Whitzz/544K-RP-Datasets huggingface dataset:
Thread: Religious Discussion

MM - Agnostics hold ultimates to be unknowable, atheists know that there's none. !-- m --a classpostlink relnofollow href m -- !-- m --a classpostlink relnofollow href m -- They seem opposed to me. The main flaw I find with your argument re christ's existence is the complete discard of the gospels, which were amalgams of older documents and oral history. While I see your point, I think it's a mistake to completely disregard them. I'm not at all certain christ existed, mind But scholars have accepted historical figures on less evidence. Christ is just under harder scrutiny. King Arthur is a good example of this. The linked article - From the AP, these aren't total whackjobs - takes a piece of rock with a name on it as evidence in favor of his existence. That wouldn't even be glanced at while discussing Christ. Not that I think scholars universally accept King Arthur as real, my point is that there's a harsh bias. I don't see how a behavior that can drive you insane, or fanatical behavior is in ANY way a survival trait. Fanatics do things like run headlong into losing battles and other retarded shit like that. Care to try explaining your line of logic? MM's post sums this up far more succinctly then I could, so I'll leave it at that. As for taking bits and pieces - Well, yeah. The bible is a butchered, much-translated document. Leveticus, especially is utter bullshit through and through. The message has continually evolved throughout time, as humanity matures and moves towards what I view as being the core of the message. That bit was kind of subjective, maybe I should have foregone it. A lot of this discussion is an ill fit for me, as I view myself as believing in religion, all of them, more then the specific christian faith, despite my moniker.
Thread: Religious Discussion

Seraph Nicholas said MM - Agnostics hold ultimates to be unknowable, atheists know that there's none. !-- m --a classpostlink relnofollow href m -- !-- m --a classpostlink relnofollow href m -- They seem opposed to me. Click to expand... I can see why you'd see them as opposed, but I don't think they are. Agnostics say you can't ever know everything there is, you can't have ultimate knowledge. Which means you can't know for sure whether or not there's a being powerful enough to be called a god. If you think there is, you might be wrong. If you think there isn't... you might be wrong. Best you can speak to is your own experience. So while agnosticism is useful most frequently in the spiritual discussion gnosis does relate specifically to spiritual matters, one could make the argument that it's basically just scientific skepticism in the spiritual realm. Atheists, however, believe there's no god. That's pretty much the defining trait. So you can be an atheist, but if you're willing to entertain the idea that you're wrong, you end up being agnostic, too. Seraph Nicholas said A lot of this discussion is an ill fit for me, as I view myself as believing in religion, all of them, more then the specific christian faith, despite my moniker. Click to expand... Sounds like a bit of the Baha'i philosophy. I do tend to agree that there's a part of our brain that is wired for belief. Belief in something, yes. But I don't know if it's intentional, if it's an accidental by-product of clunky early sentience that we've just found a purpose for, or if it developed for certain reasons that we've just adapted to religion. Common belief can be a community-unifying development, and humans are social animals in the aggregate, so those that could join the group by believing in the things the group believes in would be more likely to find mates, propagating the tendency through the population by classic evolutionary methods. What leads me away from thinking it's intentional in its placement or in its current use is the fact that it can be applied to a variety of focuses you can access that part of your brain through any religion, any sufficiently powerful philosophy or cause. If it were designed, I can't help but expect it to be more purposeful. But, like the rest of us you've heard of introns in genetics, right? it's not really very specifically designed.
Thread: Religious Discussion

Fair enough, MM. Though typically I reserve such judgment for people who use terms like oh snap and fo rizzle. Seraph, The definition of atheist you posted is a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings. I just copypasted it from your link. It's one thing to not know something, another to not believe in it. I don't know whether or not there is a higher power, and believe that absolute knowledge of such is impossible. HOWEVER, I do not believe in one and the evidence seems to point in that direction. An example of this that you might endorse is For all we know, there could be a giant cup of coffee orbiting a sun 4 million light years from earth. We can't prove that it exists, but can't prove that it doesn't exist either therefor we don't know if it exists or not. We are agnostic towards the existence of the giant cup of coffee. However, I doubt that either of use believes that it exists I should say, I doubt that you believe it exists. We are therefor also atheist towards the existence of the giant cup of coffee. Also, the link you posted about arthur contains Although there is no evidence linking the stone directly with King Arthur, the slate is proof that the name Arthur existed during the era in which he reputedly lived, Wainwright said. So, it's not acceptance that he was real, only that the name was around at that time. I think you're also underestimating the power of fanaticism after all, the Catholic Church has been around for just under 2000 years, and at earlier times was composed almost entirely of fanatics. Also, the first line of the article on prayer is Prayer may help reshape one's brain for better or for worse. It can make you healthy or it can make you insane. Thus, the effect is not always detrimental. In addition, it's been postulated that it is not specifically prayer, but intense concentration on a positive attitude and good thoughts, for lack of a better term, as well as trance-like states, produce the same effects.
Thread: Religious Discussion

