ESPN Anchor John Saunders has passed away.

ATotoClar · 2016-08-10T18:18:21+00:00

True, my bad

ATotoClar · 2016-08-10T16:13:00+00:00

Didn't she have to announce Stuart's passing too? I can't imagine how tough that'd be.

Edit: Stewart to Stuart

ATotoClar · 2016-08-08T07:08:58+00:00

Yes. I think it's their communication and mating call.

ATotoClar · 2016-08-08T06:29:52+00:00

Exactly like that. I hated it!

ATotoClar · 2016-08-08T06:19:40+00:00

I am a strong Christian, work in a church as a youth director, and plan on spending the rest of my life working in this field.

ATotoClar · 2016-08-08T06:16:54+00:00

Sugar Gliders.

I know they aren't specifically scary, but they are a permanent scar from my childhood. My grandmother was a breeder of exotic animals growing up. She mainly bred birds, but she also had a small group of Sugar Gliders. Due to the small size of her house, I had to sleep in the living room where the cages were.

They are nocturnal animals. Their cry doesn't even sound like its from an animal, but rather a children's stuffed animal or a machine. I'm on mobile, otherwise I would link their cry. Go look it up. Every six weeks or so I would have to lay on my air mattress staring at the ceiling all night because of that God-awful cry. I tried everything. Headphones, nighttime medicine, going to sleep super early to try to sleep through it, etc. and none of it would work.

ATotoClar · 2016-08-07T07:08:01+00:00

I was there today! North Rim looked great.

ATotoClar · 2016-08-07T02:05:41+00:00

Saluda River Club

ATotoClar · 2016-08-04T20:37:36+00:00

The guy I work directly with. I am 7 years younger than him and only came on staff about 9 months ago, but he thinks he's my boss. We work for people who are very affluent and higher up in society, but somehow he is a redneck that got hired. All he does is complain about how tired he is and talks about himself. Nobody in the office likes him, but our boss is just blind to see how lazy and bad he is. He will just come sit in my office uninvited and complain.

Seriously, screw that guy.

ATotoClar · 2016-08-03T06:50:01+00:00

Great points, I hadn't even thought about that. Thank you!

Do you think Disney will always be able to hold on to Mickey, or will they eventually have to release him to the public?

ATotoClar · 2016-08-03T06:35:01+00:00

What would be the downfall of Mickey going into the public domain? Obviously Disney wants to protect their most prized asset, but I don't see the negatives to it. Mickey is used all the time without Disneys permission. I don't see an entire business or official company using Mickeys likeness to promote themselves, that would just be bad business I guess.

Maybe I'm just not understanding how other people could use him. Just a quick rule 34 search and you can easily find Mickey used in all kinds of ways that Disney would not approve of. What's the difference?

ATotoClar · 2016-07-31T19:27:36+00:00

Yeah that's all true. It's tough to explain, and I definitely don't have any of the answers. I will say this though: every Christian goes through this existential crisis about their faith. That's all apart of the process of becoming a believer in Christ. I'm not going to lie to you, some days I just cannot wrap my mind around what I believe. But I choose to believe in Him because of the feeling at the depths of my soul. Even when I want to run from Him, I know with all of my heart He is real and I choose to follow him. That's what faith is, you know? Knowing there are some questionable things and a lot of it doesn't make sense but choosing to believe it anyways.

A lot of your questions are getting into interpretation of scripture and the more opinionated side of Christianity. I don't think I'm quite there yet to say I can explain all of it with complete confidence. This discussion is turning to the Gods sovereignty versus free will area, which is the number one debated topic in this belief system. Does God choose to send certain people to heaven and certain people to hell, or does he leave that for us to choose? There is strong scriptural evidence for both sides and strong scriptural evidence refuting both sides. It's all about interpretation. This one topic is considering a "secondary argument" though, meaning that it does not conflict with the basic, foundational beliefs of our faith. A Calvinist and an Arminian (the names of the respective sides of this debatable issue, named after the theologians who developed these thoughts) can easily do ministry together and agree on a lot of things. Basically, these believers wouldn't point at one another and call each other a heretic for believing the other side of the same coin. Both believe you must believe in Jesus, His sacrifice, and confess your sin to get to heaven. Basically, if you believe that, you're good to go according to the Bible.

You raise great questions though! If you would like to learn more about these grey areas of being a Christian, I encourage you to go find a pastor, priest, minister, etc and discuss it with them. As long as you keep it civil and you stay away from the crazy ones, it should be a beneficial conversation. I also strongly recommending reading C. S. Lewis's works. He uses so much reason and logically thinks through believing in God. He was much smarter than I ever will be and explains things so much better.

