@artician
i hear ya man,
but tolkien set the bar where all other fantasy writers had to follow.

personally i found the "the chronicles of thomas covenant-the unbeliever" to be perhaps the best fantasy series to take what tolkien did to a much greater depth and scope and incorporating much of what C.S lewis laid down.

what a great series.the protagonist is such an anti-hero and you struggle for three books to even like him,nevermind identify with him.

but like you,i sometimes struggle when a writers influence is so blatant.

take Dean Koontz...really...take him..
i find him to be an utter hack,and while his prose is readable,his storylines and ideas are so obviously plucked from better writers and then mashed together so we wont notice.

i notice...and thats why any book of his given to me has a permanent place on my bathroom shelves.that man is pure crapper reading,since i get to play "recognize the plot" without any real exertion ....mentally.

but let us be honest.
while tolkien created a very diverse and detailed land with lore and history.painting a picture in our heads this fantastic world he created.the basic plotline is not that original.

it is your basic heroes quest with an extremely detailed backdrop.

so i will give this show a pass,just as i did brooks books.they were engaging and entertaining,and at the end of the day...what more do we wish out of our books?

ever read any of piers anthony's xanth novels?
they are puntastic and a fun ride (even if a bit cheeky),and nowhere near great literature.

but fun...and i can live with that.

If you people haven't watched other Red Letter Media movie reviews, you are missing out a huge part of cinematography!
They are extremely detailed, educational, insightful and entertaining to watch! Well worth the time!

Yeah Bill,
I guess a god/man who is his own father to a virgin mother, is made out of bread and wine, has made man from clay, and a woman from the rib of that man is a much more logical step in your twisted world you massively delusional fuck!

Now, Bill, in your simplistic world, the complexity of the internet and web-casting, when explained to an extreme detail is beyond the capacity of your cranial void that it must be God's creation.

Don't thread in unknown waters and stick to your daily demagoguery; you are much better at that.

I have a few questions

Why do you believe what you have faith in?
Define the difference between "imposing a view(s) on someone" and providing evidence to support a view.
If you don't wish to convince anyone of your beliefs, why do you have?
What kind of filter to you use when presented with a new idea to discern if it is true or not?
Regarding philosophy, do you know the definition of the word “conjecture”?

Biggest one:
(regarding this quote "If I am carrying around disinformation and do not realize it, I have no problem with changing my thoughts when faced with better and more conclusive evidence.")

Why do you not demand conclusive evidence for everything before believing it?

That is to say, why do you believe what you believe?
Do you know of any beliefs that you hold which do not have supportive conclusive evidence?

When I say, I don't believe that there is life on Mars, what do you think I am saying?
A) There is no life on Mars
B) I don't believe there is life on Mars.
C) Both of the above

What is a greater strength?
A) The ability to share ideas.
B) The ability to discern the truth of a shared idea.

If you can, answer these one by one, I'm very interested in your answers. Remember "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable and truthful answer.

Personally, with me, I don't want to share ideas if they are incorrect. We can share ideas all day but if they're all incorrect then they aren't worth anything. For me, the goal is to believe as many true things and as few false things as possible.

I'm on lunch at work right now. Tonight, I'm going to work on my car (the one in my profile picture) so hopefully I'll be able to get to review the video in extreme detail as I would like to. I realize that the ideas presented in the video aren't your ideas exactly so I'm only going to focus those ideas specifically.

I work in tech support, and my favorite part of the day is having someone ask me a seemingly-simple question, and then watch them go into sleep mode when I give them an extremely detailed answer.

Gets rid of the smug "you're here to support me, so get moving, IT slave" attitude some of the more obnoxious people have very quickly.

This is my view on that in brief:
The command to put those to death who work on the Sabbath was delivered to the Jewish people in those times, and it was enforced as I understand... however there were ways to earn forgiveness for such sins by certain well-defined sacrifices and ceremony, such as the "sin-offereing." The first four books of the Bible contain a great deal of law, but also a great deal of ways to attain atonement for violations. This was part of the foundation of the concept of sinning and receiving forgiveness via sacrifice, a preamble to the saving power of the last ultimate sacrifice, Jesus, which applied that atonement to all sin in everyone. The Jewish people today have developed a tradition that defines the rules such as these in extreme detail (since they have no such savior yet). I can't further speak specifically for them as I am not one.

As for Christians, the death of Christ (who committed no sin and who was also God) on the cross took the death sentence for all who accept it (the final and perfect Sin Offering, God giving His own life). Therefore, working on the Sabbath (for example) might be a sin (and "the wages of sin is death"), but the price has been paid... for everyone, every time. Anyway, most Christians consider that "work" that is done for the Lord is perfectly acceptable on the sabbath, which is Sunday for Christians. Jesus spoke on this a couple of times and it can be applied to the work we do or must do on Sundays. I cannot speak for the Jews, but Christians have valid doctrine pertaining to these laws and how Christ translated them into our current doctrinal law. As for differences in sects of religions, many times the differences are based on tradition, but in the cases that they are different based on biblical interpretations, they often agree on the concept of grace through faith, which is central to the faith.

You're also right that certain people don't want religion to be a big part of their life so they might get together with those in a sect that likewise want a surface belief. Even the bible says that they are only missing out on what they could have, live, and eventually have in eternity. Unfortunate, but Jesus' sacrifice is sufficient despite.

I did a lot of pencil and ink. I always felt like a "copier" because I had to see it to draw it. I don't think extreme detail on the micro looks real on the macro. In other words, you step back 8 feet from an extremely detailed drawing and it doesn't look quite right. You step back 8 feet from a Rembrandt and you see all this lush detail. You look at the painting from 12 inches and you see it's all globs of paint with no detail at all. That's an artist!

On the other hand, random splatters on a canvas, without any form at all, does nothing for me. Someone once described it as" a product of the untalented, sold by the unscrupulous, to the utterly bewildered."