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People always get pissed off about this but if you look at the nations with extremely high civil rights, most people would say they’re terrible places to live.
The game code defines civil rights, roughly, as not having non-economic things not be illegal. That was a lot of negatives, I realize that, so I hope you understand. (It’s actually somewhat more complicated than that... but it’s a good baseline). Banning heroine decreases civil rights because it prevents people from doing what they want to do. Same with abortion, although I realize that issue is complicated (and so is the simulation - some options that ban abortion increase civil rights now). Regardless the game is consistent - typically legalizing assassinations (and arson) increase civil rights. Banning surveillance protects right to privacy, freedom from government, etc, so civil rights increase.
Conflating “civil rights” and “nation goodness” is a bad thing to do.
Christian Democrats, Katholskur, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
I've complained about the labels in the past, but I haven't gotten anywhere with the game administration. I think I asked them to change "civil rights" to "civil liberty" or "civil freedom" (because things like arson aren't "rights"), and I think I asked them to change "social conservatism" to "social control." They told me no. Thus, the misnomers remain.
EDIT: Although, arson isn't a freedom that's civil, so some other label would probably be better.
Katholskur, Theokratiss, Kostol, Cristero, and 1 otherThe Pilgrims in the Desert
+
+ J M J +
Hey, brothers and sisters in Christ! I'm saying goodbye.
In my prayer time last night, I've discerned that in order to become a better Christian, I must crack down on procrastination. Therefore, I'm leaving this game.
It's been an honour and a pleasure to be spiritualy fulfilled by being surronded by the Holy Spirit while playing a game. Being in this region has also encouraged me to ensure all of my political positions are very well rooted in the Church's social teaching; therefore it's help me grow in grace. I thank you for all of that.
I'll say a Rosary for you; but I also ask each one of you to stop for a moment a say a Hail Mary for me.
Yours in +Christ,
Luke 'Thelaretus' Sebastian from Brazil;
Ad majorem +Dei gloriam.
Christian Democrats, Omensa, Katholskur, Fredgast, and 7 othersTheokratiss, Azbadar, Epeolatry, Eponia, Sundiata, Cristero, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
Good luck. See you on the other side.
“Civil rights” as a term no longer carries a good connotation to me. It’s been hijacked, so I don’t really notice. I suppose changing the name would be somewhat more accurate, though.
Christian Democrats, Katholskur, Eponia, Attike, and 1 otherThe Pilgrims in the Desert
Hello!
Christian Democrats, United hispaniola, Katholskur, Fredgast, and 5 othersAzbadar, Eponia, Thomas More, Cristero, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
Welcome to the region!
Christian Democrats, United hispaniola, Katholskur, Fredgast, and 3 othersAzbadar, Thomas More, and Cristero
1 John 3 "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Love One Another
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us."
Ghost in the shell, Quebec the cold, Calcindinia, Cristero, and 1 otherThe Pilgrims in the Desert
"Prayer is duty, is need, is comfort, is hope, is beauty." -"The private prayers of Pope John Paul II" (I know he is now St. Pope John Paul II but that's the title of the book which is what I'm citing)
"Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." - St. Pope John Paul II
"Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song." - St. Pope John Paul II
I love how they put some of these prayers in Latin (this is one of my favourite prayers either way but the Latin is very beautiful):
"Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia!" English Translation: "I am entirely yours, and all that I have is yours. Be my guide in all things." - The Private Prayers of Pope John Paul II (Also I have no clue how to pronounce the Latin properly and I have a hunch it'd sound like me mixing my English and French pronunciation of different words but I still love the Latin either way)
"For peace. May those responsible be persuaded that war is an adventure with no return! War nevermore! Grant in our time days of peace!" - The back of the book of "The private prayers of Pope John Paul II"
I was reading the Bible and came across a book I never knew was even part of the Bible until yesterday (I really need to read the Bible more often! Sheesh!) Also it's going to be in a spoiler because it's about 40 verse long which is a lot:
The present age is not the end of everything,” the angel answered. “Even in this age, the glorious presence of God is not always seen. That is why the strong have prayed for the weak during this age. 113But the Judgement Day will be the end of the present age and the beginning of the future age. Then all corruption will end, 114self-indulgence and disloyalty will be eliminated. Righteousness and truth will reach their full maturity. 115So on Judgement Day, no one will be able to have mercy on those who have been condemned, and no one will be able to harm those who have been acquitted.”
