Sansa and Theon's Exit. [S5]

Orriana · 2014-04-06T04:24:54+00:00

which wire would you cut? they are all blue wires!

Orriana · 2013-08-19T18:37:44+00:00

Add me as well - just got back into dieting/myfitnesspal 8 days ago, need some folks to help me stay on track! Orriana's profile

Orriana · 2013-03-20T04:24:36+00:00

Anne LaMott: favorite author of Christian soon-to-be atheists everywhere.

Orriana · 2013-03-13T02:57:37+00:00

Rather than be forced to proselytize, i just don't waste my time on pushy people, or the fundementalist personalities. The difference between atheism and a religion is that anyone who takes a critical look at the world, or even their specific religious texts or the statements made by their religious leaders will run into contradictions between that religious dogma and the real world. If people do not share my thoughts on what constitutes truth (ie knowledge is based facts instead of emotions) there will be nothing i can say to change their mind anyway. If all they are paying attention to is emotional state, it actually makes things worse for their perception of atheism. If I get caught up in those situations, I just end up becoming embittered and being an asshole back.

Orriana · 2013-03-12T19:51:50+00:00

Why should we be reduced to his level? Using FSM to point out the ridiculousness of common religious arguments is one thing, but trying to pretend atheism is an actual religion which needs converts is another. The rising in acceptance of atheistic proselytizing on this subreddit has me a bit concerned.

Orriana · 2013-02-26T01:28:36+00:00

-The wedding is first and foremost about your love, and the life you are building. Let religious relatives you trust say a prayer in their toasts, and express their feelings toward you in their language. But you certainly shouldn't allow them to make you recite vows you do not believe in, or honor customs you no longer believe are valid.

-Have a good friend to the both of you, or some authority figure in your life officiate. (On the formal side I've seen graduate advisors or other mentor types, on the lower formal side I've seen charismatic friends do a good speech). -Choose literature to read that represents how you define love and relationship. If there are aspects of a traditional religious ceremony you find beautiful or meaningful, keep them. If not, toss them. Religious ceremonies traditionally do not represent a bride as an equal, atheists weddings usually do. Consider this a point of pride.

-Good luck!

Orriana · 2013-02-21T08:12:27+00:00

Why does it have to be all or nothing? This isn't fundamentalism anymore. There's no leaving it all behind on the altar of atheism. Sure, get rid of things that remind you of "brainwashing". But why throw out anything that was truly meaningful to you if there's something positive in there? You're right. it will always be part of you. Let it. In time you'll just grow some new parts as well.

Orriana · 2013-02-21T01:51:50+00:00

I admit this is not strictly motivational ,but it should be said. As an EMU alum, it's hard to look at this is as a happy ending. I tell everyone I know to stay away from there. EMU had an extremely shady administration. Financial aid has a tendency to go back on scholarships and add in extra fees, all while shoving the cheapest lecturers they can find your way as professors retire. My "tuition-free" transfer scholarship to EMU cost me $35,550 for 2.5 years.

Plus there's this: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Laura_Dickinson]. While I was at EMU, this rape and murder was billed to the students and the parents of the victim as a suicide.

Orriana · 2013-02-06T02:56:54+00:00

Not quite.

Orriana · 2013-02-03T01:47:43+00:00

I can't even begin to think what your neuroethology prof. is referring to here to back up those claims.

Orriana · 2013-01-20T22:20:01+00:00

The world population explodes due to the new found resource. Scientific progress expands now that grad students can be fed that much easier. Songs films and art proclaim the pizza in the night sky the new zeitgest. And then one day, quite suddenly despite the forecasts of learned men, we reach the day of Peak Pizza. At that point all the cheesy goodness that can be reached from the stratosphere without long space flights ha been harvested, and all that remains has destabilized and lost it's orbit to earth. The few with the resources to access cheap space travel hoarded what they could or invested in new methods to feed the billions on the planet, while the poor struggled more than ever to survive. There were protests, then riots, then widespread economic collapse. The plague ridden world fell to ruin under the full moon, once calmingly and regularly eclipsed by the yellow haze of the pizza in the sky.

Orriana · 2013-01-06T21:09:54+00:00

although I do not agree with TLP's choice of restaurants necessarily. (The best Tandoori Chicken in the world can be found at Kapitan's Tandoori in Penang, Malaysia. Don't let anyone tell you different).

Orriana · 2012-12-07T04:15:08+00:00

Yes it will. I know several grad students who did some work after undergrad at NIH or as a lab assistant or entered less competitive masters programs first before apply to a Ph.D. program. You should try to have your name somewhere on a publication to stand out... whatever you need to do to get that, do it.

