Chaos

1. Hmmm... this is tricky. I probably need to think about this one. 2. This one got really long. Disclaimer: these opinions are my own! If you find religion to be helpful for you, and they help you be a better person, that is great! I am a big believer in letting you do whatever you like as long as you aren't telling others how to live. But obviously, this question is about my perspective, and so I am happy to explain my perspective. I have not always been an atheist, but I've been an atheist for nearly a decade. I was "raised" a Lutheran, but I very much intend those quote marks. My dad wouldn't take us to church and we wouldn't read the Bible, and from what I learned, those are usually things Christians do. So I didn't have a lot of attachment to religion, and eventually stopped praying. I was probably agnostic by high school. Some friends and I went to a bible study once a week during school lunch time--there was free pizza and this started my love of Dr Pepper--and that was an interesting look into Christianity and seeing people actually analyze Bible verses. That said that pastor said some very scientifically questionable things, like that fish fossils were on mountains because of the flood. Yeah, that is definitely not what happened, geologically. So anyway, I was pretty agnostic. I had never really had any spiritual experiences in life. I distinctly remember in high school, there was some health class, and they were talking about the four different kinds of health: physical health, mental health, emotional health, and spiritual health. And I just was thinking: is... spiritual health even a thing? Is that not just a sort of combination of mental health and emotional health? I never understood how that could be a different thing. (It is interesting reading things from believers to hear just how radically different people see things.) I turned atheist after I had dated an LDS girl. Now, I do not mean to offend believers, and honestly, many LDS members I have known are very genuine in their faith and that brings them great happiness. That's awesome! Keep doing that. But I will explain why this turned me to be an atheist. See, as an agnostic I was open to the idea that something could be out there, but that we would realistically never truly know for certain. This experience, of dating a person who was struggling with her religion, but was culturally so ridiculously pressured to do a certain thing, was pretty much a nightmare. We fought over religion constantly even though she really wasn't LDS. She absolutely wanted things that she would not be allowed to have in the church. Literally, we would fight almost every other day over religion. I have absolutely no issue with people having conviction, and having clear guidelines. But she didn't have that, and it was just so, so frustrating. Also fun: a few months after we broke up, she left the church. So glad we argued for many hours every week about religion! This girl tried to convert me and... well. I don't know. This constant struggle really showed me how... strange all this was. Okay, so let's do a digression! Let's talk about purity and virginity. I think purity is massively overrated. I have never understood how people think sex is a spiritual experience. Like yes, it is awesome and way better when you are with someone you love completely. I highly recommend! But spiritual? I.... don't know about that. But, there are some massive problems with purity. First, and absolutely most importantly: it teaches sexual assault victims that they are "used," and that no one will ever love them because of it. Uh, screw that? I absolutely cannot believe that a kind and loving god would teach people that being pure is so important, when emphasizing that "Oh, you can only ever be with one person! Nothing will ever be the same as that first person!" has such a massive consequence to victims of sexual assault. I cannot help but see this emphasis on purity as that thing where old people don't want their daughters to get pregnant (and that is probably the most charitable interpretation, and I think you could reasonably argue this is some thousands-year-old misogynism). Second: teaching people to constantly think these normal, human desires are shameful except out of marriage seems very counterproductive. Like, let's say you don't get married until 25. You've had since adolescence that people have said that any sexual thoughts are bad, and lust is bad, and this is repeated over and over. IDo... do people who get in that happy marriage just... stop thinking these thoughts are shameful? I feel like that isn't how humans work. That must takes years to unteach your brain that hey, you're married! You can be lustful towards them and want them! Have fun! Thinking about this, I feel like the core "lust is always bad outside of marriage" is a highly problematic principle to teach people. Personally, I believe that sex is an important part of a relationship, and to be honest, more people should get laid. The world would be better if you do. Oh, and the idea that sex is "worse" when you've been with other people is... laughably false. So this alone (and I have other reasons as well, of course) makes me just not believe religions that have precepts like this are in the right. And when I had a girl I was dating--who constantly struggled with sexual attraction and that she shouldn't feel it--try to convert me in that these things are good ideas? No. I do not agree. Actually, I do not really think the idea of "sin" is even a useful, practical concept to get people to be good people, long term. I am not a fan. Of course, this is just one aspect as to why I'm not religious. But I think the simplest notion to explain is that, I don't find any religious text to be anything other than fanciful stories about mystical things. Like, if divinities were real, shouldn't the texts be a bit more than what just seem like old fantasy novels? We all read fantasy here. We know how authors can create very extensive mythologies. The Iliad is also essentially a fantasy story. I think most of these