wakelim

I have to admit that I have absalutely no idea. I would probably be a mixture of all the suggestions. I would probably be pretty dumbstruck at first, but would recognise that this would be an oppertunity. I would probably talk about where I've gone wrong in life and ask if He's actually forgiven me. I'd also ask a few questions, but I think I would mostly just enjoy His company.

It does make you wonder why the Vatigan spends days on end debating who should be the next Pope whne they can just read the next one off the list. Seriously though, nothing (not even the Bible, or other religious or scientific book) is as precise as to the date of the ending of the world. I find it very hard to believe that someone can have the forsight to say "The end of the world will happen on Tuesday the 17th January 2434" or whenever it is. sonyguy's theory doesn't seem wildly unrealistic. If you do refer to Revelation etc. then it tells of great wars between kings (or something along those lines) and the rebuilding of the Temple in Israel. Then God will destroy the world and create a new heaven and earth etc.Pollution is certainly a problem, but I doubt we will get to the state where we are in danger of getting killed because of it. Science has concluded that there definately will be an end-point. In about 800 million years (or some over massive span of time) a comet/meteor big enough to destroy the earth will cause the planet to over-heat or something. That's not really important. What is important is that there is definitely an end to the world, or at least our planet, at some point in time. The interesting debate is what will happen by whom to possibly make the world come to an end before that.By the way, I can definitely not believe in Indipendance Day-style invasion of aliens. If there are alien lifeforms out there then they probably are bugs and nothing else. If there are inteligent, sofisticated, conversing organisms alive then it is still very, very unlikely that they are able to make spacecrft etc. sophisticated enough to travel space, let alone beyond the distances we've been. Even then, it's very unlikely again that they would be hostile and invade. Prove me wrong, but there's alot of ifs and buts in there.

Has anyone here seen/read The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis? It's about a senior fallen angel and his letters to his graduate of evil. Here's an except: So, taking the example of the man above, you can see that, although it was the man himself who was going against God, it was Satan who provided the reasoning. This means that the blame could either be directed at the man or at Satan, but certainly not at God, who only had the man's best interests at heart. Lewis' most famous quote from this book is "Satan's greatest achievement is convincing people that he doesn't exist", as his existance would signify that God also exists. With this theory you can work out that a) Satan doesn't exist anyway and that this whole theory is based on rubbish, or Satan had successfully convinced people that he doesn't exist and therefore is the result of thinking along the lines of a). An a) thinker thinks that all of this is rubbish and so is more likely to settle down with "worldly possessions" and start thinking about the number 73 bus instead. They believe that this is "real life". Ironically, this kind of thinking is perfectly explainable by thinkers and it all goes round in a big circle. So, your sins are your own, but where does the enphasis for sin come from? You could argue that that is just humanity, but surely it makes more sense that some being founded that element of humanity and encourages it's growth? Of course, neither party can prove their case and so we may have to agree to disagree, but it's interesting to think about it.

I think that that's an interesting point. God knows what you think and therefore knows when you're lying. So what good is praying lies to God when you don't mean it? I'd imagine that just annoys God because it completely undermines the entire point of prayer. Prayer isn't designed to "keep God at bay". Prayer isn't a chance to give some time to God before contridicting it in your lifestyle. If people do only pray when they are in trouble then that is also annoying God, not becuase it's not benefiting Him in any way, but because it's not benefiting you! Do you think that the kind of relationships that last the longest are a) ones where the two people care deeply about each other or ones where one partner seeks only to gain personally from the relationship. The answer is a), and links into prayer. If you seek to only gain personally from God, or by only giving a few seconds of prayer in your "time of need" then the whole thing falls apart.

The theory of the US and UK, Russia etc. is that they've already caused enough damage on other countries and that if more countries have nuclear bombs etc. then Iran, Korea and other countries would respond and we would all end up blowing each other into ablivion.I will admit that bombs were used against Iraq and other countries without any kind of real UN agreement or consultation with the country itself. That was why I was against the war myself. You're probably right to call them hypocrites.But surely we need less weapons in this world, not more. If everybody, including evreybody from USA to Iran, gave up all nuclear, atomic weapons etc. and destroyed them completely then would the world be more dangerous. You could argue that you would be under more threats from terrorists and selfish leaders who hide their weapons, but it would result in less deaths.

I played the 2002 version of Flight Simulater and I don't know whether it has my joystick or something, but I just found it impossible to control. I just found myself flying around randomly before unavoidably crashing to the ground . If it's that hard for real pilots then I certainly admire them.

