The Great YouTube Debate 10

Ego-eimi has not replied to me directly, but he did write this on his own comment thread:

Oh.. come on. is a synonym to offend. Check Webster’s Dictionary. And really it’s not a big deal to me, but since you people have a condensendingway of talking to someone, I will not approve anymore of your comments if you are going to continue to be condensending any further.

LOL. You again over look the point. When you said “You’re on a platform with people who know how to write here, not a bunch of kids on textspeak.”

That is my point about common courtesy. You lack it when you flat out come off with a condesending tone. and textspeak, it is more like text speak. So even in that you contradict people knowing how to write here LOL there is no such word as textspeak, it’s text speak when you google it.

LOL.. u knew what I was saying concerning writing error, I’m sure of it.. since you said “unless you mean error”

LOL.. I was speaking to one person, on her blog engaged in a specific conversation. If you want to comment fine, but dontturn your attention towards me again talking aboutmy spelling errors or grammatical habits.. comments about what is being said as far as not agreeing fine.. but don’t turn to my spelling, again, you say that isn’t ad hom.. yeah it is, when you direct it to something personally I’m doing rather than the argument about the subject at hand. So we disagree on weather it’s ad hom or not.

LOL.As theology is not a science, I’d take any attempt at such dating with a good pinch of salt.

I’ll let you keep guess then… if you think that theologians don’t speak or talk to Christian Scientist on the geological records and learning how far back that go’s.

LOL. Who did Cain mate with.

Cain married his sister (or possibly a niece). The Bible says Adam “begot sons and daughters’’ (Gen. 5:4). In fact, since Adam lived 930 years (Gen. 5:5), he had plenty of time for plenty of children! Cain could have married one of his many sisters, or even a niece, if he married after his brothers or sisters had grown daughters. In that case, of course, one of his brothers would have married a sister.

And when it comes to Ad Hom.

Argumentum ad Hominem (abusive). This is argument by character assassination. “Reject whatever he says because he is a bad person.” Literally, the fallacy’s name means “argument against the man.” It is not an attack on the proposition, but against the person. It is like a lawyer standing up and saying, “We have no case, your honor; but certainly you’re not going to believe the alcoholic, El Sleazo, ambulance chaser that the plaintiff hired.”
Geisler, N. L., & Brooks, R. M. 1990. Come, let us reason : An introduction to logical thinking . Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, Mich.

So it would be saying, don’t pay attention to him because he first needs to learn how to write. In fact, Tel said in our conversations that if I want to win an argument, I first need to learn how to spell. So you are doing nothing any different.

Ego-eimi, you know what protocol in blogosphereis? Write in language that people can understand, receiveall non-spam comments graciously or keep to yourself if you can’t deal with constructive criticism. Criticizing your spelling and language skills and giving you suggestions on how to improve them is constructive criticism, I assure you.

Yes, to win an argument, you need to learn how to use language properly. Your spelling mistakes, as I’ve said before, make your posts hell to read. A debate is best presented when your opponent does not get bleeding eyes from your grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes.

As for ‘ad hom’ attacks, you’re doing the same thing, both to me and to others on YouTube. “They’re atheists, so whatever they say will be wrong.” Isn’t that your attitude? I’ll refer you back to the screenshot in this post: http://telcontarrulz.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/the-great-youtube-debate-7/You were just going to dismiss my arguments as total crap because I believed in something different from you, and therefore was a damned person who knew nothing worth knowing. Isn’t that right? You’re ignoring wysiwyg666 on YouTube despite his/her reasonable well thought outarguments just because s/he is an evolutionist. That’s ‘ad hom’; you can’t point your finger at anybody. So get your act together and take that plank out of your eye before you point out the splinter in anyone else’s, for how can you see a tiny little splinter with that great big thing blocking your vision like blinkers on a horse?

By the way, the name is Telcontar Rulz. I’ve not given you permission to shorten my name. If it’s too hard to type correctly, then it’s ‘T. Rulz’. ‘Tel’ is reserved for friends only.

