GalCiv2 Forums
Okay, here's what you do for this game: You have to "ban" the person who posted above you for an outrageous, silly, or funny reason. Got it?
So, you're telling me that a child is born, it's born with an incurable disease and will die shortly after birth. Did the child choose to die? Or was it's fate decided before it was even born?
A man was born without a family, save his mother, tried to make friends but failed, attempted marriage but also failed; Did he choose a life of loneliness?
People don't choose to contract cancer, citizens don't choose to have their village attacked, if people could control what happened to them; do you really think that 90% of the chaos in the world today would happen?
Banned, again, for not baning.
Richter {^}
The disease the child is born with is a product of either his surroundings or the genetics of his ancestors. Again like Daak said it isnt destiny or anything like that. War disease famine they all have worldly causes linked to someone's evil or ignorance.
QFT 
You sir have done your homework 
Xer07, you fail to understand that there is always cause and effect. Every effect is caused by some kind of factor.
Now, if that factor is unknown, or cannot be understood by you, you are gonna call "destiny", or "God". You know, crap like that.
Let me torn your post to pieces:
1. When a child is born with an incurable disease, there could be a number of factors causing that. It could be the genetics of his/her ancestors, like Altaux said. It could be some sort of substance that his/her mother consumed/digested/absorbed that caused that birth disease/condition. Or it could simply be something "innocent" looking, that we havent discovered yet, and that we are unaware of its symptoms. (medicine or something, that is supposed to be good) Scientists and doctors only know so much. They cant know everything. Lastly, it could be a factor that we neglect and are unaware of, 100%.
2. A man could be born without a family, having only 1 parent or no parents at all, for 564565635653 reasons. I will only state the obvious and simple ones, because I wont right a whole page of all the possible explanations just for you.
Maybe his parents abandoned the child, or they got divorced, and he was left with only 1 parent. The reasons that they abandoned him can vary a lot. Obviously I am not gonna over-analyze the whole thing by stating all these reasons. Maybe they didnt want a child at all, or they couldnt afford to raise one. Who knows? Go ask them 
Maybe his parents died in an accident, in which someone was responsible for their deaths. Maybe they had barely enough money to raise the child, but they decided to give him up for adoption, because they thought it would be better if he was raised by someone wealthy.
"tried to make friends but failed, attempted marriage but also failed" Really? Do you call that "Destiny" too? 
Do I need to spell it out for ya? Fine
1 million reasons could add up to the fact that he is alone, cant make friends, get married, etc etc. Maybe what is left of his family (or his non-existent family) has a bad reputation to people. Maybe there is a series of mistakes he made, and was disliked or rejected by people. Maybe there is some discrimination over his sexuality, or nationality, or religion, and was rejected for that. Maybe he cant be accepted by people, because he "doesnt go with the flow", he is different. Maybe he happened to meet the wrong people in his life. Not everyone gets to be friends with anyone he knows, or get married to any woman he wants, you know. I wont keep going with that, because the reasons could be so many, so complicated, and so many combinations of them, that its pointless to keep writing about them.
3. Of course people dont choose to have cancer, and of course nobody wants their village/city attacked. Someone else does it for them.
When you smoke cigarettes, and everyone tells you that you might get cancer from that (besides, thats in the box, and its common knowledge), but you accept that possibility, and take that risk. You continue to smoke for 30 or so years.
Who's fault is it for you getting cancer? God's fault? Did God told you to smoke? Did God produced the cigs? Or is it your "Destiny", to die from cancer?
Of course a big wealthy company made the cigs, and of course you started smoking, because everyone does, or because you wanted to be cool, or because you were curious, or this or that.
You were exposed to harmful rays of the sun for many years and you got cancer from that. We already have destroyed a part of the Ozone in the atmosphere with pollution.
You consumed a product that had a small chance of causing cancer if consumed for many years. The company that made that product (could be food or a drink, anything really), knew that, but "forgot" to add it to the label, because it would be illegal, and would lose a lot of money from that, or they honestly didnt know, or care enough to find out if it was dangerous or not.