are created by humans and are not divine inspiration. These stories simply seem like very old myths, and myths that helped people make sense of the world. That's great! Love it. Nothing wrong with that. But if you're telling me an omniscient god basically made these texts, this should probably be a bit more fantastical than something someone could easily just... invent like a fantasy author who existed thousands of years ago. I don't know. There's nothing in there that is even at the level of, "wow, a super advanced alien wrote this, that's crazy!" to say nothing of something all-knowing and all-powerful. I am not impressed or convinced at all. And I also think that if there was a creator, the evidence for such designs would be incredibly obvious in biology, chemistry, and physics. It should be obvious everywhere, under microscopes, in particle accelerators, and everything. If souls were real, we should be able to measure them. The fact that we cannot, and that if anything, there is an astonishing lack of intelligent design, and instead there is mountains of evidence of evolution in action.... I don't know. Maybe this is presumptuous of me to say, but if god was real, he really likes making people not know for sure that he is real. And if he is so hidden... why do I need him again? Which I understand that people would say, "faith is about not knowing for sure; it's about the leap of faith." Sure, but also... it's not very persuasive to me if the claim is that there is an all-powerful being out there. Big claims require big evidence. Big claim without incontrovertible evidence is not a compelling argument to any divinity's existence. I'd rather believe in things I know are true. If there's something out there (which I do not believe there is, but let's suppose), when I die, I'll just say, "I believed in what is observable and measurable. There's a lot of religions out there, and I don't want to be corrupted by falsehoods, so at least I know I have found truth here." It makes me want to write a fantasy novel about a planet of sapient creatures that are intelligently designed, and what that would actually be like. Because I think it would look so colossally different than here. Anyway, I feel like I am rambling. Hopefully this explains where I am coming from. Again, if religion makes you a better person and gives you comfort, that is fantastic. I'm just saying the traditional conversion tactics that I have heard are, to me, not compelling. (Of course, if you don't believe in the idea of sin, Christianity's pitch completely fails, so hey.) My next responses will be very short because I have blabbed a lot already. 3. Dove chocolates, currently. 4. Fortunately I do not believe this is physically possible, but I probably would not like this, mostly because in any afterlife, I have to see some people I hate forever. That sounds awful. 5. Well, currently I am away from home, and a friend is looking after them. They seem to be doing good, but I imagine they are lonely I am missing them quite a lot. 6. No, to be a professional mathematician, you need a Ph.D. I cannot spend 4-6 years in grad school doing that. Also, math research sounds awful to me, so I have no desire doing that. I reasonably like my job, but if you get me at the end of the semester, then obviously I hate it, but that's every teacher! 7. I do not do math for fun. That's work. I did not like abstract algebra, but I liked real analysis, topology, and linear algebra. 8. Terrifying. Fortunately, I think that's impossible, so I'm not worried. 9. Haven't really thought about this. 10. My first instinct was to immediately say yes. There's stuff to do, and problems to fix. I asked Jess, and she said I could be a god even if she can't, so that's good. 11. Oh yeah. I think it is way more impressive that there is not a creator! Like, that is just way cooler to see how complexity can arise purely through natural processes. We are not the center of the universe; we are small and puny. It's humbling and awesome. 12. I do not think souls exist, nor will I until these are measurable. Until then, our minds are intrinsically linked with our physical bodies in a huge amount of ways that we don't even know the full extent of. 13. I find religious music to be very odd. Jess enjoys the religious Christmas songs for them just being Christmas carols, but uh... I'm not going to sing songs about how Christ was born. That's so uncomfortable to me. They can be pretty though. 14. Fibonacci sequence of course. Hmmm... this is tricky. Maybe Jim Butcher? I don't know. I do really enjoy those. I'd usually say my favorite non-Brandon book is Foundation's Edge. Notifications: maybe 5, excluding reports. This can depend. Today was a light day. Rank: Torturer of Heralds at 666 or Scadrian Waffle Cook is good. Oh man, Full Feruchemist would be incredible. That's so practical for day-to-day life, and seems so applicable. Languages: not fluently. Took some Spanish through high school, and took two semesters of Japanese, but nowhere close to fluent and I forgot most of it. Profile pic: Shiro Tagachi from Guild Wars: Factions. Unfortunately, I don't have time to delve into the Lerasium Mistborn vs. Radiant debate, but I do think Shardplate gives a massive defensive advantage beyond what Allomantic pewter grants. Allomancers are super squishy by comparison, and so the Mistborn would really need to keep their distance. This would likely be problematic against Lashings, which are very nice gap closers. Well, it's certainly a bummer that it is impossible to specifically prove or disprove every conjecture (Godel's Incompleteness Theorem). But that doesn't mean that math is useless. For what you can prove, it's very important, powerful, and useful. I can't say number theory is an interest of mine, so I have no opinion on the conjectures you have named here. Okay, that's about it! New rule here: please number your questions, and maybe limit it to three each. The longer list there is, the easier it is to procrastinate, because it's such a big list! (I can see why Brandon doesn't do AMAs much.)

