A question of religion & engineering: how do you face Mecca if you're in orbit?

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If you're in low earth orbit, it does matter. If you're in geosynchronous orbit, mecca is in the same direction always.

If you're in deep space: "towards that little blue dot"

― jw (ex machina), Monday, 4 December 2006 23:38 (seventeen years ago) link

if you're in another universe?

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:05 (seventeen years ago) link

somersaults

― remy bean (bean), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:09 (seventeen years ago) link

why is it stupid, hurting? why is it stupid, louis?

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:18 (seventeen years ago) link

why do you care if a muslim wants to face mecca from space? i imagine that since muslims and space stations are very far from your day to day experience you really shouldn't give a shit what muslims care to do on space stations.

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:20 (seventeen years ago) link

it's not stupid, dude. for fuck's sake, the idiots on this thread who interpreted my entirely innocent reference to the ILX sandbox as a racist taunt...you make me sick. (not you vahid!)

there's nothing wrong with praying towards mecca. i really don't mind what they do. i was only trying to make a joke... :-(

― Louis Jagger (Scourage), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:22 (seventeen years ago) link

don't let it get you down, kiddo

go see the fuck a creationist thread if you want to see disdain for a religion

― bliss (blass), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:28 (seventeen years ago) link

vahid totally OTM.

i imagine that since muslims and space stations are very far from your day to day experience you really shouldn't give a shit what muslims care to do on space stations.

I don't. I really, deeply do not care.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:29 (seventeen years ago) link

go see the fuck a creationist thread if you want to see disdain for a religion

haha welcome to little club

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:30 (seventeen years ago) link

i'd rather not ... but also let's not forget that when religionists consider these (silly seeming) questions really really seriously, once in a while religious laws get loosened up as a result ... see "how do muslims do the fast at the north pole?" and so on (answer, decided 500 years ago: "ok, you don't have to fast if it will kill you")

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:45 (seventeen years ago) link

in other words, if christians never worried about how many angels danced on the head of a pin, they might never have produced aquinas or pascal, right?

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Right (xpost), and as long as that's the answer, it's fine. I don't think religion is stupid, just orthodoxy. Believe me, I was raised Jewish, and Judaism is probably more prone to ridiculous technicality than any other religion. But as long as you stay out of that territory, I have no problem with it.

― Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:51 (seventeen years ago) link

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