116I answered, “I made this point before, and I will make it again. It would have been better if the earth had never produced Adam, or when it had done so, if it had made him so that he could not sin. 117What good is it for any of us to have life in the present age, when it is full of misery and when all we can look forward to after death is punishment? 118O Adam, what have you done? Your sin was not only your own downfall; it was also the downfall of all of us who are your descendants. 119What good is it to us that we have the promise of immortal life, when we have committed sins that condemn us to death? 120What good is the hope of eternity, when we find ourselves in such a completely hopeless situation? 121What good is it that safe and secure homes have been prepared for us in the future world, when we have lived such wicked lives? 122What good is the promise that the glorious presence of God Most High will protect those who have lived pure lives, when our own lives have been so full of sin? 123What good is it that Paradise is shown to us, that its imperishable fruit can heal us and provide all we need? We can never go there 124because we have lived unacceptable lives. 125What good is it that the faces of those who practise self-control will shine more brightly than the stars, when our own faces will be blacker than the night? 126Never in our whole lives, when we sinned, did we think about what we would have to suffer after death.”
127The angel replied, “This is the meaning of the conflict that every person on earth must endure: 128if he is defeated, he must suffer the things you have just told me about, but if he is victorious, he will receive the rewards that I have just mentioned. 129That is why Moses long ago urged the people to choose life so that they might live. 130But they did not believe him or the prophets who came after him, and they did not believe me when I spoke to them. 131So the sadness over their destruction is nothing compared with the great joy over the salvation of those who believe.”
132I answered, “Sir, I know that God Most High is spoken of as merciful because he shows mercy to those who have not entered this world. 133He is called compassionate because he shows compassion to those who repent and obey his Law. 134He is thought of as patient because he is patient with his own creatures who have sinned. 135He is known as generous because he prefers to give rather than to demand. 136And he is known as very forgiving because he continues to forgive sinners of the past, present, and future. 137If he did not continue to forgive, there would be no life for this world or the people in it. 138He is spoken of as pardoning because, if it were not for his goodness in pardoning sinners, not one person in 10,000 would gain life. 139He is called judge because he pardons and blots out the many sins of those who were created by his word. 140If he did not, only a handful of the whole human race would be left.”" 2 Esdras 7: 102-140
God is both infinitely Just and Merciful. How wonderful it is that in this age we can pray for the dead, that the souls in purgatory may, by the grace of God, make it to Heaven. How wonderful is it also how wise and fair He is.
Christian Democrats, Katholskur, Fredgast, and Cristero
Laudetur Iesus Christus! I'm new :)
Christian Democrats, Omensa, United hispaniola, Katholskur, and 4 othersFredgast, Azbadar, Cristero, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
Welcome!
Christian Democrats, Katholskur, Fredgast, Azbadar, and 2 othersMedwedgrad, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
This is one of my favorite JP2 quotes.
Salve!
Katholskur, Azbadar, Cristero, Medwedgrad, and 1 otherThe Pilgrims in the Desert
Welcome and salve. Also bienvenue, because whenever I see Latin my mind thinks of how it's related to French.
I searched up what Salve means and it means hello (or more accurately to wish someone well) and it's not only Latin but also Italian where it's usually used as a formal greeting. Interestingly enough the French have their own version of the word "salve" since it too is a Latin based language, and would be "salut" however the word salut is actually informal while bonjour (hello or good day) is more formal in french.
If
I ever end up in Italy I'll probably forget everything I learnt just now but it's fun learning this either way.
Edit: I just went online to translate the Latin and found the answer to the greeting of "Laudetur Iesus Christus!"
In saecula saeculorum! Amen.
Katholskur, Azbadar, and Cristero
Then let me inform you that this word (salut) exists also in Russian (салют, salyut), and it means "fireworks" :D
I like languages too. Apart from English, I speak mostly Slavic languages (Croatian, Polish and Russian). Currently I am trying to learn German.
About the greeting I used - I went to Catholic school where it was a traditional way to greet a teacher at the beginning of every class :) So, we were using it every day few times, and teachers answer in the manner you just learned ;)
Thank you for your welcome, by the way!
Katholskur, Cristero, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
That is really cool. Thank you!
Edit: when you were talking about being in Catholic school and saying that greeting it reminded me of a funny story. My family is a couple different nationalities, but I'm half french so I grew up learning a tiny bit of french at home (really basic words) and then when I went to grade school I went to a Catholic school. Where I'm from you have to take French as a course. (I wanted to either way because of my culture).
