well the traditional way is world-wide flood, not local flood. 

Well besides the fact that Noah had plants and such on board with him I also believe we can, once again look at Mt. St. Helens as an example.

When that Volcano blew up, with all the ash, lava and water that jumped out of Spirit Lake, all vegetation was destroyed.  Everything as far as the eye could see was destroyed.  Even every single blade of grass.

But little by little things started to sprout up again.  All over the place there were signs that we were not to walk off designated pathways because every single piece of new vegetation was important.  How did things start to regrow from nothing?

Well it seems two ways they found out.  One was the birds were dropping seed as they flew over these spots.  Another was while the vegetation was destroyed from above, underneath deep down the roots were not totally destroyed and little by little the grass and plants started to grow up from these roots deep underneath. 

God had taken care of it all.  He didn't miss a beat, either at St. Helens or the world-wide flood.

That I disagree with. I don't see how it is given that G-d's plan will not be changed by G-d based on human input.

(I also disagree on a more fundamental level that G-d's plan is something He pursues and we live with. I believe that G-d's plan relies on us to do His will.)

It is said that He did listen to prayers at that point.

I know you are directing the question at the Christians, but the answer is of course that the LAND, not the EARTH was flooded and that hence there was enough plant life on earth left (and cangaroos).

Many Christians seem to believe that taking the Bible literally (usually in an English translation) is the correct way to read it, except for that one word "eretz", which means "earth" as in "land" and not "earth" as in "world" or "planet".

I tend to prefer more traditional ways of interpreting the Bible.

Insightful from me!

"Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.  But his delight is in the law of the LOrd and in his law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper." 

I take this to mean that when we meditate on God's word than those other things will not have a hold on us.  When we let go of all the stuff that wants to weigh us down, we are more peaceful, serene and better able to serve both God and man.  We find ourselves spiritually healthy and fruitful not to mention much happier than we'd ever imagine. 

I like to rub my mind's belly until it's leg shakes.

~Zoo

My understanding is that it's a really simple premise.  It's the same premise that all those "Inner Game of..." and "The Zen of..." books are about.  Erasing that inside voice that has you second guessing yourself all the time.  The premise is that you can't hear someone or something telling you the "truth" if you're running your mouth all the time.  So meditators are seeking to shut down the subconscious "running of the mouth" in themselves so they can better perceive things clearly.

The purpose of meditation is to increase the clarity of your perception so that you can make decisions that aren't based on subconscious issues you might suffer from.  It's the art of being totally quiet inside and out.

To make a parallel with the monotheistic religion of your choice, how are you supposed to hear what God is telling you if you do all the talking.  At some point you stop thanking and asking for stuff and just listen, no?  That's meditation at a very basic level.  VERY basic, mind you.  It's the equivalent of the kid that pushes a bowling ball between his legs down an alley with the gutters blocked when compared to a guy that bowls 300 games on a regular basis.  To see how difficult real "listening" aka mediatation is, set an alarm clock for 30 minutes.  Close your eyes and count your breaths to 10.  Every breath you take in and blow out, the count goes up one.  When you get to 10, start over.  Do it for 30 minutes and watch how many times you forget what number you're on or how many times you realize you're thinking about something else and have stopped counting.  It's usually because of some distraction.  Your mind may wander to what's for dinner.  You may hear a dog bark outside.  You might start thinking about how Ock keeps promoting those damned pawns (Couldn't resist  ) or you might be inclined to start talking with God again.  But right at that moment, he might be trying to tell you something, but your mind is so full of what you think, there's no room for him to be heard.

Jack Kornfeld once said that meditating is like training a puppy.  You sit it down in front of you and tell it to "stay."  It gets up and runs across the room.  You retrieve it and set it down and tell it to stay.  It jumps up and licks your face.  You set it down and tell it to stay.  It goes and pees on the rug.

Such is the case with the untrained mind.  It is easily distracted, and won't behave on your command.  If you're one that believes a God is talking to you, then meditating should be in your plan of every day, because how otherwise are you going to get the puppy to sit long enough to hear when its master is telling it to "stay?"

Me too. People are simply fascinating.

No, I've no power to threaten people with Hell...and furthermore it would be a sin for me to do so for surely wishing or hoping someone to Hell is hateful.

Rather, re: Hell, I tell them the truth as best as I can and  let it settle in their craw.

True. They mimic Satan who said, I will not serve.

