Dafayan University of Science and Art

OOC:This is a work in progress and should not be seen as In-game untill this OOC message is removed. The school is being planned and founded by the artist/teacher Dafayo Vashmere in hopes to bring a new level of learning and teaching to mankind. This is part of a large campaign to make Eston the cultural and academical center of the known world. The university is not built yet and await the proper funding and consent of the good King Andrew of Eston. Dafayo hopes to become the founder of this university by becoming a local lord or by accepting the right to found the guild

The Dafayan University of Science and Art

The Dafayan University of Science and Art (The DUSA) offers courses in modern philosophy science and art.

Tuition

Amounts paid to this educational organization are needed to maintain a regular faculty and curriculum and has a regularly enrolled body of pupils in attendance at the place where its educational activities are carried on. Tuition is not tax deductible unless it is incurred by the King or Ruler of the land the University exists within.

Earning your degree

Advacing in rank translates into degree's earned within the school. Once a degree is obtained, the student has earn his legal and educational rights to teach or operate within such laws and issues of said course. The land supporting the University will not only recognize but also respect your degrees within the limits of the law.

Secularism.

Sec·u·lar·ism: (sĕk'yə-lə-rĭz'əm) n.

Religious skepticism or indifference. The view that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public education.

secularist: sec'u·lar·ist n.

secularistic: sec'u·lar·is'tic adj.

Secularism

Secularity is the state of being free from religious or spiritual qualities. For instance, eating a meal, playing a game, or bathing are examples of secular activities, because there is nothing inherently religious about them. Saying a prayer or visiting a place of worship are examples of non-secular activities. A synonym for secular is worldly.

Secularism refers to a belief that many human activities and decisions should be free from religious interference. For example, a society deciding whether to promote birth control might consider the issues of disease prevention, family planning, and biblical righteousness. A secularist would argue that the religious issues are irrelevant to the decision.

Secular movements

Its proponents argue secularism is the concept that societies should be governed by a process of reasoning rather than dogmatic belief. Its opponents argue that secularism is a concept which, instead of presenting freedom of religion, actually holds all religions in contempt.

State Secularism

In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of church and state. This is the idea that religion should not interfere with or be integrated into the public affairs of a society. This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion.

Secularism is often associated with "Enlightenment", and plays a major role in modern society. The principles, but not necessarily practices, of Separation of church and state in modern States and Kingdoms draw heavily on secularism.

Government Secularism

In this sense, secularists would prefer that politicians make decisions based on secular reasons, rather than religious ones. Decisions about many contemporary issues, such as cruel experiments on humans and sex education of children, should not be made on the basis of religious belief

Societal Secularism

Secularism can also be the social ideology in which religion and supernatural beliefs are not seen as the key to understanding the world and are instead segregated from matters of governance and reasoning. In this sense, secularism can be involved in the promotion of science, reason, and naturalistic thinking.

Secularism can also mean the practice of working to promote any of those three forms of secularism. It should not be assumed that an advocate of secularism in one sense will also be a secularist in any other sense. Secularism does not necessarily equate to atheism; indeed, many secularists have counted themselves among the religious.

Some societies become increasingly secular as the result of natural social processes, rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement.

Secular ethics

Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three: (1) The improvement of this life by material means. (2) That science is the available Providence of man. (3) That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good. Secularism should take no interest at all in religious questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from strong freethought and atheism.

Secular society

In studies of religion, societies should be generally recognized as secular. Generally, there is near-complete freedom of religion (one may believe in any religion or none at all, with little legal or social sanction). Religious references should be considered out-of-place in mainstream politics. Religious influence should also be largely minimised in the public sphere, and religion should no longer hold the same importance in government systems.

Modern sociology, is born of a crisis of legitimation resulting from challenges to traditional religious authority. Twentieth-century scholars whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters are named below.

Humanism

Hu·man·ism (hyū'mə-nĭz'əm) n.

• A system of thought that rejects religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.

Concern with the interests, needs, and welfare of humans.

• Medicine. The concept that concern for human interests, values, and dignity is of the utmost importance to the care of the sick.

• The study of the humanities; learning in the liberal arts.

• Humanism is a cultural and intellectual movement of the Renaissance that emphasizes secular concerns as a result of the rediscovery and study of the literature, art, and civilization of true science.

Humanism: A philosophical and literary movement in which man and his capabilities are the central concern. The term is restricted to a point of view prevalent among thinkers in the Renaissance of science and philosophy. The distinctive characteristics of humanism is its emphasis on classical studies, or the humanities, and a conscious return to classical ideals and forms. Modern usage of the term has had diverse meanings, but some contemporary emphases are on lasting human values, cultivation of the classics, and respect for scientific knowledge.