A village gets attacked by people, not by God, you know. The people that killed, raped, burned, etc to that village, are responsible for it. The villagers are not gonna attack themselves, you know.
I feel such an idiot for explaining all that to you, like teaching a kid how to spell "mommy". You should be able to understand and see all these things by yourself.
Its not God that is causing anything in the world, its not Destiny that makes everything preset, and written in a "book", or fixed in a way you have no control over it. Yes, some things you have no control over them, but if you could control everything, then you wouldnt be human, right? Then you would be a superior being, maybe God, I dont know.
God, Destiny, Demons and Angels, Fate. All these things were created by people in order to explain things they are unaware of. Factors you cant see, and effects that you had no control of the cause, this is enough to make you believe it was supposed to happen for some reason, that it was Destiny, or God.
Such HUGE CHUNK OF BULLSHIT, I say! 
What is Destiny? You cant even give a decent explanation to it. Wikipedia says:
"Destiny refers to a predetermined course of events . It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. It is a concept based on the belief that there is a fixed natural order to the cosmos."
Pfft, and who decides what this future will be like, who decides these things to happen, who "fixes" the natural order of the cosmos, who does all that?
God? Do you think God is a puppeteer that plays with his toys that are called humans? Do you think we are all controlled by a superior being?
Then what is free will? An illusion?
What do you have to say, Xer07?
That would be all.
Banned because you dont even agree with yourself, how can you agree with me? 
That would be all.
banned for getting to rag on the bastard. I wanted to do it! Hell, I'm not even throwing out the possible existence of God or destiny, but when he says it must be one or the other, then it displays an absence of thought. Judeo-Christianity (despite the ignorant claims of some supposed followers) believes in a God, but that we have free will. Judaism accepts that evils were born of man, and that despite Messianic prophecy, the ultimate end of man lies with his own decisions. Hinduism believes in a fixed destiny for the greater whole with malleable fates for individuals, while Buddhism believes every person is responsible for their future, even in spite of what others might do to them. Vikings believe even the Gods have a fate which they can not change, nor survive.
Point is not that you're wrong, but that you're only touching the tip of right.
I wanted to keep the discussion as far away from religion as possible, but since you brought it up, let me speak up my point of view:
1. Whether God exists or not is up to everyone's beliefs, and nothing more. Either you believe in God or you dont, but whichever of the 2 you believe, nothing changes the fact that we are all living on Earth, and we have to somehow survive off of it. As soon as we start looking out for each other, and not just ourselves, things will start getting better.
But thats not going to happen anytime soon. The big sharks will continue to eat the smaller fish in the sea, and the weak small kinds of fish will slowly become extinct, until all the smaller fish unite, and drive those big sharks away from the ocean.
2. Anyway, I believe that all religions are a mask, a way to keep people under control, to give them false hope, to justify their suffering, to give their poor lives a deeper but false meaning. No, I am not saying that all religions are bad, or something. I am not flaming either. I am simply saying, that NO religion is 100% true and right.
If someone did a small bit of research, they would find out many similarities over many religions, in the history. The same pieces of a big puzzle, mixed up, changed a bit, and recycled throughout the centuries.
3. Yes, I believe in God, but not in the way that most people do. When someone survives a very dangerous car crash, they say "God saved me", or "Thank God". It isnt God that saved you specifically, it is some other form of factor that did it. Maybe the car's airbags, or your seat belt, or.....you get the point.
4. I dont want to make anyone believe what I believe or insult their religion, I am simply stating my beliefs.
5. Who is that "bastard" you are talking about?
6. I know I was only touching the tip of right, I just wanted to be solid on what I said, with simple facts.
7. About Christianity: I am a Christian myself (sort of, its more like a label they put on me since my birth....), but dont share all these things that Greek Christians believe. I dont know what ignorant claims you speak of, but all Christians (including me) believe that people have free will.