Anyways back when I was almost done grade school I used to help out with announcements in the morning. One of the things we did was say a prayer to Mother Mary and every friday we said the Hail Mary in french. Back in those days I could write very well in French but my speaking was absolute gibberish with the cherry on top being my french speaking had no accent at all. So when I said that prayer I said the first few words well and the rest was...let's just say I was saying the prayer in my heart fluently. The principal who was one of the people running announcements joked after announcements were done saying, "At least those who don't know french don't know what you're saying and neither do the people who do speak french."
Luckily a couple years later my speaking skills in french caught up to my reading and writing and I was able to give a ten minute presentation in french on Notre Dame and a brief summary of it's architecture, history, and how even all of it's designs had significance. As a high school project. For example, they used royal feet instead of feet of feet and so using that they tried to model the height off of the dimensions of the temple King Solomon built (I do not exactly know the dimensions off the top of my head but I do remember I loved doing that project).
Fun stuff. Of course with French one of my biggest problems now would be the fact that if someone isn't speaking at a moderately slow pace in french, I can only pick up little bits of what they're saying (I have so many more funny stories of the times I messed up my French just from that, especially whenever I say, "I can speak French" and proceed to not understand a single word a person speaks).
Surprisingly I used to understand people speaking extremely fast in english because one of my friends had a game where everyone would try to see who could understand him first when he spoke really fast. Everyone thought he broke a world record. Good times.
Edit again: I found the Hail Mary in french. https://youtu.be/xNUPl5jPLLU
Please pray for the victims of police brutality who were killed almost solely because of their race.
Katholskur, Azbadar, Cristero, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
I found this prayer on an app with different prayers. This app is one of the ways I eventually remembered the St. Michael prayer. (The one that starts off with St. Michael the Archangel defend us in battle. I'm pretty sure there's a link in this region's page to the prayer)
Lord, our world is not at peace.
Families, companies, nations are at wars.
People are living in fear.
Countries are wasting millions of dollars for making weapons of mass destruction.
Teach men to trust each other and to share the goods of life.
Without trust there can be no peace.
With trust, we can live without fear and with less worry.
Give all men and nations your gift of peace.
Amen.
Katholskur, Azbadar, Sundiata, and Cristero
What I don't understand about this agnostic "science" cult that has taken over the main-stream is the fact that just because they can observe the laws created by God to make the universe it doesn't mean those laws aren't created by God.
It says in the bible that a day for our creator could be like a thousand years and a thousand years could be like a day (figuratively which means one day could also be like a trillion years or whatever for our Lord), yet because the earth wasn't created in 7 human days this is somehow proof against creation?
Because the Lord formed us through millions of years of controlled evolution to become human it is again somehow proof against creation? (I for one believe the first evolutions where like animals just made as a form always destined to make us)
And because scientists classify dinosaurs as something other than animals (they where just the first versions of animals probably has something to do with angels creating giants) so since the bible doesn't use the word dinosaurs it's again proof against God? No.
If anything science has only reaffirmed what we always know, there are no other creations (aliens), God created the earth with fire, there is a hell at the core of our planet, sins are punished by nature, the day of death is better than the day of birth, the bible says we will be like suns when we die and the sun is made of pure energy and we will be like starts on the sky which are suns, our will to live goes away after (before) 120 years, space was described in the bible (heaven of heavens), the fact that Christendom was triumphant against all odds, Jesus is documented, all religions that where used as placeholders included a "godhead" and "lesser gods" (angels), things that where described as impure actually are impure because of virus and bacteria, we are made of energy everything is made of energy God is described to shine pure white like energy, and the most obvious how can something be created out of nothing? Only through God who we will understand when we die.
Godless people are godless because they refuse to believe not because they have the truth on their side.
Problem with this parareligious cult of science is also in something else. Namely, worshipers of that cult want to use empirical scientific approach in all fields of human existence, including society and politics. However, scientific method has no intent to be absolute measure for all realities, but only to be followed in natural sciences. It can't be applied in complex realities such as social and political issues. Therefore worshipers of the cult of science are like a dangerous sect of fanatics who want to change the society based on their irrational and dogmatic parascientific beliefs.
United hispaniola, Fredgast, Cristero, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
God is good! Praise Jesus he has answered my prayers yet again!!!
