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    posted a message on Small survival build server for mature players - Everfree server

    Welcome to the madness, Gawspel!


    Earlier today I built a rudimentary (albeit still very good) enderman spawner/xp grinder in The End. This should be a permanent solution to our lack of ender pearls. At least, permanent until I can be bothered to make a more efficient one. The grinder also comes with a free enchantment room and complementary books and lapis for all of your enchantment needs. Feel free to use it as much as you'd like!


    Here's some pictures, because I love pictures:


    Endermen Being lured by an endermite into a 41 block high drop.



    The Enchanting table and ender pearl storage setup.


    Schlutt and BabyBird testing it out.

    Posted in: PC Servers
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    posted a message on Small survival build server for mature players - Everfree server

    I finally finished Desert Town!


    It took way too long to build (blame my laziness), but it's finally done. Now I can live my life as a free man! Just kidding, I'll never be free from MC.


    Here are a few screenshots from various places in the town:







    New players are welcome to claim and/or decorate a house here. In addition, there is a mob tower (the cobblestone roof is a giveaway on the Dymap image) that you can access via my underground base and use to gain XP. Schlutt or I can show you how to access it. Make yourselves at home! :)

    Posted in: PC Servers
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    posted a message on Small survival build server for mature players - Everfree server

    I've been making lots of progress on Desert Town lately. Maybe I'll be able to finish building it in the next month or so!


    Anyway, here's a peek at what's been taking up the bulk of my time with it. What we see here is a messy clusterfluffle and an abomination in the eyes of the nature spirits. Over the course of the last few weeks, however, I was able to terraform the land around the spawn towers to make it fit in with the rest of the environment. After all that work, not a single stone block was visible and it looked like I have done nothing at all to bring Mother Gaia's curse unto my bloodline. Indeed, it was the perfect crime.


    But that wasn't enough. Desert Town was expanding straight towards the towers, despite the fact that they had absolutely no place being in Desert Town. Unwilling to remove the spawner nor awkwardly stop Desert Town from further expansion, I decided to do the next best thing. I built around and over the towers!



    It looks a bit like the hanging gardens, doesn't it? I swear that wasn't intentional. I am completely original in every way.

    Posted in: PC Servers
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    posted a message on Introductions & Leavings
    Now that PPNS is gone, I have no reason to stay any longer. It's been a fun 3 years, guys, and I've met some truly awesome friends on here.



    <3
    Posted in: General Off Topic
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    posted a message on How do you feel about PPNS shuting down?
    There were "flamewars," sure, but there were also several genuinely interesting and worthwhile discussions there. Deciding to close down the entire section without any prior warning was too drastic.
    Quote from Travis
    I'm thankful, at least, that we're allowed to discuss alternatives. I've sent out quite a few PM's to people who were seeking a new home, and I'd say roughly a dozen have already jumped ship to a site more oriented towards their interests.

    Please direct me to one. I'd appreciate it.
    Posted in: Forum Discussion & Info
  • 3

    posted a message on Existence of God - Kalam Cosmological Argument
    "1) To say the universe is exempt from the metaphysical principle of causation is to commit the taxi cab fallacy. You are using the metaphysical principle of causation to arrive at things existing in the universe and then dismiss it when you arrive at your desired end (the universe)."

    Not exactly. Yourself pointed it out and Arkalius expanded on it that the word "existence" really has two meanings in this case. The existence from something out of nothing and the existence from something out of matter. The principle of causation only applies to things that come into existence from pre-existing matter (e.g. Humans, the Earth, a computer, etc.). The principle of causation does not necessarily have to apply to things that come into existence from nothing (e.g. The Universe). Arkalius mentioned it already, but using those two forms of existence as if they were the same is an equivocation



    "If you wish to show how the universe is exempt from the metaphysical principle of causation then please do so."

    These two posts should do the trick. To re-iterate, the existence of objects and the existence of the universe are two different things. The former follows the principle of causation, but there is no guarantee that the latter must do so.



    "It follows that the cause of the universe is an immaterial, personal agent, endowed with freedom of the will because the cause of the universe must transcend space and time (be immaterial)"

    Which you still have yet to really argue for besides simply asserting it.



