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mr.Ermac

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Posts posted by mr.Ermac

  1. Going by the Windows suckage pattern, I think I'll skip this one and wait for win 9. I've seen a couple of videos and read up on a couple of sites, and what I'm seeing does not excite me at all. It actually annoys me to the point where I just might never upgrade from WinXP. Though Win7 is alright too I guess...

  2. For those interested in the problems of religious pride and feelings of religious self-importance, take a look at Trungpa's "Cutting through spiritual materialism". http://www.amazon.co.../dp/1590306392/

     

    Have faith, that these teachings will make you lose faith.. ;)

     

    J.

     

    Can't really buy the book, but from the description

     

    the true and joyous liberation that inevitably involves letting go of the self rather than working to improve it

     

    Ex-****ing-actly. What most indian teachings aim to tell us is how to let go of the material world (for them it's an illusion anyway, or the veil of Maya). In order for you to truly become one with "God", or see the Absolute, first the SELF must die, that is, as Augustine says, to make room for the Absolute to enter. The problem with 99.99% of people is that they live with a subjective view of the world. People consider themselves the Absolute Object, and thus they constantly keep reflecting back at themselves, never actually stepping aside, to look at the Absolute. Ultimate faith is attained through spirituality. Spirituality is absolutely essential for the understanding of the Absolute, you will NEVER be close to understanding if you keep on digging in the material world. That is exactly why, at some point, science will reach a point where it can't do anything anymore, because it will all be contradictions and illogical scenarios. However that is not the end, but merely the beginning of the dialectics of the Absolute (as in Hegel's dialectics).

     

    You make some interesting points, I can believe in a higher power or rather some Absolute but our interpretation and definition of it is still wrong then. Almost all religions have predefined rules and views of what you need to say or do in order to follow this Absolute. And this I don't prescribe to.

     

    Of course it is wrong, do you think its an easy thing to comprehend? Its not just pointing at it and saying - oh yeah that's it. For more than 2000 years, men smarter than you and me have gazed into that scorching light, as if gazing into the sun, and have pulled out knowledge from there for us to study and try to understand. But this misunderstanding also owes a lot to the fact that philosophy has fallen into a decline in the last century.

     

    Almost all religions have predefined rules indeed, but those were created at times when man was completely ignorant. What now is common knowledge back then was absolutely unfathomable or mystical, transcendent even. The best thing those who had an idea and some comprehension could do is to guide the people by using religion and faith. Do you really think Jesus walked on water? No, that is not his contribution and it is not even important. Nowadays, what you can get out of religion are simple guidelines, kinda like the pirate code in pirates of the caribbean, simply guidelines you can adhere to if you wish. These guidelines will help you, however it is not needed to be a fanatic, throwing around crosses whenever you've done something wrong, because as Martin Luther said, the one who has to really forgive, is you yourself, because God is within you, but that is true only when the Absolute Object has been seen through the Absolute Subject and in the process is in its other with itself.

     

    In the end it is up to you to decide how you do it, the paths are many - the destination is one. The ways paved in different religions can help you, there's nothing to be suspicious about. You may try to walk them, and if they are not for you, you will know. I of course always recommend philosophy, as it works for me and I believe it is one of the most correct ways to approach the Absolute.

    • Like 1
  3. What prosper is asking is not about religious faith, but rather about faith itself and why should bother with it.

     

    Thanks for the detailed response, I am not trying to attack any religion but I want to ask you some questions around the highlighted parts of your post.

    You mention that accepting Christianity can be partly about the weight of evidence But my question is a simple one, can you provide any evidence at all. Anything irrefutable that there is god. I haven't seen or known about anything that suggests there is a higher power, like lights in the sky or some kind of manifestation of an entity. When people ask for this the normal response is "you need to have faith to believe" so we go around in circles.

     

    And then if faith is holding onto things that your reason has accepted how can your reason accept something if there is no proof. I know you have pointed out that your reason can be irrational, like your anesthetic story, but that doesn't change the fact your reason is wrong. Aren't you then saying that faith based on reason can be inherently flawed? So for me that makes no sense for a person to be religious as once again it go's back to the point that there is no real proof.

     

    Right. There is a difference between religious faith and faith in general, although religious faith is based on faith (duh).

