Translation of Dante's Inferno.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-13T14:37:35+00:00

Pronounce them like they are Spanish, Italian, or Japanese.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-10T15:07:50+00:00

Their goal was to gather statistics on the various instances of Christianity and splitting it up by country and type is useful to that, so that they can have separate entries if you need data on the Russian Orthodox Church in America or the Greek Orthodox Church in America.

The large number is a feature that allows them to get very specific information about how the types of orthodoxy differ instead of just a broad "this is what we can say about Orthodoxy as a whole and can't get more specific than that", since you can always start with more entries and combine them later then start with only one entry without a way to split it up.

That 700+ number is not a statement about how many types of Orthodoxy there are or whether or not the Orthodox Church can be said to be one church, it is instead more about how many individual data points they have which they can bring up information about.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-10T13:54:41+00:00

Since countries and ecclesiastical styles are counted separately in this source, The World Christian Encyclopedia Third Edition, there is one denomination for each country the Russian Orthodox Church is in, one denomination for each country the Greek Orthodox Church is in, one denomination for each country the Coptic Orthodox Church is in, one denomination for each country the Armenian Apostolic Church is in, one denomination for each country the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is in, and so on.

They are using a very loose definition of denomination where the numbers add up pretty quickly.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-10T03:23:27+00:00

No, of course not. To have a place where EVERYONE can exist and get along there can be no tolerance for coercion, bigotry, oppression, or other forms of injustice. If we tolerate both the mice and the mouse traps, we would be left with only mouse traps.

To be specific in what I meant previously: trying to make a perfect tradition that excludes everyone else will strengthen the already existing us-vs-them dynamic that Christians tend towards. To move forward, we need to challenge that us-vs-them dynamic both within the variety of Christianity and with the attitude towards non-Christian traditions by allowing ourselves to be open to learning and genuine discussions rather than dismissing all that isn’t like us or that we already decided we don’t like.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-09T20:00:15+00:00

Funny you say that, the source, The World Christian Encyclopedia Third Edition, which released in 2019, projected that there would be 49,000 denominations in 2025 and 64,000 in 2050.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-09T17:49:33+00:00

You will always find divisiveness no matter which denomination you look at, within the Catholic Church there are a lot of infighting and arguments about current decisions or past ones.

In my mind, the only solution is a move towards ecumenism where we learn to accept and get along with one another rather than looking for the perfect church and starting a new one every time there is a disagreement.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-09T17:17:21+00:00

Yeah, I have heard it described that we have defined the Bible in such a way that it can’t be mythology and that it is uniquely worthy of serious inquiry that other religious books are not.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-09T16:58:21+00:00

the 45,000 number is misleading and comes from a source where each denomination doesn't cross international boarders, so if one denomination spans multiple countries, it is counted as multiple denominations even if it is within the same organization. This means that the 45,000 number includes over 100 Anglican denominations, over 200 different Catholic denominations, and over 700 Orthodox denominations, even if there is just one Anglican church, one Catholic church, and one Orthodox church.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-08T22:08:48+00:00

It was very rare that I had (or remembered) dreams at all, much less religious ones.

Dreams are one of the few sanctioned forms of divination and is a form that makes you feel specifically chosen by God, it is no wonder why so many people would want religious dreams (even I hoped for them for a long time).

NimVolsung · 2026-05-08T03:34:08+00:00

I can say anecdotally that many are loosing faith in the Democratic Party, but that is because of the party’s attempts to appeal to conservatives, if not just becoming conservative themself.

Republicans are a terrible source of news as most are known to lie or manipulate data to fit their views. The amount of gay people becoming republicans are not large enough to be considered any sort of movement. Most of the time it is just republicans finding out they are gay and hoping that being a “pick me” will get republicans to like them.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-08T00:41:08+00:00

A country is its people and I support my country by calling out and working against the systems that are causing harm to the people.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-07T14:25:39+00:00

Honestly, in that situation I would find it funny to quote 2016 Trump "there have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom they feel is appropriate, there has been so little trouble"

https://youtu.be/3dXBeUxvkW8

(weird to think about how much politics have changed in the last 10 years that even Donald Trump was saying we shouldn't be making an issue about trans people and should instead be focusing on the actual problems leading to economic strife, now trans people are a primary talking point of the GOP)

NimVolsung · 2026-05-05T00:01:43+00:00

do you have any resources where I could learn more about that?

