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Uh, not to interrupt this conversation, but I should mention that with my newly found beliefs, or I should say, recently ABANDONED beliefs, my content policy for working on projects should be adjusted.

So for the record now, I won't object to working on projects that contain language and violence, although I still don't wanna get involved with quasi-porno projects however.

As far as games that deal with supernatural themes and stuff, I'd probably still want to talk to the creators about that.  Anyway, this is all just apart of adjusting my life.

I agree Helm, however, America was designed to provide those checks of power here at Ã, home. Ã, However, George Bush has steam rolled over the other branches of government, and has decided that he can do whatever he wants, when he wants. Ã, Which makes him a dictator.

If our democracy was functioning properly, Bush wouldn't have been able to do the things he has done to America, as well as other nations. Ã, He, and his cabinet, would be in prison right now.

You can also adjust frame skipping.  You can combine an adjustment of frame skips and CPU speed to create a fairly smooth running environment.

I'm not sure, but I think you adjust frame skips with ctrl-F5 and ctrl-F6.  Might want to check that out.

I recently began to read The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler, and although I haven't entirely adopted or understood all his ideas, I do believe America's bullying (with Europe on it's heels) will come to an end someday.

I just hope that the end comes about through reform, not from being exiled from and destroyed by other nations.   I know America isn't the most popular nation among the world today.

Biothlebop,

Yes, actually, the majority of Americans do truly believe in God, and only one.Ã,  Most, that I know anyway, are very passionate about their beliefs, and want very strongly for you to share them too.Ã,  That's why they aren't ashamed to want a Christian Theocracy in this country, because they believe it's for the best of everybody.

And you're right, America is essentially the big bully on the playground, telling everybody else what to do, how to behave, and then punishing them if they don't comply.Ã,  I'm ashamed of a lot of what our "leaders" have turned America into.

You're right again, about having to make an effort to be heard in this country.Ã,  I always say that getting people to believe you is not the hard part.Ã,  The hard part is getting them to care.

I just found out that Meet the Press on MSNBC will be focusing on these very topics, tomorrow morning. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/

Should be very interesting.

N00bs.

HEY!  I resent that!!   

i never meant this game to be a comedy.. the next game will be darker, more serious...

Sounds like a good plan, but I'd suggest taking it a little more seriously yourself.
I'm not saying your ideas are not good, they are.  But they deserve more effort.   

Even though magintz's theory is probable, the orgin of the Blue Cup is not known for certain. Ã, AGS historians and mythology experts have debated this for many years, but have yet to come upon scientific evidence to prove the orgin of the Blue Cup.

As a result of the Blue Cup's mysterious orgins and meaning, many offshoot religions have been formed to worship it's seemingly endless supply of life and power. Ã, Unsubstantiated rumors claim that sacrifices have been made in it's name, but this is just talk.

Ragmaster, I just want to know... You say you came out of... what was it, Seventh Day Adventists? Do you still believe in God, or are you done with all that? Because, let me say this... I'm not one of those clowns that say you need to "Talk to Jesus..." I say this, though: Don't stop believing in God just because everyone who claims to be His People are morons...

I've always given that consideration, but I've still found it hard to actually believe that God exists, as he is described in the Bible, because to me something just doesn't seem coherent there.
But I try to remain open to the ideas of something beyond ourselves, because there must be.

I'm far more open to the idea of worshipping God individually, excluded from church and religion.  I'm not terribly supportative of institutions that deal with something so personal, and make it something so sweeping, that everybody has to be stuffed into a cookie cutter.

I understand that not everybody who claims to be a Christian actually IS a Christian, and I don't consider one to be a representative of them all.Ã, 
And to those who've been following this who are Christians, I'm sorry if at any point it sounded like I was trying to put you all in one group.

I think one of the major problems here is that most orthodox Christians don't WANT to update or revise their beliefs, because you just can't do that with an absolute.  They believe, as the Bible says, God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  So they tend to think that changing their beliefs, even a bit, is denying that God means what he says, even if they've interpreted it wrong from the start.

edit2: Also, I don't quite understand why it's relevent to my argument whether or not you can prove God's existence. It is exactly BECAUSE you can't that politics and schooling should focus on things you can prove, like science.

I agree precisely!  I don't want my laws being based on the doctrine of somebody else's interpretation of a mysterious god. 

I don't typically agree with people who say that we have to have God to define morality, thus we have to have God to shape laws.  I think it's rather closed minded to say that you can't be moral on your own without God or religion.

Raggit,Ã,  what you're saying is that you can't believe that the Christian god exists.Ã,  Remember, there are more than one interpretations on this Earth regarding what god is and what she wants, and it's not a sure thing that any one of them is correct.Ã,  God may exist and be something completely different than any religion believes.