     

    Religion in all of its forms sprung out of the lack of understanding human beings had about their surrounding world. You can trace how knowledge and reason have integrated themselves into religions merely by looking at belief systems a few thousand years back. The greeks had many gods, the romans had many gods, not to mention the celts. All those gods were appointed to some particular aspect, which at the times seemed mystical and since it was beyond human control and understanding it was attributed to some otherworldly power or being. However with the increase of knowledge and understanding of those aspects and of our world and beyond these beliefs have changed to incorporate that knoweldge. In actuality Christianity has really evolved from the days of old. True there still are some things that need to be altered, but the essential gist of Christianity, as to what is God is the most accurate in any religion to date. I can try to explain why should need be.

     

    Now then,

     

    But my question is a simple one, can you provide any evidence at all. Anything irrefutable that there is god. I haven't seen or known about anything that suggests there is a higher power, like lights in the sky or some kind of manifestation of an entity.

     

    Let us assume that there is such a thing as a God, an Absolute. As such, God cannot be defined by a single manifestation somewhere in the material world, as that would mean that God has been defined somewhere, someplace and at that very moment, he ceases to be God. An Absolute encompasses everything. Yes, even nothing. All predicates of logic disappear when you are talking about an Absolute as it is everywhere, in all times and outside of all times.

     

    When a religion talks about God it talks in images and representations, it does not use clear terms as to what it is. That's why for example in Christianity we have, the Holly Father, Son and the Holly Spirit. These are representations of the Absolute Object, the Absolute Subject and the Absolute Relation between them. Furthermore, because the people who had such revelations had very limited understanding, and as William James states, the spiritual experience varies for every person experiencing it because they interpret it with their knowledge, they found the most optimal ways to put them into word. Believe you me, trying to explain something beyond your comprehension which is everything at the same time is no easy task.

     

    Now what we really need is to have a clear terminology for these things, something that a philosopher called Georg Hegel has accomplished, though because he is incredibly difficult to understand, he has fallen into obscurity and most modern philosophers look by and down on him.

     

    At any rate - yes, there is proof, attained with reasoning that there is such a thing as a God or rather an Absolute, but it is not exactly what religions make it out to be, MAINLY because they show it through unclear images and representations - not through terms and reasoning, which is why in recent years atheism has become popular, because there are just too many gaps and non-reasonable things in a given belief system and it makes one wonder. I must say though, that whoever reads the Bible and takes everything within it at face value is seriously making a huge mistake.

     

    But even when it finally is explained and all is revealed, you will still need some faith in order to understand. Actually you need faith to even begin to attempt to understand. Because understanding the Absolute is only accomplished at a spiritual level, though you can certainly see the absolute's otherness, you can not begin to understand it itself if you continuously grind in its otherness.

  4. Your answers to my questions are based on faith.

    No, my answers are based on philosophically explaining to you what faith is, you can take it or leave it.

    For some reason I can't edit my post, but anyway, here's some things for you prosper.

     

    Everything you do is based on your faith in something. You go to bed with the belief that you will wake up in the morning. You need faith in order to have purpose. Once again, I repeat faith is a product of the self-awareness. It is how humans function. It is part of existence, so the answer to your question "Why bother with faith" is because you cannot exist normally without it. It is lesson we can take from Descartes' "Cogito ergo sum". He was looking for proof that there's anything real, that something exists. He came to the realization, that he can doubt everything, even faith, even his own existence, even the fact that he is sitting in front of his fireplace. The one undoubtable thing is that you cannot doubt doubt itself, thus leading to the conclusion that there is something real. His doubt nearly drove him to madness, because he had lost faith that he exists, or that anything is real.

     

    Understand that faith is a function of the self-aware consciousness, you cannot function without it.

     

    Some people think they need faith, because they lack the will to do something, and having said faith gives them a certain motivation. Faith gives you the power to be able to overcome something, whatever it may be. In all actuality the only faith you need is faith in yourself, but that cannot happen, without you first understanding what and who you are.

  5. No prosper, I have given you the answer to your questions. It is not the answer that is in your head, that you believe to be true, it is the actual answer as to why we need faith, and how faith comes to man. Faith is a function of the consciousness, or more like I said a function of the self-awareness. That is exactly the reason why an animal cannot have faith.

  6. Posting in a prosper thread.

     

    Prosper, you raise lots of questions, yet you give no answers. Do you yourself have doubts about faith, or are you looking for a discussion on the questions you have raised?

     

    Sentient beings always have faith in something, that applies to even having faith that you don't need faith. Its just a function of the conscience. They might not know they need faith, but faith comes naturally to conscious beings (I might as well add here beings who also posses self-awareness).