I'll just add a small off-topic point about free-will here. Christianity clearly states that humans are rubbish (at least, in comparison to God, which if you go to the right places I'm sure you'll understand. Every human makes mistakes. God made a perfect world - the Garden of Eden. If you know how the story goes, Adam and Eve messed things up and humans were forced to live in a non-perfect (but still quite nice) world away from God. Humans were no longer holy enough to con-exist with God entirely. So, we have lived in this world for x million years and polluted it further with concrete, pollusion etc. Heaven is the place where God has created a place free from suffering etc., but you have to get there first. God has given us this world and our lives to do with whatever we want. This results in a choice and makes us living beings instead of robots programmed to worship and serve God blindly. God could invade our world and make everything perfect, but it would make all choice, personality, thoughts and freedom non-existant. Well, enough Christian theology for one post. biscuitrat, I don't talk about other religions because I genuinely don't have a clue about them. I have had alot more church teaching, both in church and school than any other religion and therefore understand Christian views about suffering better. I really don't know what a Muslim, Sikh, Atheist, Jedi (it's on the UK cencus form) would answer to this. Any of the above please feel free to correct me here. This is my understanding of suffering on other religions: Hinduism - What goes around comes around, Karma. If you are unjust etc. you will be reborn as something nasty. Buddhism - Roughly the same, but without the existance of spirits, God etc. Well, you can tell my Religion lessons really paid off . Can I also make a last point about belief about God and suffering? You can 1)Decide not to believe in God and decide suffering comes from other sources. 2) Decide to believe in God and decide that suffering comes from Satan/humans. I would say that it's foolish (forgive me if I offend here) to decide that God exists and that He's mean. It's not all that logical. Why would God create humans if He didn't love them and didn't carer for them? Why would He spend his time and energy trying to get them to follow Him if it wasn't for the best? If God created humans and meets with them throughout time (see OT) them why would He create pain for them. The pain resonates from human greed at the end of the day.i

Well, if you do believe that Jesus was the Son of God, which the original story suggests, then he has been alive since the beginning of time, and that 0 AD-33AD were the 33 years he spent on this planet, while still existing outside of that time period in heaven. Without being disrespectful myself, the strangeness or supernaturability of something or somebody doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I'll admit that it is quite a challenging theory with the whole Satan lark, as it's easier to think that all evil or nasitness comes from humans, as some of it does, but the origin, I believe, comes from Satan. Also note, by the way, that the modern depiction of Satan has been twisted by modern society and that the real Satan will probably not have horns. Anyway, to get back on track, I don't believe that suffering is God's fault at all. People say "If God really existed then there wouldn't be any suffering in the world". Consider suffering for a minute. If you look hard enough then a good proportion would lead back to humans . Take poverty as an example. Why are so many millions of Africans and other people all over the world dying unjustly? Because rich humans have taken the natural produce of the countries and sell it on for profit, leaving the rest of the population in a bad, but not dreadful state. But, with advances in technology, Western humans now enjoy and outrageously good standard of living better than any Roman Emporer or Egyptian Phaorah with double glazing etc. The poorer Africans in the worse climates get in a worse condition compared to us because they cannot afford this standard of living because medicine etc. is too expensive. They are also uneducated, resulting in a permanant problem due to the inability to raise themselves out of poverty. All of this results from human greed. Look at war, it is the result of human's inability to get along. Is that God's fault? But why do people die of cancer? Why do volcanoes need to erupt? This is going to sound quite harsh, but humans need to die. This planet cannot physically produce resources for a race that doesn't die, but continues to reproduce. Illness, natural disasters etc. are ways of bringing the population down so that humans can continue in the long-term. I've tried to cover most things. Would be interested to hear what people think about this.

Well, Football Manager is a better version, I heard, because it's made by the same people who did Championship Manager (Sport Interactive) but it's improved and aparently they bought the Championship MAnager database and ungraded the game how they wanted it to be upgraded. I've heard loads of good reviews and stuff about Football Manager 2005, I might get FM 2006 for the new season. They've supposed to have improved training and player interactivity as manager. Plus all the transfers and stuff will be up to date .

I've checked out what info there is on Battle For Middle-earth 2 and it looks (really) good because it features stuff from outside the movies, other races and places etc. Its a pity that they have to take it to 2 games as I was kind of hoping that BFME1 would do that, but never mind. It will be interesting to check out what it's like. Even the one screenshot that they've released looks exciting. It's got a troll rowing in a boat in some sea with an orc goblin on the top of the mast. I hope the gameplay is a bit more loose in this one, though. Maybe a little more like the Total War games. We'll see, I suppose.

From http://www.dictionary.com/ If you take chess and apply rule 2 here then you can see that chess doesn't qualify as a sport as it doesn't involve any "physical exertion", but chess and other sports/games are always governed by a set of rules. Almost all of these events are undertaken competitively at some point (like the Olympics). But all of the above (figure skating, golf, chess etc.) are active pasttimes. Therefore, if you take the offical stance, they are actually sports.