It is late, but I'm not tired enough to go to sleep, and I am energized by philosophy things in the Jasnah and math thread. Even if I do not understand religion, it's an interesting thing to think about. So if anyone has questions for me, post here! I will try to get to these sooner than six months from now! (Oops.) I am in a bit of a philosophical mood, thinking about why I'm an atheist, and things like that. So if you're curious, ask away! I should probably answer the last question here and get to some scragglers. Sharks are awesome. Ever since like 3rd or 4th grade I thought this. Back then I wanted to study sharks for a living. I couldn't say I have a favorite shark, but 3rd grader Eric would say whale sharks are super lame, so that one is my least favorite shark. Tiger sharks eat a lot of interesting things though! Sharks get a bad reputation though. Shark attacks are extremely rare...

We are nearing Evershore's release of December 28th! Evershore spoilers open on December 28th, midnight GMT (which is December 27th at 4pm PST and 7pm EST). If you would like to talk about both Evershore and Cytonic together, you can do so, but in this board (the Cytonic board), you must label Evershore spoilers. You can do this in one of two ways: You can simply put [Evershore Spoilers] in your topic title, so people know that this topic is both an Evershore and Cytonic thread. If you'd like to mention something from Evershore in a topic here that does not have a [Evershore Spoilers] flag in its title, you can hide your Evershore spoilers in a spoiler tag (click the Eye symbol to do this), and make sure prior to your spoiler you label that your spoiler is about Evershore. Evershore's spoiler period will last one month, through the end of January. Of course, you can also discuss Evershore in the Evershore spoiler board

Put Evershore typos here!

We are nearing Evershore's release of December 28th! In this board, full Evershore spoilers are allowed when this forum opens December 28th, midnight GMT (which is December 27th at 4pm PST and 7pm EST). Post your full reactions to Evershore here!

I imagine you probably mean Microsoft Edge there? We can replicate that on Safari on iOS 15 (but I couldn't replicate on Edge). I am not exactly sure what can fix this, but we replicated it and that is good.

Hmmm well that sure is glitched there. I have never encountered this myself. If anyone else has something like this, do chime in! What browser are you running on both your phone and desktop, and what operating system (and version) are your phone and desktop, respectively?