    "it must exist necessarily (be uncaused; otherwise you end up with a regress of causes)"

    Why must there be a second uncaused entity to cause the universe? If we were to accept that uncaused things can exist, then what prevents the universe itself from being uncaused?



    "There are only two such things known of to us. Abstract objects and minds, but abstract objects do not stand in causal relations to things (for instance, the number 7 does not 'cause' anything), so the alternative is an unembodied mind (personal agent, freedom of the will)."

    Minds are not immaterial. Minds are an emergent property from mechanical processes. That is, they require a material medium.



    "If someone accepts this argument, then I would move to show them why Christian theism is true."

    I'm interested now. In a hypothetical scenario, I accept your argument as being valid (although it isn't). How will you proceed to prove the truth of Christian theism?



    "if naturalism is claiming there is no God on the basis of scientific empiricism"

    It doesn't, really. Naturalism is just the claim that a god is unnecessary for the universe to exist. The justification for that claim is up to the individual naturalist.



    "Finally, I would like to say that none of you have supported atheism. At best you are all agnostics who are extending scientific empiricism way too far..."

    Atheism is a lack of a belief in the gods, while agnosticism is the position that a god's existence can't be either proven nor disproven. I'm not sure if you were using those terms correctly.



    "P.S. my assertions are even supported by a few brave atheists within the scientific community. Please read "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False" by Thomas Nagel."

    A quick background check tells me that the author is a philosopher, not a member of the scientific community. Even then, appealing to someone who agrees with you and who also happens to be a scientist does not mean that you are correct, it just means that you are trying to appeal to authority.


    "Replace God with whatever you want and see what happens? Nothing, because you haven't supported why magic would work instead."

    It's not magic, it's modern cosmology. And expecting us to support our position (although most of us have given our own reasons to) is an attempt to shift the burden of proof.
    Posted in: Politics, Philosophy, News and Science
  • 2

    posted a message on Existence of God - Kalam Cosmological Argument
    "I am convinced that I shouldn't do this because the amount of illegitimate replies it will get..."

    What do you mean by this?



    "...but I, nonetheless, like to get people to think for themselves. "

    Don't worry, most of us here are perfectly capable of that. Thank you for your concern, though.



    "Also, as much as non-theists are convinced that religious people are brainwashed I actually consider the same for a majority of people who chew up and swallow scientism."

    Scientism isn't a word. The correct word is science. The -ism suffix there implies that it's merely a belief or ideology.



    "When an argument is proposed for the existence of God all I need to show is that the conclusion is more probable than its opposite. "

    This is known as an appeal to probability. It's not explicit here, but you are implying it with "I need to show that the conclusion is more probable than its opposite."



    "Is this the justification for my personal belief in God? Not at all. People do not come to faith based on argument.
    (Earlier)
    Also, this is just one argument out of a number of arguments available that I could share. I picked this one because it seems like a majority of the people on here have intellectual barriers to coming to faith in Christ."

    Interesting.



    "1) Whatever begins to exist has a cause"

    I agree. It's also probably worth mentioning that cause in this case is separate from intention. The existence of humans was caused by evolution, but evolution did not intend to create humans. Evolution doesn't intend anything at all, really, because it is a purely mechanical and unbiased process. I'm stating this now because it'll be important a few lines down.



    "2) The universe began to exist"

    I've nothing much to add here. We're not sure if the universe started existing at some point or if it has always existed. If the latter is true, then the syllogism can be completely disregarded as invalid at this point.



    "3) Therefore, the universe has a cause"

    Nothing much to add here, too. I should also give another reminder that it's still perfectly possible for this cause to be mechanical and unbiased.



    "2a) BGV theorem http://creationwiki.org/Borde-Guth-Vilenkin_singularity_theorem ]"

    Do not ever treat CreationWiki as a valid source again. This is your first and only warning.



    "Because the cause of the universe must transcend space and time (be immaterial), and must be a personal agent endowed with freedom of the will to create the universe."

    Where are you getting this? You added sources (ignoring 2a) to your other claims, but these are just completely unfounded. How did you discern these things? How were you able to rule out everything else except for these properties?



    "This is a part of the classical description of God."

