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Nov 23 2009 05:42pm
Quote (pissed247 @ Nov 17 2009 10:06am)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/PaleBlueDot.jpg/530px-PaleBlueDot.jpg
Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn't strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit.
How seriously do you take their claim?


Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe:, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.


Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.


I did not write and do not take credit for this, but I could not have said it better myself.


The vast expanse of space only further provides evidence to me that God exists. To say something is small and far away someone makes God an inexistent being?
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Nov 23 2009 06:06pm
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Nov 23 2009 06:13pm
Quote (otterjethro @ Nov 24 2009 09:42am)
The vast expanse of space only further provides evidence to me that God exists. To say something is small and far away someone makes God an inexistent being?


Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision.
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Nov 23 2009 06:15pm
Quote (pissed247 @ 23 Nov 2009 19:13)
Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision.


Didn't God give dominion over the beasts of the Earth? Doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the universe?

Where does the Bible say we're alone in the universe, let alone that God didn't create any other beings?

Honestly curious.
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Nov 23 2009 06:17pm
Quote (AiNedeSpelCzech @ Nov 24 2009 10:15am)
Didn't God give dominion over the beasts of the Earth?  Doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the universe? 

Where does the Bible say we're alone in the universe, let alone that God didn't create any other beings? 

Honestly curious.


God also created the sun and the moon solely to give light to the Earth. Favouritism is blatant.
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Nov 23 2009 06:19pm
Quote (pissed247 @ 23 Nov 2009 19:17)
God also created the sun and the moon solely to give light to the Earth. Favouritism is blatant.


Bias from the divinely inspired writer is much more blatant than favoritism.

Strict literal readings make it easy to find contradictions in any holy book. Most holy books aren't written to be read in a strictly literal sense, however.
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Nov 23 2009 06:22pm
Quote (AiNedeSpelCzech @ Nov 24 2009 10:19am)
Bias from the divinely inspired writer is much more blatant than favoritism. 

Strict literal readings make it easy to find contradictions in any holy book.  Most holy books aren't written to be read in a strictly literal sense, however.


Genesis is too easy to disprove, and it does not have the subtlety of a metaphor.
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Nov 23 2009 06:24pm
Quote (pissed247 @ 23 Nov 2009 19:22)
Genesis is too easy to disprove, and it does not have the subtlety of a metaphor.


Tell me more about this "Subtlety" test regarding metaphors, where you can automatically dismiss metaphor out of hand.

ETA: And here's a pretty good step-by-step walkthrough from a Christian apologist, imo: http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/day-age.html

This post was edited by AiNedeSpelCzech on Nov 23 2009 06:27pm
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Nov 23 2009 06:27pm
Quote (AiNedeSpelCzech @ Nov 24 2009 10:24am)
Tell me more about this "Subtlety" test regarding metaphors, where you can automatically dismiss metaphor out of hand.


"In the beginning god created the heaven and the earth"
"And god made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also"

Explain these metaphors to me please.
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Nov 23 2009 06:31pm
Quote (pissed247 @ 23 Nov 2009 19:27)
"In the beginning god created the heaven and the earth"
"And god made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also"

Explain these metaphors to me please.


Check the link above.

The first isn't a metaphor, of course. It states simply that God had already created the Heaven and the Earth before the story began. The story itself takes place on the surface of the waters.

God made two great lights far before he created the Earth, as well as the stars, and they are revealed to the surface of the Earth when God takes off the cloud layer, like a magician pulling away the curtain to reveal his awesome trick.
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