Could you explain a bit more what you mean by glitching? Could you perhaps take a screenshot of it? Also, is it in the unread mode or read mode? So far as I can see on my phone and desktop I can't quite see anything wrong, but let's troubleshoot and see what's up.

Yep, just report them. You only need to report a single post by the bot; we have a one-click button that nukes the bot from orbit. There are a ton of bots recently, so the best way to handle this is to report them. Mods get an email when there is a report. Don't PM a mod; they may not be checking immediately. By reporting, every mod gets that message, rather than a particular mod. On mobile, the Report button is a flag icon by the "Posted X minutes ago" part of the post. On desktop, it is text labeled Report post.

I added the audio version of the podcast to this post now!

Thank you for your kind words! It means a lot. (And yes, this is a perfectly fine place for this thread!) We work hard to maintain a respectful community and to avoid the toxicity in much of the internet. If you feel people aren't being kind and respectful (and thus are breaking the Code of Conduct), report the post and we will deal with that! It's a Flag icon on mobile. Indeed, dedicated websites like this are a dying breed, but we have no intention on going anywhere. Forums are pretty old school. But hopefully with our news, content, and good atmosphere we get some people

Mostly that we host the forums and have a link on his website. We do not receive any financial support or anything like that but we work to be on good terms with Dragonsteel. We're here for the long haul of being around in some form or another until the end, so yeah, obviously we wouldn't go crazy and do something like that. Hopefully that answered your question?

Join in on the stream once we go live on YouTube.

I don't respond to these sorts of queries, I'm afraid!

Brandon said on the stream State of Sanderson will be out Monday morning, so this stream will be now Monday afternoon sometime, but we haven't quite figured out when. Should have that sorted and scheduled tomorrow.

Well, those visions are a much more discrete set of specific things, whereas these general Visions suggestions are much more vague and highly general.

Feel free to make a meme thread, but I still don't think there will be enough discussion to warrant a board.

I doubt this is possible to implement currently, but perhaps in the new site version Invision Power Suite has changed this. This would definitely be a sensible change.

I guess I just think it's way too early to have a specific subforum if the discussion on the blurb is in a single topic. We are eleven months out and the forum would contain basically no topics. There are sometimes very early readings and we also don't make the spoiler forum then. Like, the prologue for the book was read in July, but it wasn't a huge deal. I can see why this suggestion is happening for the blurb for sure, but in our experience opening the spoiler forum too early can lead to negative effects of a bunch of people just saying "omg where's the book" and things like that, which is not ideal. Lets just have things discussing the blurb be clearly labeled in the topic title, and if they are not in the topic title, it is spoiler tagged in said post. I would really need to see that the blurb is being discussed in more than just a few places to seriously consider making the forum. Is that happening? Again, remember, we aren't expected to have sample chapters for probably six months. That is a guess, but I could expect much less sample chapters posted on a Mistborn book than Stormlight. Hard to say what Tor would do, since we haven't had a Mistborn book since 2016, and Tor has done the "hey let's post the entire part one of the book" for Stormlights. If anything I'd expect less sample chapters, and you have to say, if we are waiting eight months for sample chapters, that forum is going to contain nothing. It's also hard to say how major a spoiler is in marketing, because the publisher is comfortable with people knowing it ahead of time. I can understand why people wouldn't want that of course. But still it seems relatively sequestered and we can just pin the topic. A single topic in the Mistborn board that does not even have three pages of posts does not seem like that justifies an entire spoiler board's existence so early.

I am a bit less certain... The book is 11 months away and it seems pretty early to do this. On a quick glance there is exactly one topic on the blurb. That doesn't seem worth making the forum.

In general, I do not respond to PMs very quickly, especially when I am very busy, unless it's very urgent. So though while I am happy to do this, this is not an urgent matter. (This is generally why I discourage people from changing their names too much.) So I'm happy to, but yeah, you got me during the end of my teaching semester