Religion and Science

6 months 5 days ago

"Religion and science are hardly exclusive. That said, science is not the opposition that religion faces. You cannot go "well I believe in science" and have that fly with people as your objection to the concept of "God," whatever that may be. This is because science is a tool - it's not a belief or an ideology or a gateway to truth. As an acquaintance of mine once put it, saying "I don't like religion, I like science" is on par with saying "I don't like baroque art, but I like hydraulic car jacks." Believing in ~science~ does not give you any moral or intellectual high ground simply because science can be empirically tested and faith cannot. Empirically testing something does not reveal "truths," it generates models. You don't pursue "truth" when you test science - you discover different conditions and make observations. That said, your scientific understandings are not "truths" by definition, but rather models by which you believe - exactly like religion. Empirical testing can render beliefs more legit than, say, one believing a purple unicorn lives in one's ear, but both are still essentially the same things: beliefs. Opinions. Models by which one understands how things work. All in all, a belief in religion and an investment in science 1) are not exclusive and 2) hold the same degree of credibility. Make sense?"
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A world without religion?

6 months 5 days ago

"Religion will never cease to exist, and perhaps this is a good thing. For religion to indefinitely disappear you'd have to unethically recondition everyone on the planet to believe what you want them to, and the day that happens is the day that society ends."
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Left 4 Dead

6 months 5 days ago

"I've never been one for zombie games (I think Dead Rising is the wort game I've ever played in my life) but Left 4 Dead is one of my favourite games to play these days. The game mechanics are amazing and the gameplay never gets old. I've never played through a campaign where something didn't make me laugh."
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Arrogance

10 months 2 weeks ago

"AP is a bit elitist, but most people who join know that upfront. If you can't take the critique and the occasional rudeness, you are free to go elsewhere."
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Gaze into your crystal ball and tell me, what do u see for the future of mankind

10 months 2 weeks ago

"We're going to die out before we get anywhere near close enough to another star. Stars, even the closest ones, are light years away, and given the fact that we can't travel as fast as light, it would take us hundreds of years to reach Proxima Centauri, so that's pretty much out of the question. I think we are bound to Earth - though that might not be the case if we were not a finite species. We don't have an eternal amount of time to do anything.

On a biological scale, I doubt we will survive long enough to evolve to a point where it's very obvious. On a societal scale, we aren't human even now. Look at the way we treat other people, other living creatures, our own planet... it's ridic. We've educated ourselves stupid, if that makes sense.

Any "dark age" I believe we'd fall under would be at our own expense, of course; I don't think we'd have a dark age ruled by warlords or demons or anything of the sort, but I'm sure a dark age is imminent - kind of an evolutionary recession. We think we are wise and powerful enough to survive anything, but if you look at a starscape of the activity around Earth, you'll notice thousands of small asteroids and the like circling us. If it weren't for Jupiter, we probably would have been hit by something large enough to kill us a long time ago. Again, we think we can surpass anything, but there is nothing we can do once we have a large space object coming for us.

I believe our purpose is simply to live until we are tired, then rest. I'm very, VERY pro-theistic (though I'm an agnostic myself), so I am open to ideas of an afterlife, but I'd rather be put to rest than live for eternity."
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What do u think of nudity in Wallpapers??

10 months 3 weeks ago

"I think it is. For me on a personal scale, the line is pretty thin. Most anime characters featured in nude wallpapers/scans/etc are generally females with unrealistic body proportions, which right up front takes most of the taste out of it. I don't particularly want to see a pair of gigantic boobs smack in the middle of something I'm about to set on my desktop. Average breasts with minor exposure is fine so long as it's not like main visual point to the wallpaper, at least in my opinion... but of course, I don't seek out wallpapers with this attribute, and I know some do, so for them, they'd probably want it to be the main visual point.

I'm really weird about the whole panties thing too. I don't care about panties or whatever but the look on the girl's face is usually like... I don't even know. It's like scared or something. I'd prefer a confident facial expression so the girl looks less like a ten-year-old and more like a willing individual.

