DarkwolfX37

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by DarkwolfX37>

Reading the article, he seems to have provided sound Biblical evidence for each main point. The second paragraph is slightly obscured, because the logic for the main idea is provided near the end of the paragraph.
See, the thing is, God commands us to "take captive our thoughts" and provides us with the help of the Holy Spirit. So, though the sight and the tendency for any chronic sin are constantly there, God wants us to resist those temptations. So, if one has chronic laziness--that is, the tendency to be lazy--God wants us to resist that, and provides us with the strength to do so. The first article I sent says why it's a problem; the second article I sent says what God thinks about it (and at the end, what God wants us to do instead); the third article provides a proper attitude on work.

@Efficacy

Which article? The first?
- "Wicked, lazy servant." I already pointed out how this isn't evidence. It's out of context and therefor doesn't have the weight that the writer assumes it has. Take my earlier example.
- Second paragraph is actually the only somewhat sound one because he's defining laziness.
- Third paragraph, that people who are lazy are also untrustworthy is a baseless claim. The quote isn't given context and at face value states that all non-christians are untrustworthy, and in context of the paragraph, are all lazy. He then states that the motivation is to impress non-believers, not to do it because it's something you should do in and of itself. That's not very christian of him.
- He ends it by saying "oh by the way this only applies to work you do for money/someone else." That's points off.
The second?
- A) That's wrong, the only sense of purpose the bible says humans were made with is to reproduce. B) If we take that to mean "us" as in "everyone after the garden" then that's even worse, because in that case he also made us with the sense of laziness and apathy. It's MORE inherent in a human than "a sense of purpose" is. It also claims that all laziness is a choice, which again, isn't the case.
- He states that all lazy people only care about themselves. He says this flat out. It also doesn't address the problem at hand, like I gave that example for. There is no other person involved in the problem, so claiming that it's bad because of how another person is affected isn't a feasible response.
- This is not even talking about laziness. A negligent attitude is not the same thing as being lazy at all. Then he goes on to give personal experience and what his mom told him. This has nothing to do with the problem, it has nothing to do with scripture, and worst of all, it's TERRIBLE advice. "I learned it from my mother who worked in a textile mill for 40 years and never complained." First off, bullshit. That's nearly impossible. I know it's not literal but now that I've re-read it I'm pissed at how bad this is. Secondly, that example is a horrible thing. Textile mills a generation ago for 40 years means horrid working conditions, and not standing up for yourself at all? Thinking that statement through makes it terrible advice on how to live. "And never complained" is a saying synonymous with "and accepted it even though it was bad." For fuck's sake.
- Again, if that was said by god, then that's a horrible thing to add to the list, because the only way that would fly is if it was said by someone at the time. Knowing what we know about ants makes that a terrible thing to say to say. It's not even necessarily the quote that's bad, it's what he says about it, because he should KNOW BETTER now that we know about how ants are. It's saying to be, literally because we're talking about ants here, a drone. That's horrid. And then the message he gives from it is totally unrelated to. "The ant works, prepares, and provides. In other words, we are to work with diligence in all that we do." No? That's not a logical connection, it's missing some connecting thread. "The ant... It gives its whole self to its work. In other words..." Something that would make that an actual related statement.
The third?
- This is straight up saying "be a slave." I really shouldn't have to explain why that's bad. It's also contradicted by the quote. "Obey your "master" on earth no matter what but god is the ultimate authority and he wants to see you be obedient." Okay so your "master" says to stop X christian thing. Well, god's the higher authority but he also says directly "obey in ALL things." You could take it to mean "whoever your "master" is in each aspect, obey them," but again, there's no fucking context to it.

Like, bro. I'm sorry. Really, because I'm sure you think this is fine, but find a new source of daily devotions, because this one sucks.

Myriad Reality

@DarkwolfX37

Just pointing out that deadly sins aren't a thing. Somebody else made that up.

