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@X

Fair enough. But if you ever do feel like sharing, I'm all ears

@opspe

I wouldn't say that science is a religion because that over-complicates the definition of science and specializes it towards a certain ethnographic.

Science in simple terms should be the practical exploration of fact and proof. I'm not saying that's the exact definition of science but it is the definition that I accept because it gets straight to the point and is non-specific towards anyone. Anyone can explore facts, no matter what existing belief they have.

Religion on the other hand is less of a subject of learning and more of a subject of culture and theory. We don't use religion to establish new fact, we use it to theorize what may be fact for science to test. That's why religion is so focused on the supernatural and the exo-universal because science can't touch those area's. Even before science existed, religion has spurned people's interest in learning but religion itself had always been about saying "this is how it is" not "why is it like that?"

Given those two definitions in my mind, I would still consider science and religion to be very separate entities, though not in conflict as some may suggest.

Science and religion only conflict when people make science their religion and religion always conflicts with religion. No offense to those who chose science as their religion but personally, I believe that disrespects science when you do that. Science is for everyone, science is neutral and fair to everyone. Science is nobodies god and nobodies follower. Science is science

What you can do however is define atheism as a religion even though it would be saying that nothing is something.

It is possible to do that when you define religion as something that establishes cultural trends, tradition, behavioral decisions and theocracy (exclusive of Deities and rituals and whatever). By that definition you can call Atheism a religion…or rather an anti-religion. Kinda like the relationship between matter and anti-matter. Exact opposites yet exact same role and purpose.

@JAB

Dreams like that are easily explained by your own thought patterns and how your mentality functions. Dreams are nothing more than your own personal thinking constructed to be seem more realistic by making use of your idle senses. Or something like that

Ninjacount = 10 + page get

Also random pony for pony sake

Pics or it didn't happen…
Also you thought I wouldn't be able to tell if you de-friended me?

whatever…

Man, it's quiet on my tumblr dashboard. Oh to not be famous on Tumblr. So little to do.

About dangerous situations, Dogs are always trying to maul me. I assume it's either because they want to eat my heart to gain my tasty, tasty courage or they just want something to brag about to their dog bros at the designated neighborhood poop yard.

I just hope I never run into this guy, though.

MY BUTT IS NOT READY.

Life threating situations….hmmm I got some of those:

Back in Saudi Arabia, we took a vacation to the mountain town of Taif near Mecca on the west coast of Saudi Arabia. My father grew up there so I was excited to see it (this was about 3 or so years ago?) but my mother was like "You don't remember Taif? You've been here before!"

I could never remember coming here and she went on to explain. "During the Gulf War! Remember? You father went to the frontlines and since SCUDs were falling on Riyadh, we moves west to Taif?"

I remembered exactly zero percent of that whole war. I was maybe 4 or 5 years old then? But apparently, my life was at risk and I had no idea about it. :/

Situation two: Calgary, Canada. I was 7 or 8 years old? My family was at a mall and my mother told me to watch my little brother while she and my father looked at something boring. I was like "Pssht, like something is gonna happen in a crowded mall" so I let my little bro wander off. At that moment, I see a man run up and snatch my little bro and dash off!

I try to run after him but there's no way I can keep up with him so he gets away and I just break down and start crying. I just let my own little brother get kidnapped!

Turns out, the man was one our family friends and he was playing a prank on me.

I DID NOT FIND IT FUNNY!

No items, Fox only, Final Situation: This was a couple years back. I was on the highway from Dammam on the East Coast to Riyadh the capital to visit my parents. My younger cousin was riding with me in my car, a 2006 Renault Megane. I hated the car because it was very fragile and had constant reliability problems.

Anyway, the desert between Riyadh and Dammam is very flat and sparse, no trees to break up the high crosswinds across the road. In addition, I was….sorting kinda breaking the speed limit at around 160km/h (about 100mph). I was on the far left lane (the overtake lane) and a gust of wind pushed me onto the gravel, I tried to correct the car but I spun out of control at 100mph and nearly missed a semi, I hit the fence on the side of the road and my car flipped upside down. I was wearing my seat belt so I was completely unscathed. My younger cousin was NOT wearing his seatbelt, but luckily, the Renault Megane had side airbags and they saved his life, he was completely unhurt either.

I do have photographic evidence as well:

The car was initially upside down. Luckily, a nice Pakistani man dragged me out of my car and bunch of young naval officers flipped my car right side up.

Dr.Greg wrote:

I also believe in “The Secret” (if anyone has watched the documentary or read the book): basically, your feelings and thoughts can attract good or bad things accordingly, and yes, I’ve as well been though enough sittuations to actually believe in that.

