THIS IS THE THREAD WHERE YOU CAN ONLY MAKE ONE POST

[fadedShadow]

Oh man, there's so much, i have to say, so i'll just sum it up with this.

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Also, restricting self from claiming an avatar until i reach a certain post count!
Some of you may have seen me around in pesterchum...
I've been lurking for a while.

AND I CHALLENGE THE NEXT POSTER TO DOUBLE DOWN!
Example of a double down, A choco-taco sandwich with cookies inside.
Pics or it didn't happen. If someone posts a successful double-down, will edit this with my responding double-down and 1-up.

[Stickmeister]

[Applejack]

/tailwag

[Sparklypants]

I am given to believe that one requires 12 posts in order to stop being a wriggler. I've posted 11 posts so far so this should be my 12th.

This is good, because I've got a Let's Play I'd really like to start right about now.

EDIT: Still a wriggler. Nuts!

[Malisteen]

Only one post, eh?


Sometimes I wonder where the Christian spirit went. You know, that one supposedly about openness and acceptance and faith not just in a just and virtuous God but also in a humanity that at its core, is essentially good, and in a universe that is ordered and beautiful, the literal physical manifestation of that God's benevolence.

In recent years, at least in American culture, it seems that fundamentalists and biblical literalists have become the voice of Christianity, while other more moderate voices have been content to cede their role in the public discourse. A large rift has risen up between these speakers for the Christian faith and those in the scientific establishment, and both have seemed more then happy to reject the other wholesale. When confronted with physical observations of the universe around us that clash with a literalist interpretation of their bible, the fundamentalists simply reject that observation, counting their narrow interpretation of their holy text as more important then the physical universe as God created it. If there's a discrepancy, they say, then its either due to some devil misleading scientists, or to God deliberately designing traps and falsehoods into the world to test our faith.

But is this close-minded and dogmatic adherence to a literalist interpretation of the bible really faith? To me it seems more hubris. I'm not advocating the wholesale abandonment of holy scripture, but if your reading of that scripture conflicts with direct observation of reality as God has made it, isn't it showing humility before God to consider that perhaps it's your interpretation that was flawed? After all, Jesus is said to have taught in parables, is it so sacrilegious to imagine that his father might have done so as well? To me the man who hears the story of the flood and then goes out looking for the Ark it self to 'disprove' geological histories of the world is like a man who hears the story of the good Samaritan and then, instead of internalizing the message of the story - that membership in the faith alone is not enough to ensure one will do the right thing, and that godly compassion can be found in anyone, even someone not of the faithful - the person goes out to try and find the place on the road where the story is said to have happened in an attempt to prove that it literally occurred. They are missing the point. If a scientific discovery conflicts with your reading of scripture, that's not the devil trying to trick you with lies, that's God calling upon you to find a more meaningful reading, something deeper then a surface level literal interpretation.

Rejecting the wonder and majesty of God's creation - a universe infinitely more strange, mysterious, and massive then our ancient forbears could comprehend, let alone commit to text - in favor of a narrow human interpretation of book translated and written by fallible humans over countless generations, that's not strength of faith. If anything, it shows a weak faith. A fear that if you subject your faith to the test of doubt that it will not come out victorious. But doubt isn't the enemy. Doubt is the fire that tempers faith, that drives us to seek deeper meaning rather then wallow in complacency. Faith is not a commodity that one 'has' or 'has not', obtaining it isn't an easy gift of sudden revelation. It's a journey that passes through doubt, and only by accepting and passing through that doubt can one reach a more meaningful relationship with God. To reject doubt wholesale is to reject the journey of faith itself. Finding faith is not a matter of being 'born again', it's St. John of the Cross's long dark night of the soul.

And scripture alone will not be enough to carry one through that journey. Scripture is not, after all, infallible. God does not, it seems, take a direct hand in preventing the dissemination of false texts. If he did, there would not be so many different tomes claiming to be holy Christian scripture, and many conflicting translations of those tomes, let alone all the holy tests of other faiths and religions. They exist, therefore God does not prevent them from existing, QED. Simply looking into the historical origins of the bible, of where various books came from, of when they were written, of all the books that did or didn't 'make the cut', of how these books were chosen, will tell you as much. Scripture alone is insufficient, on its face, because without tradition there's nothing to say what is or isn't scripture to begin with!