@Meta

Yeah, Catholics. The original christians. And just because your sect doesn't consider them special doesn't mean it doesn't consider them all sins.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by DarkwolfX37>

Refusing to argue with the first and second, since I'd really rather not: a sin you "can't help" is still a sin, and there's no excuse other than ignorance. Chronic laziness is still wrong, because God warns against laziness. But God helps us to fight against inherent tendencies in the very same way he helps us to fight against willing sin, because sin itself is an inherent tendency. Sin itself is chronic. That's why I sent those devotions: because they provided biblical advice about fighting the sin of laziness that was worth praying about and taking to heart.

@Efficacy

Hey, the writers were dumb. Doesn't say anything about potentially passages.
Sloth is a deadly sin. I'm not gonna argue that. But they didn't give biblical advice, they gave speculatory and personal experience advice. If yhvh warns against laziness, then providing those passages would've been biblical advice. They didn't really do that. They also ignored context of the quotes, hence my first point.
"a sin you "can't help" is still a sin, and there's no excuse other than ignorance." Noooooo. Wrong. There is a huge difference in how they have to be handled. Example: You can't help getting aroused at the sight of what you're attracted to. You can help whether or not you seek that out. You can't say "oh just don't seek it out" when the problem is that the sight is constantly there and claim that it's still applicable and that there's no difference.

The Host of Balance (Digimon, Pokemon, and Shin Megami Tensei Crossover.)

<Snipped quote by DarkwolfX37>

Aren't Naoto and Minato from different universes, though?

@Letter Bee

You said before that all persona games are from the same universe, so...
Naoto is P4.

The Host of Balance (Digimon, Pokemon, and Shin Megami Tensei Crossover.)

@DarkwolfX37
Kind of unrelated to the current events, but I guess it makes sense that you didn't just randomly wander into the super secret hideout.

@Ryougu

She's back at her own world, never really recruited. She knows about the MA but that's about it, and she doesn't even know much about it. If she's wanted in the mission, I have a cool way to do that since Naoto and Minato might be related. If they are, they don't know it since they met in Q, but there's a HUGE fan theory that they're at least somewhat closely related, if not that she's the child who was in the accident with Minato as a child. Though I think the female protagonist is that child officially? I don't know, I haven't played FES Portable nor know if it mentions it. They look almost exactly the same at the very least, so her being the recruiter in DS2 could lead to cool stuff, even though I'm sure she's left the DS2 world by now to do... whatever the MA is having her do.

Plus, this let me give a lot of (somewhat hidden) exposition and show her character pretty well up front.

The Host of Balance (Digimon, Pokemon, and Shin Megami Tensei Crossover.)

Sitting on the railing of an abandoned bridge over the Tamagawa River, in a calm and cloudy Tokyo where the breeze was just enough to keep away the heat was a young girl with white hair. A small orange cat was all that kept her company, laying on her folded-up trademark coat and watching her as she waited for her fishing line to move. Maribel Hotsuin had once again gone off to be by herself, wanting to get away from the tedium of her uncle's work. Her mother was off in America on some business involving a recent rebellion, not normally of her concern but the fact that it had heavily involved demons forced her hand, so the mostly defenseless girl was left behind where she could be protected. With no real close friends to speak of, she wound up here several hours and several fish ago.

She sighed to herself as she looked toward one side of the river. A battle of some sort had started and several demon tamers were attacking wild demons. "Poor things, those people are probably harassing them for macca."

She was about to look back at the cat when she felt a pull on her fishing line. Quickly pulling it in, she brought the fish up the twenty feet from the water to where she was sitting. "Got one!" she exclaimed, quickly putting it in the bucket of water she had hung over the railing with the other large fish she had caught. "Now, how to do this..."

She quickly but carefully turned around towards the now excited feline and jumped down onto the bridge. Nearby was a pile of sticks and two metal skewers, which she gently placed against the railing before piling the sticks and kneeling next to them. "Alright, Jungo." she said, looking towards the cat as she picked up a stick. "Don't tell anyone about this. I've been practicing." She took a deep breath. "Mazio." Several strands of electricity ran along the stick in her hands and met at the top, causing the end to burst into flames. She gently placed it in the center of the pile, quickly creating a small bonfire.