    Oh, that's how. You picked them because they're the most convenient. Sorry, but unless you can prove that the cause of the universe had intention to create the universe, I'm going to assume that this is just confirmation bias.



    "I actually think it takes more faith to believe the universe came from nothing (what current trends in atheism suggest) than to believe God created it."

    And that's not at all what atheism (I think you meant to put "science" here) suggests.




    What I see here are two syllogisms. In the first one, you labeled each premise and its source separately. In the second, you provide unfounded and vague premises along with the conclusion from the first syllogism to arrive to another conclusion, that a god must exist.

    All you have to do to prove your case is

    1) Demonstrate that the universe has at one point started to exist from nonexistence. The Big Bang does not count, since the universe existed before then.

    2) Demonstrate that whatever caused the universe is immaterial.

    3) Demonstrate that whatever caused the universe also had the intention to cause the universe.
    Posted in: Politics, Philosophy, News and Science
  • 2

    posted a message on Small survival build server for mature players - Everfree server
    So, after hours of spelunking and many deaths, I'm pretty certain that I successfully cleared all of the caves around the mob spawner's area. The one thing left to do? Test spawning rates, of course.

    ( Adventure in the spoiler. )

    "Cool, so are you just going to dig a fairly large darkroom or test the spawner itself?"

    No! That's too simple, and therefore too boring. So I did the next best thing.





    "...You removed all of the lighting from your base. Did it ever occur to you that this may backfire horribly?"

    Indeed I did, and no!

    I had them blocked off for whenever I was ready, but the spiders were a little too impatient to wait for me.





    After waiting a few minutes for the room to fill, I decided to give it a swing.





    Unknown to me at the time, there were well over a dozen zombies waiting to get a share of my brains. I died, but quickly reclaimed my belongings to seek revenge.





    Naturally, I died again. The zombie horde wasn't what it used to be, however, and I quickly got back onto my feet to finish them off. Then the skeletons came. I bravely hid and hoped that they would go away. (Spoiler: they didn't)





    I ventured off again after reaching full health. The mob of mobs was patiently waiting while growing in numbers, and that was a problem. Which I subsequently made even worse.









    They reached my spawn. This was not a good thing.

    I somehow pushed them back, and then made a dash back into the war-zone. (As if my spawn wasn't already a war-zone).





    Here I found a group of three witches. Bad luck from the start. I didn't run to hide in my spawn, however, and I killed them all effortlessly (Not (But what counts is that I killed them anyway)). At this point I knew that if a skeleton were to come up, I was over. So I built a wall of dirt over the staircase.





    At least I had one room re-lit. I continued into the lower level. I was so glad to see only one zombie running towards me.





    I re-lit the wheat farm without much resistance except for a few skeletons and creepers.





    It looks like the worst of it was over. I just had to light up that bottom floor, since it was the main spawning space.





    And that was disappointingly easy. I turned my attention to the second reed farm and that other completely unimportant room next to it.





    Embarrassingly, I became too cocky and got pretty close to dying during this.





    This cheeky little spider thought that it could reclaim the base for itself. It died of "mysterious" causes shortly thereafter.





    And that's the story of both how I almost lost my base to a bunch of zombies and how I found true love. (Just kidding about the second part :'( )

    like dis if u cry evry tim. 1 like = 1 like
    Posted in: PC Servers
  • 1

    posted a message on Atrocity In Science Today // Thermodynamics and the Solar System
    The solar system can be considered as a closed system for the purpose of an approximation, but I don't really see how the second law of thermodynamics is relevant here. Gravity is sufficient enough to allow them to clump together like that.
    Posted in: Politics, Philosophy, News and Science
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    posted a message on Has the feminist movement gone too far?
    I consider myself egalitarian; so I support equality for both genders.

    Quote from Idontkno
    But it does have something to do with feminism, as extremist feminists think circumcision should not be banned as it would put it in the same footing as female circumcision (which it is, equal levels of pain)

    Here's an idea: Ban circumcision for both genders unless for specifically medical purposes.

    Secondly, I really doubt that the levels of pain are similar. Female "circumcision" is just sadistic, while male circumcision is sometimes neccessary in medical cases like phimosis (and usually doesn't affect sexual function anyway).
    Posted in: Politics, Philosophy, News and Science
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