(May 24, 2014 at 9:52 pm)topher Wrote: This is a point I recently raised with a Christian friend of mine. Potential rambling ahead, beware.
Before Galileo and Copernicus helped to destroy the geocentric model of the universe, it was almost universally accepted amongst all religious people, with Christians in particular. The reason is, no doubt, that it fits the best with the religious text, and if one accepts the Bible as fact, then geocentrism pretty much logically follows. After all, if an all-powerful, all-knowing, intelligent super-being created the Earth from nothing, with the intention of placing his most cherished creation upon it, it seems odd that he would NOT make it the center of the universe.
Of course, we know this is indeed not the case, the Earth is not the center of much of anything, as far as we can tell. Heliocentrism has been demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt, and even Christians accept this as fact. The more we discover about the universe, the more insignificant the Earth becomes. Each time we expand our cosmological horizon, the Bible makes less and less sense. (Except for Louie Giglio, who somehow believes the vastness of the universe actually proves God's existence. http://atheistforums.org/images/smilies/huh2.gif)
So why does the fact that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies, each containing hundreds of billions of stars, not raise a red flag for Christians? If the Lord is truly capable of anything, why not create the most simple design possible? Why fill the universe with an unimaginable number of worlds that humanity will never, ever explore? And, more importantly, what could be better proof for skeptics than the Earth being clearly created as the most important place in existence?
But, this will not faze a true believer, I've found. They are convinced that, while the Earth may not be the cosmological center of the universe, it is the spiritual center of the universe, and it is the only planet that God really even cares about.
This IS geocentrism. And it's as ridiculous to me as any "special snowflake" philosophy out there. So I went ahead and crunched a few numbers. Keep in mind, these are very rough estimates, and I was being pretty generous, keeping the numbers on the lower end of the scale.
Take the estimated number of planets in an average galaxy: 1,000,000,000,000 or 10^12.
Take the estimated number of galaxies in the observable universe: 150,000,000,000 or 1.5x10^11.
Therefore, the estimated number of planets in the observable universe roughly equals: 150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 1.5x10^23. "One-hundred fifty sextillion" (!)
(To put that into perspective, the number of seconds that have passed since the Big Bang is roughly: 432,339,120,000,000,000 or 4.3233912 x 10^17. 1.5x10^23 is more than 375,000 times larger than 4.32x10^17.)
Therefore, the Earth represents 0.00000000000000000000000667% of the planets in our observable universe.
If one accepts a spiritually geocentric universe, then God ignores 99.99999999999999999999999333% of all planets in that universe.
Well, I hope this gets a discussion going on the subject. Christianity IS geocentrism, and nothing less. Hope you guys enjoyed the read.
Why can't God do as He wishes? What law is there that forces God have to place earth at the center of His universe. What if He means that the earth is the center of His universe because He has chose place His focus on His creation on this particular planet? If he chose another planet in another galaxy then so be it, but He chose earth for whatever reason. He will be showing His followers throughout eternity the riches of His grace. Who is to say that He will share the rest of His creation with His family through eternity to come? I dunno.