I guess if I wanted a wallpaper with nudity in it, I'd want it to be minimal and with a confident and average-looking subject. Otherwise it just looks like someone took the cast of a hentai film and plastered it behind a texture."
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A question for all virgins over twenty

10 months 3 weeks ago

"I'm not sure about other people but I never condemn anybody for being a virgin at an older age. It actually makes me happy more often than not, simply because it's so rare.
I'm not a virgin but I've been straightedge in regards to alcohol/drugs/etc for a few years now and it appalls me every time someone gives me a weird look when I pass up the gin. It's like, what the balls? People should be happy that you aren't damaging your body for the sake of attracting attention. In your case, people should be glad that you have some class, because obviously this generation has none. We lose more and more with every new generation and it's really quite sad. It would be cool if being classy was a trend.

All in all, even if somebody gives you grief for being a virgin, just say nuts to them. I dunno if you feel like you're ~missing out~ or whatever but half the time kids are just trying to grow up too fast. You wouldn't believe how many times I hear people say they regret losing their virginity with such-and-such person or at such-and-such time, and it's really quite sad. The best thing you can do is wait until it feels right to give it away, and just because that time hasn't come yet doesn't mean you are "weird" or whatever. People have no right to judge you, your character, your actions or your lifestyle so long as it's not hurting anybody.

And next time someone gives you a weird look or a dumb reaction, just smile and say you're proud to be above the typical peer pressure. You know, it doesn't take a whole lot of motivation or restraint to protect yourself from peer pressure, but it takes a lot of courage. Those kids that give you weird looks might not understand it now - and they might not ever understand it at all - but hopefully some day they can look back and realise that they had very little self-respect for giving themselves up so easily just to satiate the general modern teenage norms. You're not better than them, of course, but you're different, and that's good. Being a whore sucks anyway."
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What do u think of nudity in Wallpapers??

10 months 3 weeks ago

"I generally find nudity, especially in anime/manga wallpapers, to be quite tasteless and without much of an aesthetic purpose. It's rare to find tasteful nudity in much of anything these days, which is sad because I could probably enjoy a bit of class."
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weird cat poses, got any?

1 year 1 month ago

"I wish I had pictures of my cat to share... :'( He's adorable.
Alas, I'm at college...

I think this was pretty cute though, in a strikingly terrifying way.
They call him the ~Ninja Cat~.
http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000086?v=3510825"
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Internet

1 year 1 month ago

"Depends on what else I have to do. I'm in college right now (first year!) and only a handful of my high school friends are attending the same university, so when I have nothing else to do I can be on as long as three, four hours, usually doing schoolwork or chatting with friends. "
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Shakugan no Shana Wall(rejected once, please comment)

1 year 4 months ago

"My favourite one out of the three you posted is the first. It could do with a little variation in colour, however - it's just a lot of red.
The third version you posted is interesting but the repetitive Polaroid effect is a little much. it takes away from the image itself, especially the subject, because it's covering parts of her face.

As for your latest one - cute effect, but the blue pops out a little too much for me. Toning it down a little hue-wise (or even opacity-wise) will make it look much better.

All in all, they're pretty cute walls. Keep it up. :)"
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Hi :D

1 year 4 months ago

"Salutations. :)

Hope you find AP welcoming."
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Who's a pianist here in AP?

1 year 4 months ago

"I've played the piano for most of my life, but I'm not really active with it.
I don't really enjoy playing all that much anymore.

How far into November is your recital? If it's late November you should try investing time into practicing holiday songs."
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Do you listen and trust in your parents?

1 year 4 months ago

"I listen to/trust my dad, but my mum has just distanced herself from the family for a few various reasons so I find it hard to even respect her a whole lot these days."
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Window-shopping new laptops.

1 year 5 months ago

"True that. I need a new computer too.
I heard from a Consumer Reports magazine that Apple Macbooks are the "best" for gaming, but I'm not so sure."
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Window-shopping new laptops.

1 year 5 months ago

"Sounds good. I just found a fairly recent magazine laying around a friend's house and it had a list of decent laptops. I'm pretty comfortable with HP."
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Window-shopping new laptops.

1 year 5 months ago

"After a few years of going sans laptop, I've decided to get a new one for college. I'm not looking for anything special and I have no price limit as of right now. My biggest wants are just a lot of RAM and memory space, because I have over a GB of images alone on my current computer, and I need those. I also have Paint Shop Pro (Jasc) and a bunch of really space-heavy games, like CSI, Call of Duty, and the Sims.
The computer I'm on right now hardly even works with all the crap I have on it. I checked under System and it says this computer (an Insignia, if it makes any difference) has 2.8 GHz and 504 MB of RAM, and since this computer sucks I'm guessing I'll need more than that. I can always get an external hard drive, too.
I'm really just looking for a good gaming laptop. Preferably not a Mac, but I'm open for any and all suggestions."
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What makes a horror game a good game?