But even then, the combination of scripture and tradition isn't enough. What about the virtue that comes from within? That exists within everyone? The virtue, wholly apart from both scripture and tradition, that moved the proverbial Samaritan in the famous parable? And, as humanity's understanding of the physical world around us has grown and developed by leaps and bounds over the past few generations, should not also spiritual understanding have grown? Again, faith is a journey, not an object. To sit in place and refuse to look any further does a disservice to the great voices of faith that have brought us thus far.

Yet for all my criticism and complaint, I do not reject the Christian faith. While great harm has been done in the Christian God's name, spectacular and good works have also sprung from it. I would not choose a world without the Sistine Chapel, or the cathedral at Notre-dame. Furthermore, the humanist virtues and values championed even by those men and women of science who reject the spiritual still have their roots in a spiritual and religious understanding of all human life as sacred. In a very real way, the humanist values can be described as Christian values, values far more fundamental then those so loudly championed by the so-called Christian Right, and the men and women of science who seek to uplift humanity even without faith are still shining the light of God's grace, as was, again, the proverbial Samaritan. Indeed, they do better work then many of those Christians that seem to know only judgment, who think their God is one of hatred or intolerance, or those who would choose to protect the reputation of their church-on-Earth rather then the safety of its members.

Science can and should and does give us ever expanding insight into the wonders and mysteries of the universe, but while it can deliver ever more precise and surprising answers to the question of 'how' the universe works, there will always be a question of 'why' that lies, not beyond it, but in another direction altogether. Science does not give our lives meaning. That meaning is worth pursuing in its own right, and that pursuit is entirely compatible with the pursuit of scientific understanding. Science cannot explain away faith, although it can drive us to abandon more simplistic understandings of that faith to seek a deeper meaning. Likewise, faith cannot and indeed should not explain away science.

Too many on both 'sides' of this debate have adopted the idea that science is rational, while faith is irrational. It shocks and saddens me to see so many on the 'side' of faith embrace that with some perversely misaligned sense of pride, happy to consider their faith irrational, disdainful of those who would cling to reason. To reject reason, one of if not the most fundamental characteristic of humanity! The very thing that lets us know ourselves and consider our relationship to any sort of spiritual being in the first place! What they should be rejecting isn't rationality itself, but rather the idea that their faith need be irrational to begin with.



Also, I made a Mojo Jojo chaos marine.

[zorua]

[Tenris Vahlen]

Okaay guys, so I just found out that this threaad exists. I've got a lot to say, so I'm gonna conclude nowww and maake you all deaal with my broken keyboaard. Also, The Game.

WWaait, ffffuuu-

[gcr]

I just lost The Game. Gee, thanks.

[Fang]

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z

y

x

w

qrstuv

vut[srqponml]

k

j

i

H

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AaAaaaAAaaaaaAaAaaaaAaaaA@AaAaaaaaAAaaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAa

guys guys is this where we do the greek alphabet backwards?

[KnittingHamster]

Hm. Posting for now because the idea is intriguing, will engage in timeywimey shenanigans later on.

Also I just bought hoodies for me and my son. FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANS.

It is now later. How much later? Oh, a bit. Not much in the grand scheme of things.

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Madame.
Madame who?
Madame foot's caught in the door.

[jrlans]

Get it??

[cyclopianDoyen]

One post? Hm.

Why does my soda taste so mediocre? It's like somebody just came tore ALL the sodium right from the luscious, enticing liquid that had once lain within this can. The havoc that it has wrought unto my digestive system is only temporary, and thus I shall continue to imbibe such drinks frivolously, but alas, that doesn't exactly supersede its ridiculous lack of zing. What was once the node, the paragon of ecstasy and aluminium-encased sensuality is now of such obscure taste that it makes me almost recoil at its lacklustre qualities. It has truly lost its allure.

