the stars

[Mudhammam]

Well if you think God is little more than a shoddy product of our species muddleheaded imagination because He doesn't take the "best route".....your thinking is flawed.

There are a dozen reasons to supplement my "because." I've never heard a single theist give a logical or evidential basis for theirs. It's those who have the honesty to admit that all such attempts to rationalize faith must ultimately fail that I can at least respect.

[JuliaL]

The Special and Inevitable Anthropic Principle appears in the book Hogfather:

Many people are aware of the Weak and Strong Anthropic Principles. The Weak One says, basically, that it was jolly amazing of the universe to be constructed in such a way that humans could evolve to a point where they make a living in, for example, universities, while the Strong One says that, on the contrary, the whole point of the universe was that humans should not only work in universities but also write for huge sums books with words like "Cosmic" and "Chaos" in the titles.

...

The UU Professor of Anthropics had developed the Special and Inevitable Anthropic Principle, which was that the entire reason for the existence of the universe was the eventual evolution of the UU Professor of Anthropics. But this was only a formal statement of the theory which absolutely everyone, with only some minor details of a "Fill in name here" nature, secretly believes to be true.

He then applies this theory to himself, in one of his jacket liners:

Terry Pratchett lives in England, an island off the coast of France, where he spends his time writing Discworld novels in accordance with the Very Strong Anthropic Principle, which holds that the entire Purpose of the Universe is to make possible a being that will live in England, an island off the coast of France, and spend his time writing Discworld novels. Which is exactly what he does. Which proves the whole business true. Any questions?

I fail to see that a god is required to create this scenario.
http://everything2.com/title/Special+and...+principle

[psychoslice]

Its arrogant to believe that the Cosmos is made just for us, there is billions of worlds out there doing their own thing just like us, well I hope better than us lol.

[Piscinin]

He did it because he can.

It`s the same thing with the churches and cathedrals, huge buildings established to instill fear and respect.

Also, he thought it would be very easy to get to him with the evergreen argument "This whole thing cannot just come into existence by itself. Therefore God."

Very smart.

But please keep in mind, creating a universe is a very demanding job, so excuse him for the shitty book.

[Thumpalumpacus]

It does seems so egotistical to look up at the stars and think they were made for the benefit of humans.

Religion's main purpose is to make insignificant idiots feel 'special.'

... while at the same time indoctrinating the hatred of man, and man's life, into its followers.

Odd bird, no doubt.

---

Also, I love skygazing, for the beauty, as well as the sublime feeling it gives me when I'm in a more meditative state.

It tickles me to think that it took hundreds, or thousands, or millions of years for the light hitting my retinæ to travel here; trying to wrap my brain around that immensity imparts in me an honest sort of humility, and obviates the need to create any deity to do so. The Universe itself is awesome, in the literal sense of the word, to me, and far more awesome than some Crayola god colored-in by ignorant goatherders.

[dyresand]

One isn't free to love anything that they perceive to be little more than a shoddy product of our species' muddleheaded imagination.

Well if you think God is little more than a shoddy product of our species muddleheaded imagination because He doesn't take the "best route".....your thinking is flawed.

well what are stars made of do not use science if you keep calling god a creator or something then how did he make it. i can answer what stars are fairly simply its not even hard to answer.