As for the argument about Cain marrying his sister/niece, see ArianneG’s comment here:

That’s an interesting point Assentia brought up. Incest is a sin in the sight of God, one deserving of utter damnation; yet if Genesis is to be believed, the only humans around would’ve been Adam, Eve and their children. Unless you’re telling me that those children mated with each other, which would be a huge SIN–there’s no one else around that doesn’t come under the laws on consanguinity. (I am NOT even going to go near the other idea such a thought provokes!) Also, if the third generation of humans were that inbred, genetic problems would’ve ensured that the human race died out extremely soon, not survive to the present. Inbreeding genetic abnormalities and inbreeding depression are documented fact, I should say.

Four individuals are not enough to propagate a new species through sexual means. I’m not considering the lower eukaryotes or protists, bacteria, other unicellular organisms, etc.–those aren’t germane to the current discussion as most of those reproduce by asexual means.

So unless you’re telling me that God created other human couples besides Adam and Eve and let them loose on the Earth, which if I recall rightly Genesis does not say and seems to regard Adam and Eve as the only human couple around bearing offspring at the time, humankind springing from the union of a single couple doesn’t make any sense to me. However, Adam and Eve standing as symbols for the fall and eventual hope of reconciliation between God and man? Makes a whole lot more sense.

NB: Agree with Assentia on all points: if you’re going to putup stuff in public, then you can certainly take disparaging comments in good grace. Or simply closeyourself off from comments, and remain in your own little world. Theology is not a science, and its findings should be considered suspect without further concrete evidence from other branches of human knowledge, since it can only deduce its findings from what it believes to be fact, but may not necessarily be so.

As to your spelling and grammar: Get Firefox, and use its inbuilt spelling checker. Better yet, type your responses in MS Word or OpenOffice Writer with auto spell-check on. Everyone taking the time to read the debate will thank you profusely for it. Minor spelling errors are fine; I will not claim infallibility on that issue: butposting lengthy, dragging comments that look as though they came from a semi-illiterate, with mistake upon mistake piling one on top of the other simply says you’re lazy and gives you a bad image, in that you seemingly can’t be bothered what anyone else thinks of you.

You have obviously studied the Bible with great effort to defend it with zeal–could you not turn a minute part of that same devotion to presenting yourself as one of God’s people with a little more decorum? Remember that your language while posting is a reflection of the person you are out of cyberspace. Debates are smoother when everyone understands rightly what the parties are trying to say and don’t feel insulted by perceived lack of respect.

The Great YouTube Debate 6

Egoeimi replied, showing that while he might be hopeless at forming his own arguments, he’s an expert at quoting, and he’s quite ready to show off this skill.

You said:

Don’t be so sure that God is on your side. The Spanish said that God was on their side when they sent an armada to attack England. The Crusaders said it. All three popes who declared crusades on each other said it. They all thought they were interpreting Scripture correctly. They all lost in the end. Apparently, God was not on their side after all, contrary to their claims. We are naught but mere mortal humans. Don’t claim to understand God, because you don’t; you’re just another religious fanatic amongst many. You have not even skimmed the surface of the greatness that is God. No one understands God. That’s why He is God, the Almighty.

My reply:

21″Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ This is what Jesus said about those doing things in His name.. they either have fruit or they don’t.. those that operated in the Crusades who cares many take on the name of being a Christian but it doesn’t mean they were sent by God.

on your statement “no one understands God”

14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:
16″For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?”[d] But we have the mind of Christ.

Yes.. a Christian if they are truely born again, do have the mind of Christ.

Adding more support to that also. The sinful person or those without the Holy Spirit: they

7the sinful mind[f] is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

But those that do have the Holy Spirit they:

9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ

So I don’t agree with you… a person who has the Holy Spirit has the mind of Christ, and therefore they take on the same things that displeased Jesus, not the other way around.

