h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah, I'm surprised how tame some debates stay here, especially religious ones. Very rarely do they ever turn into flame wars... although I remember one of the forums on the Christians site ended up being a bunch of atheists against one or two Christians. Kind of amusing, in a way.

The only real flame wars I've seen here were on the Pre-Beeb H2G2 and they were of the Americans vs. British nature...

"you don't respect your home country!"
"every country's our home country!"
"you stole everything from us."
"yeah, well, you stole it from the Romans, French, and Italians..."

That was the basic line of reasoning... I actually found myself laughing outloud to them. Thanks to the Mods, those are a thing of the past.

Oh I don't know, we can start again. G'wan say something mean about Americans ... I dare ya ...

I would, 'cept I am American...

I know! Say it anyway ... just to get the ball rolling!

Hmm... oh, there's too many things to say... *mumbles something about an inadequate education system*...

Hmm... probably should mention I got/am getting/will get a decent education... then why am I complaining??

This post has been removed.

M'friend... I'm a Southerner, born and bred... I just happen to have to live in the flatland.

(no, really, I was born in Harrisonburg, all my family lives in the South).

Sorry Amy, I think he was talking to me ...

Stupid limeys ...

Actually I hate being called a Yankee, they're my least favorite baseball team (especially after they beat my beloved Mets in the World Series last season). So by calling me a Yank, it's a double insult. Way to go, ddombrow!

Ah... okay. Well, you can be a honorary Southerner... even if he says no.

Redneck

(I'm from Arlington so I can harp on Northerners and Southerners)

Ah, shush.

And I'm a hick, not a redneck. There's a definate difference.

Oh yeah? Middleners!

Oh, dear, we had a post removed... ddombrow, what did you do now?!

The mods have no sense of fun. Besides, you asked for it.

*glares* Did not!

*suddenly realizes how very un-Christian this forum has become*

What will Clive think of us when he gets back to uni?!!!

Well, maybe not, but Shea did. You heard her.

*pretends to be serious again*
So, what's your position on free will/determinism/predestination?

Well, they'll be removing mine any minute now ...

Let's discuss how puts temptation into our way, and causes us to do and post things that a Christian should always be on their guard against. And those were just a few examples of behavior that we should avoid at all costs.

Did everybody learn a lot from our object lesson in what not to post in a Christian forum?

*decides to be serious, just for the heck of it*

Hmmmm.... I've always held that predestination and free will are not mutually exclusive, even though they seem to be. Theere are two ways I explain this: The first is by stating that events that happen in the universe do not happen in a vacuum. Well, literally, yes, metaphorically, no. Every single thing we do holds bearing on something else that happens afterwards. (which should be fairly obvious to everyone, but you'd be surprised how many people forget that!) Now start thinking Quantum Theory in relation to Time. For every decision we make, there are two possible outcomes, and both can logically exist up until the moment we make that decision. But once we make the decision, there is only that outcome and it suddenly blocks out the other outcome and everything that could have followed from it. (There's some short story by Asimov, I think, that has this guy go back in time and step on a butterfly which changes everything. That's what I'm getting at here). So to speak, our free will has determined what happens to us before it happens. We only have certain things that can happen as a result of our actions. I often use this as a writer, just so my plots make more sense, and it works on a secular level with predestination and free will. At least, I think it does. There's a contradiction in there somewhere, and I don't have the logic excellence to find it...

The other way is this: we, as humans, exist in the four dimensions known as length, width, height, and time. We can move in any direction we care to in the first three, and (at the moment) time is a one-way street. God, however, being omnipotent and omnipresent and all those other words with omni- as a prefix, exists outside of the dimension we label time. It's not impossible, then, that He could see all time at once just as we can see all three dimensions of a box instead of many squares. Just because He knows the end result that doesn't mean that our own choices are not made through free will. Knowing the end of a story doesn't make it completely forced and fake while it's happening.

I know that last argument's a bit weak... but it's the best I can come up with on sleep deprivation...