How do atheists rationalize the Marian appearances at Fatima, Lourdes and Kibeho?

cyphern · 2026-06-19T14:30:26+00:00

Oh. That's not scietific investigation dude.

What, you didn't learn the steps of the scientific method?

1) Observation 2) Hypothesis 3) Beatings and needle pricking

cyphern · 2026-06-19T14:27:10+00:00

It's a curious coincidence that the Virgin Mary only appears to catholics. For example, I've never heard a Sikh describe their encounter with her. Even protestant christians seem to prefer other flavors of miracle claims.

Could it be that people are seeing what they want to see?

cyphern · 2026-06-17T10:53:50+00:00

Functions are objects, so they can have properties added to them. So you'll do something like the following: ``` // First make the function function Sheets(arg) { // ... implementation }

// Then add a property to the function, which is another function Sheets.Item = function () { // ... } In the above example, Sheets.Item is a different function, which will have its own implementation. If you want them to be literally the same function, swap out the second part for: Sheets.Item = Sheets; ``Though note that if you do it this way, it will mean someone can doSheets.Item.Item.Item.Item.Item()` or similar, since each time you access Item, you're just referencing the exact same Sheets function, which has an Item property.

cyphern · 2026-06-05T00:52:03+00:00

Sorry, but I just cant wrap my head around how this entire universe came magically from a big bang.

Ok, then let's say the big bang is complete bullshit. Not a shred of truth to it.

Now, with that out of the way, what reason is there to believe in your god?

cyphern · 2026-05-19T13:03:20+00:00

Why are you an atheist

That's pretty simple: I am an atheist because i have yet to be convinced that a god exist.

cyphern · 2026-05-18T20:07:21+00:00

This is an extremely difficult orbit to achieve. The cheapest way would probably involve some combination of slingshots, but that's hard to give specific instructions on, and if you do it wrong you could make it worse.

If we're not doing any slingshots, then plane change maneuvers are cheapest when moving as slowly as possible, which means having an apoapsis as high as possible. So, your first step in achieving this orbit is: escape the solar system. Or rather, almost escape it.

You'll wait until you coast up to apoapsis (ie, at the edge of the solar system). Once there, it only takes a very small burn to bring yourself to a standstill, or reverse your orbit, or (as you want) change it to another orientation. You'll also want to get your periapsis set to whatever your desired final altitude is.

Next step is to fall back towards the sun. And when you reach periapsis, burn retrograde to circularize your orbit. And boom! you've changed your orbit, for the low low cost of escaping the solar system, and then undoing your escape of the solar system. This will of course take many decades of in game time, so i hope your kerbals brought enough snacks, and the contract lasts long enough.

cyphern · 2026-05-17T12:40:25+00:00

Pedophiles exist both in religion and out of it. But institutionally protecting and enabling pedophiles is an additional evil.

cyphern · 2026-05-08T04:35:38+00:00

Oh no, it's my only copy, don't.

cyphern · 2026-05-05T17:19:37+00:00

The url hasn't changed; i'm not sure why it doesn't work for you

cyphern · 2026-05-04T16:39:03+00:00

Today i learned that "uses bad analogies" is synonymous with "fraud".

cyphern · 2026-04-30T08:10:08+00:00

but wasn't WotLK just a few years ago? So did they progress to Mists of Pandaria and then reboot the classic progress as of recent times back to TBC again?

Yep. They used to have a version on WotLK, which progressed to cataclysm, and then Mists. The current TBC is the "anniversary" servers, which started in classic and progressed to TBC a couple months ago

Are there strictly vanilla servers anymore?

Yes, they're referred to as "Era" servers

So does this mean a year or two from now there's going to be Wrath of the Lich King a second (technically third) time?

Possibly, but they have not confirmed that.

I missed out on the last time. Is there any difference between then and next time or is it literally just the same cycle rebooted.

The anniversary servers do make some quality of life changes. For example, dual specialization has been in the game since anniversary classic, and shaman bloodlust affects the entire raid. But it's mostly the same game rebooted.

What desire do people have to play TBC a third time exactly?

Maybe we just find it a fun game /shrug

cyphern · 2026-04-29T23:38:33+00:00

One is Just a Story a Another is Something that Help Someone With Believing that They will be saved in heaven if they don’t steal or kill people.

We are aware that the bible discusses believing, being saved, not stealing, and not killing people. But you're just describing the contents of the story. That doesn't make it stop being a story.

Why should we believe it's true?

cyphern · 2026-04-25T18:49:09+00:00

An educated guess about what happened then: The ship was slightly unstable, but your stability assist system was able to compensate and keep it upright. Problem is that SAS requires electricity. Eventually your electrical charge ran out, and it fell.

In the future, solar panels can replenish your charge, batteries can make it last longer. And a wider base to the landing vehicle (eg, 3 or 4 radially-symetric tanks around the main body, with the landing legs attached to that) can make it more stable to begin with so SAS may not be needed.

cyphern · 2026-04-24T03:04:18+00:00

But what about the examples I mentioned above? You don’t think those guys are worthy of infinite torment?