You said:

I’ll be honest and say this; it was not nice talking to you, even though it was entertaining at first to see how badly an adult can write. Yes, I have high standards. You could have done something about that spelling; you could have put it through spellcheck; you could have taken out those extra unnecessary periods; you could have edited your writing the way anyone with the least bit of courtesy and humility does before posting anything on the internet. There are free spellcheck programs on the internet. However, you chose not to do any of those things and insisted on posting illiterate agrammatical trash. Therefore, my mockery was valid. Debating means using language which the opposition can understand. You’ve failed on that point.

My reply… yeah I could have taken it to spell check.. but that is for me to judge weather I want to do so, not someone elses. I don’t care what people are critical about when it comes to my spelling, i really don’t. But as far as the Christian attitude I’ll let Scripture speak for itself.. Scripture says this about our attitude which I questions yours:

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 cor chapter 13:4-7.

Gods love is demonstrated in not being proud, it’s not rude. So to mock my writing style or lack of, isn’t part of Christian Character, but prayer would have been in order. And also about a Christian Attitude Scripture says this:

3For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.

All those that are claimig to be Christian are not to have an over exaggerated attitude about ourselves including myself.

And if you think I’m judging u.. guess what.. we can judge anothers Christians attitude, it’s called rebuking, and it’s in Scripture, and if u follow that, u should know that.. and saying I’m fanatical.. well that makes Jesus fanatical then, because He is the one that says we our to follow His Commanments, in fact to acutally make Him more important then your own Mother, or Father, that u are to Love Him more.. so how is that for being very fanatical about following.

You said this:

Take my views to a national level on American national radio? Don’t be so arrogant and think that everyone is American. I’m not. However, if someone was to challenge me to such a debate, I would not back down the way you have. I really do think you are afraid of me. I threw down the gauntlet and challenged you to debate in public on my blog, with no word limit; you refused to take up the challenge. Who’s the coward now?

I didn’t say u were an american, u already made that known that you were not.

As far as debating on your forum.. I asked u to tell me how I post on your forum.. and I would be glad to take the challenge about your pretexting of the bible.. yeah.. lets see how well versed u are when it comes to understanding biblical hermentics.. u are not a theologian, that’s obvious with the apporach u take by saying the bible is a book of symbols.. yeah.. tell me how to post on your forum.. we’ll start in Genesis.. and your mis-use of the seventy times seven Jesus spoke about. I’m not a coward by far when it comes to defending my faith.

And if you were to debate some well know theologians, u wouldn’t stand a chance trust me.. because u admitted already u are not a theologian.. so u are not even interpeating the text in a proper approach.

You said:
For your information, there has been proof that mutation can add extra information. Downs Syndrome is such a situation; the person has three versions of chromosome twenty-one instead of two like normal people. During genetic mutations, genes can be deleted, inserted, switched around or repeated. Most genetic mutations don’t do anything, but some do, and they can either have good or bad effects. That’s how evolution works.

Mutations don’t add information in the direction of taxon.. that is what is argued from Creationist point of view. That is what you and neo-darwinians are trying to make the public think. Experienmetns on fruit flies in the past they exposed them to conditions to cause them to mutate, but they didn’t develop features to becomea a non-fruit fly, that is what creationist with the same ph’d’s in genetics argue.. where neo’s that u are adhering too is suggesting that an ameoba millions of years ago can become a non-ameoba, that is not true, and that isn’t even observable, that is based on non-observation which science is based on observation. You are suppose to be able to test that claim, that even in the past you can’t test.. u can’t repeat that… it’s assume.

And if we were to talk about the pre-cambrian explosion to the cambrian… if we got into detail your would see how silly it is. the Geologist that preach millions of years for those layers to be put down… yeah.. their blanket excuse for poly which means many.. polystra fossils contradict that.. and the answers I have gotten to explaim is sad.. talkorigins and other neo’s think they can explain it away they can’t, and neither can you.. and there are plenty of things that we can address about evolution back and forth. I don’t take evolutionary order of events over the biblical order of events. Your attack on the very faith that u claim to represent is obvous. I will and can post the order of theistic evolution verses biblical creation. Your own way around that like neo’s and atheist claim is that genesis isn’t a literal real even, or that it’s fantasy, or whatever.. that is what I will argue against, when u show me how to post on your forum..

