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Permalink Reply by Keath Vickery on November 26, 2011 at 7:11pm

Hahaha second word should be theist. Autocorrect. 

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Permalink Reply by Nelson on November 26, 2011 at 7:17pm

Nah, I'm totally with you. I consider that the atoms that make up my body were formed in the core of stars and in supernova explosions and I am made to feel totally insignificant and at the same time a part of something that is way more amazing than some small minded idea about a god or gods could ever be.

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Permalink Reply by Stutz on November 27, 2011 at 4:05am

I think I might understand. If, like me, you feel that because you and your problems are insignificant compared to the scale of the universe, it's kind of like the pressure's off in some sense, am I right? I won't be punished for all eternity in a lake of fire for having the wrong beliefs, I'll just be gone. After a few more generations have passed, nobody alive is going to care about what I did or didn't do back in the 2010s. But it also means that the now is important, and it means that our small corner of existence is very important to us and the people we care about, which is why we want to live the best life we can in the time we have.

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Permalink Reply by Jason on November 27, 2011 at 9:28am

Your friend says you should be depressed without God?

That’s the equivalent of a North Korean citizen telling us we should be depressed we don’t live under a brutal dictator.

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Permalink Reply by Jewelz on November 27, 2011 at 4:35pm

This is one of my favorite lectures from Neil Tyson. He touches on what many people describe as the feeling of smallness when they contemplate their place in the universe, and the spiritual feeling the cosmos gives him.

 

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