Zero no Tsukaima: 3rd Season Coming Up!

Yeah, that's right. The 3rd season of this wonderful anime is finally here. More specifically, the first episode will air in Japan the 6th of July. That's tomorrow, folks! Well, in 30 minutes it'll be tomorrow as I'm writing this. But by the time I'm done with this entry it'll be less than a day away. Waku waku doki doki etc...

I'm seriously looking forward to this, as ZnT is pretty much the epitome of anime goodness in my opinion. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what it is about the show that just seems to work so perfectly, but there's no question that it's there. Of course, I wouldn't compare it to the absolute masterpieces that have been known to completely blow my mind and put me at a loss of words of how to describe them... But that's because they are just that; Pieces of art that go far beyond that which you can simply call anime. There are so many aspects to those few shows, that just calling them animes doesn't cut it.

ZnT is different. ZnT is the absolute best you can associate with the word anime. It is nothing more than an anime, but it is definitely nothing less than the best of its kind. Okay that made no sense, but whatever. Moving on!

Now I must admit that the ecchiness got a little out of hand in the 2nd season, degrading Saito, the male protagonist, to pretty much a boob slave. This was somewhat a shame, since I was more fond of him in the first season. However, even when he is easily distracted by the alluring ladies that surround him, he is a very likable character who still has his opinions and who fights for what he believes and holds dear. This is probably why the ecchiness doesn't get out of hand (in my opinion) and ruins the show, as it has been known to do with many other shows (Rosario + Vampire springs to mind).

In all honesty, I liked both the first and second seasons equally, because they both had a compelling story, spiced with love, humor and suspense. All coming together in such a way as to make it the best thing you can associate with the word 'anime'. Now if you haven't watched this anime, what the hell are you still doing here? If you have and can't wait for more, worry not, for only one day remains before Louise returns, flat-chested as ever! (yep, it took me about 30 mins to write this entry. It's now 00:06 5th of July)


That's all for now I guess. I really need some sleep.

Tragic stupidity

I have, to my own amazement, engaged in a conversation with a creationist on youtube. In spite of the commenting system on youtube being shit, we actually managed to communicate. At least somewhat. There is, after all, a limit to the extent to which you can communicate with someone who conveniently ignores the parts of your argument that they can't refute. Anyway, I had some fun out of it, so I'll put it up here for you guys to see.

This creationist, Seekmosttoprophesy, was having a discussion with another guy, who sadly left after I joined. He was rambling on about how a lot of great battles were won using the bible (yeah, religion of peace), and therefore the bible should be taught in schools due to the great wisdom it contains. I might address certain parts of the "discussion", my comments being in bold. Here we go!
---------------------------------

The other atheist guy

If we teach the bible then we will have to teach all of the religious books

Seekmosttoprophesy
What other "religious" books are worth teaching? The Koran was written by one man 1400 years ago. What kind of comparison is that? What other "god" came into our history so that we could touch feel and see him? We could teach it if there was any comparison at all but there is not. Besides, there is nothing wrong to teach what other beliefs are. Let them stand or fall by their own merits. I will just let you know from the start that there is no comparison.

Pallevader
Why don't you tell us what is so special about your particular religious book that it deserves to be taught as the only one? people find meaning and beauty in different things, as evidenced by the fact that so many people look at the qur'an in the same way that you look at the bible. To say that your opinion is more important is arrogant and stupid.
So, why is the bible any better than the qur'an? And please, none of that circular reasoning, if you will.

He seems to randomly spam 3-4 anti-evolution comments every once in a while before actually addressing anything I say. This happened here, but I won't quote it since it has nothing to do with our conversation.

Seekmosttoprophesy
There are many, many transcripts to compare, hundreds and thousands of them. No other book in history has ever had so many individual transcripts made and no other book in history has ever had so many copies made. You don't even have a clue as to what you are saying. I know it's not your fault because it is clear that no one ever taught you anything about the Bible. From now on, you can't make that excuse so you had better know what you are saying before you say it.

Pallevader
Er, okay that told me absolutely nothing. Let's try again. Give me one example of why the bible is better than the qur'an in terms of why it should be taught in schools.
And how many copies have sold or how many transcripts have been made has absolutely nothing to say about the book's worth. And I'm pretty sure a fair amount of qur'ans have been sold as well over the years.
I know plenty about what I'm saying. You, on the other hand, know nothing about evolution as evidenced by your comments.

Seekmosttoprophesy
The Koran was written some 600 years after the Bible and only reflects the beliefs of one person six hundred years after the fact and there are many more reasons than this not to believe a word of it. You have to take that discussion up with the experts on the Koran. They say the writer was deluded and confused. They say that he didn't even know if his writings were from Satan or not. Apparently, his CATHOLIC wife told him that it was from God.