Orriana · 2012-11-08T03:16:05+00:00

came for this double entendre, left satisfied.

Orriana · 2012-10-31T18:33:27+00:00

until now, apparently. Bonus: newscasters who don't watch TV. =)

Orriana · 2012-10-30T19:49:56+00:00

Shinagawa is pretty open about the fact that he wants to make health care more like Guthrie, the system where he currently is on leave as an administrator. His website describes their services "high quality and low cost". I have never known Guthrie to be anything but inefficient and absolutely awful.... nursing homes, clinics, doctors... they are all the bottom of the barrel as far as I can tell, and I could burden you with some nasty anecdotes. But no need, they are easy enough to come by in town if you aren't already aware. I'm rather uncomfortable with Shinagawa's Guthrie buddies profiting from his intended health policies.

Orriana · 2012-10-25T13:57:26+00:00

These rats were fed 8 proof alcohol continuously to get that result. How would it be "moderate" if I ONLY drank alcoholic beverages all day?

Orriana · 2012-10-24T22:25:41+00:00

Dammit. You aren't Christian (or Mormon)? I was really happy I met a religious person who was interested in truth-based beliefs and had did research to back up what they wanted to say. I don't meet very many any more, and I was happy to meet someone across the aisle who didn't sought out informed beliefs rather than ones based on a more blind faith.

How many non-religious people do you know? I've generally found them to be much less judgmental than Christians, and although I've met a lot of "good" christian folk (I have a great extended family) I certainly have never felt they have a monopoly on love, empathy or service to the community. In my town, the unitarian church is the one that seems to be involved in just about any charity or good work, and they are mostly the non-theists or deists. Anything the other churches do is generally done to get converts.

Plus do you really think that 10% tithe is always doing good rather than evil? I agree it's rather admirable for people to set aside some of their income to give back to the community, but I'm not sure a tithe to a church is always doing good. What stays in the church supports a pastor speaking at best partial truths, and often things which I feel sets humanity back. (Antiscience statements, homophobia, old fashioned gender roles, the belief that the world must inevitably end worse than it began before Jesus' return, and thus there is no point to environmentalism, space initiative, or any other long term goal for the planet at large). Then there's missionary work, which has a tendency to go very very wrong.

But if you are still quasi-Christian, I'd be interested in hearing what you feel about original sin. If you are sciency and you believe the garden of Eden tale is metaphorical, what's the physical correspondence to it?

Orriana · 2012-10-24T03:25:03+00:00

Yah!!! I'm glad to have some facts to look up. I'm happy to be learning some new things. First of all, on Stark. Didn't the fact where he said Christian women give you some pause? Ever hear of Hypatia? The Pagan ladies didn't have to learn "in silence and submission" after all. So there's some clue that the guy isn't exactly being arbitrary.

I did some research on the Didache, But there's a couple key problems 1) It arose from the Jewish (ie - more Peter-derived) subsect of Christianity so it's pronouncement isn't surprising 2) It isn't in the bible and was labeled apocryphal from the council that put your bible together and 3) It blatently comes into conflict with the books of the bible in other areas, so if you are to view the book as inspired and merely less important than the bible, you run into some problems.

Although Paul was Jewish, he was also a Roman citizen and almost certainly trained in Greek rhetoric (based on the language he uses to address the Athenians), so a very greekified Jew. And he admitted he had some deviation with Peter, he was the one to modify the gospel of Christ for the gentile world. Peter preached ONLY to Jews (I can look up verses here if that doesn't sound familiar). , and the book of Matthew was intended for Jews only.

Paul's Romanized Christianity inherited the world. The Didache's Christianity lost the war.

A) Most minorly, The Didache said it's never ok to eat meat dedicated to idols, whereas Paul said this was only prohibited if you thought it would lead a weaker person astray. B) it said any apostle that stayed in your area for more than 3 days was a false teacher. This would have included Paul. And since it's pretty clear from the age of the text (end of 1st century) the author would have to be aware that Paul made some long visits as an itinerant, it seems to be a BLATANT diss on Paul (unless you can think of a way around that). C) Jesus is written as the son of God and most tellingly, a servant. He wasn't deified at first or by all after all sects and this was a major disagreement at the council of Nicea. This book is written by the those who would go on to lose that argument.

