Twilight can’t be an atheist. Ponies can’t be atheists…they live in a freakin’ magical talking horse world led by a sun goddess and her moon goddess little sister. You’d have to be pretty dumb to be an atheist in Equestria. ’Nuff said.

@Background Pony #A640  

@kyle dm  
True. Though, in Twilight’s defense, Discord probably wasn’t even the precursor of a thought when this episode was made.

I just want to say that Twilight is wrong on one account, namely that celestia explicitly called discord out as being a spirit if disharmony, so yeah.

@Background Pony #1EE8
 
Well these are just the ways I look at things but even if they really have figured out how such large planes are able to fly dispite the wings being of such smaller size compared to the aircraft, bumble bees by much the same mechanism (I have often suspected the changes in the density of the air due to the pressure waves created by something moving through it) and how we can move our arms above our heads dispite it being above the axis then good!
 
But we’re these questions answered by someone just going, “I do not understand and thus these things do not exist” or was it by someone admitting that these things did exist but that there was not yet an explanation and thus worked to find one?
 
 
@Background Pony #D297  
True as I said in my previous comment I do wish Twilight had continued her research afterwards I still do not see the episode as a complete throw away.
 
As I again said in the last comment their may not be time for truly complete explanations before the window of opportunity closes.
 
While one must always look before they leap how does one ever know when they are truly done looking?  
And if one has already decided they shall never leap at all what is the point of looking in the first place?  
In the end isn’t all of life just a calculated risk?
 
Granted at least by the parameters of a Judaeo type God there is a bit of a hitch in that if such a being as God does exist and we would only ever believe in said being if we could truly comprehend them could we ever believe in them should they exist? And if we could truly grasp all that they were and encompass them in our minds then which being would thus be greater?
 
These are the ways I look at things anyways.

@Jarkes  
Woah. What. Really? I’d love to see more on that. I can’t quite wrap my head around how the debate between those two schools of thought (which actually mesh quite well together) mirrors the message of that particular episode. _{(Though I might just not understand physics as well as I think that I do. :3)}
 
@Background Pony Number 17  
Don’t be silly Background Pony, this fandom believes in recycling. :P

@amess  
It doesn’t necessarily make it false, but until there’s enough evidence to prove something beyond a reasonable doubt, you shouldn’t believe it. Religion provides no evidence outside of a funny feeling that a god is communicating with you and therefore should not believe since we know feelings aren’t reliable evidence.
 
In the context of Feeling Pinkie Keen, it was pretty unreasonable for Twilight to completely deny it given how many coincidences there were, but the episode utterly failed at providing a moral that can be applied to real life. The whole thing felt like a strawman argument against atheism and a completely ridiculous assumption of how far people would go to deny it. The existsnce of a god is nowhere near as apparent as Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense was. So, if it had just been a dumb little cartoon to make you laugh with no moral, it would have been fine, but the fact that it tries to pass off an awful lesson that doesn’t apply to anything in the real world, it’s horrible.
 
Twilight even did attempt to understand it and Pinkie basically gave her a shitty argument for faith as a retort. That’s a horrendous thing to try to teach kids! Even for things that do undeniably exist, what the episode tells kids is to basically give up trying to understand any of it and not bother thinking. Fuck that! I’m glad Lauren Faust appologized for that episode.

Didn’t we go through all this four years ago?

@amess  

 
747s fly according to the same principles as any fixed wing aircraft. If we didn’t understand how they worked they couldn’t have been engineered.
 
Bumblebee flight isn’t a mystery at all.
 
And for the shoulder thing we have a ball and socket joint capable of rotating our arm upward coupled with a muscular structure that’s capable of pulling it there.  

Bullshit she talks to a flipping goddess level pony, and became one herself.

@Exedrus  
Indeed, and I think it is a good lesson too, granted I would have liked it hinted at that Twilight would continue her attempts at understanding afterwards simply with the hope of further understanding but you get what you get.
 
Sometimes a true friend simply might not have enough time, know just how to explain it, or perhaps somehow not be at liberty to divulge the relevant information. Granted friends are still human and as such will have various flaws which will need to be taken into consideration if when it comes down to it you have to put anything your friend says through the same hoops as a perfect stranger or even an adversary then just how diffrent is your relationship with you friend from that of a stranger or opponent?
 
That’s my thought on that episode anyways.
 
 
When it comes to “science vs religion” I figure just because we do not yet understand something does not make it necessarily false. For instance the last I heard our mathematical formulas still cannot account for how bumblebees or 747s can fly or even why we can lift our arms above our shoulders, according to the known math these things should not be but it does not make them any less true.
 
The man who scoffs at that which he does not understand shuts the door on his chance to learn.

@Background Human
 
Supposedly the intention for the episode was more of a “Newtonian physics vs. Einsteinian physics” debate.

@Velcro  
Except that all the evidence in the episode supported the existence of Pinkie Sense. It’s a real phenomenon, just one that lacks a satisfactory explanation. There are plenty of real-world physical phenomena that are in the same boat: we don’t really know what the hell’s going on, but we know the math checks out, so screw it, at least until we get more evidence or a better theory. In that sense, the episode was more about the nature of science and the limits of skepticism than about religion and tolerating your stupid friends’ stupid beliefs.
 
The moral was a bit confused, is what I’m saying.

Actually, since there is no mention of religion, either expressly or by implication, that’s “Twilight Sparkle confirmed as smart, well-educated, and sceptical.”
 
Of course, given that religion is made-up, superstitious baloney, this combination can often lead to atheism, but it’s not the same thing.

@Exedrus  
Yeah, Feeling Pinkie Keen was that one that said ‘screw trying to find evidence, if your friend tells you that Allah is the one true god, just believe it’.

@JJMDude  
Again, I think it’s more about being open minded and skeptical, as opposed to being closed-minded and cynical.

@Exedrus  
Yeah, and it’s the most asinine “moral”, and most poisonous sentiment this show has ever proffered. “Pinkie Keen” is far and away the worst episode of MLP as far as I’m concerned, because it’s ultimate message comes off as anti-curiosity and anti-critical-thinking. Just believe what your friends believe blindly and don’t rock the boat!
 
I’ll be the first to say that Twilight’s methodology to understanding Pinkie Sense sucks, because she’s trying to prove a negative. She doesn’t have the burden of proof until she foolishly tries to declare that Pinkie Sense can’t be real and takes on a losing prospect.
 
That, and the fact that the Universe itself seems to punish and reward Twilight for no reason whatsoever. By the end, she’s rewarded for LITERALLY JUMPING OFF A CLIFF BECAUSE HER FRIEND SAID SO, with impossibly crossing a gap even Pinkie couldn’t have know was possible.
 
Hate the episode. Hate hate hated it! Hated every stupid, simpering, audience-insulting moment of it!

I thought all ponies believed in Fausticorn, their true creator… literally.

“These supernatural things are just ridiculous,” said the flying magic princess horse who can shoot rainbows thanks to a gem she got from the friendship tree.

@Background Pony #D297  
Right! Sorry, I was confusing this for Twilight’s soapbox speech. I guess I have an excuse to watch the entire series all over again now.

@Sploich  
You might be thinking of the episode “Feeling Pinkie Keen”. Ya know the one where the moral was:  

@Kolbjorn  
Spirits and the existence of the supernatural are pretty big to every major religion.
 
@Sploich  
That has nothing to do with this episode. This is from the one with Zecora.