Humanism is a comprehensive lifestance that upholds human reason, ethics, and justice, and rejects supernaturalism, pseudo science and superstition.

Humanism has appeal to atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, empiricists, rationalists, and sceptics. Humanism is non-theistic and secular, and shares many beliefs with secular humanism.

Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights endorses international human rights for Freedom of Religion and Belief.

An international law that protects freedom of religion and belief Must created to insure modern growth of man. This protection should extend to those professing belief in no religion which includes Humanist, Atheist, Rationalist and Agnostic beliefs, as well as those who adhear to mythical or biblical ways of life.

Today man's larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. Such a vital, fearless, and frank religion capable of furnishing adequate social goals and personal satisfactions may appear to many people as a complete break with the past. While this age does owe a vast debt to the traditional religions, it is none the less obvious that any religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present. It is a responsibility which rests upon this generation. We therefore affirm the following:

To Be a true Humanist

FIRST: Humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.

SECOND: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.

THIRD: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.

FOURTH: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture.

FIFTH: Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values. Obviously humanism does not deny the possibility of realities as yet undiscovered, but it does insist that the way to determine the existence and value of any and all realities is by means of intelligent inquiry and by the assessment of their relations to human needs. Religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and method.

SIXTH: We are convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of "new thought".

SEVENTH: Religion consists of those actions, purposes, and experiences which are humanly significant. Nothing human is alien to the religious. It includes labor, art, science, philosophy, love, friendship, recreation — all that is in its degree expressive of intelligently satisfying human living. The distinction between the sacred and the secular can no longer be maintained.

EIGHTH: Religious Humanism considers the complete realization of human personality to be the end of man's life and seeks its development and fulfillment in the here and now. This is the explanation of the humanist's social passion.

NINTH: In the place of the old attitudes involved in worship and prayer the humanist finds his religious emotions expressed in a heightened sense of personal life and in a cooperative effort to promote social well-being.

TENTH: It follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions and attitudes of the kind hitherto associated with belief in the supernatural.

ELEVENTH: Man will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by custom. We assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.

TWELFTH: Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and to encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life.

THIRTEENTH: Religious humanism maintains that all associations and institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. The intelligent evaluation, transformation, control, and direction of such associations and institutions with a view to the enhancement of human life is the purpose and program of humanism. Certainly religious institutions, their ritualistic forms, ecclesiastical methods, and communal activities must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows, in order to function effectively in the modern world.

FOURTEENTH: The humanists are firmly convinced that existing acquisitive and profit-motivated society has shown itself to be inadequate and that a radical change in methods, controls, and motives must be instituted. A socialized and cooperative economic order must be established to the end that the equitable distribution of the means of life be possible. The goal of humanism is a free and universal society in which people voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good. Humanists demand a shared life in a shared world.

FIFTEENTH AND LAST: We assert that humanism will: (a) affirm life rather than deny it; (b) seek to elicit the possibilities of life, not flee from them; and (c) endeavor to establish the conditions of a satisfactory life for all, not merely for the few. By this positive morale and intention humanism will be guided, and from this perspective and alignment the techniques and efforts of humanism will flow.

Ethics

The word ethics is derived from the word "ethos", which means "character," and from the word "mores", which means "customs." In modern society, it defines how individuals should choose to interact with one another.

Ethics

A branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of ultimate value and the standards by which human actions can be judged right or wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles. Ethics is traditionally subdivided into normative ethics, metaethics, and applied ethics. Normative ethics seeks to establish norms or standards of conduct; a crucial question in this field is whether actions are to be judged right or wrong based on their consequences or based on their conformity to some moral rule, such as “Do not tell a lie.” Theories that adopt the former basis of judgment are called "consequentialist", those that adopt the latter are known as "deontological".

Metaethics

Metaethics is concerned with the nature of ethical judgments and theories. Since the beginning of the modern century, much work in metaethics has focused on the logical and semantic aspects of moral language. Some major metaethical theories are naturalism, intuitionism, emotivism, and prescriptivism.

Applied ethics

As the name implies, consists of the application of normative ethical theories to practical moral problems (e.g., Murder, death sentence, abortion). Among the major fields of applied ethics are bioethics, business ethics, legal ethics, and medical ethics.

Ethics has developed as people have reflected on the intentions and consequences of their acts. From this reflection on the nature of human behavior, theories of conscience have developed, giving direction to much ethical thinking.

