no longer be, so there is nobody to be screwed anymore. What we do in our short life can and does have an impact on others. Thinking that al wrongs on this earth will be straightened in heaven is an encouragement for passive behaviour and acceptance of evil on this planet. It is the perfect tool for those in power to screw you over and make you accept your predicament.

AbbeyMarie:
But, if God does exist... then well, that's a different story.

There are no indications he does exist and lots of counter indications. Why be irrational?

AbbeyMarie:
So I think, why not. Why not take a chance and believe there is a God? He might just prove it to you. Then you might think. Which God should i take a chance on? They are all so alike... Well, many religions believe that everyone goes to heaven. But, i know that, at least, Christianity says Only those who are Christians go to heaven.

And what are you trying to say here exactly? I think you would gain insight by studying some other religions outside Christianity

AbbeyMarie:
Let's look at how else Christianity is also unique. Take Buddha out of Budism. You still have rules to follow and, a way of life. Take Moses out of Judism, you still have rules to follow, a way of life, a religion. Take Muhammad out of Muslim, you still have rules to follow, a way of life, a religion. If you take the founder out of any religion, you would still have rules to follow, way of life.

There's far more to these religions than you suggest. The way they treat their texts is usually very different from Christianity.

AbbeyMarie:
Except for Christianity. Christianity, is simply a relationship with Jesus Christ, if you were to take Jesus out of the religion, you would have absolutely nothing.

Which makes it the most anti-intellectual religion I've come in contact with. Ignorance and stupidity are seen as virtues - as long as you accept Jesus in your heart....

AbbeyMarie:
Yes you could follow the rules.... but you would no longer be a Christian, because a Christian is someone who has a personal relationship with Christ, they received Jesus into their heart, and you simply can't take Jesus out of it.

This is always the final refuge for Christians: their personal relationship with Christ. The most intangible thing found on this planet. How do you define that relationship? How do you detect it? How do you know that it's real?

AbbeyMarie:
Also, Christianity is the only religion that you can't do anything to get into Heaven by yourself, after you have sinned. There is nothing at all you can do, but receive Jesus' gift.

And how do you know that you specific version of Christianity is the correct one?

AbbeyMarie:
So, at that, if you are going to take a chance, why not take it on the most unique religion, that says they are the only way to heaven

All religions are unique in their own way, but this is certainly not what makes Christianity unique.

AbbeyMarie:
Like i said before, if it turns out, that there is no God, it won't matter anyway. So Why not? Why not? Why not take a chance, and let yourself believe, if only for the moment, and pray that God will prove to you himself that he exists? What harm could it do? Why not?

Ah, another version of Pascal's wager. You are in excellent company, my dear
This argument was first used by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal, it goes as follows:
If you erroneously believe in God, you lose nothing (assuming that death is the absolute end), whereas if you correctly believe in God, you gain everything (eternal bliss). But if you correctly disbelieve in God, you gain nothing (death ends all), whereas if you erroneously disbelieve in God, you lose everything (eternal damnation).

There are some problems with this argument, though.
1. It assumes that you have knowledge of God's intentions (which you cannot have)
2. It assumes that there is no evidence against God (there is ample evidence against the existence of the specific God of Christianity, Judaism and Islam)
3. It assumes that those who do not believe in him will end up in eternal torment (not a universal belief, even among Christians)
4. It assumes that belief in God is sufficient to go to heaven
5. It assumes that you can impose a belief on yourself

What I dislike most about this argument is that - in the good Christian tradition - it is again an argument out of fear. Christianity, in most of it's variations, is a religion of fear: fear for sin, fear for God, fear for the devil, fear for life after death, fear for the sinners, fear of not having served God enough, .... nothing but fear

theORAKU:
@logical,
God's words and workings is beyond the logical reasoning of the greatest human being.

There are so many things that are logically beyond the reasoning of the human being.\
Like i keep wondering if GOD when he was creating the garden of eden didnt know that Adam and eve were going to eat the forbidden fruit.
Of course, he knew rite from the outset and he still went ahead to warn them not to eat it, Whereas he knew they were.

The reason for that is beyond my own logical reasoning, but GOD knows better.

Retreat into ignorance. What a solution
If that were true, why does anyone then claim to know anything about the nature of God?

AbbeyMarie:
[SNIP]
This is how freewill and predestination can co-exist. God understands how we will act, so he puts us in certain places in certain times with certain people, because he knows how we will act. And he knows that the result of our life in this particular place/time/etc... will benefit his Kingdom, and his glory the most.

That's a nice way to avoid the issue. Free will is an illusion in this context. The future is predetermined as all future acts are known by God beforehand. There is no way to avoid your faith.

AbbeyMarie:
and yes, i know that after reading that you may ask, why God would create people who he know will end up going to Hell, and i will try to answer that the best i can, right now, so we don't have to go and create another thread that will get us nowhere .

It would get us nowhere because you would never question the properties of God. You'd retreat into ignorance by saying that we cannot fully understand the nature of God.

AbbeyMarie:
No one can truly answer why God created people who would go to Hell. All you know, is that God is always just, but he is also merciful, all-knowing and loves us so much that he gave us Jesus, and above all, God is always right. So you must say that if it is true that God is just, merciful, all-knowing, loving, right, and it is also true that he created people who he knows will go to Hell, you must eventually conclued that either God has a reason, and that reason is just, merciful, loving, right, and good for us in the long term (all-knowing, God knows the future) or you must conclude that you yourself, as a human, with the limited knowledge capacity of a human, is right, and a God that is just, merciful, all-knowing, loving and always right, is wrong.

Hope that clears that up.

No it doesn't. You change the meaning of just, merciful, loving and right to make it fit your preconceived ideas about God.
If God is all seeing (omniscient), all powerful (omnipotent) and all good (omnibenevolent), then:
1. Free will cannot exist because omniscience implies predestination
2. Evil in the world would be impossible because an omnibenevolent and omnipotent God by definition would not allow such a thing
3. the world would not exist becasue an omnipotent God would limit his posibilities by creating something outside of himself

@ AbbeyMarie
You put a lot of faith in a theory of salvation that was developed 4th century in a political struggle between the priests Arius and Athanasius. It was Emperor Constantine himself that pushed for the deification of Jesus because it suited his political needs better

ono:
It takes only 30 -40 minutes to learn all there is. I'm talking from experience.

Either you are naturally gifted or you and your wife are missing out on a lot

panthress:
blad i juz came in 2day and i juz put my own tingz i aint got so much time to read 4 pages but when u right 4-7 page essay why i shld read it then holla at me . Peace

Don't sweat it. It was a friendly advice anyway. There are good arguments pro and contra abortion. There is just not an absolute right or wrong on this issue. The exchange between myself and Vexxy (who unfortunately is no longer very active here) should enlighten you

The main question is what exactly is an abortion?
Is it the killing of a human being?
Is it [i]always [/i]the killing of a human being?
In the early stages of pregancy, you cannot really talk about the fetus being a human being. It has no senses and no capacity to feel pain, or anything for that matter. It is no more a human being that my right toe. Anyway, just read the exchange and you'll probably learn a few things (I have)

panthress:
[i][/i][b][/b]blad abortion is a crime and must be stopped. even if the girl waz raped u still don't have a right to kill a human being. only God has the right to kill a human being. for those who don't believe in God check yourself if u would kill somethin so innocent juz because it can't talk and say don't kill me. if your not allowed to kill a frikkin cat in the western world why would u be allowed to kill somethin livin. somethin in your image. what u think iz better killin a cat or a child

You must have thought very long and hard about that position, haven't you
A small friendly suggestion: read the previous entries in this thread.