Gwazi Magnum

Atheism 2.0 - Atheism using Religions perks.

A gun is an item or device though, it is strictly something wielded and operated by man.
Religion is a system that has been known to taken advantage of people when young and indoctrinate or alter their values or beliefs before they're old enough to actually think about it. If a child was a raised around religion, and has chosen to listen to it as a result that's only a natural result of the human mind. We tend to listen to and believe what we're told when young, knowing this it makes little sense to blame the individual often times when we know there was a system behind the scenes that caused this.

And note this mainly falls back to practices such as believing things without evidence, or rejecting evidence to defend their faith. Things like rape, murder I will admit is usually the individual looking for an excuse.

Lots would of been accomplished in history if we didn't need evidence, we don't exactly need faith to be motivated to do things. If we wanted to do or know something we test it, we do research, or explore it and learn from it. We don't simply make up an answer and pretend that it's true. Most of human history was done because of peoples growing curiosity and desire to matter in some way, not from operating without evidence.

Science would never of progressed if your claim was true, the entire point of it is that faith does not work. You need evidence and proof for everything you try to treat as fact, if we simply accepted "I have faith" we would never of had the desire or urge to go out, experiment and actually learn the truth of the matter for ourselves. If there is no proof for something existing like a God, then there is no reason to treat it as a fact.

It makes as much sense as saying 'those who believe in a teapot orbiting the earth should not be discouraged because there is no evidence for it.
That's not close mindedness, that's actually understanding the situation, the facts and working with it.

You wouldn't expect to pass a test on faith, you'd want to learn the content.
You wouldn't want a doctor who worked on faith, you want one who did the research.
You wouldn't want a science teacher who simply had faith on his theories, you'd want researched, repeatable and observable studies backing it up.

Atheism 2.0 - Atheism using Religions perks.

Agreed Points: Religion can be weaponized, Indoctrination is wrong.

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Just because people can choose to follow it doesn't make it innocent.

For example, you choose to follow the Westboro Baptists church. But having the choice doesn't mean their beliefs now don't have wrong to it or are innocent. It's still harmful and had bad to it, you just chose not to participate in it. And yes if we did stop it, it would continue elsewhere. In the same sense how say a word bullies use to pick on others is made to no longer be negative, the bullying won't stop but rather alter tactics. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't dislike the word.

(For the record, that is a poor example for me. I don't let myself hate individual words but the intention behind the word. You could technically argue similar for Religion, but then I'd simply reply with what I already posted above. With all it's good can be found elsewhere, Negatives will be used elsewhere. All that's left is the flawed way to thinking/believing which I will get to in a moment).

I do agree in that someone who believes in God and keeps it to themselves is better than one who tries to covert people and rub it in their faces.

And although I am even debating that mindset here, that is for the sake of this debate. You would never see me walk up to a casual religious person in the real world and go "You are wrong! You're way of thinking is wrong!" or anything like that.

But there is still the matter of following or believing something without any real or concrete reason to do so.
Every action and philosophy should at least be thought out and have some rational/logical reason behind it, and that almost always involves some proof and evidence combined with some educated guesses.

It's the difference between "I'll study for my test, because prior experience shows reviewing the notes get's me better grades" and "I will simply answer C on every question because I have faith that it will work".

Fire Emblem RP

PURRfect93 said sacred stones is a fire emblem game lol.

I never argued otherwise... o.O

Atheism 2.0 - Atheism using Religions perks.

Imperfectionist said As for unhealthy and counter-productive, what kind of health are we talking?

Mental Health mainly. Physical health technically counts for those who choose to avoid vaccinations or medical treatment for religious reasons. But since that's mainly just extremists, we'll leave it out for the sake of referring to the more casual religious person.

Imperfectionist said And the same for counter-productive. What would be produced that being part of a religious community stifles (and please don't say science, you know as well as I that there are a multitude of religious scientists in all fields).

Except science is the big one, just because some religious people are scientists doesn't dismiss it.
The idea of science is to find the truth, and draw conclusions based on the proof and evidence given. Religion bases itself on already having the answer despite proof and evidence, direct conflict of system and interests. A person can subscribe to a religion and still be a scientist, but that Religion is still promoting a type of reasoning and thinking that is not good for a scientific community.

The most universal criticism is basically that.
If we start delving into specific religions mind you the options open such as self-confidence. Putting yourself down as an evil sinner and that someone is infinitely better than you.
Compassion/Empathy if you follow scriptures such as women must know their place, homosexuality is a sin, black or Jewish people are inferior etc.

Note: Btw, the Jewish one does really puzzle me. All the time you see Christian groups attack Jewish people as this evil group of people, I even had a friend from school whose Jewish who had experiences of having to hide he was Jewish when around church goers to avoid discrimination. Now, Religion being hateful? Nothing new, why does this puzzle me?

Because if you bother looking at the Bible Jewish people are meant to be Gods chosen people. What the hell is it that makes so many people turn around and condemn the very people that God said were the best?

Imperfectionist said As a corollary, I would really like it if you could prove that it was absolutely the religious practice itself that causes people to be "counter-productive", and not other factors that are ascribed to religion.

Weather it's directly Religion or other factor's that Religion pushes doesn't really matter.

If all the positives from Religion are either circumstantial (ex: Hope) or gained elsewhere (ex: Morals), and the rest is either being used to weaponize negatives (ex: Homophobia, Racism, Anti-Medicine), or simply reinforce bad practices (Ex: Except something as fact with no evidence or proof, rather than use evidence and proof to find the fact) it's not exactly something that can simply be highlighted as something good.