1 year 5 months ago

"Personally, I know a horror game is a good horror game when my stomach churns while I play it. If I'm scared or anxious, it's good."
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The supernatural

2 years 7 months ago

"There are so many stars in this galaxy, and many galaxies in a galaxy cluster. The entire universe is made up of galaxy clusters, each with billions and trillions of stars that could host planets like our sun does. Out of those seemingly infinite possibilities, how could there NOT be life elsewhere?"
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The supernatural

2 years 7 months ago

"My little brother was a really intelligent boy, especially for his age, and he didn't like to play pretend or make up people/events. So when he started mumbling to things that weren't there I didn't know what to make of it. I'm still not sure about it, but I narrowed it down to two possiblities: he saw ghosts, or he had schizophrenia. I suspect the former, but I still don't know for sure what was going on.
I did a lot of research on the things he mentioned though, and it all fits together, which is why I also doubt the latter of the two possibilities I came up with. But, who knows. "
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Animal testing.

2 years 7 months ago

"I don't understand why everyone continues to imply that we /have/ to use animals. People, I know there are humans out there willing to volunteer, and we'd get even better results using them over nonhuman creatures."
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Animal testing.

2 years 7 months ago

"XeciRei I highly admire and respect your viewpoint on the matter, and am glad you'd go out of your way to make sure the animals felt as little pain as possible during the testings.
I do believe still though that it wouldn't be unethical to use humans if they volunteered."
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Animal testing.

2 years 7 months ago

"To be honest, I didn't make this thread with the intention of backing up my points, since all I really wanted was to know the viewpoints of you guys without much of a debate. We're all entitled to an opinion so why would it matter? All I've been doing is sharing the way I feel about animal testing, not trying to force my point of view upon the rest of you. So really, I don't need to back up the way I feel, although I feel I have done so.
I believe I have justified every single one of my posts. Feel free to point out anything I haven't made clear so I could clarify it further to your heart's extent.
Also, I have done research on rights and know plenty enough about it. Why do you insist on telling me what I do and do not know about? And as I said, in my opinion animals deserve rights, especially to their own lives. I don't understand what makes you think that they aren't entitled to that."
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Animal testing.

2 years 7 months ago

"I'm closeminded only to the acceptance of animals as inferiors - they may not have the mind capacity to be on the same intellectual level as us, but they still deserve rights. They deserve rights because, like us, they are individuals with lives that matter to them. Humans deserve the liberty to live as they wish, and animals deserve to be free from human interference that is out of the norm on a natural scale; that is, only for food, and if the case arises, protecting your kin that may be threatened by an animal. Mass genocide for cosmetics is neither ethical nor fair, and injecting a terminal illness into a creature so they writhe and suffer until they finally are relieved from agony by death is inhumane - yes, inhumane - because anything that is affected by the ills of humans is being treated inhumane. The term doesn't apply only to people.
What is the use of experimentation if these animals are so different from us that they receive no rights? These experiments have no value in this case, and they perform no exerted benefit upon human life. Rights cannot be consistantly awarded to man and denied to beast, since the same sense of justice and compassion apply in both cases. This isn't our world alone, and you're forgetting that.
To want to cure human ills via the sacrifice of thousands of animals (even to no medical avail) is selfish."
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Animal testing.

2 years 7 months ago

"Theironwarrior, I'm not here to be flamed or to argue with closeminded people. I simply wanted the opinions of others, and you gave me yours, so feel free to take a leave if all you want to do now is belittle MY opinions. Whereas nothing can make you feel the same way I do about animals, nothing you say will make me change my mind either.
I know you probably like to think you brought up some valid points, but thus far every pro-vivisector's claim, as I've said before, has been the same - they aren't justified or backed up, per se, with logical evidence that using an animal is more effective than using a human.
Also, as I've said, I mentioned that using animals is fine with me under certain conditions, and as everyone should know, most vivisections do not meet these. If no one is willing to take the animal's feelings into consideration, at least make their end warm and without suffering.
There's no need to torture the poor things! They don't even get a say in this."
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