8. Anyway, its like I said: When people dont understand/cant explain something, they say "God did it". Or when they have no control over something, they say "It was destiny". These 2 show a lot of ignorance imo, because there are so many things that people are unaware of (me included of course), that you cant possibly understand and know everything. But believing that God actually has a big effect on your life and every day things, or that everything is predetermined, set, fixed or something, be it Destiny or Fate (however you wanna call it), thats just plain stupid.
9. Banned for, IF you want to go further than I did, be my guest, but if I were you, I would try not to insult anyone, and keep things as civil as possible (no flaming).
That would be all.
Banned because you always start these near-flame-wars when I'm not around to participate in them.
Banned because I dont want to start a flame war this time.
That would be all.
banned for the excessive use of the word 'flame'.
Okay, the 'bastard' I was referring to was Richter. Not trying to insult him, just felt like using the word. So the ban was pointed at you.
The religious talk was pointed at Richter. Sorry for the mix up. I'm just trying to get him to expand his thoughts.
I have no problem with what you say, Morpheas. It comes down to 'to each their own'. And the ignorant claims I speak of are those people I know which say they believe in destiny, but also claim to be Christians. I'm sure you see where they confuse me.
In any case, I was never trying to start a religious argument. Hell, I don't think I made the comment that started it. In any case, I'm just an advocate of open-mindedness. If you want a good read, try The Religious Argument Against Belief. Unlike The God Delusion, it does not attack religion, rather hopes to shape it into something universally constructive.
And I still hold out hope that one day we will be without sharks. Maybe not soon, but one never knows what we may be capable of. I subscribe to the philosophy that when we, as a species, treat an offense against one as an offense against the whole, we are unstoppable.
Banned because I lost 3 times in a row in LoL, due to noob teams, and I am F&*$ing pissed off 
Well, considering that the word "bastard" is a curse, then I think you insulted him, but thats not my business.
Anyway, I think that everyone should have an open mind, otherwise we dont really learn anything new, do we?
I am having trouble to believe that there are Christians who believe in destiny, that everything is preset, predetermined. Because that is totally contradictory to free will and all these things I spoke of earlier in my posts.
But if you say that there are such stupid people who dont know what their own religions are about, then I believe you 
"I subscribe to the philosophy that when we, as a species, treat an offense against one as an offense against the whole, we are unstoppable."
QFT
But not just that. We need to treat our existence as a whole. We are 1 species, 1 kind, 1 being. If we manage to think that we are 1, and not 6 billions, then we will really be wiser, smarter, superior than we are now. War can become extinct, crimes can become history, and the whole idea of evil will vanish.
But only if we manage to do that. We dont need to slightly change how we act, or behave. We need to to transform our way of thinking. Completely change the way we think, the way we feel, only then we can achieve greatness.
Your philosophy is one of the wise, good sir 
I also subscribe to it.
p.s. I havent read these books, but if I see 1 of them in a book store, I will buy it.
That would be all.
I also recommend the recent run of Dr. Who and Torchwood (BBC Whales) as philosophical treatises of human nature. Sci-fi is a wonderful extension of existential philosophy and these two series contain many anecdotes of human greatness and folly, true and fictional. If nothing else, watch the mini-series Torchwood: Children of Earth. Just keep in mind that the main character, Jack Harkness, once traveled with the Doctor, and so he makes references which he does explain. Even if you are not well versed in the mythology of the Doctor, the mini-series is very easy to understand.
And I do believe that my philosophy extends to our own species. An offense against one, even by a member of the same, hurts us all. If all, including the one which would be inclined to the offense, realize that, the offense would never come to pass. Granted, I also believe that you can not make people good. They have to discover that, as a society and individual, for themselves.
banned for the sake of humanity.
No we cant
Banned for short posts.
I agree with everything you said Draak. And I may just watch Torchwood, but I have watched some of Dr Who, and didnt like it 
That would be all.
Banned for i didnlt like it either
See that fools short posts for the win!
Banned for Incomprehensible Acronym Additions To Comprehensible Acronyms (IAATCA).
Banned for hazy image on crappy quality video.
Well, a lot of people who disliked Eckelson's Doctor like Tennant's Doctor (second season and on). But even if you don't watch all of Torchwood, the mini-series is still really good.
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