That sure would be a shocker.Harry: You killed my father!Voldemort: No, Harry. I am your father!Harry: NOOOOOOOOO!!!Not likely though, I think. If Harry doesn't go back to Hogwarts it will certainly make the final book weird, seeming as the whole point of the books is following Harry through his year at school. JK Rowling seems to be stretching the line, however, and taking Harry out of Hogwarts to other places, such as the Ministry of Magic or the cave, more and more. I can't really imagine how an entire year away from Hogwarts would work out, however. You can't really have "A year of adventures with Harry, Ron and Hermione" - I'd imagine that would just get boring. Oh well, we'll see.

Yeah, SM has a better BG and general style.3-0.

I'm sorry but this is a downright lie. Go to biblegateway.com and type in heaven or hell and you get 620 results where the Bible mentions heaven and hell directly, not to mention the subtle suggustions that can be enterpreted. For direct quotes try "repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near at hand" or "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise". In a personal note, I believe in the afterlife above, in so much that there are two other worlds - "heaven" and "hell". As a Christian, it's kind of quite hard not to . Sorry if I offend here but I find it very hard to believe in other religions such as Hinduism because I just find them unfeasible. I find it a very hard concept that life just keeps on going round and round and round and that u keep going without any knowlesge of where you keep going. Could just be me being ignorant but there you go.

I thought it was a good game, but I'm not too good at it. I always ended up on about -100,000 simolions. The humour in the game is really good and it's similar to The Sims (2) in the fact that it's addictive. It is kind of rewarding if you actually see a city that you've made yourself. Landmarks are really cool too (where you get real-life buildings like the Eiffel Tower and plonk it in the middle of your city) but they're really expensive. I suppose that's why I always end up in debt

I only have one game that can do online stuff at the moment, and that's Battle For Middle-earth. I used to play FIFA 2005 online a bit, but I don't have that anymore.I'm planning to get some more games, however, like NFS Most Wanted and others which are online.

The only club sports team I really support is Manchester United. I started supporting them when I was 8 and it was based on the England team. There was a world cup on at the time and I was just getting into the sport. I thought (stupidly I admit ) that Manchester United were a mid-table team, and Liverpool were the champions. Manchester United had won the title about 7 out of 9 years for those who don't know. Well, I really didn't know, but I still get called a glory supporter for supporting a good team.I don't suppose anybody actually supports a team because they live there or something, do they? Oh well, I suppose I can't talk.

Peter Jackson and Ridley Scott are two good directors of their genres that are superb filmakers. I also like the Wronskili brothers (or some such name), who did the Matrix. Its really well directed, even though I don't like the second and third ones. Spielberg rocks, although I'm not sure how much directing George Lucus actually does. I think he's mostly producer.

Difficult choice but my vote goes to Frozen, I like the letters merged in with the background.4:2

Spongebob is one of the things that divides opinion I see, I hate him as well by the way. It's a show that appeals to childish humour but for some reasons he winds me up incredibly in his immaturity. I fail to see the adult humour in it as well. I don't want to offend anyone, but I do see a certain American element in him that winds me up.

I just had a look at this virtual earth. I've never gone on anything like it before and I thought it was mega cool! I don't know whether other places have better ones but I thought it was really cool for just exploring places from above or planning trips. It certainly seemed a bit shakey and froze a couple of times but I think it's really good that this kind of thing is available on the internet instead of having to use atlaces and stuff. I know that you can get road maps of the UK and stuff online, but I've never seen something that's actually interactive and goes anywhere in the world.

I don't think that anybody really likes hate, it isn't productive or nice. But what would life be like without hate? I don't think that we're ever going to live in a world on this planet where all hate is completely non-existant. People are always going to get wound up about things because all people are different. A world without hate would have everybody kept apart from each other in seperate rooms, and then people would even hate that. Your never going to get rid of hate, but is it important? As I say, hate isn't good to anyone and not, I believe, at all important in the cycle of life, but it exists for a reason. Humans seem to produce hatred within themselves wherever they go, and so it could be argued that hate must be important to humans if they are constantly producing it. Everyone would love to live in a world where everyone gets along, but it will never happen - humans would go back to hating things eventually. It fact, on this very site there is an entire section devoted towards hatred. Without hatred humans wouldn't be humans and so I think it must be necessary for human existance - not a nice necessity, but a necessary one.

Simpsons is definitely better for me. I haven't watched South Park properly but from what I've seen the humour is almost entirely stupid, not my cup of tea. Simpsons is much more funny in a constructive way, the characters are alot more funny and lovable.

If one sheep jumped off a cliff, would you? In this case, yes.

I have a Hotmail account and I use about 5% of that. I think it's stupid that email companies give you so much space and that you should be able to select the ammount that you need to be more economic.