You said:

Choosing to mock me about my age is just ridiculous, for being young is not a fault. Rather, it is a fact, and it is nothing to be ashamed of, nor does it make my arguments any less valid. Jesus Himself said, “Blessed are the children, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”

My reply is you mocked my age and my writing sytle so I would see that being quite hypocritical. You can mock me.. but when I return it to say that u haven’t even gotten an adult mind yet I’m some how mocking, but u are not?

And where Jesus said “Blessed are the children, for theirs is the Kingdom of God” lets look at it in it’s full context.. of who its’ talking about shall we.

Guess, what.. there is nothing that Jesus said what u said. “Blessed are the chirden, for theirs is the kingdom of God” where is that in the Scripture. Here are all the Beatitudes

3″Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11″Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Where in all of that shows Jesus saying ” “Blessed are the children, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”

Where. There is none.. and this is how it seems that u approach not only Genesis to make it say something it doesn’t.. but all of the text.

Let me ask you.. how and when did you get saved.. and you should be able to tell me without researching it.. I mean after all, u are claiming to be a Christian which I question very much when u accept all faiths.. which so I don’t put words into your mouth.. are u talking about universalism, or what?

So when I get a reply from you about how to post on your forum and where I need to go, we can get the debate going, I have no problems with that, I’m sure.

I forgot to put this in my reply to Egoeimi:

About my age: I’m not ashamed of being nineteen, and I certainly don’t think just because I’m younger means my arguments are less valid. Being young is a fact which I can’t change. Your illiteracy is something which you can change, and I expect an adult resident of the United States to write better English than that. At the moment, I’ve seen teenaged French speaking people write better English than you. Mock me about something else, if you must mock, like my lack of understanding of the Bible, my misinterpretation of scripture, my complete inability to argue Physics and Chemistry, my lack of knowledge about what evolution is or something like that. Mocking me about my age just shows that age does not equal maturity. I don’t know if you’re aware, but you sound like a grumpy fourteen year old. And I’ll say this first; if you post illiterate stuff here, I will mock it first before I reply. It’s what I do; I’m a sporker.

As for me not being a Christian because I accept and respect all faiths; how is that un-Christian? I’m practising love and respect here. I won’t shun someone just because they’re of a different religion, and I won’t force them to change. I’m proud of being able to get along with people of different faiths. Are you saying that because I don’t isolate myself from non-Christians, I’m not a Christian? You know, you’re more extreme than the Crusaders, who befriended Muslims. At least some of them did. Discrimination causes hatred, Ego-eimi, and hatred causes war, which in turn creates Hell on earth. That’s not what being a Christian is about.

I did not understand your argument about mutation and evolution, so I will wait patiently for you to explain what exactly it is that you meant before I reply. However, you did mention one thing: Scientists exposed fruit flies to a number of different conditions, and yet they did not stop being fruit flies. You say that it shows that evolution did not happen. I’ll tell you now that evolution takes millions of years. Any change in those fruit flies would be minuscule, even on a genetic level, and unobservable. You can’t disprove evolution just like that.

Here’s the reply I actually sent:

I did tell you how to comment on my blog entries. It was in that message which you didn’t bother to read.

Underneath the title of each entry, there will be something which says ‘no comment’ or ‘1 comment’ or 2 comments’ or whatever. Click on that, and you will get the full blog entry. Scroll to the bottom, and there will be a window for commenting. Similarly, click on entry’s title, and scroll to the bottom. It will get you the same thing.

It’s common courtesy to write in proper English, by the way. If you were humble, you would have taken the effort. Do you think I just type out everything and then just post it? No, I double check spelling and grammar, change wording, make sure that my meaning is completely clear, and that I haven’t missed any important words.

“Love is patient, love is kind”, so scripture says. I’d be lying if I said that I loved you, because I really don’t. That’s why I’m not patient with your spelling and your rudeness. I once corresponded with another person who could not write good English. The difference between you and that other person is that he apologized for his bad English, and hoped that I could understand it. He also said that if I couldn’t, I should tell him and he would rewrite it. That person earned my respect, even if we had to agree to disagree. Not once did I chew him up about his language problems because he recognized them and was humble. That’s how a real Christian should behave.

