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So it ain't a perfect example, but there are not many of those lying around. The perfect example is the human heart and soul itself. Aside from God tell me one thing that makes a person truly filled with joy? Everything has been tried, and all things have fallen short of making man happy.

well said, sorry if any of this annoyed ya Orbital, but it's what I believe, and I was just trying to explain some of it to you, and anyone else who wants to read it.

Orbital, that's some statistics there about the possiblility of life in the universe. Now think what the possibility of the entire univers just happening is. It's an astronomical, impossible chance. Some Christians try to find out what's goin on in the rest of the universe, and I think most of us wonder about it often. But really, I don't think it's a big deal. I personally think there's probably life elsewhere, but until we find it, or it finds us, what's the point in spending time debating it?

I hopefully established that there is such a thing as Right and Wrong. Now I venture to say that every one of us has done wrong, even today. Not one of us has every day in our lives conducted ourselves in the manner we expect others to conduct themselves. You would never have agreed to repay that favour if you had known how busy you were going to be. You had to pocket those breathmints because you were so hard up for cash. And so on, and so forth. As I'm telling you this now strings of excuses for all your mis-behaving are running through your mind. Proof that you believe in a Law of Human Nature. I'm not going to take the time to explain why I believe God created the universe, but will simply say this. If the universe was created, one cannot find the creator by studying the universe, for the creator is above the facts of the universe because he created them. Look to the universe and the contents of it to see God's handiwork, however you will not find God in the universe. He is above it and through it, but no scientific study will find him. So we have two things that may teach us about this God. One is the universe he created, a truely beautiful place, but no friend to man, save this one planet. The second is the Moral Law we find in our heads. A look at this shows us a God who values right conduct, selflessness, courage, fair play and honesty. We also may notice that the Law is particularly hard on the one keeping it. A God who operates on this Law will have no pity for the one who breaks it, no matter how hard or how painful it is. Think of the multiplication table. There would be no sense in asking the multiplication table to let you off this once because you were distracted and didn't get the sum correctly. A God who operates on a Moral Law will be no less forgiving. That's a harsh God and one I doubt you want to meet. For none of us measure up to his Law, and if he's not going to let us off the hook, than we're lost. However, if he were to make exceptions, than he would be soft, and not even worth following. What is the good of a Law if no one has to keep it? So God must be absolutly good. If the universe is not governed by absolute goodness, than we have been misled all our lives. If anyone tells you they would like to come face to face with the God who is wholly goodness, he is an idiot. Now, we can get to Christianity. For Christianity does not make sense until you realize that you have no hope of getting to heaven on your own. Once you realize that God is totally good, and you are not (making you bad) and you realize that pure goodness can have no contact with the impure, then you can recognize your predicament. Orbital said he thought Christianity was a forgiving religion. What is the need to forgive if you have done nothing wrong? If there is no ultimate Law, than none of us need ask for forgivness for anything. However, if pure Good stands in our path somewhere along the way, forgiveness will suddenly become very important to us. There are different views of God. Only one of them can be right. Some are more right than others. But one thing I've learned and stick to above all else, God does not change based on what we think of him. A god that acted however we think he should act is no god at all, but instead a puppet sewn in our heads to make us feel good. Another think we cannot have is a simple religion. The world is not simple, though it may look it, therefore God and our relationship with him cannot be simple. A table may look simple, but a scientist will tell you about all the atoms and molecules inside the wood and metal, and will boggle your mind with facts about that "simple" table. However, those that would say Christianity is too difficult would not be content with the beliefs of a six year old child about God in heaven