I keed. :D

@Citation:

I also recall a time where we didn't know each other nor had any interest in each other's lives as friends. ;)

Is doth anus prepared? Thine anus is not prepared. Go forth, and prepare thine posterior orfice.

Lets talk about near-life experiences. Paying off credit debt, brushing teeth. Daaamn

Near life expierences? Never had anything good happen to me. So that's kinda a bum subject for me.

I should really get to sleep.
I also came up with an idea for a one-shot fic.
So many ideas so little time…

You want a topic, Cite?

Who writes the best Pinkie Pie?

Here's a link to my post with all of the writers so far and what episodes they've written.

And here's a link to Gigatoast's post earlier in the season giving a bit of a description of the writers in the show. As a head's up, this was just after Sisterhooves Social aired, so it doesn't include Merriweather Williams.

And I do know how much Citation loves him some Merriweather Williams.

Pyro? Remember when I said you should keep that kind of comment off of the thread? I know you say you're not emo, but those posts can most certainly be described as "emo."

You can make that remark about your life if you really want, but be prepared when people start calling you out on it.

I was remembering about the other day's talk about pony music, and I came across this on Ponibooru:

I think it's a nice topic to talk: What movies you think the Mane 6 or other ponies would watch?
__________________________________________________________________________________

@phoneix
Oh you.
Yes, I know it's not that simple. Just saying it has happened to me quite some times.

Celestia watches Ron Jeremy? She's got taste. Not that I watch him, but he was a guest star on the show "Las Vegas". I love that show. Pity it got cancelled. As for Blue, no, he's not. I'm probably the most unstable and psychopathic person here. It may have shown at time, guess when……….
As for Greg's topic, yes. Let's discuss. Here's mine:
A.J. Westerns or anything with Clint Eastwood.
Dash: Action fims like Terminator, Demolition Man, or Machete.
Twi: Sci-Fi, crime drama, or psychological thriller. A Clockwork Orange, Law Abiding Citizen, or Blade Runner
Rarity: Fru-fru sophisticated stuff. Breakfast at Tiffany's, stuff like that.
Pinkie: Comedies. Death at a Funeral, the 'Burbs, and Funny Farm.
Fluttershy: Romantics or tear-jerkers. I don't watch many so I have none to list.
Celestia: Porno [trollface.png] Not really.
Luna: Dark, mealoncholy. Donnie Darko, Scilence of the Lambs, really dark stuff.

I watched that in my freshmen year, everybody thinks it was pure and utter BS.
It was on a DVD and I do not know what channel it was on either…

I just wanted to drop in and say:

@Phoneix
That family friend of yours is hilarious. But I would have kicked is ass for it anyway.

I thought Molestia Celestia watches Twilight

Alright guys, gotta wake up early to study tomorrow and later on watch ponies.
So good night.

So close, yet so far…

I started liking MLP somewhat. It's pretty ok. Wanna know what made me watch it?

This is a long-winded response to BSOD’s post from an hour ago.

While I agree that science and religion are nominally two different things, and are usually treated as such, I was speaking strictly anthropologically; that is, treating each in terms of the strict definition of religion and narrative myth. Both Scientific Rationalism (to give it its proper name) and religion possess the three basic components, as I said. Your interpretation of religion as being a societal construct is entirely correct; but, in a sense, Scientific Rationalism is also a societal construct, insofar as it applies to our culture. One of my favourite quotes on the subject is from Professor Frink in The Simpsons: “Science doesn’t discount God, it just says he’s an impotent nobody from nowhere with less power than the Undersecretary of Agriculture [sic].”

This goes back to the narrative myths I mentioned. Every culture has at least one narrative myth that shapes (i.e. narrates) their worldview. Our (Western) culture has two: Judeo-Christian Monotheism, and Western Scientific Rationalism. The worldview of every member of our culture (excluding minorities) is shaped by some combination of these two myths. Myth, in this sense, is neither a falsehood nor a legend; it refers to a shared set of beliefs and practices. Now, one could argue that Scientific Rationalism is not a true religion because it does not contain a moral code; this is true to some extent, but I would argue that over the past 150 years or so, it has developed one based largely on the Judeo-Christian Monotheist moral code, with a few additions and changes.

You argue that religion does not provide the faculty for exploration of truth. I deem this false, because you are applying the Scientific Rationalist definition of truth onto a different belief system. To a purely Judeo-Christian Monotheist, God is truth; there can be practical exploration into natural and supernatural phenomena, but at the end of the day, it’s God’s will. To a purely Scientific Rationalist, everything comes down to quantum probabilities, so in that sense, quantum probability serves the same function as God. The exploration of what we would call scientific truth by those who ascribe to religion happens because their worldview is a blend of their religious narrative myth as well as the Scientific Rationalist narrative myth.

I hope this clears some of this up.