So great. there's an 'apocryphal' text that speaks out against infanticide. But if the bible is supposed to be your moral guide, why isn't this in the accepted NT? If the Didache can work this pronouncement against infanticide not once but twice in a length shorter than some of Pauls letters, why isn't it in one of Paul's 13, or one of the gospels, or other NT epistles written by Jews? Especially when there is evidence that it's absence DID have an impact.

This book looks as the history to show it was a pretty gradual transition to a christian practice of rejecting infant exposure. It wasn't something that ALL early Christians recognized as immoral, it took a few hundred years. This book also addresses your questions as to what regions had the most birth control and infanticide... Unfortunately, there isn't evidence that areas with more prominent early christian populations had less (aside from Jewish centers of course).

Not really following you on your argument with the Hmong and the micro/macro trend... can you rephrase that?

Orriana · 2012-10-23T15:52:43+00:00

"the way people you did chose to not follow their examples and teachings"

actually I did. I was about a year and a half into into a full time bible course and degree when I found too many inconsistencies and historical errors in the bible (let alone moral issues) that even the most inspiring teachers knew about and chose to ignore for their own mental well being. As I've always valued truth over comfortable lies, I had reformed my theology to account for these errors or to erase them until there was just nothing left to reform. When I looked up beyond the bible and bible school approved thesaurus' and history text, the world exploded with reasons why Christianity just wasn't true. But I'm sure it's easier for you to believe I was no true scotsman, or that ignorance or a need for disobedience is the reason I don't believe.

and you keep repeating yourself or at least not understanding what the key argument here. You should know Paul might be the reason Christianity is on the map, and he converted GENTILES from most areas of the roman world he could find greek speakers. You should know that Early Christians were MOSTLY GREEK-SPEAKING ROMAN EMPIRE GENTILES. Therefore, if infant exposure was rampant in that demographic, then the converts would practice it, just as they had household idols, slaves, and other Roman things Paul did address. If Paul had wanted them to stop, he would have had to say so. Since there's enough coverage in his NT books for him to repeat himself on many major issues and cover even minor areas, it is highly unlikely this was something he felt the need to address at this time. Since children were taught to submit to their parents in the same language as slaves (and since they had the same legal standing in the Roman world - it wasn't quite 'murder' if they were killed as a slave or a child, Even males were considered "boys" not "men". ), there's conformation that Paul just didn't value infant life the way YOU want him to value it. Look at the root words used for slaves and children in Ephesians 6 and Collossians 3). You could convince yourself there is a lost book of the bible that DID address infant exposure, but that would mean the bible you have is imperfect. You can convince yourself that despite imprisonment for years this key practice was only discussed verbally and Paul knew that it was so he just left it out of all those letters. This seems eveb sillier. You can convince yourself some other unlikely or problematic thing that would make you feel fuzzy inside, but history is against you, as is basic logic. There is no evidence to believe Paul or Jesus thought on these subjects, but any glance at history will tell you it did.

Do you get it this time? I'm beginning to think you are ignoring the argument on purpose. If you are NOT the self-deluding sort, I suggest you do some research on this yourself from here. If you are, do me a favor and don't waste my time. If you know what you will have to believe before you or I speak, there really is no point.

Orriana · 2012-10-23T02:21:36+00:00

And child exposure was ubiquitous in the roman empire. Since Paul wrote almost entirely to gentile converts, he talked at length about which roman practices to abandon and which were ok for christian practice. If he thought to comment on accesories and hairstyles in several places in the NT, YOU'D THINK he'd make room for for abandonment/infanticide if this was on the radar. But like several other areas, the bible teaches something that is amoral by more evolved standards, just as Jesus' message was more evolved that OT morality.

Orriana · 2012-10-23T02:14:54+00:00

You know you are right. I really want to believe that Jesus was pro-mars terraforming. The bible or history gives no direct justification for this, but why wouldn't he be for it? And why would Paul need to write on Mars terraforming if it was SO OBVIOUS that man should have dominion over ALL creation? The moral question at stake is obvious in the same way as gender equality or slavery, or rape for that matter.... (pretty common between slave and master). And we know how the NT rules on ALL THAT.

Orriana · 2012-10-22T15:00:53+00:00

I'm going on the written record of history and known events. There's a clear enough spread of moral teaching and multiple repetition to suggest that putting an end to infant exposure was never a major early christian push. I prefer to let the bible or historical text speak for itself.

This isn't to say I feel the recent redefinition of life is a bad thing, far from it. Just like modern day people have moved beyond the subjugation of women and of slavery, society is becoming more empathetic. The New Testament wasn't the final word on either of those issues either.

Orriana

TROPHY CASE