And I can tell you that you cannot be certain that God is on your side. For all you know, He could be on my side, or He could be watching us both with disapproval. You simply cannot know. As for truly reborn Christians having the mind of Christ? Well, all I can say is that you’re most definitely not truly reborn. You’re just under the illusion that you are. You might think that you think the same way as Jesus does. I beg to differ, for Jesus was never so rude as to call someone arrogant on their first exchange, nor does he say anything along the lines of ‘if you don’t completely believe in the Bible, despite all reason, then you’re not my follower and I shun you’. You’re just a fanatic, as I’ve said.

You know, there is no ‘proper way’ to interpret literature and historical texts. Any new approach is appreciated, if you’re a scholar. If I kept on looking at things from the same angle, then I would be regurgitating what others have already said. That’s not interpreting; that’s called being a broken record. My approach shows that I’m actually thinking, and not just using other people’s arguments. Just because someone has a Ph’D doesn’t mean that their view is more valid than mine. I can choose not to believe them, and come up with my own views.

Well, I’ll see you at the blog then, and if you don’t mind, I’d rather you didn’t try and use Paul’s teachings on me. I doubt him the way I doubt any theologian, and see him as more of a scholar than a messenger of God. Although, I must say, he argues a lot more eloquently than you do.

The Great YouTube Debate 3

I invited Egoeimi over to continue the debate here, in public, if he dared. This is his response.

What are u talking about? Who said that flame languish in my inbox only?

And dare what.. what am I suppose to be afraid of something?

I would say I think u are more afraid, that u need help in defending your postion in detail.

If u notice.. tag teaming one creationist by a bunch of evolutionary blievers is how common it is even when I debate in chat rooms.. and u are welcome to come there to Christian Chat 1, 2, 3, or 4.. my screen name is sonofdavid or sonofdavid2.

I’m into apologitics. and i see plenty of error in your attacks and calling yourself a Christian.. makes me question your allegence.. and makes me question weather a true converstion acutally happened..

So if u dare.. bring it on.. but u already conceded that u only talk with a lot of tag teaming buddies..

God is my help..

I would bet that u even call the Resurrection of Jesus symbolic.. that it really didn’t literally happen.. and if u call it symbolic, that Jesus really didn’t rise from a literal death after several days. .then yeah.. i would see why u hold the positions u do..

Good day..

The interesting thing is, one cannot be a Christian without believing in the Resurrection, so he was wrong again. I do believe in it. Then he read the blog entries, and wrote this:

LOL..

So u posted what I said.. in your little world.. ok.. so is this where u want to take the debate.. no problem.. tell me how to add text.. and we will address your attacks.. i don’t have a problem with that..

If I dare.. what u thought i was going to back down.. u think that trying to humiliate me or mock my spelling means something.. no it just means that perhaps a person.. is lossing an argument throwing out there a few red herrings, get the people laughing rather than what is the real issue.

U would do well to know that scientific studies have been done that a person’s brain.. recognizes mispelled words and can still make them out.. and I thought u would practice a little humality and talk about the issues rather than point to spelling errors.

And again, it’s interllectually dishonest to attack someone on a certain point, if u have never done it.. but if u mispelled a word anytime in your life in the past 5 years.. to keep it fair, it go’s to show u that u are indeed.. being dishonest.. because i would find it very hard pressed that u have never mispelled a word.. do u have spelling bee trophies laying around on display..? Otherwise… stick to the issues and stop with the teenage attacks.. grow up a little.. talk like an adult, or will that make a difference because in youtube. and chat.. people still love to personal attack rather than stick to the issues.

i’m sre, u cn mk ot wht I jst said lving ot a fw ltters, becuse the brain is remrkble isn’t it.. LOL and i’m sure u undersood that last line perfectly..

and this:

Post this on your form.. the big deal and the immaturity to attack someones spelling.. isn’t the issue.. the issue is the context of the debate and what is being debated.. here is the study done by Amber J. White. Why don’t u judge this article and tear it apart, make a big deal out of a study that shows.. the spelling of words doesn’t hinder anything to much.. the issue or topic at hand is what is important.. get a grip.. lets debate your pretexting of Genesis… or Jesus teaching methods to make a point..