Now, to involve the poni, have a pseudo-religious image:

I actually found this funny, which can only mean one thing: it's getting late.
Good night everyone…

I found it pretty funny. But I'm insane, so that doesn't say much. Well, night X. See you tomorrow. Now, back to Greg's topic. Discuss.

He was Tunisian. As you have seen recently with events in the middle east, they are crazy.

He owned a Pizza Parlor and gave me free Pizza lots of times so I forgave him.

But to keep this pony related:

Remember those Spitfire "Join the REA" ads? Well it turns out that REA is Royal Equestrian Airforce.

IT DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT! IT WOULD BE REAF. THERE HAS TO BE AN "F"!

RAEEEEEEEEEG

/Military historian rant

Wonderbolts=Blue Angels
Blue Angels=Navy
Therefore:
Wonderbolts=Navy
Even though I have yet to see a body of water big enough for naval warfare in Equestria.

hay guise. i made a poll. you can check it out here.

@opspe

While both of us are correct to a degree, I note how our arguments depend on the definitions we use.

While you are using an anthropological perspecitive, I am using a purely observational perspective. And that observational perspective is confined to the exact definition of what Science and Religion is.

My statement about religion not providing faculty for exploration of truth comes from the currently accepted definition of what religion is and the role it currently serves in modern society. Since I have only ever observed religion provide an establishment for existing fact and not new proven fact, I think I am quite right.

I'd write more but I had a brief power cut while I was writing my huge explanation for everything and lost the whole thing (I blue screened myself, derp)

I can't be arsed doing all that again so I'm off to do something else. If you wish to continue this interesting chat. You are welcome to do so on my wall.

@Buj

I took your poll. But I think you need more options in your religion section though. Where's the Wicca section for Ideo?

I picked Christian, because it is the closest approximation for me but Christian still does not accurately define my beliefs. I'm more Agnostic Diest or non-denominational

I'd like to see more options for the furry section too, like

-Love em
-Hate em
-Is one
-Neutral

Lastly where you got "Brony or Pegasister" I think you should stick with "male or female" because some girls are fine with being called Bronies and many consider it to be gender neutral. So you risk getting less Pegasisters than actual women respondants.

[edit]

Ok I'm sorry, I'm being such a jackass critic. I'll stop now.

Picture for myself:

Nah jk I love you all! :D
But night everypony. :3

I put the aliens one for mine. It made the most sense.

Yeah…

1. Don't double post, bijutdo. You can usually edit it into your previous post if you can do it within 30 minutes. If you need to break it up into 2 parts. Hit "Enter," put in three hyphens, and then hit "Enter" again

---

^ That turns into this v

2. Before making a poll, you may want to have some of the people oriented in science to help you put it together. I've been trained in research methodology in the social sciences for about 5 years now with some 4 years of practice. opspe and BSoD may not be as involved in survey development, but they can help you figure out where open-ended questions should go (e.g., it can't hurt to make gender open-ended. You're not likely to have many responses that makes coding difficult, and it makes non-traditionally identifying participants feel more at ease.) Furthermore, you should ideally check with your target population to see if your questions and responses are suitable (i.e., Afro-Caribbean. Ok.)

But why don't I shut up and make one myself?

Hey guise. If I were to make a questionnaire of the people on this here thread, what questions would you want to see on it?

• How many is too many?
• Other questions that I should ask you but can't think of right now because I'm so heartbroken that Dr. Horse came in right after my Pinkie Pie question and now everyone's answering his question and not mine and IT JUST HURTS A LOT.
   
   
  And I swear, Ideo, seriously, I'm tired of seeing your posts about how you aren't popular in the brony community. I understand you want popularity for some reason, but stop telling me about it.

I can envision three survey categories: Vital Statistics, Ponies, and Brony-dom. Vital statistics is pretty self-explanatory, Ponies would be questions like best and worst pony, favourite ship, and similar stuff, and Brony-dom would be open/stabled, questions about art and fics and stuff like that. For length, I say 10-25 questions. That should be enough to eliminate at least some of the random error. I might be able to futz with the data a bit to try to extract any correlations; if I do, the larger the data set the better.

In addition to what has been said above:

Definitely try to get in some questions that are relevant to Brony culture.

For instance, try questions like "What drew you into the fandom: The show, the fanart, the fanfiction…etc" and "Should Love and Tolerance really be our mantra? Yes, No"

Things like that which will add insight to how the fandom actually works and what the general Brony mindset revolves around.

@opspe

So a demographics section, a section devoted to items concerning the show, and a section devoted to brony culture? Sounds good.
 
Potentially, I could use Connor's collected bios to add more to the data without adding more items, but that would require identifying information, and you never anticipate having 100% participation in two waves of a longitudinal study.