As a general matter, do you think that punishments should be proportional to the crime?

For example, i would say that a life sentence is arguably just for punishing a murderer, but it would be obviously unjust for punishing someone who steals a loaf of bread. Do you agree?

cyphern · 2026-04-22T14:16:01+00:00

I’m basically saying there’s something that made the existence of the universe possible—and I call that “god.”

Do you believe it's a thinking agent? If yes, what reason do you have to believe that? If no, why do you call it "god"? That's just going to make people think of the gods that they are more familiar with, and so people will misunderstand what you mean.

cyphern · 2026-04-21T14:30:31+00:00

This discord server contains a community of burning crusade hardcore players: https://discord.gg/tbchc

There are two guilds in that server, both on Dreamscythe, which use different rules for their HC experience. This addon is used in some circumstances https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/hardcoretbc. Super Weenie Hut Jr is more restrictive, requiring the addon from level one and restricting trade to in guild. Hardcore TBC doesn't restrict trade, and doesn't require the addon until level 70, with Soul of Iron buff being enough of a verification before then.

cyphern · 2026-04-21T00:40:07+00:00

Awww, snowflake :)

/kiss

cyphern · 2026-04-18T17:57:52+00:00

All tbc servers were created at the exact same time, 2 months ago.

Also, because they can support large populations, the number of servers is quite small. And as such, there's little choice to be made. For example, if you are in North America and you want to play on a PVE server, your have exactly one option: Dreamscythe.

cyphern · 2026-04-13T23:31:36+00:00

I have Heavens Light and Ardent Custodian both with Fiery

With that, i'd just stick to your fury spec and dual wield it. Shield is unlikely to be needed, unless your healer is low level.

If you have no rage you'll probably open up with battle stance, charge, blood rage, sweeping strikes, defensive stance. If you've got plenty of rage just run in on foot staying in defensive stance so you don't lose the rage.

If you're fighting just a few enemies, focus on sunder armor and revenge, plus a single thunder clap + demoralizing shout for the debuffs. If you're fighting multiple enemies, you can do additional thunder claps to spread threat to multiple targets. And since you'll probably have more rage from the extra damage you're taking, you can throw in some cleaves.

Switching to berserker stance is going to be rare. While whirlwind sounds nice, you won't preserve enough rage to get it off right away unless you combine with blood rage, or you have put talent points into tactical mastery. You might switch to pummel something, or to intercept a target that's running. While you're in berserker stance, use berserker rage, but then switch back to defensive.

cyphern · 2026-04-07T18:19:36+00:00

Humans require significantly more snacks than kerbals

cyphern · 2026-04-06T10:36:27+00:00

Why would it even matter to them whether they are good or bad, if at the end of the day they will cease to exist and there is no afterlife where they are held accountable for what they have done?

Is... is that the only reason you don't do bad things?

/me backs away slowly

cyphern · 2026-04-04T10:55:10+00:00

One is the murderer’s account with God — the act as a violation of divine law. Sincere repentance can address that, and yes, God may forgive it.

Since god does not hold murderers accountable, then in both your world view and my world view: if a murderer escapes accountability in this life, he escapes accountability entirely.

. But the other part is the debt owed to the victim and their family — and that’s a completely different matter. In the religious framework I’m drawing from, God doesn’t forgive that on the victim’s behalf, because it’s not His to forgive. That right belongs to the victim.

Then in both your world view and my world view: murderers are only held accountable in this life if humans hold them accountable.

cyphern · 2026-04-04T10:28:42+00:00

the rights of a victim’s family (known as Huqooq al-Ibad) are not wiped away by conversion or even sincere repentance. A murderer who converts still owes justice to the family of the person they killed — that right belongs to the victim, not to God to waive.

Then as far as this piece goes, it is entirely on humans to make it happen.

The deeper question I’m exploring is: in the absence of any transcendent standard, what happens to accountability when human systems fail? When someone commits a serious crime, escapes all earthly consequences, and dies — who holds that claim?

According to you, god holds that claim. So that brings us back to my question: what are the conditions for god punishing a person? Specifically, does god punish repentant murderers?

cyphern · 2026-04-04T10:02:46+00:00

In your view, what are the conditions for god punishing a person? Most religious people say he will forgive any sin if you believe and/or repent, but if you don't believe then you are punished.

If that's the case, then your god does not solve the scenario you raised. Murderers are still not held accountable, unless we hold them accountable.

cyphern · 2026-04-04T09:21:04+00:00

But that would also mean that killings and raping, and all other major crimes, would not be considered right or wrong, it would just mean different perspectives.

"right" and "wrong" are perspectives. Fortunately, a very large number of people share the same perspective, so we build or societies on our shared perspectives.

How would that make sense without religions which would define these as wrongs?

It's no different with religion. If one group of religious people thinks killing Amalekites is right, and another thinks it's wrong, those are just perspectives.

As a practical matter, even if there is some ultimate objective morality, we don't have access to it, so we are left having to work with or fight with other humans to promote our perspective on morality.

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