Lurker > Drakeryn

wiegraf;delita
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Azurill
Growlithe
Hippowdon
Kommo-o
Metang
Mienfoo
Pangoro
Quagsire
Sneasel
Zeraora
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

cait;quina
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

cloud;yuffie
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Quilava
Luxray
Sandshrew
Abra
Tyrantrum
Tyrunt
Minccino
Cinccino
Gastrodon
Politoed
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Kylo Ren
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Nelson_Mandela posted...

No good Chinese or Japanese food, no Italian to speak of. Not sure how you define "greatness" in a restaurant, but it's certainly lacking in culinary diversity.

I dunno about diversity, but when I was up in Madison earlier this year visiting family, we went to two Chinese restaurants and both were great.

Granted, one was this dingy little strip mall place that you probably wouldn't look twice at unless someone familiar with the area pointed you there. Really good food.
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Sarlacc
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

wiegraf;delita
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

wow
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

reno;tidus
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Kylo Ren
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

cloud;ramza
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

update plz
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

wiegraf;delita
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

cloud;ramza
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

update plz
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

wiegraf;delita
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

tidus;quina
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

update plz
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

RIP Axew, Golurk, Mantine, and Spoink
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

wiegraf;delita
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Azurill
Dewott
Electivire
Hippowdon
Metang
Quagsire
Sharpedo
Shedinja
Stufful
Suicune
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Quilava
Luxray
Sandshrew
Tyrantrum
Tyrunt
Minccino
Cinccino
Gastrodon
Politoed
Abra
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

yuffie;tidus
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

ramza;cloud
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

:(

wiegraf;delita
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

hmmmmm... I want to save Meliadoul Tingel....
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

BB-8
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

cloud
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Kylo Ren
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

wiegraf (text)
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

wiegraf
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Okay so upon reflecting, I think your approach to religion is going to depend on what you want out of religion in the first place.

1. Truth: This is the model I follow. To me, the purpose of religion is to find out the truth about whether there is a god, whether morality exists (in the sense of absolute and unchanging standards of right and wrong), and to act accordingly. So if a particular religion is false, then it has no value for me. Well "no value" is kinda harsh -- it might be interesting historically, or its holy book might be interesting from a literary standpoint -- but I would never want to be an adherent of that religion.

2. Socializing: I'm going to call this the "tree fort" model based on what Maria said. Suppose the coolest kids in town have a really sweet tree fort, and they have secret handshakes and chants to the Almighty Were-Tree-Bear of the Forest and a book of tree bear legends. If you want to be friends with them and get into that sweet tree fort, then you have to do the handshakes and the chants. So you do it.

I don't mean this in an insulting way -- maybe they really are genuinely cool dudes and over the years you become fast friends for more than just the tree fort stuff. But you still have to pretend, because if you ever told them "the Were-Tree-Bear is just a dumb thing you made up as kids" then they'd get offended, and might not be friends with you any more, and you definitely wouldn't get to hang out in their tree fort.

In that case it makes total sense to call yourself a devotee of the Were-Tree-Bear (or a Christian, etc.). But you should at least be honest with yourself that you think it's all a crock and you're just playacting to keep your tree fort access.

3. Philosophical/Historical: Maybe you're just interested in discussing philosophy and insights into human nature. Confucius had some neat stuff to say about human nature and relations. So did Nietzsche. So did Jesus. As a scholar, you could study all three (and Jesus holds a special position because of his pervasive historical influence over Western society).

You wouldn't necessarily need to become a Christian (or a Confucian, a Nietzschean, etc.). But maybe you become convinced that Jesus' views are just really insightful and he's basically your favorite philosopher. In that case, I'd say your views are still not strictly religious; you don't believe in his divinity, you don't believe he's the path to salvation, you just think he was a clever dude that was more clever than other clever dudes. I'm not the gatekeeper of words, though, so if you wanted to call yourself a Christian then I sure couldn't stop you.
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Estelle
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

tidus
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

vincent
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

good save karo
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Spoink
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Quagsire
Shedinja
Kangaskhan
Lairon
Togetic
Cranidos
Solosis
Cosmog
Geodude (free)
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Darth Vader
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Axew
Breloom
Cleffa
Cyndaquil
Dugtrio
Froakie
Golurk
Hippowdon
Mantine
Mantyke
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

cocoa
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Azurill
Electivire
Pancham
Metang
Metagross
Growlithe
Houndour
Joltik
Minccino
Cinccino
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

scarletspeed7 posted...

Because Christianity has two testaments; one testament almost entirely mired in a different religious tradition, and a second testament that is used primarily in sermons, messages, and the like.

When I was growing up, the Old and New Testaments received about equal screentime in sermons/messages, though I'm aware that's not everyone's experience >_>
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

HanOfTheNekos posted...

You having to ask these questions is why there is such a disconnect here. The most common interpretation of Christianity's doctrine is "believe in God, believe in Jesus's teachings, do good". For the most part, the New Testament is very applicable to daily life. The Old Testament is more about faith and devotion to God... in this manner, the Bible is used as a tool to help put our lives in context and approach our personal experiences, relationships with each other, and relationship with God from a different perspective.

So this is an interesting perspective to me. Obviously I'm not knocking these beliefs -- people can believe whatever they want. But I'm surprised that people would still identify as Christian even though they think most of the Bible is false. (I was going to say "you" but I just realized I'm not sure if you personally are in this camp.) This goes for the pastors that scarlet was discussing as well. If you think most of a religion's holy book is {pick all that apply: a crock; fallible; mistaken; an interesting historical artifact but not actually God's word} then why would you stay a member of that religion?

Also, if this does apply to you, how much of the Bible do you believe in? You mention Jesus' teachings so I figure you would believe in the gospels (minus whatever you would consider to be embellishments by the authors or mistranslations). What about the rest of the New Testament? Like I think Eddv alluded earlier to a view that Paul was a false prophet who perverted Jesus' doctrine, which is also a super interesting view to me. And as for the Old Testament, is that just like...cool bedtime stories?
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Quilava
Luxray
Suicune
Sandshrew
Tyrantrum
Tyrunt
Abra
Gastrodon
Goomy
Politoed
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

Kylo Ren
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

bot how many times have I saved arbys
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high

arbys
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another place and time, without a great divide, and we could be flying deadly high