Azbadar, Cristero, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
Here is my take and critique on the cult of science and it's view on religion. I will post more critiques soon.
1)Science is not Contradictory
Their claim is that since evolution was discovered, the Book of Genesis has been debunked. This falls flat in a few ways. For one they take the book of Genesis and interpret it the more fundamentalist way. They take this literal interpretation as proof of this contradiction. What they fail to grasp (or may even ignore) is that certain aspects of the book of Genesis are more metaphorical in nature and not to be taken literal. You especially can't take something literal when metaphors are involved and it has been translated for a thousand years (big loss in translation).
Another important point was raised by Fredgast earlier in the message board. To summarize his point, it has been shown that the lord's work is reaffirmed by science. I would like to strengthen this point with an important concept: mathematics. Mathematics is a very precise study and could also show how the lord may of created the universe. The important point is that math has shown that there are too many patterns in the universe and thus the universe in a way can be predicted to some extent. How could the universe begin as nothing and then chaotically form into patterns without an intelligent design? If anything, the cult of science is too far concerned with having science and religion contradict than to ever view what science has ever been, just a tool for understanding. It is an explanation of the how, not the why.
2)The Scientific Method and the Bible
This false view of a contradiction has been placed by the usage of the scientific method on the bible. The bible's main focus was not to explain the intricacies of the creation of everything but of our purpose and role in this grand plan. As it has been stated before, its focus is on the "why" not the "how" of science. The book of Genesis was focused with original sin and creation itself, not the process behind God's creation of the universe. The bible is not to be treated as a scientific text to be analyzed, it is the guide to living closer to God. The cult of Science would surely be more interested on how Jesus rose Lazarus from the grave than the reason Jesus did so, which was to prove the power of faith.
Edit: Grammar & clarification
Fredgast and The Pilgrims in the Desert
My next critique will be on Science and morality.
Fredgast, Azbadar, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
I remember watching a Vsauce video where he tries to answer what we are. He asks, "Who are we?" Are we are memories, are we the choices we make, are we our past?
It was interesting because I actually watched it twice. You see, he has no answer. He simply debunks any assumption that any of those make up our whole being.
The first time I watched it I was younger and had those questions and I didn't really pay attention to the fact that the Church has an answer, so when they debunked all of that I didn't know what to think. What was I?
Second time I watched it I started studying the Catholic faith a bit more and so when I heard the speaker ask those questions I remembered hearing about the fact that us humans are our bodies and our souls, not one or the other, we are not ghosts in a machine, we are both our bodies and our souls. So if we lose our memories, or forget a decision we made, it's losing a part of you but not all of you. If you lose your arm, did you lose all of you? No. Do you just not exist if you get dementia or alzheimer's? No. You're still alive, suffering for sure as you would without any limbs, but you're alive and still exist. Even when our bodies die we still exist!
Even that is a good example of how science can't explain everything, when it can't even explain what exactly a human is. It can explain the anatomy, the growth, and the bodily functions of a human, it can explain the mental processes of a human, but it cannot even answer a question such as, who are we? Why are we here?
If philosophy is thinking a lot about something, science is but one branch of it, that works only on a few things.
Science is great for many things, and I believe it is a great tool for us to find out more about the world and improve our lives. It also can be used for evil
https://youtu.be/kLKfRtXgo88
Feast day of Saint Joan of Arc. France could use a new Joan.
Christian Democrats, United hispaniola, Katholskur, France le fort, and 2 othersCristero, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
Wrold Assembly is trying to interfere in traditions of member states by forbidding certain types of sports. Even though I don't like blood sports and there are no such in my nation, I am aware that in some countries it is important part of national tradition. WA shouldn't interfere in these things. I am glad that the most of nations voted Against so far, and proud to see our Region united in this issue (at least for now).
Christian Democrats, United hispaniola, Katholskur, Azbadar, and 2 othersCristero, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
The WA has overstayed its welcome. It has continued to amass more and more power. National sovereignty is now a thing of the past in nationstates. The WA was supposed to be a platform for international law so nations wouldn't commit war crimes against each other or commit atrocities. Now all the WA does is dictate local law. At this point the WA is a federalist government, akin to the US system with member nations being borderline states. On top of this, there is a clear bias in the WA, so you are out of luck if you dont fit with the bias.
Edit: grammar
Katholskur, Azbadar, Medwedgrad, and The Pilgrims in the Desert
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