Bay 12 Games Forum

Here's a thought, and it just might make the world a better place in some small way:

Athiest just means that you don't believe in a god. It's the simple absence of belief/faith.
We need another word for those who actively believe that there is NOT a god. There may be one, but i've never heard it.

It's an important distinction that (to my perception) is often ignored or forgotten.

Quote

a particular branch of scientific knowledge; "the science of genetics"

So atheism is one branch of scientific knowledge.  *shrug*.

NO, IT'S NOT. Atheism has nothing to do science, asside from (i think) most atheists agree (or believe in, say it that way if it makes you feel better) the scientific explainations for things.

1000AD: Religious person: I believe in God!
Atheist: What's the proof?
RP: How do you explain how the stars stay in the sky?
Atheist: Er, I can't.
RP: God did it, end of discussion.

1800AD: Religious person: I believe in God!
Atheist: What's the proof?
RP: How do you explain how the stars stay in the sky?
Atheist: Gravity keeps them in balance.
RP: How do you explain how life came about?
Atheist: Er, I can't.
RP: God did it, end of discussion.

1900AD: Religious person: I believe in God!
Atheist: What's the proof?
RP: How do you explain how the stars stay in the sky?
Atheist: Gravity keeps them in balance.
RP: How do you explain how life came about?
Atheist: By the gradual process of evolution.
RP: How do you explain how atoms stay stable?
Atheist: Er, I can't.

2009AD: blah blah blah.
Atheist: Through electromagnetism and (goes off into a long and extremely boring talk about particle physics)
RP: How do you explain the original creation of matter?
Atheist: Argh, give me another 100 years.

I love this...

Your talk of handing out business cards triggered an idea: we could try to start a world-wide viral (i think that's appropriate) ad campaign for dwarf fortress! Randomly rent billboards and put something like this on them:

Everyone try to get/make t-shirts with the same design on them (not necessarily my design, but something similar and vague).

Anyone here a graffiti artist?

Most half-baked idea i've had in months... but it just might be crazy enought to work.

I have a lot more fun using Linux, and the general immunity to malware is a rather nice bonus.

This.
And:

In other news, after using Ubuntu extensively, I find Windows' lack of "snappiness" annoying. Windows should snap together when you drag them, dammit.

Yeah... sticky window edges (or whatever your window manager calls it) is a nice touch that's very east to get used to... MS windows would be 10% better imo if they included that. Never used Unbuntu, though.

I read that it was supposed to do that automaticly, without any special coding on the programmer's part. It didn't.

But yeah, i'm sure there's a class or something that'll do it for you. StringTokenizer might do it. My problem was partly because i didn't gave internet access at the time (counldn't look stuff up) and partly because i rather enjoyed reinventing the wheel, so to speak. I probably wouldn't have looked it up if i could. Haven't done much programming lately. Besides, I've got my 12-sidedregular polygon, why switch to an actual wheel now? 

Also, i stubbornly made my own hash-table implementation so i wouldn't have to be constantly casting my objects back to strings. *shrug* it was fun, and it worked. I think i may be a fan of programming the hardway... except i still use java. not C or assembler.

Gamble with your lives as you will, I don't care. When I care is when you try to gamble with other people's lives. Leave the fates be or there might well be blood on your hands.

If this meant what i think it does ("keep out of other people's business, religion wise"), i agree completely.

Further away from anything directed at individuals, do you think religious and non-religious people on the whole have different personality types?

I'd guess that in general, yes, they do. I know that i, as an athiest, am a very inquisitive, sceptical person. I don't like to make or refer to stereotypes, but most "devout" believers, of any religion,  seem to accept what they are told (at least by their church/minister) without question, in my (admittedly quite limited) experience.

Of course, there are exceptions to every stereotype (not great wording, i know, it's late). most of the rest of my family are religious, to some extent, but they're mostly, open-minded people.

There is only one solution.

We lock toady in a room with a computer.  We deny him food, water, and booze until he goes into a strange mood and programs a graphical front end for the game.

Heretic! Pull the magma lever!!!

er... Blender'll snap to grid. i thought that was fairly standard.