Anybody not getting GTA4?

[WhirlwindMonk]

You place three rounds in the chamber and leave the other three chambers unloaded.
You lock the cylinder into position and then give it a spin.
Next you switch the safety off and place the open end of the barrel against your head.
Once you have the barrel in position, you apply your finger to the triggering mechanism and squeeze it.
It MIGHT kill you, it MIGHT not.

This would be an excellent point...if it were not true for many other things. Every time you drive you risk getting hit by a drunk driver and getting killed. Every time you eat at a restaurant (or even eat at all, though to a lesser extent if you're careful), you run the risk of getting food poisoning. Your analogy works there to, but anyone outside of the Amish and similar groups would find the claim that driving in a car is un-Christian laughable.

Do you make it a habit to write a lot but not actually SAY that much?

You may disagree, but is being that rude really necessary?

Such as the supermod that is promoting the elder scrolls game modification in that recent thread here, I read the site about it and it is purely a Pagan/Occult game, profoundly. This is somehow doing CF a service? It’s difficult enough trying to convince Brothers and Sister in Christ that there really is evil at work in the world, that it is saturated in our popular entertainment, but on top of it you get to be mocked by those that promote Paganism etc.. and those with "Christian icons" get to join in the follow the leader games. Sadly the tactic works on many, I’ve seen quite a few that stick to the bible just get fed up with this forum and go elsewhere, and they know it works so they continue to do it on every level.

I'm trying to come up with a response to this that's at least slightly unique, but I'm having a very difficult time coming up with anything that hasn't been said 300,000 times before and has never worked.

First, I'll point out that it's somewhat demeaning, and common sense tells us that belittling people (and thus putting on the "Holier than thou" face) will never ever truly convince someone. They may claim to be convinced to make you go away, but in reality, you've just put them off any opinion you had and are likely to ignore it even when someone else comes in with a better strategy. This is one of my biggest pet peeves about these larger debates. People like myself try to set an example for the non-Christians. I don't shove it in their face, I'll try to answer politely any questions they have, and this generally means that I'm respected. But no matter how hard I try, I still run into people who judge me and ignore me just because I share a label with people who are just plain rude or completely insane at times. And it drives me crazy. It's the most ironic thing in the world that the largest hurdles I have to cross in leading a non-Christian to Christ is other Christians.

Second, I'll toss out the cop-out short response to these because I'm too tired and have too much work to do to write any more right now. See: Romans 14. If it is bad for you, that does not mean it is bad for me. The burden is on you to show how you know that animated pixels of a person throwing a fireball is equivalent to praying to Satan for magical powers. I have seen many of these threads and not once have I seen a good answer to that. The day I do, I will stop playing games like The Elder Scrolls. Until then, I'm going to work under the assumption that God and I are on good terms and that I'm not doing anything wrong playing them in moderation and recognizing that the game is completely fake.



Personally, I'm not going to grab GTA IV. I don't mind content to a level. GTA goes beyond that level. It's just not enjoyable to me to play a game with so much swearing. It makes the characters seem less "real" to me. That and the fact that a modern/real world setting already doesn't appeal to me as much as a fantasy setting pushes me over the edge of "not going to bother spending my money". I'll just save it for games I know I'll enjoy a lot more.