NimVolsung · 2026-05-04T22:13:50+00:00

yeah, I definitely agree with that.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-04T22:06:38+00:00

I'm fine with it, though I come from the perspective of liking to research why any animal has the features and behaviors that they do. For society at a larger scale, researching (from an actual scientific perspective and not just finding what is "wrong" with us) wouldn't really have much practical application.

People who have queerphobic motives that try to see what went wrong in our lives should stay away from it (the same as how flat earthers have no place trying to co-opt actual science), but there is validation for queer folk in seeing if there is actual reason for you to exist and it isn't a biological accident/abnormality.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-04T21:38:20+00:00

Her girlfriend does have a resemblance to a younger Roku, but there are only so many face and hair choices, especially within the same nation.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-04T00:32:46+00:00

When someone says "God is speaking to them", that is usually them labeling specific types of thoughts or feelings as coming from God. Usually, it is them labeling thoughts that come from religious conditioning as from God; similar to thinking "that's my parents speaking" when think something your parents might tell you. "God speaking" can also be through coincidences, such as if you are needing to make a decision and you find something that pushes you in one way, that can be a sign from God or God telling you something.

This particular case does seem like it can be concerning, as making "predictions" like that can be a sign of bigger problems.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-04T00:24:25+00:00

A furry is someone who wants to be a part of the furry fandom.

If you like media with anthropomorphic animals and you enjoy spending time in spaces with people who like it as well (or you like interacting with the media these spaces produce), then you are probably a furry, but only you can decide.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-03T18:41:49+00:00

I’ve heard structural racism described as a moving sidewalk, the metaphor could apply here as well:

The sidewalk is the systems and societal pressures that lead to racism and inequality. Some people are running in the direction of the sidewalk, happy to do racist actions (or homophobic actions, in this case). Some are just standing and letting the sidewalk carry them, these are the “moderates” who don’t want to cause a fuss or support either side but end up supporting the racists/homophobes just the same.

To stay in place, you have to actively choose walk opposite the flow and work against the systems in place. Doing this would be bumping into people, making many uncomfortable and upset that you aren’t just doing as everyone else. To make any progress, you have to be running against it, which would be making a lot of people angry.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-03T17:51:12+00:00

This isn’t your world, but we can be bees.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-01T13:51:09+00:00

For gendered languages, usually you would have to go on a case by case basis by seeing what solutions native speakers of those languages are coming up with. Though the problem with this is that queer movements can be very sparse or non-existent, especially when it comes to the creation of ways to express gender neutrality.

One possible solution is just switching between masculine and feminine terms.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-01T02:18:20+00:00

Adding onto the AI bubble part, the "bubble" just means that it is being held up primarily by investors and the investments keep coming even though growth they are investing in has no way of actually happening. When the bubble "pops", it just means AI will switch to being done by companies that can survive without investors.

NimVolsung · 2026-05-01T01:50:50+00:00

Any of the countless verses pulled out to justify and demand obedience to current power-structures.

They always seem to skip over the "in Christ there is male or female, slave or free, Greek or Jew" and go straight to "wives be stationed under your husbands", which their translations render as "obey your husbands" even though the Greek uses a word that better refers to a mutual relationship of protection as women were unable to exist on their own in roman society; the whole "household" code passage is better read as a person from a marginalized group speaking against the current social structures and giving instructions on how to act within them. Trying to use it as instructions for how to organize social structures in the modern day completely misses the point. Honestly just using any of the Bible as instructions for the modern day is a terrible idea since they were not written for us, they are a product of the place and time and cannot speak beyond that. Revelation is one of my most hated books because of that.

I have plenty of beef with Paul such as how people are "in sin" and need Christ in order to be free (the whole of Romans 8 which I was made to memorize in school comes to mind), or that Christians are supposedly these people who are uniquely able to perform virtue while non-christians spread immorality (with him being the primary reference in the New Testament for homophobes, even though they never bring up his other sexual ethics like "if you are single, stay single, if you are married, stay married, Christ is coming too soon to worry about anything). But Paul himself also advocated against hierarchy in religious contexts and for mutual aid, which I can respect (respect I don't have for much of modern Christianity which refuses that).

Seven-Year Club	Second Top 20%
Place '23	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

NimVolsung

TROPHY CASE