nature and wonder
Now this is pretty awesome. I'm huge on astronomy, it's one of my few passions. It's the main reasons why I love summer nights, when it's clear and warm enough to stargaze.
It's why I love and relate to Carl Sagan so much, I could relate to his passion. I recently read one of his latest books and couldn't put it down. He had a lot to say about religion and was one of the first people I read about the subject. "By far the best way I know how to engage the religious sensibility, the sense of awe, is to look up on a clear night. I believe that it is very difficult to know who we are until we understand when and where we are."
I think one of the main reasons why my approach to religion seems so angsty and impatient is because I don't understand why people can't just say "I don't know". We don't know what happens when we die, and I just see it as so arrogant and ignorant to say otherwise. I think there is beauty in appreciating life, learning and understanding evolution. Educating yourself as much as you can. There is enough to worship and understand around us, who needs a fairytale?
If a creator God exists, would He or She prefer a kind of sodden blockhead who worships while understanding nothing? Or would He prefer His votaries to admire the real universe and all its intricacy? I would suggest that science is, in part, informed worship. My deeply held belief is that if a God exists, then our curiosity and intelligence are provided by such a God. We would be unappreciative of those gifts if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves.
Comments
Yow. That is awsome. (The software, I mean.)
Eloquent post. Sagan was the man.
thanks, if he wasn't the man, i don't know who else is. :)