The Scale of the Universe

[Lord Bracknell]

Religion was 'invented' a few thousand years ago when people knew no better. As far as they were concerned the earth was flat, the moon was as far as space stretched and a 'God' was the only possible explanation for life.

Now we do know better. The universe is insanely big (see OP), fossils have been found proving, yes proving, life existed here 100 million years ago. These two simple truths cannot be explained away a religion that sticks to the Bible - unless you are willing to bend the rules a bit...

It is staggering how much influence religion still has on this planet.

As I've said earlier, I don't think religion was invented to explain the origins of the universe. That might be the impression you get, if all you read is the Book of Genesis. Read on a bit further and you'll discover that much of the Old Testament is about engendering a mistrust of foreigners. A belief that is followed, faithfully, by many people to this day. Even atheists.

 

[gripper stebson]

It's difficult to not be fixated by the concepts of before and after, it's hard to imagine anything else - but time has not always existed, so if a diety did create this universe it may have came from a timeless existence, or perhaps it came into being with the universe itself...

That's a handy little change of events!

Wonder why 'he' waited a 4.5 billion years to create man.

Lazy!

 

[Monkey Man]

This argument that "the world/universe is tailored to suit us, so therefore it must have been designed" is crazy.

We EVOLVED to suit the conditions around us. When those conditions change - and they will - we will either evolve again to adapt to them, or go extinct, just like all species that have ever lived.

And even if the universe WAS the work of intelligent design: how come human beings have been assigned a tiny rock in the middle of nowhere, entirely reliant on a star that is going to blow itself up in a few billion years?

 

[jgmcdee]

It's difficult to not be fixated by the concepts of before and after, it's hard to imagine anything else - but time has not always existed, so if a diety did create this universe it may have came from a timeless existence, or perhaps it came into being with the universe itself...

So that explains why he's off the meat.

 

[jgmcdee]

Let's remember what Jonathan Swift said: "It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"

If people want to embarrass themselves worshipping some all-powerful being who, if anything can be read in to history, is all of capricious, evil and uncaring at the same time, and tie themselves in to knots to explain how said all-powerful being fits in to today's world that's fine. The rest of us have football to talk about.

 

[Frutos]

no...THIS is patronising

I think you may have misunderstood the post.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

If people want to embarrass themselves

why do threads like this have to descend into bullshit statements like this?

 

[Hungry Joe]

I can understand to a point people wanting to believe a spiritualist system that promises them some comfort from the inevitability of their physical death, but a far more healthy and sensible approach is that taken by people like Wilco Johnson, who facing death recently mused words to the effect of 'Why be scared of not existing? You won't exist to experience not existing. I'm ok with not existing, I've had billions of years practice after all'.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

I think you may have misunderstood the post.

which bit? the bit where he said my beliefs are 'pointless' or where they're 'ridiculous'?

 

[Frutos]

which bit? the bit where he said my beliefs are 'pointless' or where they're 'ridiculous'?

I think you've totally misunderstood what event the post is about.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

I think you've totally misunderstood what event the post is about.

clearly!

 

[Frutos]

clearly!

Read it and think about what other thing, in the context of this board, those statements would fit with.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Read it and think about what other thing, in the context of this board, those statements would fit with.

I apologise

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I thought it was Jesus who wore the sandals, not God.

I see God as the Crocs type...it can be the only reason why mere mortals wear them.

 

[Hungry Joe]

I see God as the Crocs type...it can be the only reason why mere mortals wear them.

Proof at last! Rejoice!

 

[jgmcdee]

why do threads like this have to descend into bullshit statements like this?

Mine wasn't the first.

Explain your reasoning as to how you came to believe in God. At what point did you decide God might exist, at what point did you test your idea and how did you prove it? Didn't? Then your belief is just that: pure guesswork from uninformed opinion. And if you then go around stating it as some sort of fact, just because it's in your head, then yes that's embarrassing.

 

[Trufflehound]

Those yoctometers look ENORMOUS.

Not just the yoctometers, the cybermen and autons did too. In fact, when I was a kid, all the monsters on Doctor Who looked ENORMOUS.

 

[Eggmundo]

I apologise

I was being facetious!

Personally I like the whole church experience!(Yes..Church as In Christian!)

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Proof at last! Rejoice!

Thank you. I feel enormously proud to have solved a great theo-sociological mystery this morning.

 

[jgmcdee]

Have you never wondered what defines the laws of physics?

Have you never read up on the Multiverse? According to multiverse theory all of the possible universes exist, however only the ones with suitable physical constants would survive to the point in which we live in them.

Give everyone a slip of paper in the AmEx tomorrow and ask them to guess 10 results from other games in the Championship prior to kick-off. Will you worship those who get it right as having magical powers of prediction or just accept that with that many people someone was bound to hit on the results by pure chance?