Can the Brain Translate Misspelled Words?

Abstract
Objectives/Goals
The purpose of my project is to determine if the brain can see a misspelled word and translate it to what it
was intended to say.
Methods/Materials
Over a period of several weeks, I tested 80 human test subjects. I chose to test 20 elementary school
students, 20 middle school students, 20 high school students and 20 adults. By doing this, I was sure to
get a large range of reading experience among the test subjects. I supplied each test subject with typed
paragraphs that I made up. Most of the words were spelled incorrectly. The first and last letter of each
word stayed in the same place but all the letters in the middle where randomly scrambled. I had a copy of
the same paragraphs, but all of the words on my paper were spelled correctly. I then asked the subjects to
read their paragraphs out loud to me. As they read aloud, I was marking which words they got wrong,
which words they struggled with, and which words they read correctly. On their paper, I recorded their
age and gender as well as the amount of words they read correctly. Finally, I gathered the results from
each of the subjects, and then charted their results according to age group and gender.
Results
Out of all 80 test subjects, high school students and adults had the highest average reading scores. They
were able to read an average of 132.9 words correctly out of the 137 words in the paragraphs. Elementary
school students were able to read and translate an average of 125 of the 137 words. They did well for
being young test subjects.
Conclusions/Discussion
According to the results of my experiment, I believe I have proven my hypothesis correct. The brain can
translate the misspelled words it sees and interpret it to say what it was supposed to say. The older test
subjects did better than the younger ones because they have seen and stored the correct word in the
memory for a longer period of time

So I posted this in response to all of his three messages:

As my school French teacher said: “It’s all right to make a few mistakes as long as it doesn’t hinder communication.” Reading your eyesore hinders communication immensely. Never did a single spelling bee in my life, but no one told me off for spelling in the two years I’ve been putting my writing up for public scrutiny and believe me, some of those people can flame. They make my masterpiece look mild and polite in comparison. Your spelling isn’t your only problem; your grammar is atrocious. I expect better of fourteen year old writers who post their writing online anywhere.

While scientific studies prove that the brain can process such garbage, it takes far too long, and as I’ve said before, there are better things to do than to decipher illiterate text speak.

I posted my flame on another public forum as well.

http://www.fanfiction.net/topic/26040/10541835/1/

This is not my forum, and believe me, there is a huge audience watching it. There’s even a creationist there, and more Christians than atheists. If you look at the person below me, who’s a teenager and a Christian, you will see the emphasis on spelling.

Perhaps thirty-five year olds think that showing the courtesy of correct language usage is below them, but I think that’s just you.

And yes, both these replies are going on the blog. It can go on the other forum too, if you want. However, considering my daytime is your night time, and vice versa, chatrooms are beyond me. Forums, on the other hand, are a different matter. If you know of one, I’ll take my bitchy vindictive teenaged self over there. To comment on my blog entries, there’s a link under the title which says ‘No comments’ or ‘1 comment’. Click that link to make another comment. Similarly, you can click the title, scroll down to the bottom, and find the comment window.

Isn’t it funny how all sides say that God is with them? I’d like to think that God is with me. You think that God is with you. The Crusaders shouted ‘Deus le volt!’ when killing Muslims. The Muslims shouted ‘Allahu akbar!’ when killing Crusaders. Then the pagan Mongols swept down and beat them both up before the Mongols themselves turned Christian/Muslim. How can you tell that God is on your side? Answer: you can’t. It’s just a guess, and you’re praying that He is helping you, even though He might not be.

By the way, welcome to the world of flamers and sporkers. What you saw on my blog was your first sporking. There will be more.

