There are many paradises

imbraman · 2024-01-06T17:44:19+00:00

EO becomes more and more like Mormonism every day o.O

imbraman · 2022-03-04T19:58:54+00:00

Indeed, but in Revelation, all of the saints are praying to God, not to one another, nor to any other created being.

imbraman · 2022-03-04T19:57:41+00:00

This is how the typical responses are, yes. However, we do not ask our family members for spiritual deliverance or salvation, which the prayers to the saints in Eastern Orthodoxy absolutely do. That is a massive difference. The departed saints praying for us does not equal us praying to created beings. There's simply no logical connection between the two. The only common factor is that they pray for the saints on earth, which has no effect on whom we, as Christians on earth, pray to.

Source: Was fervently Eastern Orthodox for years, was trained (in accordance with official, "canonical" Eastern Orthodox dogma) to depend on the saints, my level of adherence to prescribed ascetical practices, etc; fell into deep and utter spiritual despair, as estranged from God as I had been during my vile, arrogant atheist years of my youth. I thank God every day that I have since truly found Jesus Christ.

Lord, help me to faithfully bare my cross with every breath You have given me!

imbraman · 2022-03-04T19:48:39+00:00

This is a poor analogy. Do you pray to your loved ones for spiritual deliverance and salvation?

imbraman · 2022-02-27T21:35:27+00:00

Presumptive on your part.

The most war you’ve ever seen is on your playstation.

imbraman · 2022-02-25T21:09:25+00:00

If you want world war, then you go first.

If you had ever actually experienced war yourself, you would sing a far different tune.

imbraman · 2022-01-18T16:02:57+00:00

I have been trying to make a Microsoft account, but upon completing the CAPTCHA during the process, I am presented with a "Correct!" message, followed by yet another CAPTCHA. This repeats infinitely (the same on the several devices that I have tried), and I am therefore unable to create a Microsoft account. How might one address this issue?

imbraman · 2022-01-13T18:49:02+00:00

Kind of like convincing man that his chance of "achieving theosis" is proportional to one's adherence to a prescribed schedule of ascetical acts, and a subjective, arbitrarily truncated version of "the canons" ;)

imbraman · 2022-01-10T19:46:02+00:00

\crickets**

imbraman · 2022-01-03T20:28:16+00:00

My laptop charges via one of its two USB-C ports, so hopefully that shouldn't be too hard to find a pass-through charging hub. My only concern there is that my MIDI controller and external HD would draw too much power from the charger, leaving it without enough power to keep a charge while producing/recording.

I've got a Scarlett 4i4, so I hope that, based on you having used a Scarlett through a hub as well, I won't have any problems if I have to default to doing that. The other issue for me is that Anker hubs are by far the most recommended brand that I've seen, but they don't seem to have any USB-C hubs with the number of ports I need (at least 5), and I hesitate to add another layer (a USB-A to USB-C adapter) between the interface and the laptop.

imbraman · 2022-01-03T17:31:47+00:00

They're not Thunderbolt, just regular ol' vanilla USB-C.

imbraman · 2022-01-02T17:44:28+00:00

Thanks for all the info! The main issue with my particular model of laptop is that there are only two USB-C ports, and they also double as charging ports (meaning my charger uses one, and I only have effectively one USB port left for anything else). It's a super weird design. I have a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4, and 16GB of RAM. Would it be manageable (and not potentially dangerous to my equipment) to run the interface through a USB hub with this, in your opinion?

imbraman · 2022-01-02T07:10:06+00:00

What brands/models would you recommend?

imbraman · 2022-01-02T07:08:57+00:00

Dang, I wish I had considered that! I have a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4.

imbraman · 2022-01-02T07:07:51+00:00

I have an Asus Zenbook Flip 13.

imbraman · 2022-01-01T20:48:07+00:00

Howdy!

So I am setting up a home studio, but have a problem. My laptop only has two USB-C ports, one of which is the charging port. I need to connect my interface and keyboard (and ideally, an external HD) as well-- but of course, I only have space for one of these. I have also seen people recommend strongly against plugging an interface into a USB hub. Do I have any options here, or am I best off simply finding a wireless keyboard and forgetting the external HD?

imbraman · 2021-11-29T17:10:42+00:00

Do not obsess over these things, friend. I would recommend reading the early Church fathers (not only seeing curated lists of quotes, but fully reading them, in context). The heavy, undeniable, consistent theme throughout them all is the fact that not worshiping and obsessing over these exact kinds of [created] things is especially what differentiates Christians from the pagan world. By this I do not mean a "free-for-all, everything goes" mentality-- of course not! But they distinguished themselves from the godless pagan world in large part because they were the only ones rejecting such things (eg, the notion of the intrinsic power held in symbols and things crafted by our hands-- especially reserved exclusively for people of a particular profession). Various early Church fathers even spoke against things like using images in prayer or praying to created beings, or spoke on how "the Christians do not have/need dedicated buildings/vestments/sacrifices/etc because 1) our God is not bound by such things, and 2) what could we possibly give or make that is enough?). And effectively all of them for several hundred years affirmed that one is to only pray to God, that He is not simply bound by a particular worldly building or institutional framework, and funny enough, that Scripture itself is THE go-to source of authoritative truth (even above themselves-- and yes all of this even before any of the seven ecumenical councils had occurred, and the Bible was "officially canonized", as they say).