Grumm said Fair enough, MM. Though typically I reserve such judgment for people who use terms like oh snap and fo rizzle. Click to expand... If I ran into someone who used those terms seriously, without comic intent, then I'd share your approach. One of the thoughts I like to entertain when people wonder about how we developed this or why we tend to do that, is that yes, maybe Humanity was designed with a purpose. But it accomplished that purpose in, like, 30,000 BC or something, and then didn't have the good grace to die off when it was obsolete, by it's designers' judgment. So everything we've done since, all our art and culture and multiplicity of mind-sets and beliefs, is all the descendants of simple machines trying to come up with things to do with the capacity they've been given, now that their purpose is finished. And a lot of that effort is spent on trying to come up with a new purpose for ourselves, but the problem is, nobody can decide which is the right one, because the true right one is long over with. That kind of thing makes me smile, sometimes. I'm weird.
Thread: Religious Discussion

The Baha'i are interesting, but I don't quite buy into it. I don't like the 'successive chapters' idea, more, I view all religions as being a way for the diversity of humanity to have a diversity of relationships with God, however they choose to interpret him. On this idea, I often take my AA meetings as being religious, in a sense, despite the complete lack of specification of what the oft-mentioned 'higher power' is. That's also why I accept the purposelessness of the brain activity I mentioned - Everyone should develop their own, personal relationship with and idea of God. Re atheistagnostic, I see your point. Sure, the church has been around forever, but priests aren't exactly known for their plethora of offspring, ja? That's all besides the fact that an organization has no bearing on evolution - What's the payoff of fanaticism to the individual? And yes, the effects are not necessarily detrimental, but evolutionary theory states that time should have exterminated the negative side effects. !-- m --a classpostlink relnofollow href m -- ... 104310443 is a slightly better article then the other I linked. 'When it comes to the brain, Newberg says, spiritual experience is spiritual experience. There is no Christian, there is no Jewish, there is no Muslim, it's just all one, Newberg says.' is the line that summarizes my thoughts best, and is a core part of my personal religious theory. As for concentration on good thoughts or trances, I couldn't find any mention of them having this specific effect - Then again, I didn't really know where to start. Do you have a reference? MM - Ahahah. I like it.
Thread: Religious Discussion

Okay, the link you gave didn't work, so If you can find the actual one I'd be appreciative. As for a link from me, I'm going to have to hunt for a bit. Had they not removed the forums I used to post in, I could go right to it. But, here's one I've got so far !-- m --a classpostlink relnofollow href ... enner.htmla!-- m --. But regardless take THAT, MM lol, what is prayer really, other than hopeful, positive thinking and concentration? Do people pray for dark, hurtful things? Well, come to think of it, some likely do, but that's not the norm. Now, as for an organization having no bearing on evolution, and the rest of it, we need to take a step back. You originally posted So prayer is hardwired into our brain, humanity has evolved to be religious. Why? What's the evolutionary payoff? The conclusion that made the most sense to me was simple enough. Something put it there. Bear in mind that I was very much an atheist when I had this conclusion. Priests are the only ones who pray so, it is not only the few children they might have determining whether or not that genetic trait passed along or not. In times when not being a believer got you tied to a log and set on fire, being able to believe, and to manifest outward signs of that belief, would have been a survival trait. Less people with that ability would die by human-created methods, and so that trait carries on. Evolution doesn't necessarily remove negative traits for instance, we need vitamin C to survive, a vitamin that almost all other animals who require it produce in their own body. But we are able to get it from elsewhere, so this negative trait remains. Same premise with behavioral traits, though in a somewhat different fashion. A fanatic is more likely to do something to get themselves killed, true. But, since faith is a survival trait, and survival traits are desirable in mates, the fanatic would have a better chance to pass along that trait. Faithsurvival, great faith better chance of survival, thus those with great faithmore mating chances. More mating chancesmore offspring, more offspringbetter chance of passing along desirable trait. Even some animals show behavioral traits with negative survival value take herd animals for instance herd, flock, whatever. When a predator appears, the first member of the herd to spot it begins making noise and acting erratically, activities which predators focus on. But, this activity allows the greater part of the herd to survive... and organizations can be treated the same way.
Thread: Religious Discussion

