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Yep, that's one of the prime thoughts this thread is intended to evoke. Some people seem to take their faith for granted, not truly understanding their choice because they never bothered to know what all the choices are, let alone learn about them.
Essentially, all religions in some way humanize god. Those that don't it's useless to join, because that god doesn't require (or isn't able to accept) prayer or anything like that. That's my way of looking at it.
"Useless" is your own value judgement, based upon what you feel is the purpose of religion, but your view is not a universal constant. Why is a religion only useful if it has a God that requires or accepts prayer?
Religion was birthed from our earliest, most primitive attempts at science. It was our way of attempting to understand the world around us and why things happened. Lighting struck because Zeus was angry, for instance. With science, in its current incarnation, having displaced religion from much of the explanation of our physical world (though we still have remnants such as Creationism and Miracles), it has instead taken refuge in explaining abstracts beyond the physical. Namely, spirit (thought and emotion, basically, with the popular idea of it all enduring beyond the body) and death. At its core, religion is still just an attempt at explanation, with addons like morals and traditions.
A religion can be useful to an individual in several ways. It provides them with explanations that satisfy their curiosity and fear, and gives them a feeling of purpose. Prayer is just an outlet for our instinctual need to communicate and bond, but it is not essential to a religion to fulfill its core benefits.
They believe that they are no better than the blade of grass that they slept on.
Define 'better'. I consider myself to be, for all intents and purposes, better then a blade of grass. Every comparison otherwise is essentially meaningless. That I can't synthesize energy from the sun doesn't make me inferior to a piece of grass. You can say 'we're equal' all you want, but if you start using that 'logic' to stop me from stepping on a blade of grass, I'd laugh. That 'comparison' is meaningless.
As for the universe always existing or being created, I don't know. It could easily have always existed, as that kind of infinite thinking is the same kind that lets the universe being essentially limitless. On the other hand, I can't comprehend something existing forever (I really wish humans were able to comprehend infinity properly...), so instinct fights it, saying the universe started at some point. I'd call the energy that started the universe god - and if that 's the energy that's now everywhere, then god is, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent.
My way of looking at it is that while my role is as important as anyone else's role, all those roles are completely unimportant. Me = It = 0. Everything ends. It's a spiritual way to look at it - however, from a practical look, how it relates to my life, all those roots and animals are very minor. I like to think myself a practical person (which doesn't say I am, but I try), and I'm not going to waste time praying to a being I don't believe exists so I can talk about how, deep down, everything is equal (which is mathematically impossible anyway, since I'm made of a ton of cells, and I'm equal to a blade of grass, and a cell is equal to a blade of grass... etc).
Centreri, it is not a question of comparison, but of respect. We give thanks to the grass for softening our step, feeding the buffalo that feed us, and as such we do not needlessly destroy. We step on the grass because we must, but to tear it apart because we feel like it would be disrespectful to its role and importance in the great circle.
As for the universe always existing or being created, I don't know. It could easily have always existed, as that kind of infinite thinking is the same kind that lets the universe being essentially limitless. On the other hand, I can't comprehend something existing forever (I really wish humans were able to comprehend infinity properly...), so instinct fights it, saying the universe started at some point. I'd call the energy that started the universe god - and if that 's the energy that's now everywhere, then god is, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent.
I don't understand exactly what you mean here. I believe the universe has existed forever, will exist forever, and is an endless expanse of empty space in every direction with one or more giant super-clusters matter (i.e. galaxies and galaxy groups)... and I seem to have no problems with the lack of any starting point or any other inability to comprehend it... What I can't comprehend is it NOT being infinite. What is at the "edge"? Were the cosmos to stand still (to stop the "the universe is like an expanding balloon!" theories just for this hypothetical) and I was allowed the ability to somehow "walk" or otherwise move in a given direction at a given rate for an indefinite amount of time, I don't see how there could be any edge to that. Would I hit some sort of wall or barrier? As far as I can imagine, I'd just keep going forever. I'd probably stop seeing matter as I passed by, but I could still keep going. Maybe I'd find another 'super-cluster' of matter.
You could imagine the universe like a balloon, with 3D space existing on the surface of said balloon. Since humans cannot truly comprehend dimensions greater than our own, if we imagine our three-dimensions as a two-dimensional plane, a surface, and wrapped that into an expanding balloon shape, then the universe wouldn't have an edge or an end.
Instead, if you continued in any one straight direction, you would eventually loop back around to where you started, like an ant walking around a balloon, or a plane flying around the Earth. The universe could simply be a hyperdimensional globe, with galaxies being like continents. Just as our continents started together as Pangea and have separated, so too have the galaxies separated from the Big Bang. If the universe is without end, then perhaps as the galaxies expand outward, they are simultaneously flying toward each other, destined to impact one another and create a cycle of Big Bangs. The Pacific ocean is destined to strink while the Atlantic grows, all the continents slowly headed toward a collision on the opposite end of the Earth. Of course, this'll only create mountains, but all galaxies colliding will cause a very different type of reaction.
Scientific evidence is pointing toward something beyond the galaxies pulling at them, accelerating their speed, when gravity tells us that everything should slowly slow down and be pulled back together. A type of dark matter is theorized to cause the effect, a sort of gravity-inverse that gets stronger when matter gets further apart.
What if that distant force is ourselves? Our own gravity just around the hyperhemisphere? It would explain why this force would always win against our gravity, because it's the same force, but the direction we're travelling already has energy. If we're accelerating, that means we past the point of equilibrium (the universal equator, if you will), and that force will only get stronger from here on. *shurg* Just my own theory, though I'm sure a scientist somewhere has something like this published.
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Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 9 2009, 8:40 pm by Hercanic. Reason: Typo
Centreri