Zoo posts:

If you can't see it right now at this point in your life, perhaps you'll just have to take other people's word for it....Every breath you take...everything that is about you is a gift from God. In the hot summer day when that fresh cooling breeze comes along and refreshes you...say thank you God. When you gaze at an incredible sunrise or sunset, say thank you God. When you see love freely given say thank you God.

Zoo posts:

Even with our limited capacity, we've aleardy seen there is a God. And here we see proposals which seemingly go along way toward His removal....NOT.

This litany of things you have described is evil...sin in the world. Evil is really the negation or privation of good. ANd yes, there is evil in the world, but there is also much good which can be accounted for by the existence of God.

We cannot have God when things seem to be alright and then annialiate Him when things go wrong. Viewing people as a whole we find that life is a mixture of good and evil, comfortable and uncomfortable...when one person is happy and content, another is miserable and suffering, poor, etc. We can't say that God exists for the happy ones and not for the poor suffering ones. When we see this uneven distribution with pain and suffering for some, God's providence has not failed. Man himself is at fault. 

As far as the justice of God when it comes to these crimes a satisfactory explanation could scarcely be given were this life all there is. But it is not. God permits these things only because He knows that there is a future life where He will compensate all inequalities. In the meantime, He draws good out of these miseries for they teach men not to set their hopes on entirely upon this world as if there were no other and help to expiate the sins of mankind.  No one can be entirely happy here....but so in the next life.

They said, "Lord, teach us to pray". Christ answered the request by by teaching us the most perfect prayer..the Lord's Prayer. It teaches us to hallow God's name, and to do God's will perfectly on earth as it is in Heaven. He also taught us to pray for temperal and spiritual favors too, such as grace to overcome temptation, the forgiveness of our sins and the grace of final perseverance.

Texas Wahine posts:

St.Matt 5 tells us He promised to receive our prayer when it came from a loving heart, "for if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to those who ask Him?"

Zoo posts:

I'm Catholic and if someone asks me are you afraid of Hell? I say, of course I am. Nothing wrong with that. It has a way of putting things in proper perspective too. Knowing Hell is a reality, any sane person will live so as to avoid going there. This is ordinary prudence.  Take the example of a man leaping for his life off a railroad track as the train is coming. Do we say, you coward, you jumpted for your life for shear fear of that train?  God gave us our reason that we might use it for our well being and it is quite reasonable to weigh both advantages and penalties attached to moral law.  

Each of us is endowed with reason and is bound to exercise foresight. In life if you don't follow the rules, there's hell (of sorts) (consequences) to pay isn't there? Look...we are created as eternal beings....this life on earth is a pin prick in time compared to eternal life which we all have...either in eternal happiness or in eternal hellfire.

Since there is a future life, it has alot to do with morality and obeying the rules in this life. The future as such is a reasonable motive for present conduct. I refrain from eating certain foods for future indigestation will surely result later and so on and so forth. That is reasonable conduct. I try to refrain from morally wrong conduct becasue iot is wrong, it offends God, is a personal disgrace,  and will wrack my whole future existence if I persist in it  dying without repentance. All these motives are good. If the nobler motives fail to impress me in a given temptation, the thought or fear of Hell at least will give me pause to think and hopefully stop me.

The knowledge that retributation will follow violations of the moral law makes that law a real law. Could we say that all the penalties attached to the laws of the state are to the bad? Temptation to  Crime is resisted everyday becasue of the thought of future penalties. In the next life the principle is the same.

My, my you are so hard on yourself....it's a very good article especially your wrap up last paragraph.

What seems to happen all too often is that we, in our weak and feeble nature,  don't pray until the going gets rough.

I'd like to expand a little on what you've written.

St. Paul urges, "Pray without ceasing" and one might ask how can this possibly be done. But according to Corinthians and Eph. 2: 10-15,  the whole Christian life is a prayer of union with Christ in His Mystical Body....so that's pretty phenomonal.

Check out Matt 18 that's what I think you're referring to (most do) but it's about church discipline.  There is corporate prayer in Acts when the 120 followers were waiting for the HS to come at Pentecost. 

Good Question Zoo. .........

Jay?  Your turn.

I'm glad you mentioned about Satan not wanting us to pray.  WE have an example of that in Daniel.  Prayer is the way we communicate with God. He hates that.   I've heard it said by many that there is two things Satan hates the most, Christians in prayer and Christians in the Word.  Both have to do with communication. 

Where are you getting more than one Christian is needed for more effectiveness Jay?  Anything special?  Whenever I hear when two or three are gathered,  it's usually not mentioned it has to do with church discipline.   I'm thinking of Christ telling us to go privately (like in a closet) and pray and not be showy about it.  But on the other hand corporate prayer is quite powerful, but not sure one is better than another.  Both are useful. 