and the devil down below, simple though they may be. Christianity is not neat either. One would guess the creator of the planets would make them all even distances around the sun and away from each other, yet they are set in odd patterns, and a slight error in their distances would incinerate or freeze each of them. There is no order to the universe, yet if Christianity where invented by a man one would expect it to have order. One question was "who is the devil and how did he get here?" God, we established, is purely Good. One would naturally think the devil is purly bad. However, this is not so. Even the devil is dependent on God to be who he is. Therefore he is under God and ultimately subject to God. There is no such thing as being bad for badness's sake. Nothing is purely bad. A bad man, say a cruel man, is simply one who twists good things to use for himself. Greed is considered bad, yet money, or the desire for it, is good in itself. Greed is the excess of a good thing, it takes a good thing and makes it a god, and foregoes all else to get that one thing. The devil, when created had a choice of right or wrong, and chose to rebel against the right. God did not create evil. Evil is good, twisted around and miss-used. How did God let the devil disobey his will? God's will made it possible for the devil, and for every one of us, to disobey his will. It's similar to a teacher that tells students she would like them to study while she runs to the office. Her will is that the students study while she's gone, yet by not being there she's giving them the option of going against her will and doing something else. Why would God make us out of stuff so bad that we could go wrong so easily? Yet to think that way is all wrong, for the better stuff a creature is made out of, the more stronger and freer it is, the better it will be when it goes right, and also the more damage it will do if it goes wrong. How did the devil go wrong? No one but God can tell that. Yet the strongest guess ventured yet is this. Once a creature has a self, and a will of it's own, there is the possibility of that creature putting itself first. Man is eternally against God because the original man decided he wanted to "be like gods" as Genesis put it. Man wanted to be masters of their own destinies, and find a way to make themselves happy outside of God. Thus we have human history: war, poverty, prostitution, ambition, classes, empires, slavery - all futile attempts at finding something to make man happy. Why can't man make himself happy? God invented us. It's like a mechanic invents an engine. That engine must have fuel to run. More precisely, gasoline. Nothing else will power that engine. God is the fuel for the human machine. He is the only thing that will make us work properly. Think back on history, civilizations are founded, terrific energy is expended, institutions devised, yet every time cruel or corrupt people rise to the top and the machine conks. What did God do that worked? He left us a desire to do right. He left us stories scattered throughout all religions and people about a god that dies and comes back to life and somehow through that gave live to men. And he spent centuries hammering into one people what kind of God he was and what he wanted out of his people. Those people are the Jews. Then one day a Jew begins walking around claiming to be God. In a religion like Hinduism it is no big thing to claim to be one with god, or a part of god, or in god. This man, however, was not a Hindu, and was clearly saying he WAS God. In the language he used, God meant a being outside of the world who had made it and was infinately different from it. Understand that and you will realize it is the most shocking, outlandish thing ever uttered by human lips in all history. Jesus said he forgave sins. If I had stepped on your toe, Jesus forgives me for stepping on your toe. Yet he never asked you what you thought of it, your toe is still hurting, but Jesus acts as though he is the one who's toes were stepped on. Unless he really is God, this is so perposterous as to be hilarious. The only way this makes sense is if He is the God who's laws have been broken and whos love is wounded in every sin. Yet even the enemies of God will not read his words and laugh at them. The reader who has no idea who Jesus is, will not find them funny when he reads the words Jesus said. Therefore, anyone who says Jesus was a good teacher, or a moral man, is making a very comic statement. What moral teacher would claim something so hilarous as to say he could forgive your neighbor for letting the dog dump on your lawn without asking you about it. This is something I've wanted to say for awhile. It's not directed only at Orbital, though he's the one who's been asking quesitons. I hope I've helped.

