The Upper Room

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12:00 AM

Q: Do moderators have a way to tell the difference between two users with the same username?

I recently discovered this person on the main SE, and I noticed that person called itself "Anonymous". Same as me. Do moderators have a way to tell the difference between that guy and me?

discussion

3 hours later…

El'endia Starman

3:24 AM

@DoesElishaspeak? A question asked by one Anonymous, answered by another (temporary) Anonymous, who links to the profile of yet a third Anonymous. Wonderful. :P

3 hours later…

Zoe

6:12 AM

@PaulVargas could never agree fully with both. But I do believe that we are in Tribulation (or not) either way

1 hour later…

fredsbend

7:13 AM

@El'endiaStarman @waxeagle @DavidStratton This has the look and feel of a possible plagiarism issue, but not quite enough for me to flag it. Thought I would post here to get some eyes on it.

@Flimzy How is Spain? Any new developments or are you spending most of your days with espresso and SE?

2 hours later…

Flimzy

9:14 AM

@fredsbend Hot. I live too far from the city to do much... but it's free. But I'm thinking of finding a place to rent thats closer so I can do more and make a few more friends.

3 hours later…

wax eagle

11:46 AM

@fredsbend if it is, I certainly can't find it's source. Looks like it's just someone's stream of consciousness. I'll see if I can evoke an edit/clarification

ah wait, last 'graph looks like it's a quote, and just not noted as such

ah ha, looking at raw text without formatting makes things clearer

wax eagle

12:14 PM

they have several referenced quotes without using the format, they intended to offset them with new paragraphs but were tripped up by our formatting conventions. No foul play there, even an attempt to format it well, just unfamiliarity with how markdown works.

3 hours later…

fredsbend

3:32 PM

This is really frustrating! The Reopen queue does not have a link to the post and won't even show me the title of the post. Am I missing something?

With what I am seeing, I feel like I can't effectively decide whether to reopen or leave closed. I want to see the entire post with any answers that might be there too. This is just way too restrictive.

Zoe

Any strong Biblical basis for the communion of saints?

Researching it now

Is the communion of saints basically blessings that are shared equally among all believers past, present and future?

fredsbend

@Flimzy I would. That's what makes extended vacations fun.

Zoe

@fredsbend That is very interesting. It is logical yet... its primarily opinion based though. There are many reasons I can think of why Satan's kingdom can still be established when non-Christian religions fight each other to keep each one's alive. Basically, Satan hates everyone, even those who follow him. Strife and war is his kingdom, it doesn't matter whose name they are performed in.

Whoever is not with Christ is against Him.

and that makes that person under the oppression of Satan, spiritually siding with Satan, no matter if that person fights someone else who is also spiritually siding with Satan. Ignorance is a powerful weapon.

Flimzy

4:08 PM

@fredsbend There should be a link to it if you scroll down

@fredsbend: Rather, click the link at the top for "Question (revised)"

then you can find a link to the question

2 hours later…

fredsbend

6:10 PM

@Flimzy I'll look more closely next time, but I think I've tried both of those and I don't think either worked. The question revised link leads to the page you are already on.

►

Is it actually fair to make such a statement?

Now, I'm not comparing the Bible with the creative works of George Lucas, but I think there is a point to be made here.

Surely, God can just let me be if I leave him alone.

The mention that I cannot choose neutrality immediately makes me think of the classic false dilemma.

Zoe

@fredsbend It's in the Bible so, it really isn't up to me to decide if it is fair making that statement.

TBH, here's what I think

@fredsbend Let's just say, Alan has a slight understanding of the Biblical God and Jesus Christ (maybe not the Holy Spirit) and a slight understanding of Satan. But Alan does not pursue the knowledge of God or try to understand Christianity. Alan just goes about his life, thinking that things happen because things happen, not particularly against or for God/Jesus/Christianity.

Alan is an above average citizen, donates when he can but also smokes and swears occasionally, like an average person.

Tries to be good, says the right things to kid but may be addicted to p0rn at home or has a pro-war mindset

Would God leave such a person alone?

Maybe or maybe not, it really depends and it would a long list of reasons that would fill the chat for me to explain.

