This morning I was up early enough to see the sun rise. As it filled my living room with it's life giving light, it made me think about and appreciate the awesomeness that is our earth and our universe. Unfortunately, I've never taken an astronomy class but what I have read about the universe, leaves me completely full of awe and wonder. The sun is a giant ball of nuclear fire that provides heat and light to the earth. Without it, earth would be a frozen planet and life could not exist. The earth is located in exactly the right distance from the sun to support life. Too close, and we all fry. To far, and we all freeze. The air is full of oxygen, which we need to sustain life. The earth is covered in water, which we also need. It seems that earth truly is the ultimate design for life. I can see why so many people want to give all the credit to god for it's beauty, splendor, and wonder. It truly is remarkable and breath-taking.
But the earth is just the beginning of the wonder. Just imagine space; an area that has no end, no limits. And within a tiny fraction of this space lies the known universe. Within this universe, lie millions upon billions of galaxies; each galaxy containing millions upon billions of stars.
Even though the universe only takes up a fraction of the space, it is immensely huge. Light travels at a distance of 280,000 miles per second. Just imagine how big the universe is if it takes light 14 billion years to travel from one side to the other!
And how about life on other planets? If there was life on one planet out of a billion, then there would be a billion planets with life.
Speaking of life, how did it come to be, to exist? Even a single celled organism is very complex and to have all the right 'ingredients' come together in exactly the right formulation is a trillion squared chance. Yet somehow it happened. In order for life to exist, there had to be a strand of DNA. That DNA needed to be encased in a protective cover. Within that cover, there needed to be ribosomes, protein molecules that read DNA and build proteins from it.
This is just the beginning. If this new life did not find a way to reproduce quickly, it would die and life would be extinct. It also needed energy in order to function.
When life began, all of these things needed to be present. The great question of how it happened may never be answered. Maybe it is so simple that we simply overlook it.
With all the wonder of the universe and all the questions that seem to have no answer, it is very understandable to believe in a supreme being. How else could all of it happen? I don't know. But even then, if a supreme being did create it all, then the beginning wasn't really the beginning because the creator existed. Where did the creator come from?
Mormonism teaches that there was no beginning but there is an infinite number of generations of gods. Each god creates worlds and children. Those children grow up to become gods and a the cycle continues. However, according to science, the universe has an age. Even though it is a set given amount of time that is nearly incomprehensible to the human mind, it is still a limited amount of time. The universe is an estimated 12 to 14 billion years old.
The earth is about a third the age of the universe at 4.5 billion years old. Sometime during the last 4.5 billion years, life had to originate. Because the earth was constantly changing, the life that lived upon it had to adapt in order to survive. Hence the millions of different species that live on the earth today.
Science may never know the origin of life. But isn't it better to not know than to invent an imaginary father who lives out there in space somewhere who put it all together? Any time man asks the question "why?" and there is no obvious answer, just say that god did it.
Some of those "why?" questions that had no answer before, do have an answer now. And yet, for some strange reason that I will never understand, human beings want to continue to believe the fairytale rather than the given facts. I absolutely don't get it. This is as mind blowing to me as the wonder of the universe itself.
People actually choose to literally believe in magical fairytales rather than the evidence that is right in front of us. We all know that Peter Pan is an imaginary story. Superman is just a story. We know this. We accept it. No one actually believes that they are real. But they believe in Jesus, who, in all reality, is no different than Peter Pan or Superman. They all fly around. They all save people. They all have special abilities that no one else does.
When the world stops believing in fairytales, we will make remarkable progress. The former President Bush was Christian and therefore opposed to stem cell research. This study could very well hold the key to forever relieve human suffering and disease. But because of a fairytale, Bush denied federal funding to stem cell research.
As soon as the collective people of the world stop believing that their god wants everyone else to die, then there will be world peace. There will be terrific advancements in science. All we have to do is see the world for what it is. If we don't know an answer now, that doesn't mean that we never will. But stop giving the credit to a fairytale, who's only evidence is an ancient book that no one understands or can agree on what it even means.
Let's enjoy the splendor of the universe without giving it a label of "god". See it for what it is. A beautiful accident? Maybe. But still beautiful and mind-boggling none the less.
Religion is one of the main sources of violence in the world. The pilots who flew their airplanes into the World Trade Center towers believed that god would reward them for their sacrifices. Their god wants America in ashes. Americans believe that their god only loves America. Get rid of all the "god" nonsense and start seeing people from everywhere for what they are: human beings.
If there is a god, he doesn't want any nation to destroy another. That's pure arrogance. If he created us, he created us all. If he doesn't exist, then he obviously doesn't want us to wage war on each other. Let's get rid of the "god" nonsense. If god wanted America destroyed, he would just point his finger at it and blow it up. If he wanted a certain race eliminated, then all he would have to do is snap his fingers.
Since that hasn't happened, then god doesn't want us killing each other. God is nonsense. A fairytale. Look at the world and see it for what it is, not what religion dictates that it is. It is a really, really old rock floating about in the cosmos and somehow there came to be life on it.
Enjoy life and the beauty that surrounds us.
A study of science is far more mind blowing than religion can ever conceive.
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