I feel it's comforting how small we are. Whenever I get depressed or see the bad things in life, I just remember how much more is out there. It makes problems seem much smaller and makes me realize how foolish it is to worry too much about them.

(February 2, 2013 at 1:40 pm)Sedna Wrote: I feel it's comforting how small we are. Whenever I get depressed or see the bad things in life, I just remember how much more is out there. It makes problems seem much smaller and makes me realize how foolish it is to worry too much about them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

Totally...

“Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. The atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. You are all stardust. All the things that matter for evolution and for life weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars. The only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.”

Lawrence Krauss

I like that quote. Although I don't think the stars were ever much bothered either way by our existence or non-existence.

(January 30, 2013 at 7:22 pm)Ryantology Wrote: That's not to say that my brains are anything remarkable compared with other humans, they surely are not. But, human sentience is, as far as we can tell, a very special and unique thing, and even if it turns out that it is not entirely unique, the relatively insignificant amount of mass in this universe which makes thinking brains, all the thinking brains, anywhere in the universe, regardless of their limitations, is in a sense more significant than all the mass making up giant stars and galaxies.

Reminiscent of Sir Terry Pratchett's comments at the Grauniad Book Club, when he said that "Stars are not important; there is nothing interesting about stars. Streetlamps are very important, because they're so rare. As far as we know there's only a few million of them in the Universe. And they were built by monkeys!"

(February 2, 2013 at 11:19 am)Zone Wrote: Argument from fine tuning because we all know that machines are intelligently designed.

All human-made machines are intelligently-designed, but practically all human mechanical endeavors emulate natural systems. There are many examples of machines which are not intelligently-designed: the human body for starters.

I love the last two lines of the Galaxy Song - And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

(February 5, 2013 at 2:15 am)Ryantology Wrote: All human-made machines are intelligently-designed, but practically all human mechanical endeavors emulate natural systems. There are many examples of machines which are not intelligently-designed: the human body for starters.

The human body is a part of the natural universe as a whole so if the universe were intelligently designed then the human body would be by extension as part of a directional process. It's close to deism but all you need do is claim that God can also interact with the universe. By keeping God distinct from the universe pantheism is avoided as well. So I think Christians are fine when it comes to science there's little to threaten them from that direction.

Certainly, Christians can claim that God did it. They can and will claim that about everything. But, who cares? The people responsible for actually figuring out how the universe works generally do not care about their ridiculous claims.

"Je n'ai pas eu besoin de cette hypothèse."

(February 5, 2013 at 12:52 am)Violet Lilly Blossom Wrote:

(February 2, 2013 at 1:40 pm)Sedna Wrote: I feel it's comforting how small we are. Whenever I get depressed or see the bad things in life, I just remember how much more is out there. It makes problems seem much smaller and makes me realize how foolish it is to worry too much about them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

Totally...

THAT. WAS. FUCKING. AWESOME!