Remember, Julie, the whole point of religion isn't logic but faith. I'm comfortable with both, but I have my limits. My personal faith doesn't require that I be irrational. How's this: There is evidence that there may be an infinite number of "universes". So, God doesn't need to create life elsewhere in this universe; when he (I know siding with a male-gendered God isn't necessarily PC) wants to populate another world he simply creates another universe. This, by the way, isn't my personal view - just another possibility, and my faith also allows for possibilities. Kim
-----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy- bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Julie Chorley Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 7:49 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Sigh...
Well, to quote one of my favorite books.. "What a waste of space." How can anyone believe that we could be the only living beings in such a mind-bogglingly huge universe? Even from a religious standpoint, does it make sense for God to have created all this, just for us? It's not logical, no matter how you look at it.
Julie
On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 4:12 AM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
I'm just back home after my talk last evening at Bryce Canyon National Park and I'm a bid saddened.
This is my 23rd year of doing monthly programs at Bryce and my favorite part has always been the interaction with the audience afterwards.
But after last evening's talk a guy came up to me saying he wanted to play devil's advocate. I told him "Great!" and asked what was on his mind.
At the end of my talks I always close with the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and use it to come up with a rough idea of how many stars there may be in our Universe and then note that with all of those stars out there made up of the same stuff as our Sun it's hard for me to imagine that we happen to be so lucky to have the only star with the only planet with life.
Well, the guy took exception to that. He was calm, collected and well spoken, but thought that since God had created only us (here on Earth) there's no reason to believe that there is life elsewhere.
We went back and forth for a minute or two and finally I said we'd just have to agree to disagree and he walked away.
My one bit of consolation was that the small crowd that had gathered around us was vocally on my side.
But it still bothers me that otherwise rational people will place religious beliefs over those of science without even giving science a chance.
Ok, time to get News out so I'll stop here. I just needed to vent.
patrick
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