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The word "Marine" is commonly used in sci-fi but is inherently misleading because Marine is shortened from "mariner" and a direct reference to water and seafaring navy. Also, "Space Marine" is trademarked by the company that owns Warhammer 40k.

Besides "Star Marine", any suggestions?

I am writing a military space opera set about 8000 years in the future. From the late 24th to the mid 41st centuries hundreds of interstellar colonization efforts were sent out before the beginning of the Dark Millennium (the equivalent of an interstellar Dark Age and period of isolation). As a result the colonists developed their own society, culture, languages, customs, etc distinct from Earth's.

One such group were the Taureans.

Taurus Prime is a warm, high gravity, volcanic world (due to tidal stresses from its moons) going through the equivalent of Earth's Mesozoic Era (late Jurassic/early Cretaceous to be more exact), and thus oxygen rich.

As a result, the Taureans resorted to cybernetics and advanced genetic modification and engineering to survive their adopted homeworld's harsh conditions. The bonded into clans and became powerful, hardy, and stalwart spiritual warriors with a strong sense of pride and honor and adhere to a strict philosophical code of moral, social, honor, and battle obligation that permeates every facet of their society.

Due to their genetic enhancements they have very acute senses and possess 3-4 times the strength of a normal human. They view scars as marks of survival and thus beautiful, while prizing the utmost in physical perfection. Taurean males are often considered the most beautiful and handsome in all of Earthspace due to their imposing physical demeanor; Taurean females do not share that honor (it generally goes to Vegan or Vulpeculii females).

Their culture favors blade weapons because in a high gravity environment and until the invention of advanced energy weapons, small arms were inefficient and heavy--not to mention minimally effective against the native wildlife.

Their architecture is low and sprawling (in a high gravity environment falling one or two floors or simply dropping something onto someone below can be near fatal at best) and they seem to have a universal acrophobia (fear of heights). Their language has myriad words for concepts such as "falling", "gravity", "height", "honor", etc.

Their society is pseudo-patriarchal. Clans are typically headed by males although females have on rare occasions taken up the duty. However, females do share full rights as their male counterparts.

They were partially inspired by Samurai and Spartans.

Any further suggestions?

I am writing a military space opera set about 8000 years in the future. From the late 24th to the mid 41st centuries hundreds of interstellar colonization efforts were sent out before the beginning of the Dark Millennium (the equivalent of an interstellar Dark Age and period of isolation). As a result the colonists developed their own society, culture, languages, customs, etc distinct from Earth's.

One such group were the Taureans.

Taurus Prime is a warm, high gravity, volcanic world (due to tidal stresses from its moons) going through the equivalent of Earth's Mesozoic Era (late Jurassic/early Cretaceous to be more exact), and thus oxygen rich.

As a result, the Taureans resorted to cybernetics and advanced genetic modification and engineering to survive their adopted homeworld's harsh conditions. The bonded into clans and became powerful, hardy, and stalwart spiritual warriors with a strong sense of pride and honor and adhere to a strict philosophical code of moral, social, honor, and battle obligation that permeates every facet of their society.

Due to their genetic enhancements they have very acute senses and possess 3-4 times the strength of a normal human. They view scars as marks of survival and thus beautiful, while prizing the utmost in physical perfection. Taurean males are often considered the most beautiful and handsome in all of Earthspace due to their imposing physical demeanor; Taurean females do not share that honor (it generally goes to Vegan or Vulpeculii females).

Their culture favors blade weapons because in a high gravity environment and until the invention of advanced energy weapons, small arms were inefficient and heavy--not to mention minimally effective against the native wildlife.

Their architecture is low and sprawling (in a high gravity environment falling one or two floors or simply dropping something onto someone below can be near fatal at best) and they seem to have a universal acrophobia (fear of heights). Their language has myriad words for concepts such as "falling", "gravity", "height", "honor", etc.

Their society is pseudo-patriarchal. Clans are typically headed by males although females have on rare occasions taken up the duty. However, females do share full rights as their male counterparts.

They were partially inspired by Samurai and Spartans.