Yes, correct.Ã,  Sorry if I didn't make that specific.

Haha, I noticed that too, Kinoko.  I was beggining to wonder if this was still the AGS forums.

So, are you going to reward us, Kinoko??? 

I think I've organized some thoughts on God that I'd like to share.  I'm not trying to be aggressive or malicious towards any believers here, but I want to express these ideas for discussion. 

Even though I sincerely doubt God's existence, if he DOES exist, I believe he is a psychopathic sadist.  So God created angels and humans to worship him.  (That alone signals some psychopathic tendancies.)  But he wants more than just worshippers, he wants creatures that can, of free will, choose to worship him.  Afterall, who wants people to like them out of coercion?  We want to be loved by choice, or else it means nothing.

Yet, God is all knowing, all powerful.  He knows it all from beggining to end.  Thus, he knew the individuals he would create would rebel against him, and thus this evil world would come about.  In my view, if he really loved us as much as we're told, and if he had our best interests in mind, he would've created worship robots, with no free will.  It'd be kind of like a mercy killing, sparing us the pain before we even knew it.  But that probably wouldn't be enough for him.

Instead, he creates free willed creatures, and they rebel.  Now, he watches us struggle along on the earth, enduring pain and confusion.  He's actually the only one who can help us.  But he waits until we're so worn down that we can't take it any longer, and then we go to him.  (This must be very fulfilling to his ego.)
When we go to him, he says he'll help us no matter what, but we have to totally give into him.  We must do everything he says (more psychopathic still) and we have to become like little children, or sheep, and give him all control.  (More satisfaction still.)
In turn, he'll replace our will and mind with his, so that we won't perceive that we're being dominated by him, or we at least won't care.  That seems to fix our problems, but it also seems like we lose our individuality.

However, if some of us never give up due to our circumstances,  he'll burn us up in Hell. 

So we either have to become the worship robots he SHOULD'VE created us as in the beggining, or we have to face the lake of fire.

It doesn't seem logical that an all loving God would create beings he knew would rebel and be punished, just so he could have the satisfaction of us coming to him after we couldn't take it anymore. 

If he knows everything, he knew we would rebel, he knew he'd kick Satan and his angels out of Heaven and onto earth, but he must've cared more about his own ego than about our suffering. 

That doesn't sound all loving to me. 
In fact, it sounds senseless, and that's why I can't believe he exists at all.  It sounds like God was the creation of human insecurity.  An imagined force to believe in to make life seem easier.

Those are just liberal lies from Godless "scientists!!!!" Ã, 

liberal lies

If the liberals are lying so much, then what the conservatives doing?

I was only using the phrase, "Those are just liberal lies from Godless scientists" to make a satirical point about how the  various right-wing leaning people I've dealt with have responded to my arguments.  That seems to be how they get out of answering questions and using reason, just claim that everything you believe and are saying are "liberal lies."
For the record however, nobody is perfect, and there ARE plenty of lies from both sides.

rharpe:

What I mean to say is that I never got the impression that Jesus wanted his teachings to be put into effect on a government level, or in other words, he didn't want governments passing laws that FORCED people to keep his doctrine.   
By keeping the law of God personally, I'm speaking of disciplining yourself to keep it, not wanting or allowing the government to do it for you, and everybody else.

Does God want to see laws of the land all based on his doctrines and teachings?

Ã, 
Yes. He wouldn't teach us to follow His example if He didn't want us to follow Him.

But did he ever actually say that we should form government laws based on the Bible?  All the years I spent as a Christian, I never saw anywhere in the Bible that Jesus discussed politics, or said that laws should be made from his teachings.  I always thought they were to be followed personally.

To the believing Christians who are currently involved in this, I want to ask some direct questions.  I'm not trying to set you up or corner you, I just am wondering:

As a Christian, how do you think God feels about politics?  Does God want to see laws of the land all based on his doctrines and teachings? 
When you accept Christ, does he try to modify your political and social beliefs?

I lost a great friend once because she got influenced by 7th day adventists...

That's ironic, 7th Day Adventism is the religion I just came out of!! Ã, (Thankfully)
Do you ever wonder if your friend is following what God says, or what Ellen G. White says?

I think the solution to allowing Christians to involve themselves in politics (as they should indeed be able to) is to always remember that the Bill of Rights promises religious freedom. Ã, So, the minute a Christian politician proposes questionable legislation based heavily on a Biblical/Christian doctrine, it can be stopped because it is endangering our freedom of religion.

3. ...An interesting study in Science magazine shows a strong inverse correlation between level of education, and belief in religious dogma.