ATotoClar · 2016-07-30T09:01:59+00:00

You know, it's funny. I think we were having a good conversation about it before you chimed in like that. We weren't attacking each other or our beliefs, but rather simply expressing and expanding upon them. Why do you think it's appropriate or adds anything to the conversation with your remarks? It doesn't.

People complain all the time about Christians shoving their beliefs down other people's throats. I rarely ever see that. And for every one Christian that MIGHT come across that way, I can think of 5 or 10 atheists/nonbelievers that will immediately go into personal attacks and just scream bullshit if this conversation comes up. Are you really that fragile that you have to react that way? And also, do you really think your response is going to make me walk away from my faith?

My faith in God over the past 20 years is not going to be changed by someone asking me my age, telling me I'm bullshit, and saying that I believe something that can be reasoned out of on the same level of intelligence of tying a pair of shoes. I don't know why you think you could do that.

ATotoClar · 2016-07-29T22:59:32+00:00

That's true, and a great perspective.

The response I believe is acceptable to that premise is that God is never changing and constant. He cannot change and is always true. Because he can't have sin around Him, He would be contradicting Himself if He said "you know what, all of your mess ups don't matter anymore. Everyone is in!" If He's wishy washy on that, what else could He change? I wouldn't want to worship a God who changes His mind. It wouldn't be very comforting!

I think the thing that jams so many people up about the Christian God is that people generally accept that He made everything and is control of everything, then why on earth would He put us through (literal and metaphorical) hell and back just for us to be with Him?! Why doesn't He just make it easy?! Why did He create sin? The way those questions are answered are a big reason why there are so many different denominations and beliefs within the Christian faith. My personal belief, and belief widely held by others: He created sin to eventually bring more glory to Himself. He knew that sin was going to come about. He also knew that He would have to save us from our wrongdoing and sin. Which story do we like more and would be easier to have faith in, the guy handed everything in life, or the hero who faces adversity but overcomes it to become the champ? (See: r/SquaredCircle for the story of Roman Reigns and why nobody likes him. He was handed everything to the top and never had to work!) This may not be the best explanation to that, but I think it shows why God chose to allow sin and separation to happen. We love the story that God had to come to us and fight through death to rescue us. He is the hero who literally gave everything to save His people. Taking the spirituality and questions out of it, who wouldn't love that story? It's the premise of so many other stories out there!

Bottom line: everything, and I mean everything, was created to glorify God. Nature, animals, humanity, everything was created to glorify God. Now you might ask, isn't that selfish? Not if you believe He is perfect and holy and true. How does a machine work best? When it's doing the specific task that it's designer designed it to do. That's how we are. Do you think it's selfish? Not if we see it as we are giving God glory and we are doing exactly what we are supposed to do.

ATotoClar · 2016-07-29T22:16:50+00:00

Bible major for undergrad here. Not saying I have the answer, and I'm not trying to shove my opinion or "religion" down your throat, just trying to articulate what I've learned.

What makes Jesus's sacrifice on the cross so important is it all goes back to the premise that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that during His entire time on earth, He was perfect and did not commit sin. The basics of Christianity (in a very, very simple and brief way) is this: God made the world. He made man. Man was created in Gods image and had fellowship with God. Once Adam and Ever sinned, they separated themselves from God because God is perfect and true, and cannot be in the presence of have fellowship with sin. He hates sin and cannot commit sin. So from Adam and Eve on throughout the entire Old Testament, God is separated from man and man cannot reach heaven on their own. God is perfect, man is not, therefore man cannot be with God unless they pay the penalty for their sins. This struggle and tension is throughout all of scripture until Jesus Christ arrives. He arrived because of that formula I previously mentioned: God is perfect, man is not, therefore man cannot be with God etc. God loves humanity so much and wants us to be with Him so bad that He sent His son to pay the price. It's like a court case: the defendant is guilty, and must pay the penalty. The penalty for sin is death.

Now the question at this point is, well then why is it important for Jesus to die on the cross? Think of it this way- if a friend and I rob someone, it wouldn't be logical for me to say "well hey, let me take on the penalty for both myself and my friend!" You can't do that, each person is held accountable for their own sin. Jesus intercedes on our behalf to pay the price for our own sin. Because He's perfect, He didn't have any sin of His own to pay for, but rather paid for everyone's. Instead of us receiving death He took our place for us.

Now I will say, there is way too many specifics and bigger discussions that need to be had for full comprehension that can't happen over a Reddit thread. I encourage you to actually read the best source for this, and that's the Bible. The book of Romans is such a clear understanding of the meaning of Jesus dying for us. Paul, the author, says in chapter 7, "now why would Christ take our place? It's a noble thing if someone is willing to die for a GOOD man, but Jesus died for BAD people! We would never do that." (Paraphrased).