Faith isn't bred, it's taught. When religion grew, fear caused people to turn to it as survival. It wasn't a survival trait because that would mean you were born with it. You aren't born with religion ingrained into your thought processes like walking- which isn't taught- that's an actual genetic trait for survival. You need to walk in order to survive and gather necessities in order to live. Having faith for a religion you were forced into is adaptation. You had to adapt to a faith in order to survive- ADAPTATION is a survival trait. So please, you can't lump in prayer and faith as traits. They aren't in your DNA. You learn those things.
Thread: Religious Discussion

Hahvoc, it is not faith per se, but rather the predisposition for faith and a person's physical manifestation of that faith that are the traits I'm referring to. But going beyond that, a meme can indeed be a survival trait to one who espouses it read The Lucifer Principle, by Howard Bloom, for an in-depth look at that.
Thread: Religious Discussion

There is a complete difference between an adaptation and a survival trait. Survival traits are laced in your DNA- natural selection is how that came about. Adaptation is just that- adapting to your surroundings in order to better survive when sudden change arrives. You can't call physical manifestations of faith as survival traits. They are adaptations.
Thread: Religious Discussion

So, Hahvy, you're saying, like... a monkey's ability to eat ants safely is an evolved survival trait, but learning how to take a stick and put it in the ant hole to collect ants to eat isn't evolved, it's adapted and learned. Is that a decent example of what you're talking about? Finally got a chance to read Seraph's link about prayer-based brain changes on a computer that didn't block the site, and I'd have to say, it would have a lot more credibility with me if it wasn't a report by a Catholic organization. I do think there's a part of the brain that's receptive to and connected with a state of grace or a mental experience of rapture. I do remember hearing about studies of brain activity on certain drugs and brain activity in the height of Zen meditation, and how they were neurologically similar, which means that religious ecstacy is as much neurochemical as it is cognitive and divine. I do think that's what most people try to access with religion, and the experience kind of pays off for itself, experientially, but there's so much other stuff tied up into it dogma you have to believe, rituals you have to follow. That's why, if I needed to chose a religion, I'd me an animist. Shamanic animist, if necessary. Then, the divine is in everything, and there's very little barrier between you and the universe, just consciousness. Besides, I hear the peyote is decent. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, yeah. So we have a thing in our brains which puts us in touch with what earlier generations could only interpret as the divine experience. These days, we know a bit more about neurotransmitters. But because they could reach a state where they felt this ecstasy, this connectedness, this oneness, they attached it to the beliefs of a higher being. Was that part of the brain placed there by a higher being as kind of a walkie-talkie we could use? If so, that being needs to change the batteries, because a lot of people are getting a lot of differing, conflicting messages. I tend to think it's naturally-evolved, but as for why, I couldn't begin to tell you. I tend to fall back on the unintentional side-effect of being conscious in the manner that humans became that we just discovered and put to use in whatever way we could think of.
Thread: Religious Discussion

Mr Master said So, Hahvy, you're saying, like... a monkey's ability to eat ants safely is an evolved survival trait, but learning how to take a stick and put it in the ant hole to collect ants to eat isn't evolved, it's adapted and learned. Is that a decent example of what you're talking about? Click to expand... Pretty much. To put it into human aspects How do you get somewhere that's too fartakes too long to walk to? You adapt. You learn how to ride a bike or drive a car or find some other means to get there. That's learned behavior. It's an adaptation just like technology in and of itself is an adaptation for better survival. It can't be apart of your DNA and therefore isn't a survival trait. Just like religion. The pattern of spots on a Leopard are a survival trait- it allows them to be more attractive to potential mating partners and makes them harder to see at night.
Thread: Religious Discussion

--Hahvoc Requiem-- said Mr Master said So, Hahvy, you're saying, like... a monkey's ability to eat ants safely is an evolved survival trait, but learning how to take a stick and put it in the ant hole to collect ants to eat isn't evolved, it's adapted and learned. Is that a decent example of what you're talking about? Click to expand... Pretty much. To put it into human aspects How do you get somewhere that's too fartakes too long to walk to? You adapt. You learn how to ride a bike or drive a car or find some other means to get there. That's learned behavior. It's an adaptation just like technology in and of itself is an adaptation for better survival. It can't be apart of your DNA and therefore isn't a survival trait. Just like religion. The pattern of spots on a Leopard are a survival trait- it allows them to be more attractive to potential mating partners and makes them harder to see at night. Click to expand... And in this context, the ability to have belief appears to be genetic, if brain-area-function studies tell us what we think they do, but what we turn that belief toward is entirely an adaptation. Religion is not genetic, but the ability to have a religious experience might be, if we're interpreting the research right.
Thread: Religious Discussion