Law vs Ethics

Laws also permit many actions that will not bear ethical scrutiny. In other words, what the law permits or requires is not necessarily what is ethically right. For instance, laws allow disloyalty toward friends, the breaking of promises that do not have the stature of legal contracts, and a variety of deceptions. Ethics do not take order over law. Nor are Ethical ideals to be forced on merit alone. When law backs up ethical morality, modern man will be better off as a whole.

Although local, state, and federal regulatory acts do influence the conduct of some professions, many ethical issues cannot be settled by the courts. The ethics of a particular act is many times determined independently of the legality of the conduct. In fact, decisive answers cannot always be given for many ethical issues because there are no enforceable standards or reliable theories for resolving ethical conflicts.

Code of Ethics

A code of ethics provides members of a profession or socieity with standards of behavior and principles to be observed regarding their moral and professional obligations toward one another, their clients, and society in general. A code of ethics is generally developed by a professional society within a particular profession. The higher the degree of professionalism required of society members, the stronger and therefore more enforceable the code. For instance, in medicine, the behavior required is more specific and the consequences are more stringent in the code of ethics for physicians than in the code of ethics for nurses.

A universal and offical Code of Ethics Must be formally created and agreed on by mankind as a whole to ever move into a modern age of new thinking and progress as a whole.

Art

Art: (ärt) n.

• Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.

• The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or temporary medium.

• The study of these activities.

• The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.

• High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value.

• A field or category of art, such as music, ballet, or literature.

• A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.

• A system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.

• A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.

• Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the art.

• Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: “Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice” (Joyce Carol Oates).

• Arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.Artful contrivance; cunning.

• Printing. Illustrative material.

Art Theory

A object or sound experience consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination. The term art encompasses diverse media such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, decorative arts, caligraphy, and installation. The various visual arts exist within a continuum that ranges from purely aesthetic purposes at one end to purely utilitarian purposes at the other. This should by no means be taken as a rigid scheme, however, particularly in cultures in which everyday objects are painstakingly constructed and imbued with meaning. Particularly in the modern century, debates arise over the definition of art. Figures such as Dafayo Vashmere have implied that it is enough for an artist to deem something “art” and put it in a publicly accepted venue. Such intellectual experimentation continued throughout the modern century in movements such as conceptual art and Minimalism further challenging traditional definitions of art.

Science

Sci·ence: (sī'əns) n.

• The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.

• Such activities restricted to a class of natural phenomena.

• Such activities applied to an object of inquiry or study.

• Methodological activity, discipline, or study.

• An activity that requires rational study and method.

• Factual Knowledge, especially that gained through experience.

Science

In common usage the word science is applied to a variety of disciplines or intellectual activities which have certain features in common. Usually a science is characterized by the possibility of making precise statements which are susceptible of some sort of check or proof. This often implies that the situations with which the special science is concerned can be made to recur in order to submit themselves to check, although this is by no means always the case. There are observational sciences such as astronomy or geology in which repetition of a situation at will is intrinsically impossible, and the possible precision is limited to precision of description.

A common method of classifying sciences is to refer to them as either exact sciences or descriptive sciences. Examples of the former are physics and, to a lesser degree, chemistry; and of the latter, taxonomical botany or zoology. The exact sciences are in general characterized by the possibility of exact measurement. One of the most important tasks of a descriptive science is to develop a method of description or classification that will permit precision of reference to the subject matter.

The Scientific Method

The scientific method has evolved and has now come to be described in terms of a well-recognized and well-defined series of steps. First, information is gathered by careful observation of the phenomenon being studied. On the basis of that information a preliminary generalization, or hypothesis, is formed, usually by inductive reasoning, and this in turn leads by deductive logic to a number of implications that may be tested by further observations and experiments. If the conclusions drawn from the original hypothesis successfully meet all these tests, the hypothesis becomes accepted as a scientific theory or law; if additional facts are in disagreement with the hypothesis, it may be modified or discarded in favor of a new hypothesis, which is then subjected to further tests. Even an accepted theory may eventually be overthrown if enough contradictory evidence is found, as in the case of false mechanics, which earn acceptance to be an approximation of truth when in truth they are falsehoods.

Branches of Specialization

Degrees can be earned in the following braches of science.

Science may be roughly divided into the physical sciences, the earth sciences, and the life sciences. Mathematics, while not a science, is closely allied to the sciences because of their extensive use of it. Indeed, it is frequently referred to as the language of science, the most important and objective means for communicating the results of science.

The physical sciences

• The physical sciences include: Physics, chemistry, and astronomy

The earth sciences

• The earth sciences (sometimes considered a part of the physical sciences) include: Geology, paleontology, oceanography, and meteorology

The Life sciences

• Life sciences include: All the branches of biology such as botany, zoology, and medicine.