Maribel stood up and took the skewers from the railing as she walked over to the fish bucket, Jungo the cat meowing and rubbing against her legs as she did, causing her to giggle. Standing over the bucket, she gave a short apology to the fish and thanked them for their sacrifice before sending an arc of lightning into the bucket with a single "Zio." The fish both floated to the top of the bucket and she ran a skewer through both of them, taking them over to the fire and setting them against it to cook. She sat next to it and began to pet the complaining Jungo, waiting for the fish to finish.

Finally, after making sure they were well cooked, she doused the fire with the bucket of water and carefully picked up the skewers. She began to set one of them down when she suddenly pulled back, realizing something. "Oh no! These are probably too hot for you, huh, Jungo?" Jungo replied, though his message was lost on Maribel. "Hmm... Oh, I have an idea! She carefully removed one of her white leather gloves that she wore despite the lack of her coat, revealing a blue medical glove underneath. With her now ungloved hand, she carefully reached into her pocket and brought out her phone, booting the demon management app and selecting "spells." She scrolled down a few spaces and aimed her phone just above the two fish, flat on their sides, before pressing the enter button. [Bufu] A freezing force appeared where she aimed, drawing in the nearby heat and cooling her and Jungo's meal. "There we go." she said as she placed her phone carefully back in her pocket. She placed her white glove back on with the utmost care and tested a fish against her teeth. "All done!" she told Jungo as he complained at the wait, removing the fish she tested from its skewer and handing it to the cat who immediately grabbed it in its mouth and ran back over to Maribel's coat to eat. Maribel laughed at her small friend's actions before setting to work cleaning and gutting the fish, cutting the good parts into pieces on a towel from her backpack. Finished, she placed all the parts she didn't intend to eat next to Jungo and brought out a pair of disposable chopsticks, enjoying the meal with the only friend she had total recollection of.

The Host of Balance (Digimon, Pokemon, and Shin Megami Tensei Crossover.)

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by souleaterfan320>

Ooh, then you'd totally benefit from the same things God has been showing me. I've been having some struggles with that until a few devotions woke me up to the fact that I have to actively fight it. You might benefit from reading these three:
intouch.org/read/magazine/daily-devoti..
intouch.org/read/magazine/daily-devoti..
intouch.org/read/magazine/daily-devoti.. (the devotion for the 25th of January)

@Efficacy

Oh these are apologists talking about it. I thought they were specific passages or something.

1. "Wicked, lazy servant" doesn't really mean that they're in the same category. "You heartless, pale man" doesn't put pale in the same category as heartless, for example. Also I like how it claims non-christians are all horribly lazy.
2. We also have a sense to be lazy, so a sense of purpose doesn't mean much. "Lazy people only care about themselves" is a baseless claim. This guy's personal experience that he learned from his mom has nothing to do with his religion. That should've been ommitted, and that it wasn't is a hit to his credibility as someone who can give biblical advice. Uhm... Telling people to be like ants is terrible advice and very much a control mechanism. I mean, it wasn't at the time since people didn't know much about them, but modern time we know that they will literally work themselves to death, continue working while infected with a mind-controlling fungus, and don't have autonomy. That's antithetical to "personal responsibility."
3. Strong personal disagreements aside, this has nothing to do with inherent tendencies. That only applies to "willing laziness" ie "I don't want to do that therefor I won't," which isn't the same as chronic laziness.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by DarkwolfX37>

Just approach Tempo or something. Did Data not already create a portal for her?

@Meta

Data did literally nothing but question her. And what's Tempo's relation to Time Line? Why would he be an obvious avenue to get to him through?

Myriad Reality

I'm pretty much here constantly while I'm awake, just checking my sub list.