Then again, I'd imagine everyone who'd respond to this survey has already filled out a bio, and we'd be able to figure out who was whom rather quickly anyway. Also, I don't have to deal with the IRB so the main concern would be if we asked really personal questions (i.e., they liked you know what, and they were hiding how they felt, because everybody wants Algernon's respect.)
 
I generally believe that more options for participants mean better data. For example, if we made open/stabled identity more continuous instead of strictly dichotomous (i.e., you make a point to identify yourself as a brony, out to anyone who asks, out to certain people, stabled,) then we could always combine responses so that the first three options meant open and stabled is stabled.) But if we have 50 respondents, that could be time consuming. If we only end up with 15 or so (like I anticipate,) then I don't think it would be so bad.

@BSoD

My approach to making survey tools generally involves using tried and true/golden standard tools and adjusting them for the purposes of the study. Problem is that there probably aren't any decent ones for the Brony community that I could get my hands on. (Actually, there may be if I just looked on EqD.) For the Brony section, I may be able to play it like an exploratory study of other online subcultures that may have literature out there (published or just a subjectively decent tool.) Of course, I could not be lazy and just put one together myself and make it the standard by which we go.
 
Also, do you think items should focus any more on our unique aspects as KYM Bronies (as opposed to Ponychan-focused Bronies or Ponibooru-focused Bronies?) Or should they be questions that we'd have of the community as a whole but only asking ourselves? I'm thinking the latter. It may become something that is used elsewhere, and no offense to us, I think Bronydom on the whole may be more interesting to look at than what equates to our normal activities here (because we already have an idea of what we do.)

Just some preliminary thoughts on your thoughts. Also, I can be a lot less thorough if you just want to get to the analysis, results, and discussion (And conclusion, but the conclusion is always that we need more research to better understand the phenomenon.)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#tuskegee2

Oh, I'm all for thoroughness, you should know that. PS I'm involving myself in the analysis step henceforth – I hope you're okay with that.

I agree with setting up some more continuous responses for the survey itself, especially the open/stabled question. When it comes to analysis, I'll have to see whether combining the responses to form a dichotomous value would really impact anything. I'm guessing that'll have to be done on a question-by-question basis.

As for involving Connor's bios, I'm unsure if it would be helpful for analysis, but in the interest of privacy, it may be best to keep the results confidential and only release the analysis and conclusions.

When it comes to some of those personal questions, I can understand the need for discretion, but if we keep the results confidential, I think it might persuade more people to be truthful. I think most posters would probably trust us (or at least you) to hold on to their secrets.

I also agree that the "Brony-dom" section should focus more on the fandom as a whole instead of just us. It is interesting to think about our place within the fandom, but I don't know if that merits a survey; that's a pretty decent discussion topic.

Also:

I generally believe that more options for participants mean better data.

This is a statistical fact. Just throwing that out there.

Just want to give my fellow Bronies a heads up.

Can you check this thread in the Just for Fun section and see if you want to participate?

YOU ARE NOW MERCENARY JET PILOTS!

https://knowyourmeme.com/forums/just-for-fun/topics/13551-you-are-now-mercenary-fighter-pilots-operation-copperhead

Which day is it everyone?

CIDER COMPETITION DAY!!

Oh wait, wrong cider.
And definatelly wrong competition…

EDIT: Never mind…

God, A.J. must have gotten into Berry's stash again……..

I started a new fic. Less than a page, but I got it in ten minutes.

What's everypony's headcanons for the battle/war between Celestia and NmM?

Berry Punch was trying to double dip the cider, and Caramel's voice changed, he's trying to be the new Bon Bon.

Is it me or Fluttershy's voice has changed a bit too?

And magic powered machines are now canon!

I'm missing the epidsode again, aren't I?

That last scene with Granny Smith reminded me of a certain movie, or it's sequel anyways.

Doctor Whoof with a tie is the best Doctor.

It' seems The Doctor's special talent is…. turning sandglasses D:

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DALEKS???
__________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Princess Celestia….

I didn't learn anything LOL

Oh Bon Bon, Y U no figure out a proper voice, and to be honest, that machine does work, the only reason it failed was because they were all like "lol turn off quality control"

To me, that's not going to happen in the next town, though of course the show doesn't focus on other towns.

And then we all got shitfaced.

BEST LETTER TO CELESTIA EVER, AJ!

Also, notice how Flim (or was it Flam?) say "Kingdom of Canterlot"? That would mean the planet would be called Equestria. Not the country!

Great episode, 10/10 Applejack is now Best pony!
Speaking of this episode, guess what I get to use!

SO MUCH CYDAH!!!

I LOVE THE NEW EPISODE!

Speaking of chickens…

I don't see the difference between these pictures.