Mr Master said --Hahvoc Requiem-- said Mr Master said So, Hahvy, you're saying, like... a monkey's ability to eat ants safely is an evolved survival trait, but learning how to take a stick and put it in the ant hole to collect ants to eat isn't evolved, it's adapted and learned. Is that a decent example of what you're talking about? Click to expand... Pretty much. To put it into human aspects How do you get somewhere that's too fartakes too long to walk to? You adapt. You learn how to ride a bike or drive a car or find some other means to get there. That's learned behavior. It's an adaptation just like technology in and of itself is an adaptation for better survival. It can't be apart of your DNA and therefore isn't a survival trait. Just like religion. The pattern of spots on a Leopard are a survival trait- it allows them to be more attractive to potential mating partners and makes them harder to see at night. Click to expand... And in this context, the ability to have belief appears to be genetic, if brain-area-function studies tell us what we think they do, but what we turn that belief toward is entirely an adaptation. Religion is not genetic, but the ability to have a religious experience might be, if we're interpreting the research right. Click to expand... Belief is different. Some people will never believe in one thing but will believe in another. That's choice. And the bold print is a contradiction. An experience isn't genetic. You can't experience one thing and have someone else experience it just because they are your child. Or a relative. Or be apart of the same species.
Thread: Free Character Art

Hey folks. New guy here, looking to take some commissions for original characters or any character really. Free of charge of course, i just like taking requests. Here's my DA page if you want to see a sample of my drawings. I would just need a good, detailed description of your character or a reference pic of some kind. Like a similar character or something. PM me if you're interested. I'll see what i can do.
Thread: Free Character Art

Oh God. Your art work is absolutely fantastic. I'm extremely jealous! I might toss a PM your way, if you wouldn't mind trying out one of my characters sometime.
Thread: Free Character Art

by all means, PM away, that's why i made this thread. As you probably can see, i'm best at drawing females and prefer them but I have no problem doing male characters either.
Thread: Free Character Art

Just so everyone knows, turn around time will be a few days on drawing requests.
Thread: Free Character Art

YES PLZ !-- l --a classpostlink-local href l --
Thread: Free Character Art

I'll take a crack at your male character but Dragons aren't my specialty.
Thread: Free Character Art

Fine by me, I'd prefer art of Nick anyway. I just realized that picture doesn't show off his wings - Six of them, but they're optional. !-- m --a classpostlink relnofollow href ... n-29255907a!-- m --
Thread: Free Character Art

PM me a good description. Like Body Type, Hair, Eye color, clothing accessories etc etc.
Thread: Free Character Art

This is still up for grabs, right? Because that's some beautiful linework.
Thread: Free Character Art

Yeah, i can probably take on another one. I've got three requests to take care of first, but I'd be happy to take a crack at another.
Thread: Free Character Art

My first comission on here. A character for H A R R I E T. we were both very pleased with how they turned out. I really, really like how the full body image turned out.
Thread: Free Character Art

Your art is simply fantastic. I may have to pm you when I get a good character going.
Thread: Changing the power structure a bit. Ilovegoatse is now admin

With Trygon's extended absence, this rather became necessary. Ilovegoatse has grown a great deal over the last year, and hope he can carry out the original intent of this community. If someone has a genuine concern with him, I'm willing to listen to issues, but for the most part, he's got a cool head, sane people should be able to work things out with him, yo. That's why he's in the hot seat now We're also going to be looking into making a couple of new moderators. Those with VIP Lounge access should find a thread there shortly. Those of you who don't have access should post more, recruit more, or become a supporter
Thread: The other Hyuuga  (fandom x Ryu_Momochi)

Hyuuga Hanabi yawned and stretched as she walked through the streets of the leaf village. She had just been training with hew team-mates for the upcoming Chuunin exams, now on her way back to the Hyuuga estate. Things had changed a lot in recent years, the village had changed, the people had changed, and even she had changed. At the age of 13, Hanabi had grown into a wonderful ninja, and an even more wonderful woman. The 'blessings' her sister Hinata had been given seemed to be something of a family trait. Even at her young age, Hanabi's chest was more than enough to make any adult woman jealous. At this rate, Hanabi was likely going to surpass Tsunade or even her elder sister within the year. Unlike Hinata however, Hanabi had few hesitations about showing herself off. She argued it was a good tactic for distracting her opponents, though secretly she just liked to show off. As she walked, Hanabi's stomach rumbled with hunger, and a sweet smell captured her nose. Food....well....a little something on the way home couldn't hurt right? Hanabi followed her nose, ending up at the Ichiraku ramen stand, where she quickly took a seat and ordered herself a bowl of ramen, licking her lips as it arrived. Ok, one bowl then I'll head home With a grin, Hanabi quickly dug in to the ramen, paying little attention to the comings and goings of people around her.