Those are just liberal lies from Godless "scientists!!!!" Ã, 

That's exactly what most any PolitiChristian would say about the studies. Ã, 
I learned that it doesn't matter what you say, no matter what sources you provide, it's all just liberal media lies, etc. Ã, The types of people I've spent hours talking with (I know, I know, it doesn't accomplish anything) will go to any length to "filibuster" or dismantle your argument by demanding source after source, and then denouncing it as liberal lies, no matter what.

That's the scary thing to me, that no amount of reasoning, debate, or sources can get through. Ã, Because they fused politics and religion, they cannot allow themselves to rethink their political stance, because that might mean they have to rethink their religious stance, and that would be doubting God, and that must be from Satan, so don't even allow those thoughts to take root!

That's what personally happened to me (not involving politics, though) Ã, I never sat down and actually rationalized about God or my religion, because I believed it would lead me right into unbelief.
think about them. Ã, But that eventually came to an end, and I ended up where I am now.

I'm coming from a semi-similar angle. I was raised Christian, left it, and had some head-butting with family and friends (former friends who've since disassociated from me).

I hope it doesn't come to that with me. Ã, 

I've been thinking a lot.  (Yes, this is going to be one of those threads.)

Tonight has been very interesting for me.  I really need to vent about some things.  But I suddenly realize that there is nobody I can vent to, and there's a reason behind that.  Try to stay with me on this.   

Okay, so a lot of you probably know that I profess(ed) to be a Christian, and some of you may have actually had me preach at you about something one time or another.  (Sorry about that.)

Well, anyway, in recent times I've found myself on the other side of the Christian faith, no longer believing or caring about religion, doctrine or anything else like that.  So obviously, I've got a lot of stuff to work out now.  But I realize now, I really don't have anybody to talk to, because everybody I've ever known closely is a Christian!!  If I talk to them, their solution will of course be, "Talk to Jesus." 
I'd rather not go there now.  I need to try to speak to people who won't try to steer everything back to salvation, doctrine, etc.

So, for clarification, I'm no longer a Christian.  I'm kinda just sitting on the fence, I guess.

Now, what happened tonight: I was invited to go to my old school for a get together.  That school, which I attended last year, is a Christian high school.  Well, some of my old school friends and I got to talking politics, and they've never quite cared for my anti-Bush views.  After it was all said and done, we had wandered back and fourth from politics to religion, from religion to politics.
There were some heated moments, but no hard feelings.

What stood out to me was, at the end of our discussion, I elaborated that I was glad they had a religion that made them happy and that gave them a purpose.  But I said, "Please don't try to influence this country and its politics and laws based on your Bible."

That didn't go over well, because evidently, this country belongs to God and we've gotta give it back to him, etc. 
Despite the fact that the world is full of folks who think their ideology should be made law, it was still kind of a disturbing display of, quite frankly, obsessed fundamentalism. 

These radical Christians who believe that we've got to reshape this country to fall in line with the Bible don't seem to perceive that their desire to legislate people into being Christians is blatantly unAmerican.  I said, "Well, how would you feel if I wanted to pass laws BANNING Christianity?"  And the reply was, "You'd be wrong, because this country was founded on God!"
These types seem to have a very direct and simple goal:  Sweep the entire country clean of liberals/democrats/homosexuals/non-Christians, and anybody else who they think that, because they are a political "enemy," they are also a religious enemy that must not be tolerated by any means, lest God destroy our nation.

So, part of what I want to do is measure the general opinion of these things here, so if you would, please provide a quick and simple answer to the four following questions in your post:

1.  Do the Christians (a majority) stand a chance of getting Bible-based legislation passed?

2.  Do you believe that Bible-based legislation SHOULD be passed?

3.  Do you feel that religion and politics intertwine naturally and that an American Theocracy in favor of the majority is inevitable?

4.  If a Christian juggernaut formed and began moving towards a Theocracy, what would you do? (Either to help it or stop it.)

All these things are spinning my mind around and around.  I just wanna start talking and see how you feel about these things, I'm not particularly interested in drawing sides and turning this into a debate.  That usually happens anyway, but let's just keep it calm as long as possible.

[fun]

...And when I started to play I realised looks ARE important. Most of the time I wasn't sure what am I looking at, where am I supposed to be and what is that ugly thing over there. I had no idea what are those things in my inventory. Guessing how you could leave a room just because the background is something awfull was not fun either.

Bottom line is: I don't have fun trying to guess whats that background is supposed to be.

I tend to agree.  Graphics and animation don't have to be great, but they should be discernable. 

Anyway, it's still very interesting.  And the music is great!  I love the New Zealand theme!

As a side note, I've run into at least one room that doesn't have an exit that I could find.  It's the one that has the door that goes to the ticket office with the smoke in it.