You're coming at Christianity wrong Orbital. What's the good of asking questions about people turning to salt, or water being made into wine? They do not tell you ANYTHING about Christianity. They are simply historical facts. You want to know what Christianity is, read some of the Bible. Christianity is not useless speculation about little events. Christianity is a relationship with a God who made us, loves us, wants to be our friend, and ultimately wants us to come live with him. i will tell you about Christianity, but I won't spend time answering random quesitons until you understand the basis of it. Otherwise I waste both our time. Questions will always lead to more questions unless there is a solid foundation of knowledge of what you are asking about. and for the record, i wasn't irritated until now

Alright, I read through most of the discussion with Orbital, playaa, Word and others, and decided it would be best to simply type out some basic fundamentals of Christianity. The first and foremost thing everyone must grasp about Christians, is this. We don't all know what's going on. None of us have all the answers about Christianity. There are some things God has chosen to not reveal to us. As a Christian I've learned to simply live with that. He has given us what we need to know, what he chooses not to reveal, he does not require us to know to love him better. Second, any man or woman who tells you they know all the answers about Christianity, or that they know what God's up to, is lying to you. We have the Bible, it's God's word dictated to man. The books were selected by men inspired by God to be collected into one single work we call the Bible. There are countless translations of it, but the message is the same throughout. God created the heavens, the earth, and all the inhabitants of both. After walking (literally) with God for no-one-knows how long, man decided that he ought to be as wise as God and broke the trust and the friendship he had with God. Let me take a few minutes to explain using simply human logic why I believe there is a God and why we can't get to him. This is taken from a book I highly recommend by C.S. Lewis called Mere Christianity. When Lewis began to look into this, he was an athiest. He believed man was the ultimate being, that there was no spiritual realm. He set off to disprove God using human intellect. The answers he received convinced him of God's exsistence. Simply as a matter of interest, Lewis was the most popular lecturer at Cambridge University in England for many years. He taught Renassance Literature. Everyone has at one time said the words "That's not fair," or "I should get that seat, I was here first!" Or perhaps, "Come on now, I gave you some of mine, you ought to give me some of yours." Children and adults alike say these kinds of things every day. Think now about what you are saying when you say "that's not fair!" The speaker is appealing to a kind of standard which he expects the other man to know about and live by. It is not simply saying, "I don't like your behaviour" but it points to some knowledge they both have of a rule. The other of them very seldom says "to hell with your standard, I'm gonna do this anyway!" Instead he tries to make some excuse for what he's been doing, or pretends there is a special reason he must sit there. In all if you listen to this kind of a conversation you get the idea that both parties have a clear idea of a Law that they both live by. This Law is refered to by some as the Law of Human Nature. It does not have to be taught. Even a young child has a sense of right and wrong. It's rather amusing to watch some children, you can tell they know what to do, and what not to do, and they sit there thinking about it. They look up at you, then look around, and you stand there waiting to see what the child will do. This Law of Human Nature is found in all races and countries. Some will say races are very different in morals. This is not true. Imagine what a civilization would be like if it was truely different. A civilization where running away in battle was admired, or where a man could be proud of double-crossing the people who loved him most, where murdering your family while they slept was honourable. Man may differ on opinions when it comes to how many wives you should have, yet not many will say you ought to just go around taking whatever woman suits your fancy. Selfishness has never been something to be proud of in any civilization, though many differ on who you should be un-selfish toward, your family, your friends and family, the poor, everyone, yet no one will say selfishness is a good thing. I've got to run to supper, so I'll continue later. For now, think on this: Find a man who says he does not believe in right or wrong, and talk to him for awhile. That same man will soon say something like "That's not fair." Then ask him what fairness is.

hey all, ain't been around in awhile. i kinda got tired of it all too. haven't even been playin cs at all. i'll be back though, someday.

I checked out that CS tech site, and ventured into .cfg editing. It seems to have solved my problem. I changed my vsinc to always off and got the latest drivers for my card, changed my fps max...etc. etc. So I guess you can close this topic now. Though I'm sure many of you would have been able to help.

Rangers joined a new leauge this season called the WCCS. (TFR is in it too) One of the leauge's rules is that all players must use default skins/models/sounds/etc. They require screenshots and demos and other crap and it's way to strict and....well anyway. I deleted CS and reinstalled it since I didn't want to take the time to manually replace all my models and sounds and sprites. Reinstall went fine, however, now when I play I experiance something that seems like lag. However, my ping is fine, 70's and 80's on Plat, just like always. Perhaps it's my framerate, yet I've got an Nvida geforce2 64 mg graphics card, 512 mg pc 133 ram and a SB Live! sound card. I never had this problem before, even using the highest poly skins on the market. Within the CS game, I set it to use OpenGL with the default software. I started running it at 800x600 resolution, but then upped it to my normal 1024x768 (where I had it before). The higher resolution actually seemed to lessen the "lag" a little bit. But I still get it. The game is playable, but motions are jerky, other players skip around a little, switching from rifle to pistol has a couple second delay even with fastswich on. With a cable connection and a good computer this shouldn't be happening. The biggest factor is that it was fine before, and has always been fine, yet now at the most basic version, it's slow. Any insight from those who have encountered this before, or who think they know how to fix it would be greatly appreciated. We've got some pretty smart people in this community. I hope at least one of you can help. My AIM screenname is "Playboy JL" or my e-mail is "joshlindell@hotmail.com." Also you can always just post here.

well done

saw that, there's another re-do: de_italy. forget the link on it...somehow got there from csnation, I think. I don't think it's going to be included in the offical upgrade for CS, but will be released as a custom map. I think I'm gonna like the new aztec. I assume they removed the gap in the boxes on the corner between the double doors and quadruple doors where CT's can awp from as well as the T's boxes. Perhaps also even the boxes on the T side in the water, which would be downside to the new map. Some of the things that are going to be better are the improved movement along walls (no more getting stuck on a clipping error while in a firefight) and the overall graphical look of the map. CT spawn looks great.

Mmmm...AWP..... no, DOH awps, CsLs awps, Rangers awps don't see Mmmm awpin much.

Sacr3d, you got way too much time on your hands...