Middling, Not Awesome But Not Terrible

There are times when an extreme position is necessary. You need to balance your balance.

If it's neccesary then it isn't an extreme position.

When looking at technology that used to look slick, but now just looks bulky, I have to wonder how bad our current technology will look.



What if my Robokids make fun of me!?

The unit "ksi"


It's short for kilopounds / square inch.


Maybe it's because of the time of night, but I'm imagining this as a tsundere conversation between English and SI units.

It's been a long time since I've had a nightmare with a cosmic horror theme. On the one hand, that was terrifying to dream up (SO much body horror), on the other, that material is going straight into the campaign I'm currently running.

I was... withholding... my feelings on a friends religion as he was describing it to me, because some of the concepts just seem too silly. I'm a bit worried that my feelings on religion sound just as silly to a third party. On the other hand I do enjoy that type of conversation.

That is pretty dangerous territory on the whole though. I honestly try not to talk about it unless I know the other person is particularly rational.

That is pretty dangerous territory on the whole though. I honestly try not to talk about it unless I know the other person is particularly rational.

Well, I mean it wasn't with a stranger or anything. It was with a friend, and he was also going to College to be an engineer. I would not want to have that kind of conversation with a complete stranger, at least not without the ability to just walk away.

That is pretty dangerous territory on the whole though. I honestly try not to talk about it unless I know the other person is particularly rational.

Well, I mean it wasn't with a stranger or anything. It was with a friend, and he was also going to College to be an engineer. I would not want to have that kind of conversation with a complete stranger, at least not without the ability to just walk away.

imo it's almost safer with a complete stranger, since the stakes aren't too high.That kind of conversation with a friend you can't take back.

That is pretty dangerous territory on the whole though. I honestly try not to talk about it unless I know the other person is particularly rational.

Well, I mean it wasn't with a stranger or anything. It was with a friend, and he was also going to College to be an engineer. I would not want to have that kind of conversation with a complete stranger, at least not without the ability to just walk away.

imo it's almost safer with a complete stranger, since the stakes aren't too high.That kind of conversation with a friend you can't take back.

Once you've gotten an opinion in your head it's hard to think otherwise. If you value your friendship with this person I would suggest backing off from the topic. Some things should just be private or shared very selectively.

I've only really ever seen it as a problem when rationality is removed from the conversation.

I've had more than my fair share of getting yelled at for my views, mostly from irrational relatives.

I would be curious to hear what your views are, Vua, but I'd obviously understand if you don't want to talk about them so soon after the above. Always like hearing what people consider unconventional perspectives.

The problem is that very many people are irrational.

I don't know if I'd necessarily say irrational--more arational, that some simply do not perceive rationality as entering into the equation, rather than seeing that it does and being incorrect in how.

There are definitely some who are irrational with respect to this, but I think arationality is more common.

Actually, I'm a pretty open book. I've made it a personal policy, to not withhold information about myself if someone else genuinely wants to know.* Also, I think I'm tactful enough to not cause any debates, but that's kind of a hard thing to judge. (Also, I'm not torn up about the conversation or anything.)


...But um, just to be clear, while I said I'm afraid that a third party might think my views are silly, I meant that like, if I tried to explain it explain the concepts to which the concept were entirely alien, they would have a hard time believing it. Since you speak english, I'm sure my views can't be too terribly foreign to you. The main reason I thought his views were out there is because he tried explaining the history of how Mormonism was different from other branches of Christianity.


If I had to throw together a bunch of to describe my views it would have to be: Lutheran, self centered, non extremist, Diest/Diesm. That's probably pretty vague, but I'm not too sure what to say other than that, unless you want me to go into details about anything specific. (I would be happy to go into anything specific. )


If you're up for the challenge, here's a copy paste of the dialog. The part I was restraining my comments starts around the second page. I was probably a bit rude anyways, but I kept myself asking questions, instead of directly saying "I find this too far fetched to be true."



*This has only resulted in me revealing three deep dark secrets. (The policy also includes not lying, with exception to a certain XCOM game. )

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[can of worms]

Personally I don't think I could disagree more. Unless they're doing something objectively evil it should be a non issue.

Keep an open, acknowledge that you could be wrong, and to imagine it from their perspective. You certainly don't have to agree with them, but you do have to accept that the don't need to agree with you.


If they are doing something horrible, like Scientology, just ask yourself if you really wanted to be friends with them anyways. If the answer's yes, remember that they didn't change over course of the conversation, and then repeat "Did you really want to be friends with them anyways?"

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In case it's not clear, feel free to yell at me for whatever you think I'm wrong.

Of course it also depends on what happens afterward. In most, normal cases it really shouldn't be a problem, even if you agree to disagree.

Unfortunately, sometimes other people react in a way that you may have no choice but to break off. After my father died, a friend (who had just converted to Mormonism) said my dad's death was my fault, a curse from God for my sexual preferences...

Of course it also depends on what happens afterward. In most, normal cases it really shouldn't be a problem, even if you agree to disagree.

Unfortunately, sometimes other people react in a way that you may have no choice but to break off. After my father died, a friend (who had just converted to Mormonism) said my dad's death was my fault, a curse from God for my sexual preferences...

That's just abhorrent. It's stuff like that that makes me feel uncomfortable talking about religion with people. I hate finding out terrible things about people I might've thought were decent.