Each of these subjects is itself divided into different branches—e.g., mathematics into arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and analysis; physics into mechanics, thermodynamics, optics, acoustics, energy and magnetism, and subatomic physics. In addition to these separate branches, there are numerous fields that draw on more than one branch of science, e.g., astrophysics, biophysics, biochemistry, geochemistry, and geophysics.

All of these areas of study might be called pure sciences, in contrast to the applied, or engineering, sciences, i.e., technology, which is concerned with the practical application of the results of scientific activity. Such fields include mechanical, civil, aeronautical, architectural, chemical, and other kinds of engineering; agronomy, horticulture, and animal husbandry; and many aspects of medicine. Finally, there are distinct disciplines for the study of the history and philosophy of science.

History

All offered courses are of Atamara's history as of now.

his·to·ry (hĭs'tə-rē) n., pl. -ries.

• A usually chronological record of events, as of the life or development of a people or institution, often including an explanation of or commentary on those events.

• A formal written account of related natural phenomena: a history of volcanoes.

• The branch of knowledge that records and analyzes past events: “History has a long-range perspective”

History

History, in its broadest sense, is the story of humanity's past. It also refers to the recording of that past. The diverse sources of history include books, newspapers, printed documents, personal papers, and other archival records, artifacts, and oral accounts. Historians use this material to form coherent narratives and uncover linked sequences and patterns in past events. Most histories are concerned with causality, that is, why certain outcomes happened as they did, and how they are linked to earlier events.The concern with separating fact from fiction and legend must be upheld to graduate and work within the historic socieities of man

Historic class

There are several different ways of classifying historical information:

• Chronological (by date)
• Geographical (by region)
• National (by nation)
• Ethnic (by ethnic group)
• Topical (by subject or topic)

Historical records

Historians obtain information about the past from various kinds of sources, including written or printed records, coins or other artifacts, buildings and monuments, and interviews (oral history). Different approaches may be more common in the study of some periods than in others, and perspectives of history (historiography) vary widely.

Historical records have been maintained for a variety of reasons, including administrative (such as censuses, tax records, commercial records), political (glorification or criticism of leaders and notable figures), religious, artistic, sporting , genealogical, personal (letters), and entertainment.

'Atamara's combined historic information can be found and studied in Atamara's Wiki. A endless wealth of fact and fiction is to be found there.'

Occult Study

oc·cult: (ə-kŭlt', ŏk'ŭlt')

• Of, relating to, or dealing with supernatural influences, agencies, or phenomena.

• Beyond the realm of human comprehension; inscrutable.

• Available occult lore.

• Occult practices or techniques: a student of the occult.

Occult

The word occult comes from the word "occultus" (clandestine, hidden, secret), referring to the 'knowledge of the secret' or 'knowledge of the hidden' and often popularly meaning 'knowledge of the supernatural', as opposed to 'knowledge of the visible' or 'knowledge of the measurable', usually referred to as a form of science. The modern term's meaning is often imprecisely translated and used as a term for 'secret knowledge' or 'hidden knowledge', in the sense of meaning 'knowledge meant only for certain people' or 'knowledge that must be kept hidden'. For most practicing occultists, however, it is simply the study of a deeper spiritual "reality" that cannot be understood using pure reason or physical sciences.

Occultism

Occultism is the study of supposed occult or hidden wisdom. To the Occultist it is the study of Truth, or rather the deeper truth that exists beyond the surface: 'The Truth Is Always Hidden In Plain Sight'. It may be considered by some to be a 'grey' area, perhaps larger than any other in the realm of religion. It can deal with subjects ranging from talismans, magic (alternatively spelled and defined as magick), sorcery, and voodoo, to ESP (Extra-sensory perception), astrology, numerology, lucid dreams, or many religions.

The word "occult" is somewhat generic, in that most everything that isn't claimed by any of the major religions (and many things that are) is considered to be occult. Many authors have added insight to the study of the Occult by drawing parallels between different disciplines.

Study

Direct insight into or perception of the occult is said not to consist of access to physically measurable facts, but is arrived at through the mind or the spirit. The term can refer to mental, psychological or spiritual training. It is important to note, however, that many occultists will also study science (perceiving science as a branch of Alchemy) to add validity to occult knowledge in a day and age where the mystical can easily be undermined as flights-of-fancy. An oft-cited means of gaining insight into the occult is the use of a focus. A focus may be a physical object, a ritualistic action (for example, meditation or chanting), or a medium in which one becomes wholly immersed. The previous examples are just a few examples of the vast and numerous avenues that can be explored.

This course will not teach Occult ritual or practice. It simply is the study of such science and mythos.