crrice

Alright that's a good point. I would add, however, that on a sphere directions will be pretty much arbitrary, given that a sphere won't have any defining characteristics (its even all around). The only reason we have non arbitrary directions here on earth is because there is an axis of rotation (which then gives us poles (which then gives us north south)). Thus we can say that if Equestria is heliocentric, there can be directions that make every bit as much sense as they do here, but if geocentric then the sphere will be no better in that sense. But I like your point and I'll add it to the list. And as for this being a kids show: Well yeah, I grant the kids probably don't care, but I do, and it might be helpful information for things like fan-fiction.

Hi, This topic is simple. What sort of place is Equestria in a geometric sense? By this I mean to ask if Equestria lies on a plane, or a sphere, or whatever, as the show leaves it rather unclear and has at times hinted in more than one direction. I would like to discuss evidence and arguments that might help solve this question, and also to promote my own view that Equestria must lie on a flat plane. Thus, I feel that we may as well jump right in. First I'll give reasons to think that Equestria is flat, and then some counter-evidence that rebuts my claim. For a flat Equestria: Celestia and Luna are said to "raise the sun" and "raise the moon" respectively, and we have even seen Celestia do so in the show on one occasion. Furthermore, we also witnessed the sun and moon rapidly moving across the sky when Discord was playing around with everything. Think about what that would mean for a spherical Equestria. The first implication is that by "raising the sun" over one part of the globe, you'd be lowering it for the opposite side, which while possible, runs contrary to the idea of truly "raising the sun". Furthermore, by raising the sun on a spherical Equestria, that implies that (if heliocentric) the sun is actually rotating about the sphere (and Celestia controls the motion of a massive body at will), or (if geocentric) that Celestia is controlling the rotation of the planet itself, which is a no less improbable proposition. As a final point, we should note that the sun/moon move rapidly when being raised, and even more rapidly when they were under the influence of Discord. As I said before, on a spherical Equestria view, this involves the rapid movement of some really big objects, which seems improbable for a single pony (even an alicorn) to accomplish. For a spherical Equestria: We once saw a model globe in an episode. There is reference to the cardinal directions in the show, which makes a lot more sense with a geocentric sphere model. There we are. Now assuming that this thread is in the right place, and that some of you have thoughts on this issue... Discuss!

Well it seems clear that the Christian God is out of the picture... but, what do you think about other religions like Islam or even something stranger like Hinduism?

Woah merge in the middle of writing this... totally got thrown off... Now onward. 3 still doesn't logically follow from 1 and 2. I understand not everybody is familiar with premise-conclusion form arguments, seeing as they're pretty much limited to logic and philosophy classes. However, here is a good overview: link In any case, all the discussion that got merged into here was pretty calm. Furthermore, I don't intend to respond to flame posts, so unless somebody else does, there can't be much of a war. Also, I should think that if people are going to get that upset, they should just stay out of the thread in the first place.

Ill play. 1) Nobody likes being told theyre wrong 2) If you talk about religion on the internet you will be told that you are wrong. 3) Thus you shouldn't talk about religion on the internet. This is your argument as fair as I can make it out to be. Two points: first, 3 does not follow from 1 and 2. Second, premise 1 is false, because I don't particularly mind being told I'm wrong so long as there are good reasons for the disagreement (so I'm a counterexample)

Yeah I'm aware of that, and to be fair I didn't think this one was quite the same as the others. But this discussion has been had already. Neat bit of irony though: the other religion thread that's on the front page right now was revived after two months via a link from this thread.

Good find. Hurt's my eyes though. Too bendy.

What gave it away... And while the frequency of topics like this might be reason to not make more, the fact that people are sometimes (insert favorite expletive here)'s is not a good reason to refrain from talking about what seems to many to be a profound and deeply important subject.

To be fair, most religious people tend to limit god's omnipotence to things that are logically possible. That is, God cannot make 2+2=5 or anything else that would defy a logical principle. If we use that limitation, then the paradoxy-ness goes away because if it would be a paradox, by our very definition, God couldn't do it.

Sorry, I might have worded that badly, because you misunderstood my point. To be clear, you're correct that your belief in God doesn't make much difference to me. However, what I mean is not that your answer impacts my life, but that the answer does, or to be even clearer, what impacts me is whether or not God exists, but not your belief about it. But insofar as I'd like to answer the bigger question, reasons you give might have an impact on what I see that answer to be, and are thus important in a smaller sense. Furthermore, I'd like to think that these topics need not end up like you described. I know I'm willing to change my mind, and I've recently done so on a number of other issues. Philosophical: You don't have any of the standard characteristics assigned to god, i.e. Omnipotence, omniscience, etc. so you're talking about an entirely different God than I am. Ironic: You can't even prove that you exist. Not to me, at least. Maybe you can prove to yourself that you exist, but you could, from my perspective, be just a figment of my imagination.

I suppose it's because the answer to this question has such a large impact on one's life. For example, nobody cares what I had for breakfast this morning, because that has no impact, yet they care about the existence of God because that has life-changing impact. It might also be because there is interesting discussion all around and it is rather enjoyable to engage in friendly debate with others, especially when this involves good and well polished arguments. I care less about what people think (though I do want to know) and more about why they think it. You could say I care more for the philosophy than the anthropology.

But it's for science! That makes it okay... Right?

Hi all, Yes or no question: Do you believe in God. Give reasons if you can. If you're an agnostic then you fall in the no category and you should answer that way. Now that we're done with that, I should give you my reasons for asking. First, I'm curious about how the brony population fares in the religion department compared to the general population. Second, I want to see how intelligent and/or unintelligent the responses become, and compare them to other debates I've seen. I'd like to think we're smarter than the average forum, but that remains to be seen. For reference, in America, about 9% of people answer no to the above question. Will our numbers be more? Less? Let's find out. GO If this post looks out of place it's because it was merged in from another thread. Used to be an OP, and that's why it looks like one.