I already grant that benefits are from Religion, that it's not 100% flawed or wrong. But there are enough negatives attached to it, that I personally don't agree with the system nor see it worthwhile. Especially when there is no benefit that only Religion is capable of providing.

Atheism 2.0 - Atheism using Religions perks.

I am glad to see more people agreeing that you don't need Religion in order to have morals. It always scares me when people say you do... it basically translates to "If not for my Religion I wouldn't have any morals".

I wouldn't exactly call the structure of Religion evil mind you, I think a more accurate word to reflect my standpoint would be improper or illogical. I have always admitted there are those that use Religion as a force for good and are not insane or bad people. I know several, one of which led a youth group I spent my High School years in.

But I find the general practice of regarding something as fact or gaining hope from something that cannot be proven to exist is simply flawed. Yes any evil or wrong with Religion would not necessarily be gone if Religion was gone but under the name of something else. But any good from Religion can also be found elsewhere as my OP tried to go over in detail. With that though you may ask "Then why not just leave it be? If both good and harm can be found elsewhere, why bother arguing Religion? Both will be present regardless?". And to that I'd answer, because it also simply leads a unhealthy and counter productive way to act and think. Instead of using proof, evidence and reasoning to determine your opinions and findings you allow yourself to adopt a mindset on the basis of faith (In other words, with no reason supporting it) and honestly people should always have some kind of reasoning or proof behind why they believe or think certain things.

Secondly since it can't actually be proved, it leaves a rather fragile condition to the good that comes from it. If someone gains hope from Religion, but then see's some science lecture that crushes almost any creationist argument... The hope is most likely to vanish. It's far more healthy to attach hope to a provable or concrete thing, rather than a belief that could be dismissed at any moment if you run into the right scientific proof.

Doctor Who - No Doctor/Torchwood Style

Vortex said Wait... You have been on the site this whole time but you have not been rping?!

I would of left then if not for Off Topic.
It kept me occupied with lots of discussions and debates.

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

Have they assaulted your base yet? :P

Halo: WE ARE ODST, Part One: Spooks, Ghosts, and the Devil.

Marine Operations Staging Area

After about the fourth round at the shooting yard Mark Tenjeer looked at the time, the briefing was to be soon so he grabbed his gear and went off to the staging area. Once there it was already mostly full, so he simply took a seat where he could find it and waited for the briefing to get started. He laughed to himself quietly when the Russian randomly sneezed out like that and tried to defend it. At least there was still one people who could crack a laugh without trying to be an arrogant joker. That's when Aldridge and Jameson seemed to start going into conflict, it was becoming more apparently how little ONI actually cared for us ODSTs. Jameson had to constantly prod and nag them to give us even basic mission information, Tenjeer made a note not to trust ONI in the future.

The mission itself looked like it'd be a bit tough depending on where they landed and how many forces were on planet. Nothing he didn't think he couldn't handle though, no matter how many covies there are, they all fall to bullets. Then again, so do ODSTs, so he'd just have to be faster than the covenant were. Jameson made some notes to look out for our new Ghost members and left, though Tenjer was a bit taken back by how much concern was given to these new members. They're being treated as fresh, young and unexperienced rookies, but here Tenjer is younger than any of them but he's perfectly accepted as any other ODST Ghost member. It didn't really matter though, it's most likely due to the fact they're new to the team rather than their actual age or experience in war.

Tenjer got up and went to leave the staging area once the briefing was done, having already had his gear on him he went straight to the drop pods knowing they'd have to be ready to drop ASAP once they got to their intended destination.

Halo: WE ARE ODST, Part One: Spooks, Ghosts, and the Devil.

I rather enjoyed the loadout's.

It allows you to start with your style, new players tend to do better with the assault rifle cause it's just shoot like crazy, rather than having to worry about precision.
But for those who do have some precision you still have the variety of models, Battle Rifle? DMR? Carbine? And then there's choosing your spartan power, your grenade and your preferred pistol as well.

Gameplay wise my main complaint is their kill streaks. An obvious COD rip off (Load outs technically was too, but at least it had some benefit) which completely screws over map balance. Now any player can get a OP weapon if they gain a few kills. One of the charms of earlier Halo games was watching the whole team fight over the one energy sword or rocket launcher on the map. Not anymore. :(

The story... bleh.

I have a number of issues with that.

1. Master Chief talked way too much.
His main charm was being the quiet bad ass who spoke little words. Halo 4 felt like they threw him into a Shakespeare play.

2. The Villain
He shows twice... for like a minute each. The first time he pops out of no where goes "Hi, I'm a villain, Grrr!" and leaves. Never coming again until end game where having only seen him for a minute you wouldn't care for him at all.

3. The way they told the story
Having to cram your entire story in a two minute rant, through from vision from a God woman was just the laziest form of writing and story telling I ever saw. Is it too much to ask for gradual story progression throughout the campaign? From characters? It is? Ok.... fuck you Halo 4.

4. Covenenant is EVIL!!!
They already resolved this, the Prophets were gone and the Elites were good with humanity.
Now apparently the Arbiter become totally incapable in finding his lost bretheran and elites are now evil because... people want to kill elites?

5. The new enemies are cheap
The Praetorian's were cheap as hell, spawn out of nowhere and have the ability to kill you in one hit, at full health.
They weren't a challenge, they were "How many respawn's until you memorize where they are" sort of threat.

Fire Emblem RP

Examples of Knight

Specifically look at the box to the right, what it promotes from and into varies each game.
So this is bound to cause a lot of confusion, we should probably pick a game (9 or 10 due to Laguz I'd suggest) as a base to get our classes off of.
If you want a class not from those fire emblems we could find a way to work it into another promotion tree.

Thoughts?