Any further suggestions?

I'm writing a sci-fi novel and in it the warships have AI avatars/representatives that the human crew interacts with. One of the ships one of my main characters is originally assigned to is a dreadnought named the "Fury at T'v'Qar".

The nickname can be either masculine or feminine.

I'm black and a quarter Native (my Mom is 50% black, 25% Cherokee, 25% Sioux), so I find it VERY odd and even more disturbing that so many people flock to the very religion that exploited and destroyed them. My aunt "worries for my soul" because I deconverted from voodoo Christianity to agnostic-atheism. When I explained to her that a small part of the reason was in fact because of the atrocities that were committed against both sides of our ancestry by the religion, she didn't seem to grasp it.

Why is this? Does anyone else find this ironic?

One of my male characters is named Silen (pronounced sy-luhn). Which variant of spelling looks best?:

Silan

Sylan

Sylen

Silen

Sylun

Silun

Sylon

Silon

I am writing a sci-fi series set several thousand years in the future. I have a group of humans from Taurus Prime. At one point, nearly 5000 years ago, they were independent from the Earth Republic. What sounds like a better possessive form for someone from that world or referring to it (e.g. architecture)?

Tauri

Taurean

Taurusian

I am writing a sci-fi book set several thousand years in the future. There are human psychics and they are often times referred to as monks because of how they are raised within the Order of Psions and live their lives after completing their Life Rite.

They live in complexes named after ancient and legendary masters which they are most aligned with, but I can't decide whether to call these complexes "temples", "sanctuaries", or "monasteries". All have religious connotations but the psychics are not religious in any sense that we would relate to in today's world (I am creating an entirely new religion). I think the closest religion would be the Eastern ones (Zen Buddhism in particularly would be the closest, I suppose).

Examples:

Monastery of Hwan Zhu

Temple of Anja Abrahamovich

Sanctuary of Mukami Adongo

Also, I'm open to synonyms of the aforementioned words as well. Any suggestions?

I'm writing a science fiction novel and can't decide whether to name the human civilization Earth Republic or Solar Republic.

Changing the name also has implications on a variety of other things in the book. For instance, the military will be referred to as either "EarthForce" or "SolForce"; the navy as either "EarthFleet" or "SolFleet"; the government as "EarthGov" or "SolGov", etc, depending on which prefix I choose.

I've read several fantasy books. Some authors keep the original names of mythological creatures (minotaurs, phoenix, unicorns, etc) while others describe said creatures TO THE LETTER but give them a unique name for their setting.

I know some authors change the names for etymological reasons (for instance "minotaur" comes from the word "minos") and if their setting is a completely different realm, universe, etc, I can understand not having the roots to ancient Earth words.

Which do you (as a reader) think is better? For authors to keep original names of mythological creatures, or to create new names altogether to describe old things?

And even more interesting phenomena is this concept that morals (and hence morality) come from "god". What basis is there for this empty claim? Why do people vehemently persist in this ridiculous assertion?

I mean after all, we atheists are "immoral", so one of us being a doctor we must have an ulterior motive. We couldn't have truly altruistic intentions, could we?

Besides, in the end "God" will guide his/her hands, wouldn't "He"?

This is an excerpt from a novel I am writing. I wrote it in pseudo-purple prose intentionally to convey the other-worldly and stellar beauty of a nebula. How can I fix it and make it better? Criticisms please.:

The nebula enveloped the ship, its catacombs of light and entrails of wispy gases struck its highly polished hull. Beautiful staccato rainbows danced along its surface, stroking dazzling kaleidoscopic melodies that the eyes beheld as visual symphonies. The highly obscured light from stars in the background vied for every opportunity to grace the memories of all who had the fortune to behold it, as it would be forever emblazoned upon them.

At the heart of the nebula the black hole whom was responsible for this beauty flirted with and harassed its blue supergiant companion in an embrace of deception and beauty. In reality it was tango of death, and although the star was in denial and delayed the inevitable, everyone knew it would eventually concede defeat.

Over the last two years I've been to four funerals. All Christian, all in a church. And they ALL turned into a damn sermon!