But would Alan be on the side of Satan? Yes, if you ask Jesus Christ and any Bible-reading Christian.

That's how I see it, at least.

One of the list of reasons why God would initiate and interfere is, I think, if at that moment in time, God knows that person would believe in Him if someone had tried enough to convince Alan. Then God would send someone or save Alan from some trouble in a way that tells Alan that saving is not by chance or earthly intentions.

fredsbend

6:27 PM

And while on the subject of Star Wars, Arnold does an amazing Vader

Zoe

God could also, by way of bringing Alan back to him, allow Alan to stray and then come back with the knowledge that without God, his life is sadder, which would in turn make Alan have a firmer faith in God.

I myself ^ fall in that category.

fredsbend

6:55 PM

@Zoe Here's the problem. Alan isn't going to change his life drastically to please a God, nor to avoid a devil, that doesn't seem real.

I spent a good portion of the last two and a half years begging and pleading for something real from God. If I can have a relationship with my wife, then the personal God the Bible claims is there should be available to me as well. But it is not. It ends up being this never ending cycle of mind games, wondering if something I'm thinking is God, Satan, or just in my own head.

So I lost faith. I lost it indeed. And I'm not sadder "without God in my life."

In fact, from an email exchange with a friend:

> Well, actually, I feel relieved. I feel freedom to be the person I want to be, and take my life where I want it without worrying that some impersonal spirit might disapprove. I spent so much of my young life trying to figure out “God’s will for my life” that I often ended up not acting at all, missing countless opportunities. Christianity made me dull and timid. Now I am vibrant and bold, doing what I think needs to be done when I damn well feel like it without regard to people I don’t know (ie. the god that won’t even talk to me).

So if He really is there, I choose indifference. I choose to give Him the same indifference He has continually given me.

If He really works on the absolute of "With me or against me," then He is doing a really crappy job making that apparently true. Let's face it; neither of us will know until we die, but by then it is too late.

It's all just filled with infomercial-like tactics. "There's just two options: Deal with this imaginary problem or buy our product. Don't wait, tomorrow will be too late."

Paul Vargas

@Zoe The Holy Spirit is who convinces, we don't do it.

fredsbend

ON A META RELATED ISSUE:

Aug 24 at 3:50, by David Stratton

I'm just popping in to ask the dedicated members of the community to go weigh in on this Meta post so we can get a consensus. Right now we have two low-voted answers, and one that I just added, which opposes the low-voted ones.

The highest voted answer is +6/-2. Not consensus enough for me. I would like to see at least 8 net positive before we start enforcing this rigorously.

Paul Vargas

@Zoe On the other hand, you must distinguish between human wisdom and divine wisdom. Anything that justifies the actions of a man (sinful actions), is a humanist.

Such justifications (human opinions) are worthless before God.

fredsbend

7:27 PM

@Flimzy I just did another reopen queue task:

There are no links below this point. The blue circles are links, but they all link to the current URL appended with #, so they don't go anywhere.

The URL for this one was http://christianity.stackexchange.com/review/reopen/16860

I thought that maybe the number was the post number so I tried http://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/16860. Obviously not the same post.

The actual post is 32451.

There are also no comments under the post. The comments are very helpful in this situation, to get the back story and see what is going on.

Should I make an MSE post?

1 hour later…

fredsbend

8:34 PM

@DavidStratton Did you get this message in your inbox?

I'm trying to figure out if you are actually notified because the @ reply does not auto-complete for your name, but you are one of the close voters.

AJ Henderson

8:54 PM

@davidstratton see above

2 hours later…

Flimzy

10:52 PM

@fredsbend It leads to a different view of the 'review' page, yes, but from there you can click the title of the question to get to the live version of the question.

fredsbend

Well, I'll check again next time there is a reopen task.

fredsbend

11:16 PM

Q: "Clear the entire review queue" badge proposal

While cleaning up the review queue on one of the SE sites I noticed I accomplished something pretty cool: I cleared the entire review queue! Every review type was at zero and I performed the most recent review on all of them. This happened on August 16th, 2014. I actually did it on July 10th a...