Wow, what a devastating argument. I will let you enjoy the sweet irony without commenting on it.

Pallevader
Please apply the same scrutiny to your bible, and you'll find just as much filth. You have no way of ascertaining that the bible is true, other than by consulting the bible. That is called circular reasoning.

Seekmosttoprophesy
The Bible has had more scrutiny than you know and the Bible has more proofs than you know. Dinosaurs alone prove that what the Bible says is true because we have the bones of the creatures that the Bible described thousands of years ago. DNA proves the Bible because we have identified the marker of Moses' brother Aaron. None of this is circular it is absolute proof. We have hundreds of accounts of the same story of the flood with the same details of bad people, a man, a boat, animals and birds.

I facepalm'ed. Anyway, while writing this he also added another comment addressing a different subject. I took this as an attempt to make the discussion about something else, so I did not pursue this issue any further:

Seekmosttoprophesy
If you don't know where you came from, how do you know where you go when you die?
You are like a god. (I knew that already) Do you think that "gods" will not be judged for what they do in God's Creation? Are you more powerful than the One who made you?

Pallevader
You seem to misunderstand. I know very well where I come from. Nothing. And when I die I'll go back to being nothing. pretty simple. You believe what you believe because you can't stand the thought that this is the only shot you have at life.

Seekmosttoprophesy
You have a Creator.

Pallevader
No I don't. I felt that such a statement required an equally intelligent answer.

Seekmosttoprophesy
Intelligent design says that you have a Creator. Argue with science.

Pallevader
First of all, the "designer" is evolution. This makes perfect sense. There is no need for special creation when evolution is present.
And you're right, the bible has had lots of scrutiny. Which is why it isn't used as a science book. It didn't pass. Evolution did. This is why evolution, not creation is taught in schools. Lots and lots of people who are alot smarter than me and you have accepted evolution as the best explanation for the evidence we see in nature.

Seekmosttoprophesy
Lots and lots of idol worshipers means nothing. Objects do not design. They are objects. They do nothing. The variation of species that we see is not evolution. Evolution says that chance mutations causes things to change into other things. Chance mutations are deleted within three generations. The variation of the existing design of a species is like millions of chance "mutations" with the purpose of adapting to fluctuations and changes of the environment.

Why do you do whatever you were told to do without questioning it?(MIND BREAKING IRONY!!!) Evolution does not even happen. The species already has a preexisting design that has the variations which are needed built into the already existing design to adapt to a changing environment. That is not evolution. That is design. Objects do not add information. It is not a "new" sequence. It is another sequence of the same design that was already there.

Pallevader
You are talking absolute nonsense. What you are describing is what you creationists would call "micro-evolution", which you cannot believe in without believing in "macro-evolution".
And saying that lots of "idol worshippers" means nothing, while earlier pointing out the fact that the bible is the most sold book is moronic. Surely you see this?
Finally, mutations are not deleted over a few generations. That is simply wrong. They add up to cause what you refer to as variation within kinds.

Seekmosttoprophesy
OK, here we go. We are dealing with a huge mind trip. Even IF life formed by chance here on earth (which it did not) you still have the whole Universe to account for. You have matter, You have the existing laws of physics (at present) to account for. You have the design of all of the elements, You have the design of atoms, You have the power of atoms, You can't have power from no power. Mere objects do NOT account for all this!

Pallevader
Your comments show that you are ignorant of what evolution is. This is why you don't accept it. Please take a few minutes of watch some evolutionist videos explaining what evolution actually is. Evolution is NOT random. As for the rest of your argument, what you're saying is basically that you don't understand it, so therefore god must have done it. This is not a strong argument.

Seekmosttoprophesy
The argument is that the design was already there. It did not form itself and it did not appear. It was not made by objects around it. It was not made by static. Face the facts of science. There is no evolution and objects do not make design.

Why do I get the feeling that this guy is intentionally trying to make his sentences mysterious and hard to read? Maybe he's trying to appear more intelligent by reading a meaning that the rest of us can't decipher from his sentences. Oh well, in any case, he's a moron.

Pallevader
I'll leave now, and give you your own advice: "Face the facts of science." :P
You cannot disprove science with science. Science goes against creationism, this is fact.

At this point it was very late and I went to bed. I woke up the next day to find more stupidity waiting for me. I don't really know what he was replying to, or if it was just more of his random creationist nonsense he let out, but it was stupid in any case and I decided to continue replying to him:

Seekmosttoprophesy
The Creator is not responsible for the assumptions that people make.
There can only be one Creator because you have to account for the whole Universe, atoms, molecules, everything.