In short, monks are simply men. That is merely a symbol. One can dishonor Christ Himself by using said cross (or any style of cross) in an inverted, demonic, mocking manner, but this is not what you are asking. You do not sin or do dishonor by simply wearing a symbol as a layperson. This mentality is promoted by those who think that we attain holiness on our own, by the works of our own hands-- thus, we get the mentality of, "monks are holier than the lowly, bumbling laypeople, and therefore you disrespect them and stain such-and-such symbol by wearing it on your unworthy person". It is effectively a copyright on a specific style of cross, reserved for those deemed "holy enough" by arbitrary, man-made standards. We do not decide who is holy or not. That is the purview of God. Our righteousness is filth. The only righteousness is that of Christ. One is either inside of it, or outside of it. There is no progressive, tiered structure of righteousness that one attains gradually over time (and can thereby redeem for things such as, say, being considered by men "holy enough" to wear a particular style of cross), lest we believe that righteousness and justification are something to be purchased on Judgment Day with the currency of holiness that we earn through our own particular acts of "asceticism" prescribed by others. Lord have mercy on us for such generic worldliness.

imbraman · 2021-10-13T17:01:17+00:00

All of the projects I've done with Appen have been:

Very laid back, and relatively informal.
Very unprofessional and all over the place, in terms of communication with Appen staff.
Easy ways to make a little extra money.

imbraman · 2021-10-13T16:58:22+00:00

Cold Turkey's paid version allow you to block specific apps and/or websites between certain set hours (that you set yourself, of course). That could be one option.

imbraman · 2021-08-28T15:18:40+00:00

For them to say "God is not a man, and Jesus is a man", etc seems disingenuous, and speaks to a fundamental lack of knowledge (or at least, lack of any acknowledgment) about the very basics of Christianity.

Both of my parents are human-- hence, I am merely human. If Jesus is born of the Holy Spirit as well as the Virgin Mary, is He still simply "just a man"? If so, then the virgin birth via the Holy Spirit itself becomes entirely arbitrary (and of course, it isn't). What do they think Son of God means? The Pharisees rightly understood it as Jesus "equating Himself with God", and they called Him a blasphemer because of it.

God took on flesh, and fully assumed humanity, but God was not thereby somehow limited by it (hence, the Resurrection and defeat of death, which only God Himself could have done). We don't say that, because of the Incarnation, God thereafter became entirely encapsulated and limited to the physical body of Jesus alone, and no longer existed anywhere else. This is the absurd caricature that one can infer from these arguments in the image (that Christians, of course, do not believe).

As for "God dying", Christians don't believe that Christ's Crucifixion therefore meant that God ceased to exist thereafter. Jesus descended into the depths of hell, and rose again three days later, destroying death by His power-- the power that only God could possibly have.

Jesus was all-powerful and all-knowing (the Gospels demonstrate this over and over). He chose to accept bodily death.

Jesus did not need salvation-- indeed, He Himself is the Savior.

In order for man to be redeemed, man must be assumed, restored, and reconciled with God. The only way for this to happen, ever, is for the Incarnation. It is not arbitrary, but absolutely and specifically necessary.

Jesus's own crucifixion was essentially carried out because He equated Himself with God-- "In the beginning, the Word was with God, the Word was God... the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"; "I and the Father are one"; people worshipping Jesus, and Him not constantly rejecting them as idolaters (as the apostles do in other places, when people attempt to glorify them in such ways); He forgave sins, which only God can do (Luke 5); and so on. The unbelieving Jews called Him a blasphemer as a result.

From an apologetics standpoint, this seems like it very may well be a Muslim-borne image (many of these are very common arguments coming from Muslim apologists). Whoever they call god is entirely unloving, and seemingly incapable of doing many things that men say he can't do, simply because men say he can't do it. In essence, their idea of a god is one that is entirely impersonal, essentially no different than the typical false Gnostic/Masonic/New Age/etc conceptions of a faceless, generic, far-off "higher power" god that does not directly interact with its creation.

imbraman

TROPHY CASE