I suppose I base it on that "Divine Plan" aspect.  If there's a plan, He ain't gonna change it because some humans asked him to.  Didn't His plan cause him to destroy some cities and in fact the entire world?(By the way, how did all those plants survive in the salt water for 40 days?  They should've died and then all the animals would starve because there's no food)  So what's one prayer, eh?  Now it may be useful in connecting...though I've never felt anything personally.  That's why I tend to equate it with wishful thinking...but that's just me.  I've always preferred action over prayer anyway.  Prayer is hoping something happens or asking for it to happen...action is making it happen.

Then you've got the laws of probability to think about which technically dictate the world around you...but in the short term anything is possible.

Eh, I'd better stop before I get lost in my own head.

~Zoo

I'll just add a bit here.  Jythier and I matched up in online Chess over the last couple of days, and last night finished a game where he bested me at the end in a real nail-biter.  I've been looking for a good place to give him a public respectful nod for his skillful play, and BOOM - here's this article again.  Perfect.  Consider that nod given

But to the subject, the game between Jythier and myself bore fruit - at least for me - I can't speak for him.  Over the last year or so, we have disagreed on many many things.  He's very religious, and I'm very not religious, and that of course will cause friction.

But the chess match erased all that for a bit and allowed us to just be two guys on common ground with common goals.  The obvious goal - to win - I do not discount, but I really felt it was more important to both of us to just play well.  I'll let him agree or disagree with that on his own.

We didn't speak much during the game - at least not with words (there is a chat function on the page the game is played out on) - but I felt it quite a social thing.

Now does that make a good argument for playing video games in general?  Well, I think Chess is a little different.  Had he and I been on opposite sides of a Team Fortress XBox 360 match, I'm not sure I'd have gotten the same thing out of it, but for now, I will say that online Chess is an exception to any generic rule about online gaming, and if there is one exception, it's enough to disprove a hypothesis.

In closing, thanks again for schooling me in a great game, J.  I look forward to our next meeting on that common ground (which I shall probably get to as the weekend unfolds for me.)

Actually, I thought reading was a qunitessential way to go about increasing one's vocabulary, concentration, and comprehension.  Fiction presents you with an alternate reality and a gripping storyline...so you learn and enjoy it.

Personally, I'd give up videogames before I ever gave up reading nice thick novels(good ones, anyway).  I've even taken breaks from gaming to read.

Then again, I am a huge nerd.

~Zoo

I still don't see why leisure time must be productive.

I'm productive 8-10hrs a day at my job, and typically quite a few more at home doing chores, errands etc.  I'm doing stuff the majority of my waking hours.  I read, play video games etc to wind down, to let my mind and body relax a bit and decompress from the day.

If I had to be productive even in my leisure time, I'd go insane

For the sake of what, however?  I've heard this arguement before, but wonder when the gamers are ever going to use these increased skills and capacities other than in more gaming.  As a school psychologist I found gaming a huge distraction, parents unwilling to supervise and involve themselves with children would plop them down in front of a game set or tv, for that matter, and be done with them. Of course, they were always the loudest screamers regarding the quality of their children's education at conferences.

I am not against video games, notr against games in general.  I love chess, for example, but I know these things take a huge amount of kid's time away from actrualk social interaction, real study skill development, or their ability to partner5 with parents in creating and maintaining a home.

iNTERESTING atricle J, thanks!  Now, get back to that game we are playing online

In this regard, reading fiction is as poor a use of time as playing video games.  You spend hours and hours at it, and when you're finished you have not accomplished anything real.  Spend 8 hours reading a good book.  Those 8 hours are gone and you have nothing to show for it.

But really, you're not so much arguing that video games are a waste of time, you're arguing that when life's priorities become reshuffled, video games should be the first to go in favor of family, job, religious calling etc.  If there is time in your life to fulfill your responsibilities AND game, then great.  If you're ignoring important work to play games though, that's a problem.  And the same can be said for any hobby.

Substitute "video games" with "watching football", "playing poker", "mountain climbing" etc and it all works out the same.  Targeting video games specifically is a bit unfair.

Perhaps for you, they may be. But for many people, gaming is an apex of social activity. And while some people are addicted to games (I'm not going to even try to argue that they aren't), there are some people addicted to the internet, to reading, to bubbles or balloons or tobacco. Addiction is the problem here, not the game.