Concerned Bystander

What I find intriguing is that people will complain extremely vocally if they are served the same thing for dinner twice in the same week, but those same people will happily eat exactly the same thing for breakfast every single day.

I doubt any of the songs from The Little Mermaid would feature in my own top ten Disney songs, but I would certainly agree that even in the absence of any real stand-outs the soundtrack as a whole is consistently solid and none of the musical numbers feel like filler that's only there to pad out the runtime.  It's one of only four Disney soundtracks that I recall ever having listened to independently from the film.

I consider myself right of centre and I recognise that any ideology is harmful when taken to extremes.  We've seen this time and time again with Communism, Nazism, extremist religious sects and yes, even the excesses of fandoms like our own, or furries, Sonic, SU and so many others (yes I am aware that these are not strictly ideologies).

People have a tendency to be tribalistic, whether that be literal tribes, or sportsball teams, political affiliations and so on.  When people on one side of a divide see an increase in the fervour of the other side, they will tend to increase their own fervour in response.  Not the majority, but the 'anyone but X' extreme fringes.  This can be seen clearly over the last few years in which the farther left end of the political scale has gained a lot of influence in academia and media.  In response to this we have seen a growth in the right wing, if you doubt this just look at recent elections in Europe, even if none of the far-right parties have taken control of their governments they have massively increased their share of the vote in France and Germany among others, and are likely to do so in the upcoming elections in Italy.

If either the far right or the far left gain too much control it can only be a bad thing, we've seen it before, we know where that road leads, nobody wins in the end.  What we need is to end the political arms race and talk the extremes back towards the centre.  Note that I am not trying to suggest some kind of centrist utopia, rather that we return to and maintain the slightly left or right of centre politics that predominated before more and more people started to flee that centre ground to set up camp at the extremes.

The first thing I would say in response to this is never apologise for saying it.  A Christian will never apologise for being a Christian, a Muslim will never apologise for being a Muslim, and you should never apologise for being an atheist.  Unless you are eventually proved wrong (spoiler: you won't be) then your beliefs are at least as valid as theirs.

I have said much the same myself over a variety of different topics on this forum, so naturally I agree with the vast majority of what you said above.  Religion has no doubt existed in some form since our earliest ancestors first made the connection that when the bright circle in the sky was high and strong the world was warm and bountiful, and when the circle was lower in the sky, the world was cold and food became scarce.  Add in less predictable factors like rain and it's easy enough to imagine how primitive people developed superstitions and felt the need to appease these forces when they were absent for longer than expected.  As you mentioned, superstition has always been used to describe forces and events that could not be explained adequately with the knowledge available at the time and gradually the stories became ever more complex to try and explain ever more of the universe.

I too am mystified by how persistent these superstitions have been, how so many people are willing to accept something in a complete evidential vacuum based on nothing more than blind faith.  If there is indeed a divine being of infinite complexity out there somewhere, and it spoke to someone that was able to understand its intent, the chances are that person died alone in a cave shunned by his (or her) own people as a lunatic.

The book by Amy Keating Rogers, 'The Journal of the Two Sisters', has been declared as canon*, and presumably can be taken as such (at least as long as it doesn't directly contradict the series).

In that book, there are extended versions of the entries made in the Journal of Friendship throughout season four.

In the entry for the episode 'Pinkie Pride' it mentions that Rainbow Dash is celebrating her tenth birthaversary.  This is the only solid anchor that we have available to determine ages from.

Assuming that Pegasus foals attend flight camp at the same age, then we can make the educated estimate that Fluttershy is also ten as she and Rainbow Dash went to flight camp at the same time.  This is further reinforced in the IDW comic series as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both attend a school reunion together.  Obviously the comic is not canon per se, but as a secondary official source it can be deemed semi-canon as long as it does not contradict the canon source.

We also know from 'Griffon the Brush off' that Fluttershy is a year older than Pinkie Pie.  This would make Pinkie Pie nine years old.

We also know from 'The Cutie Mark Chronicles' that the mane six all received their cutie marks at the same time.  We know that Rainbow Dash was the first in her class to receive her mark, and that Applejack was the last in her class to receive hers (Call of the Cutie).  If we make another assumption that Earth pony and Pegasus schooling works on similar ages, and also that ponies generally get their marks within a similar age range, then this would suggest that Applejack was at least one class higher than Rainbow Dash in school, which would make her older than Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.  So let's say that she is at least eleven, maybe twelve, but probably no more than that due the similar level of physical development between Applejack and Rainbow Dash in 'The Cutie Mark Chronicles'.

This leaves Twilight Sparkle and Rarity, of whom we have no direct clues.  However, given that the physical appearance of the mane six is very similar in both the 'present day' and also in flashback scenes in 'The Cutie Mark Chronicles' we can gauge them to be of a similar age.

From that same episode, we know that Rarity was despairing over ever getting her mark, so we can assume that she, like Applejack, was a late bloomer.  So let's say that she's ages with, or maybe even a little older than Applejack, so I'll put her at twelve.

That only leaves Twilight Sparkle.  And I'll be honest that I've go nothing at all for her.  but given her nature , I imagine her to be older than Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, but maybe not quite as old as Applejack and Rarity.  So I'll call her eleven.

So that's my theory.  There is a lot of assumptions in there, so I may be out, but I think it's probably not far off.

In summary;

Pinkie Pie: 9

Rainbow Dash: 10

Fluttershy: 10

Twilight Sparkle: 11

Applejack: 11 going on 12

Rarity: 12

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GydX9WE2bws