Pallevader
Omniscience and free will cannot coexist. Our actions affect the future, so for it to be predetermined, our actions must be predetermined as well. According to you, the "creator" shaped the entire history of the entire universe at the moment of "creation". If he is not responsible for our actions, he does not know everything.

Seekmosttoprophesy
God can know what He is not. He cannot be what He is not but He can know it.
Not only is God not responsible for everything, He paid the price to redeem everything.

Again this strange thing about using intentionally mysterious sentences to convey his thoughts. Perhaps it really does make him feel smarter...

Seekmosttoprophesy
Mutations are rare accidental individual (one at a time) changes that may or may not be useful. More often than not, it is ignored and or deleted from the genome. The variation of species that is a part of the existing design produces millions of variations in one generation.
The Bible is just true and that's all there is to it.

Pallevader
*facepalm*
Okay..Wrong. I don't know where you get this information, but it is so wrong it's not even funny. Mutations are responsible for your "variation of species", it's not part of an existing design. The amoeba has more genetic information to begin with than any other creature, so according to you, its existing design would allow it to change into any other creature with no trouble. And it would fit your definition of "variation of species".

Seekmosttoprophesy
You are not even making any sense and what you are saying is not at all scientific. Amoeba may have more information but it does not have information to make a giraffe for example. A "viable" mutation is extremely rare. It would be better to say that it doesn't happen because the variation of species would change whatever "mutation" there was.

Pallevader
Variation of species = mutations. This is fact, man. You cannot account it to design that's already there, but just dormant or whatever. If that's the case, then why do chickens have the genes to make teeth? Why do whales have the genes to make legs? If any of your claims were true, you'd win the nobel prize on the spot. Why do you think you haven't?
And you still haven't solved the omniscience/free will paradox. Either "god" is responsible for our actions, or he does not know everything.

Seekmosttoprophesy
God can do anything except fail. God knows what He is not. That's why He is who He is and not us. God can do anything that He wants and He does what is right. We are the ones that need to learn what is right and be responsible for what we do. He is the One who will hold us accountable for what we do. We are the ones who will have to answer for what we do. God answers to no one. God is the Creator of all things. That is the reason there are so many similarities in the genes.

Pallevader
The reason why there are similarities is that all life share a common ancestor. On the whole, you can say evolution did it or you can say god did it. There is no problem with that to begin with, until we start looking at the evidence. FSM-type creation is indeed possible, but you'd be pretty crazy to believe it, wouldn't you agree? Your version of how your god did it does not account for many of the things we see in nature. That is why biblical creation is not possible.

FSM is short for the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I'm sure you know of it, yes? Otherwise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_spaghetti_monster
Basically, it's a deity that created everything, and flies around planting false evidence to make it look as though evolution takes place. Moving on!

Seekmosttoprophesy
There is nothing wrong with Biblical creation. The part that is hard for some to believe is that all the animals fit on the Ark. They were probably small (young) and the Ark was very large. Some of the animals that we consider different species today may have been one species. There may have been one cat, one dog, one horse, one cow, one pig etc.

Pallevader
Come again? Nothing wrong with biblical creation? Also, please don't go into the ark story, I might accidentally *facepalm* so forcefully that I knock myself out.
You should just answer the question of why your god would plant false evidence for an old universe and common ancestry. Or why he would go out of his way to bury every single dinosaur fossil below mammoths and humans.

Seekmosttoprophesy
I just addressed the old Universe problem even though I don't believe it is as old as people assume and the fossil locations are not as cut and dry as you are saying. The creationists have a field day with that. That is one of their main sources of evidence. The mammoths were in the colder regions while the reptiles were in the warmer regions.

Holy fucking shit, folks... I don't even know what to say about this. As you can probably tell form this conversation, this creationist conveniently ignores the parts of my arguments that he cannot refute, and makes up stuff about the fossils not being buried in order after what time they lived.
---------------------------------

Well, I decided not to continue after this piece of retardedness hit me in the face. That sort of made me realize that it was getting absolutely nowhere. Others had joined the conversation, and I'd gotten pretty tired of talking to a wall. Hope this served to amuse you. It certainly did for me.

Time to stop this rant.

A quick update.

If you've been visiting this blog lately (why the hell would you?!), you'll notice that I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been busy with real life stuff, but now I should be getting some free time, so check back soonish for some more creationist bashing, atheist musings and anime awesomeness.

Meanwhile, check out these masterful people's videos. If you like thunderf00t's videos you're likely to love these as well:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Potholer54debunks (only 1 video so far)
http://www.youtube.com/user/AronRa
http://www.youtube.com/user/AndromedasWake
http://www.youtube.com/user/DonExodus2

That's all!