I'm sitting here with >200g of cheese balls. It is the fault of this malicious cheese ball container and its malevolent contents that I have choked on my cheesy balls. I cannot tolerate such capricious behaviour, and yet, I find myself hesitant to punish or even reprimand the plastic vase of magic before me. I can't even bring myself to write a harshly worded letter to the thing, for there are no flaws nor impurities to enumerate. Adjectives such as 'insolent' or 'cursed' cannot come to describe such an ambiguous entity. Of course, I am sure that the ill meaning producer of this product - Utz - has felled many before me, for it is most likely a devil of temporal travel and non-condescendingly rancorous lectures, which most likely take place in its designated hell dubbed 'cheesy tartarus'.

Will probably edit later with more interesting endeavours.

[lenkagime]

one post? Well lets use it to promote this
http://askgrubs.tumblr.com/
its an ask the grubs blog on tumblr

Anything else I want to say... nope don't feel the need

[Grand Mal]

Hi. I just wanted toa;jiejioajr; vn;dklgj AAAHAHAH STUPID BROTHER LIKZ GAY HOMO-STRUCK HAHAHAHAHAHAHASS

[trilbyulatingDungeoneer]

TD?: Recap 1



WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE???

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I love you all don't hate me please 8D

[Vox]

I understand why Tavros cannot be with Vriska and why she digs him. (almost) ALL OF THE UNDERSTANDING.

[Nevermore360]

I'm going to have to send an email to future me, telling him to make this post more awesome... once my post count goes up.

[harmoniousExtremes]

Dog tier Jade - Bec Noir - Bec Monarch threesome OTP.

[Captain Not a Troll!]

This my post dis my post

[Namboto]

I have deleted my old post for a post full of nostalgia, looking back over one thousand posts.

I started this journey with a fantroll, one crevan devedi, a character I had previously created and was re-purposing for use here. In that process, everything about that character changed. Now Crevan might be making a comeback with Mostly Normal.

Mostly Normal (originally "A mostly normal SGRUB session for fantrolls) was my first attempt ever at running an RP. It lasted 40 pages (the discussion at least, the actual RP lasted 2) and then died, but I got to know some pretty cool people and learn a few things about what leading is like. I am running it again now, and all I want is for everyone to have a good time.

I occasioned the comic discussion thread with posts that earned me several sweet catches, and one bit of speculation that somebody really didn't want to be true (it wasn't)

Then I discovered the [CHAT] threads, and enjoyed them to my fullest. Even though I was ignored sometimes, I still had fun just being there and hanging around such cool people. I got to know how cool of a guy Captain Zaven is (you were one of the first people to make me feel appreciated here, thank you for that), how creative Bandages was, how good of people Drillgorg and Blueberry were. I can't list everyone, and this is by no means everyone.

Chat helped me a lot. It helped me when I smashed my face into some stairs and didn't know what to do. It helped me when I was feeling bored and lonely. It gave me a place to gush about the girl I liked sometimes and lament about being away from her at others. It gave me a place to talk and to hang out and to have fun. I loved chat, and was sad to see it go. (Now there's hidden level, which I think I'll go on more once school stops stressing me out)

But that wasn't the end at all. I found other cool places on these boards. The MLP thread was what finally convinced me to take the dive and try something new, and boy has that lead to an adventure. I really got into minecraft after seeing the community here. I know that I can always jump onto sepulch for some tf2 even though I'm terrible at the game.

I saw the craziness that was the bee thread, and I've enjoyed both of Vark's games so far. I even have my own theme song, courtesy of Traikan (who is awesome).

I've read some really cool forum adventures, like BtSDLB, or Songs We Sing, or Masquerade. I've had ideas for a few of my own. I love all of the fanart that gets posted, the fiction too. The trollcops thread is amazing, as are all of those other AUs.

This forum is kind, fun, creative, awesome, interesting, and so many other things. And there's one person I'd like to thank for that (cliche though it may be):

You
You're awesome
and thank you for being so.

-Namboto

/post 1000

[Firo]

OH JEEZ WHERE IS MY IMAGE I DIDN'T PUT ANYTHING THIS IS A WASTE OF TIME TO READ FNGKDFHLKGFJDHGSLDHFRGLKDHFKGDHFGJKHDKGHGKJ

[mysteriousOutsider]

I am reserving this prime spot in the thread for future use.

[Thiinka]

Hrm. Best place as any to make a post.

This should have some profound insight into the fabric of our universe but it doesn't. Oh well.

[Coasterman29]

Fuck yeah raising my post count.

That is all.

[roxorfoxor]