     

    At any rate, faith can grossly affect your will. Let me give you an example, Viktor Frankl, founder of logotherapy - which aims to restoring the faith in life in people - claims that human beings cannot live without seeing a purpose or a logos. He himself is a holocaust survivor and tells this real life story (I am paraphrasing from memory):

     

    A prisoner he lived with at a camp, had the utmost faith that on a certain date, the army would come and liberate them from the camp. That faith kept him going until that date. When the date came and went and he saw that no one had come, his faith crumbled and on the next day he died, on account of losing his will to live.

     

    So here we can apply your question "Why take things on faith?". It is very simple, faith gives you purpose, and without purpose, you cannot exist.

  7. If you've only played BG2 and DA:O then you're really missing out.

     

    For the Project Eternity feel, definitely go with:

    • Baldur's Gate
    • Planescape: Torment
    • Icewind dale

    Other RPGs i'd strongly recommend:

    • Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
    • Darklands
    • Might & Magic 6
    • Might & Magic 7
    • Betrayal at Krondor
    • Gothic
    • Gothic 2
    • The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
    • The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
    • Realms of Arkania
    • Arx Fatalis
    • Deus Ex
    • System Shock 2

     

    Best list proposed. I would also add Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and the Fallout series (you can skip Fallout 3 and go to New Vegas directly). Haven't played neverwinter nights 2 myself but I've heard good things (and bad, but apparently they can be overlooked) about it, so you can add that and also its 2 expansions are supposably good. Also Temple of Elemental Evil, if you want to get a feel for what the special modes they'll be introducing will feel like.

    • Like 1
  8. Dragon Age II

    Come on bro, don't jerk us around.

    I'm dead serious, Dragon Age II was a very innovative game. It solved a countless array of problems, from boring things happening when a player pushes a button, to homophobic player companions, to unnecessarily complicated dialogue trees. I hope that Dragon Age III and Project Eternity both take this a step further, making conversations even more cinematic, adding potential LIs with a more inclusive range of sexual identities, and making the combat even more immersive.

    Confirmed for volourn alt. Also your trolling is really obvious.

     

    So what are we saving the RPGs from?

    The unholly merger of EA and Activision-Blizzard.

    • Like 1
  9. I love that they are giving us a cooking with Tim Cain book, but I demand a book entitled Drinking with Chris Avellone.

     

    After his hilarious antics at the closing party I would love to see the tips the man can give us.

     

    Just imagine:

     

    How to Train Your Liver

    Chris goes into detail how he prepares his liver for the inevitable massive consumption of alcohol.

     

    The art of Wooooo

    Chris goes into detail how important the art of woooing while drunk can help liven up any party.

     

    How to get over a hang-over

    After consuming said amount of alcohol, and beyond at the after-after-party, Chris was still alive the next morning. This itself is a feat accomplishable mostly only by eastern-european masters (Thanks for the shout out to Bulgaria btw Chris, you even sensed you had to raise the bottle - a very important tradition), and going into detail would help many people become 1/1000th of the man Chris is.

     

    Also included tips on how to write low INT dialog whilst drunk and much more.

     

    I'd buy that for 20$.

  10. What the word romance means is "the feeling of love (emotion) over sexual desire". I am all up for that. It could lead eventually to a sexual encounter, but that is really not the point. The point is to share something interesting, something beautifull. You form a special bond with that certain someone.

     

    I just find it that whenever a relationship has to be consumated in any given media be it film/books/video games it always comes out really silly and retarded as the authors tend to make it really awkward to watch and sometimes cringeworthy to listen to.

     

    At any rate we are putting too much focus on this issue. It would be nice to have some options for romance, and knowing MCA, he'll deliver something twisted and out of the ordinary, but I think people are putting too much weight on this, raising their expectations and in the end they'll just end up whining why something didn't happen the way they wanted to.

  11. I agree with you save for a bit of point one. I think OE stated they won't have beast races, just stick to the general humans/elfs races. Personally (and that's just me) I don't find beast races believable, I mean sure its fantasy, but they somehow stick out to me too much. I did enjoy them in Morrowind but it kinda wore off at some point.

     

    Also on point 4, I suggest you try getting yourself intoxicated while playing an RPG. It is trully a unique experience, and it is as if your character is actually drunk! Great roleplaying times :)

  12. It is really of no difference what etnicity you are from if you have been raised with and adopted a civilized mentality. So if she's qualified and raised in this environment that gives you actual freedom - then why not appoint her?

     

    Really it comes down to accepting that mentality and living it. When you go over to your friend's place you don't bring your **** with you and try to redocorate their house, and then cry foul if they throw you out. That's the main problem with most of these etnicities that come from places where they have been oppresed and fanatized to the limit. It will take a long time for this to go away, but eventually it will. (I mean the fanatism)

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