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I am religious and believe in free will

71 (27.7%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

114 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (23.8%)

Total Members Voted: 251

[Calidovi]

The only way your BMI could not be 'ideal' in that scenario is if you were an eldritch abomination that messes with basic mathematics.

BLACK GEOMETRY

[Bohandas]

The only way your BMI could not be 'ideal' in that scenario is if you were an eldritch abomination that messes with basic mathematics.

BLACK GEOMETRY

Is that like Jewish Physics?

[wierd]

The "noneuclidean geometry" that lovecraft was yabbering about is more or less easy for most scifi readers to grasp:

Our 4 dimensional spacetime reality has "objects" inside it that are cross-sections of objects that exist in higher dimensional spaces. EG, how an MRI scan slice of a brain is.  (Our brains are 3D objects, the MRI scan is a 2D slice of that 3D object. The eldritch abominations are similar to the MRI scan slice, except they are a 4D spacetime slice instead of a 2D timeless slice.)

Because of their existence in a higher dimensional spacial context, to them, the shortest distance between any two points may be signficantly shorter than for us, who are bound to our 4D spacetime.  EG, the famous "Folding space" metaphor.  (Draw two dots on a sheet of paper. What is the shortest distance between them? Well, you can draw a line on the paper between the two points (Shortest 2D distance), or you can make the distance 0, by curling the paper over on itself, so that two dots touch. (Shortest 3D path.)

Attempting to understand (and make use of) this higher dimensional gemoetric understanding of these creatures somehow causes madness in lovecraft's novellas, but that's another story completely. (I've touched on it previously already in other threads. Lovecraft apparently thought people were completely unable to handle such things at all. They go crazy at the smallest thing.)

One interesting feature of such a non-euclidian manifestation would be that it may appear to completely change form/structure, depending on the viewing angle, kinda like a hologram foil cup does, only with real manifestations (to us) instead of mere plays of light.

[MonkeyHead]

One interesting feature of such a non-euclidian manifestation would be that it may appear to completely change form/structure, depending on the viewing angle, kinda like a hologram foil cup does, only with real manifestations (to us) instead of mere plays of light.

Not that far off quantum spin, then, but macroscale.

[Angle]

Well no, theres more to it than that. Remember, Lovecraft lived around the turn of the century, when things like the true age of the earth, the true extent of space, and the true origins of humanity were first being discovered. You know how we have all those creationists and such running around? It was much worse back then. He literally thought people would go insane if they grasped the true magnitude of such things.

For example, let's suppose you have a set of beliefs. They make you happy, they explain the universe to your satisfaction, everyone you know shares them. Life is good. Now, let's suppose you encounter something that proves them all false. It shatters them into a million pieces and grinds their remnants into dust. How would you feel about that? For example, you believe that a loving god created humanity, and created the world for human benefit. Then you find proof - proof you can't possibly forget or ignore - that thats all false. The universe is vast and cold and  uncaring, humans evolved from monkeys, and the earth has been here for billions of years and we don't matter in the slightest. Worse, that's all dropped on you in an instant and you can't possibly deny it. How would you feel about that?

[MonkeyHead]

^ this is where cognitive dissonance kicks in for some, isn't it?

[scrdest]

Well no, theres more to it than that. Remember, Lovecraft lived around the turn of the century, when things like the true age of the earth, the true extent of space, and the true origins of humanity were first being discovered. You know how we have all those creationists and such running around? It was much worse back then. He literally thought people would go insane if they grasped the true magnitude of such things.

For example, let's suppose you have a set of beliefs. They make you happy, they explain the universe to your satisfaction, everyone you know shares them. Life is good. Now, let's suppose you encounter something that proves them all false. It shatters them into a million pieces and grinds their remnants into dust. How would you feel about that? For example, you believe that a loving god created humanity, and created the world for human benefit. Then you find proof - proof you can't possibly forget or ignore - that thats all false. The universe is vast and cold and  uncaring, humans evolved from monkeys, and the earth has been here for billions of years and we don't matter in the slightest. Worse, that's all dropped on you in an instant and you can't possibly deny it. How would you feel about that?

Oooor, you know, he was a writer who used concepts which were way big and popular at his time and mind-boggling enough for the average reader to evoke a sensation of 'WTF reality, Y U DO DIS?!'.

Same way kooks and sci-fi writers still use quantum everything to evoke bleeding edge scienciness- an average layman knows enough about the concept to know it's apparently a big new science thing which does things but not enough to understand that no, quantum whatever could not possibly make sense.

[Bohandas]

But where did the exact phrase "black geometry" specifically originate.

[Frumple]

Probably some teenager's bad poetry, really. Almost certainly the first instance, that.

All things considered, it probably even happened back in Pythagoras's time. Would not be surprised in the least if the phrase predated christianity :V

[penguinofhonor]

Is it not just a play on "black magic"?

[Calidovi]

Probably some teenager's bad poetry, really. Almost certainly the first instance, that.

Actually, I think it was poetry.

[MrWillsauce]

Hispanic calculus

[Orange Wizard]

Hispanic calculus

Vile hellspawn

[Rolan7]

Animism is the faith everybody has before they get converted by priests, or abandon faith for scientific testing.

[Graknorke]

Animism is the faith everybody has before they get converted by priests, or abandon faith for scientific testing.

Is it? I don't remember having any ideas about things having spirits in them besides those I picked up from media and other people.