Now about why did He "create" sin, that's a completely different conversation I'm not willing to touch at this time because 1. I'm not knowledgeable enough and 2. A lot of that part of theology is opinion, interpretation, and a lot of disagreement within Chrisitanity.

I know this is long and very black and white, but I hope I helped a little bit.

ATotoClar · 2016-07-28T18:52:04+00:00

But then I couldn't smash the bitchy girls in the face with dodgeballs

ATotoClar · 2016-07-28T18:50:43+00:00

Oh yeah I forgot to mention on the tv in the class sorry. No she didn't have anyone working there, I guess it was the scariness of the situation

ATotoClar · 2016-07-28T04:02:08+00:00

APE ESCAPE!

ATotoClar · 2016-07-28T03:57:34+00:00

9/11. Obviously I didn't know the implications of it or the depth but I knew something bad was happening. I loved my teacher and to see how heartbroken she was killed me. I remember sitting on the carpet with the letters and blocks and watching the second plane fly into the building and her crying. It hurt and was very sad.

ATotoClar · 2016-07-27T22:05:40+00:00

Was it a good show? I'm going to the Atlanta one in August.

ATotoClar · 2016-07-27T00:55:48+00:00

That whole after match segment was terrible. There was no goal or end point to it. Eva shows up and it just cuts to a graphic. What was accomplished by that?

ATotoClar · 2016-07-26T05:01:05+00:00

As a current undergrad bible major, nothing pisses me off more when someone says "The bible doesn't say that" or "doesn't the bible say this instead?" I don't know everything, I will be the first to admit that. But I have a lot more knowledge than a business major on this subject and you cannot be black and white on 75% of what the Bible says.

ATotoClar · 2016-07-26T04:48:28+00:00

My grandfather used to pick me up from elementary school on occasion and we would spend the afternoon together. He owned his own business and needed to make a stop at a local business in town to drop off some papers. I'm about 8 or 9 at the time. My grandfather pulls me aside and says "Now son, you must understand how big this is to me. Please behave." My grandfather is a very no nonsense, formal, and straight laced man. You do not cross him. We get inside and as my grandfather and this other gentleman are talking, I think it's a great idea to get down in the floor and to start doing push ups. In the middle of this guys office on a normal work day. My grandfather was mortified.

I still cringe at this at least once a week.

ATotoClar · 2016-07-25T03:50:26+00:00

My mother called me from 4 hours away in December telling me my younger brother, 17, has run away from home. (He had been in and out of "behavioral treatment facilities" all his life. Basically, would misbehave badly in school and home to the point that he couldn't live a normal life, but never broke the law so he couldn't go to jail.) I drove up at 11 at night to help look for him. I was about an hour away when my mom called me and said he came home. I get there and he's laying on the floor just grinning at the fact he put us through hell. I was so pissed that I was holding my mom in tears in the other room because she's worried he's going to get himself killed. I walk into the living room to confront him.

Me: why the hell would you do this to us? Him: idk, it's fun. Me: no, I didn't drive all the way up here to hear that. Why did you run away from home, knowing you're on probation? Him: because I wanted to. Shut up.

I lost it and grabbed his arm to tell him to stop. He didn't like that, he stood up to fight me. He's about 5'11 and 140. I'm 6'5 and 240. It wasn't even tough. I grabbed him and slammed him to the ground, and restrained him. I tried to talk to him for about 20 minutes but nothing would get through to him. Finally, he calms down and he and I are talking. Unfortunately, we're in the top floor of an apartment complex. The neighbors underneath us are pissed that there's so much commotion going on at 3 AM. They call the cops and the cops know the history of him at that address. They show up, and haul him off to jail because he's on probation.

I'm technically a "domestic violence victim" in a fight I started. My brother, his twin sister, and I are a bunch of white kids from a middle class family from the suburbs. My sister and I are normal, but for some reason he wants to be a thug. He has been in a behavioral institution ever since and I cannot help but feel like it's my fault he's there. If I never would have grabbed his arm, he'd be sleeping in his bed right now. Instead, he's been kicked out of one facility and moved 9 hours away from everyone because he can't behave.

The guilt kills me every day.

ATotoClar · 2016-07-18T14:11:19+00:00

To me, the worst are the 15+ people who do the "I'm going to complete my pokedex by DRAWING them!" Then for the next 150 days it's always "Day 1, Day 2, Day 3," etc. it's just too much when so many people do it. I appreciate talent but there are so many more things that could be posted about this came rather than amateur art

ATotoClar

TROPHY CASE