I thought it was for the dead person! Why is the preacher/pastor trying to convert/"save" me!?

So, as an agnostic-atheist, it made me think: What is the best, secular way for an atheist to have a funeral or celebration of life?

I asked this question about 8 or so months ago and I am hoping to get a few more answers.

I am writing a fantasy epic and one of the characters (out of an entourage) is a Fara-Nor (what I call vampires--the word literally means "against Faraji", whom is the God of Death in the mythology I created).

My vampires were originally an immortal race that were the Guardians of the Nether-Realm, Shepherds of the Dead, and would ferry the souls of mortals across the Realms and enforce the will of the Death God. However, their leader (something akin to an archangel) fell in love with a mortal (a priestess of a new race called "Elves"), displeased, disobeyed, and rebelled against the god. In retaliation the Death God crafted the Blood Runes, thereby cursing them with mortality, the need to feed on the blood of other mortals, and weakness to the powers of his sister Vaayl, the Sun Goddess.

They still have superhuman strength, speed, etc, but are no longer immortal (though with their average lifespan of 3000-5000 years they might as well be). They can reproduce sexually just like Elves, Humans, etc, and only Elders (3000+) have the ability to "turn" a mortal. If any vampire other than an Elder turns a mortal, that individual becomes a frenzied, mindless, ravenous killing machine.

My vampires also earn certain abilities depending on what they feed; for instance, a human wizard's blood would be more beneficial than a commoner's; an Elven sorceress's blood more than a wizard; and a dragon's blood trumps everything.

They also pass on blood memories from generation to generation, and gain the blood memories of whatever they feed on (for example, if they feed on a dragon's blood--since dragons also pass on blood memory--they gain the knowledge of the entire flight)

Name: Azani Truth

Human female T5L5 (Tier 5, Level 5) Soft psychic

Homeworld: Vulpecula Prime (pop 200.2B).

Bio:

Orphaned as infant; Mother and Father were killed by her current Master (in self-defense).

Quiet, reserved, slightly introverted. Loves studying, researching, and learning; strives to attain the title/honor of Grandmaster within the Order of Psions and become the Overseer of Wisdom at the Monastery of the Order on Earth (pop. 275B). Due to overactive psineocortex (advanced psychic version of normal human brain) has astronomically high metabolism (requiring 8-10k calorie daily diet). She is (seemingly) always hungry (and therefore eating) or tired (and therefore sleeping). Due to her empathy is quite emotional (on the border of emotionally unstable) and subjective to the emotional thrashings of those around her; she is also VERY impatient (due to her precognitive abilities) and often comes off as rude (due to telepathy often interrupts to finish people's sentences)

Why do so many insist the Bible is "one flawless, divinely inspired book" when every book says something akin to "The Book of ______ according to [insert bullsh*tter here]"

This question was inspired by this question: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsU0C...

I used to take kung fu when I was younger and when it got back to some of the people at my church (I'm agnostic-atheist now) they warned me against demonic influences and said that chi was of the devil! I was young and didn't think anything of it.

Then, a few times on here, I've seen religious zealots post similar things: about ch'i/martial arts being of Lucifer, yadda yadda, yick yack.

Are these SERIOUSLY held beliefs?! And if so, on what grounds?!

When I have the ability to I would love to take my family and myself overseas to impoverished countries (and here Stateside as well) to help those that are genuinely in need: buy medicine, clothes, food, etc. However, as an agnostic-atheist I absolutely will not go under the banner of any religion, missionary, etc. What are some good 100% secular, non-religious organizations that would allow this to happen?

Also, given that the Red Cross derives its name from the Christian cross and Islamic crescent, is it really a non-religious organization?

So many say that there had to be a "god" in order to start it.

However, in order to make a statistical probabilistic determination you need a sample population from which to draw. In both cases, we only have one known sample population. Evolution and the Origin of the Universe are therefore both 1:1, thereby giving both evolution and the origin of the universe a 100% probability. Therefore, the universe and evolution are mathematical guarantees.

Thoughts? Opinions or comments on this reasoning?