Invariably The Most Exciting Features Added To Minecraft Are The Ones That Make It Even More Of A Sandbox,

Invariably the most exciting features added to Minecraft are the ones that make it even more of a sandbox, they allow greater customisability, easier modification, new possibilities, new abilities. The more basic and technical the better - the copper bulb (and everything it does for technical Minecraft) generated far more excitement than the armadillo! Custom enchants, data packs, custom paintings - these are the exciting updates; freedom. Options.

I wonder if God felt the same way designing us and our world. Giving us opposable thumbs, laws of nature which mostly follow neat mathematical rules, neural plasticity, customisable genetic codes, a system of elements and chemicals we can write on a spreadsheet and manipulate in an equation.

We live in a world far more richly customisable than Minecraft, with even more coherently designed interlocking systems that we can understand and utilize with our current tools.

There's a reason half the technical Minecraft community has 15 PhD's and turned down a Nobel prize - technical Minecraft is a (much simpler) form of the same scientific endeavour: exploring, understanding, and pushing the limits of what the world's mechanics allow.

Saying something is a metaphor and then proceeding to ignore what was meant by it is still disagreeing with it!

If I say 'don't worry that 30kph sign is a metaphor' and then proceed to gun it through a residential area, I have still ignored the meaning of the sign!

Saying 'oh Jesus' sinlessness is a metaphor' 'the resurrection is a metaphor' 'the final judgement is a metaphor', and proceeding to live in sin/unrepentance still means you're ignoring the teachings of the Christian faith!

If you're gonna be Christian, actually believe the Christian faith. Heresy packaged as textual criticism is still heresy.

Does anyone know any good media (fiction books or movies/tv) with realistic/healthy portrayals of a Christian (or at least Godly) marriage or relationships?

Just became aware that most of my idea of what a relationship looks like comes from not exactly edifying sources.

Stuff like the chosen!

NEVERTHELESS MENTIONED WOOOOOOOOOOO

Matthew 26:39 (NKJV) - He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Elmer Gantry is a really amazing example of a book that does this well - I read it specifically because it was banned across America (for being too accurate). But it knows what it's about! It's a critique of performative religion, nominal cultural Christianity, sensationalist prosperity gospel preaching, etc.

Iron sharpens iron, and awareness of the issues in the church is much more useful, and narratively satisfying, than 'Christianity Bad' media.

I mean if we're really getting into it, most problems with people creating stories to critique Christianity boil down to either a. They do absolutely zero research and think "why do bad things happen" is unanswerable for anyone who believes in a fundamentally good deity, b. They assume that the religious beliefs of two churches in Missouri run by an abusive pastor are the religious beliefs of 3 billion people, or c. They're actually critiquing cultural systems which utilize Christianity to uphold oppression (good! Critique that!) but they conflate that with the religion itself which often leads back to the first two points, meaning they make factually incorrect statements about actual religious teachings and approach faith as inherently evil (wrong! Read the Book!)

I do believe you can write a story critiquing faith or religious systems or religion and do it well but unfortunately 90% of the time this is how people do it. Which is poorly done and useless.

"He who controls the default, controls how the game is played"

-Cubicmetre

A fair point, in minecraft and real life.

By default, Windows computers will show you a news article on startup.

It's subtle and unobtrusive, most people won't really notice them, much less think about them or dislike them.

Of course, if for some strange reason you did, you can always take the 1 or 2 minutes to google the very specific part of settings you need to go to to turn it off. Problem solved!

Do you see the problem? MicrosoftTM can show everyone using their computers any article they so choose. Of course, most people won't read it. Some might just read the headline. But, far more dangerously, most people will only register it subconsciously, and almost nobody will bother to turn it off.

If, God forbid, MicrosoftTM had a narrative they wanted to push, this gives them an incredible power to do so without people even realising.

Incidentally, the last 3 articles I saw before I took the time to figure out how to get those articles off my start up were all telling me about the wonderful things AI is doing for humanity. Funny right?