How fragile we are ... and how beautiful it all is

The sparkle on the scrap of foil is more likely to hit you when you need it more though.

Exactly, Elegran!

Without knowledge we can't distinguish in quality between the genuinely impressive wonder of the aurora borealis and the flicker of light on a shiny scrap of foil in the mud.

Not that I believe this at all, but it reminds me of the wonder we feel. Also, though, of the need to appreciate how much more we can appreciate by knowing more. And I do love the quotation!

"Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine
Unweave a rainbow."

Keats : "Lamia"

This definition does not prevent a non believer having respect for others beliefs. Only if you have "faith" can you truly understand it, if you do not, then one does not.
I do not have any strong "Faith" but I have total respect, for those that have, in fact I wish I could have such a strong faith.
Religions are so diverse, that each, if they totally believe in their own, must consider the others as incredulous.
EG. surely a devoted Christian cannot consider Buddhism to be credulous. But they can respect a Buddhist for his beliefs.

I agree, "all we need to do is be nice" that is what most religions teach, including humanist.
Vive la difference

People have been "over-thinking" this since man developed from the apes (or maybe before - who knows?) - I am all for just being kind, whatever you believe. It is all we can do - and it is the one thing we know that is objectively effective in increasing happiness.

No! Not if you can manage a bit of respect for something a fellow human being believes in, and is important to him.

You can over think this. All you really need is to be nice.

Religion, faith or superstition. ?

This is one dictionary definition of superstition (there are many others) :-

"Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality—that one event causes another without any natural process linking the two events—such as astrology, religion, omens, witchcraft, prophecies, etc., that contradicts natural science."

I think it all depends on whether one has a "faith". If you don't religion would be a superstition to you as you would see it as incredulous.

If you have a "Faith" that definition would be incorrect as you would consider it totally credible, by the very fact you have faith.

Just sent this to the grandson.

Witches and fairies are a superstition. And black cats, and not walking under ladders.Christianity and other religions are faiths. There is a huge difference. Believer or not, a little respect wouldn't go amiss.

Each time I consider the origin of the universe I end up close to insanity. I can't believe in any higher being, science has to be the answer. But how did all this come out of nothing, and if it was the reorganisation of matter from some other parallel universe, where did that come from etc.
I am in favour of the parallel universe theory, which means that there is intelligent life out there somewhere, sometime.
I need to lie in a darkened room again.

By the way, what filled space before we did?

Mind boggling.

The nature of the universe appears to me to need no 'god' - what use would it be? And if you say it would have 'created' everything, then who created 'it'?

The universe is indeed wonderful - it only cheapens it to ascribe it all to a superstition...

How can there not be a 'god'? How could it all have existed for so many millions of years before mankind was there to invent its 'creator'?

And childhood, jings - I-Spy The Night Sky!

Amazing what we can see and photograph these days though!

You might like to look at some of these things if you really made it through parenthood and grandparent hood without obtaining a detailed knowledge of the planets.

How amazing and awe inspiring. And how sad that we, on our tiny planet, a mere speck in the universe, cannot live in peace together.

"what is man that thou art mindful of him?"

Assuming there is a supreme being, I am not entirely convinced that he/she is one whit mindful of us humans. Viruses maybe - they always seem to be flavour of the month and have the upper hand.

We just do not know; we do not know. Embrace the not knowing and spread a little kindness.

"How can there NOT be a God when you look at those pictures?"
There's a story about Abraham, the first recorded person who believed that there's only one God, that he came to that conclusion after observing the wonders of the universe.

Psalm 8 vs. 3 & 4

When I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars,
which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him,
or the son of man that thou visitest him.

How can there NOT be a God when you look at those pictures?
Where did it all come from?
Has the universe and everything in it always been there, or did some supernatural being create it all?

Oh dear there are too many questions.

For me, pics on the interweb - especially with the quality of photography you get nowadays - have brought so much more into my life. I subscribe to an "Earth Pics" feed and it makes my day every day - seeing places I would never have seen.

bags you probably know about this, but it's another fascination of mine:

"The history of life on Earth began about 3.8 billion years ago, initially with single-celled prokaryotic cells, such as bacteria. Multicellular life evolved over a billion years later and it’s only in the last 570 million years that the kind of life forms we are familiar with began to evolve, starting with arthropods, followed by fish 530 million years ago (Ma), land plants 475Ma and forests 385Ma. Mammals didn’t evolve until 200Ma and our own species, Homo sapiens, only 200,000 years ago. So humans have been around for a mere 0.004% of the Earth’s history ".

www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth

Or presented as an image (hope the link works)

www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/sjasper/images/26.2.gif

It is all intriguing stuff and puts our world/lives into perspective.

But it would be good if we could find the energy to put this little world into order - would the efforts that go on space study be better spent on getting the here and now right? Might all the knowledge of space one day help to achieve that?

Well it taught me the difference between the Universe, a Solar System and a Galaxy for a start, who knew? I realised how ignorant I am of space and all it entails.. who knew that our moon is bigger than Pluto? not me! I read with great interest and wonder how its possible that the night sky and stars that we can actually see are such an infinitesimal part of it all..

Found it fascinating and its prompted me to find out more..

GrannyKnot

I found the pictures fascinating.

I am not really interested in space and the universe, lack of education maybe.

It made me think, some would say 'well there's a first'. .

It all makes our little Solar System seem quite homely. There must be something 'out there' but will we ever know? Only if something or someone set out thousands or millions of years ago to look for us, maybe evolving through the aeons, as they travelled in their space craft...

I agree, elegran. The more I know the more awesome it all seems.