Believe me, I was baptized at birth; I didn’t get a choice. I’ve been preached to since I was a babe in arms. However, if you go to that forum above, you’ll find another Catholic who accepts evolution. I trust her opinion on the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and you’ll find that she says the Catholic Church accepts evolution as well.

I believe in the resurrection of Jesus, but I sure as hell don’t give a damn if others find it hard to believe. I won’t insist on them believing anything, as long as they care about Jesus’ commandment to love one another.

I’ll give you a tip in arguing; use sources which the other side will trust and turn that evidence against them. Of course, this is only the silly thoughts of a mere nineteen year old little girl, so why would you even bother to listen? It’s not as if this little kid can argue better than you, because you have God on your side, right?

I will get around to posting the actual argument itself soon, so you can see what this is all about, and decide for yourself.  

 

On Fiction Writing (Guidelines only)

This is a companion piece to On Writing Good Crossover Fanfiction but it applies to more general fiction.

Technicalities

Grammar and spelling may be annoying, but they’re essential parts of good writing. Bad grammar and spelling detracts from the flow of your piece. And don’t just rely on spellcheck. Sometimes, it doesn’t work, and especially not for grammar. It’s only good for indicating things that you need to change, but the suggestions are not always reliable.

Tip: Reading books is a good way to go about improving spelling, grammar and vocabulary. You don’t have to read what is termed ’serious literature’. For me, anything that’s published is good enough.

I suppose style would be included under technicalities. Don’t try to use big words if you don’t normally use them. That just makes the writing sound awkward and forced. Be natural. Use your own voice. Mine tends to be sarcastic or frivolous, depending on my mood. Write like you talk; just correct the grammatical mistakes.

Prior Preparation

As with everything else, writing a piece of fiction requires that you know something about the subject which you want to write about. However, I don’t believe in the ‘write what you know’ mantra. If everyone stuck to that, there would be no Tolkien, no Harry Potter, no Pirates of the Caribbean. A better way to describe it is ‘write what you believe you understand’. Anything that your knowledge is a bit fuzzy on, you can fill in with your own imagination.

For example, I want to write Historical Fantasy, so I research the period in which I want to set my story, and I figure out how things differed from the modern world. Understanding the setting is very important, because then you can shape characters which are compatible with the setting.

Plot

I once went to a writing class, and the tutor said that plot is basically this: ’A character wants something, but there’s an obstacle. How will the character overcome the obstacle to get what s/he wants?’ It’s your job, as the writer, to throw in interesting obstacles for the characters to overcome. And they can’t be too easy either, or else the story wouldn’t be exciting.

Characters

I find that creating realistic likeable characters the most difficult part of writing anything. Once you’ve got your characters sussed, you’re basically halfway towards success. A character cannot be flawless, or else he/she wouldn’t be human. For me, the best way to create characters is to visualize someone in my head. I usually base my characters on historical figures or actors. People watching is a good way to get idea for characters. Everyone speaks, moves and reacts differently. You gather a variety of these characteristics, mix them up to form realistic, likeable (or in the case of the villain, depicable) behaviour sets, and voila! You have a character. That’s harder than it sounds, by the way. I still haven’t been too successful in creating my own original protagonist.

Ways to go about writing

When I write, I tend to visualize a film in my head. A film is more than just images and dialogue. It has different angles to show different perspectives, and lighting and music to show the atmosphere. Every scene that I write has its own accompanying soundtrack and therefore, I find it very useful to have music which will go with the film in my head while I’m writing. My favourites at the moment are from actual film soundtracks and music by Immediate Music.

A comfortable work station is important. You don’t want anything distracting you from your work. I either work in my room with the door closed and the music on, or I write on the computer early in the morning when the sky is dark, and the house is quiet because everyone’s asleep. Hot chocolate or one of those creamy coffees make good imagination boosters.

Sometimes, when I get Writer’s Block, I find that changing the writing materials help. Lately, I’ve been writing on the computer only because I couldn’t do it on paper with pencil or pen. However, my essays have been written by hand because I couldn’t write them on the computer. I’m not sure how that works, but that’s how it is with me. Not everyone’s the same.