Hello everyone,
I was previously a devout Christian, but have since become a "teetering totter" as far as where my views are.
I would like to say that religion has transformed over the centuries in order to go with the flow of science. What I mean is, when science discovers a truth, religion has to regroup in order to keep its validation as the religious see it.
In the past, Catholicism openly denounced the theories that Earth revolved around the Sun instead of vice versa. In fact, they went to great lengths to silencing these Astronomers and even killed them. But now, we see differently. Earth does revolve around the Sun and we have mathematical proof to verify it. Not to mention observational proof collected over the years from satellites.
Today, there are heated debates about Creationism, the Big Bang, and other "infant theories." However, mostly Creationism and the Big Bang are being debated at current.
I ask this: "Why do Christians feel that Creationism is truly how the Universe was created?"
And drifting apart from Christians, why do religious people as a whole believe in a God or multiple Gods?
How do we know that religion didn't arise due to our own insecurities in the past and that we are afraid to give them up due to possible punishments (i.e.: hell) we may receive if we cease to believe. Let me ask you, what God would sentence an ignorant human being to a lake of burning fire if that human led a moral life and contributed greatly to human society?
Apparently you absolutely have to believe in God in order to achieve a magnificent and glorious heaven in which your spirit will live forever.
Is there a thing called "spirit"? We are made up of trillions of atoms and we came from this Earth. Atoms interact with each other don't they? Uranium itself gives off electromagnetic radiation due to its short half-life. It is a very active element.
Now let's look at our own bodies' composition. We are made up of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other elements. Please feel free to contribute them here.
But anyways, let's look at our brains. Our brains are made up of neurons, correct? These neurons are connected and have various functions. They are divided into many sections such as the neocortex, the cerebrum, the medula, and etc. Each has a different task and yet they all work together to keep the body living, learning, and reproducing.
What drives us to live, learn, reproduce, and etc.? Electrical pulses in our brains? Well yes, but how did our brains evolve into how they are today?
Many people say God created us--a supreme being. Well that is a simple answer to a complicated question. We can say an all-powerful entity created us, because we simply don't know how we were created. Now we are frightful of giving up that because if there truly is a God, then he could do some serious punishment to everyone who doesn't believe in him.
The Bible tells that humans were created from dust. Well I suppose that is quite accurate as we did come from the Earth. But we could have been organically deposited from comets, asteroids, and etc.
But why does the Bible say Earth was created in seven days? Many say that this is simply a different time--God's time. Maybe it was seven days in God's time and yet millions or thousands of years in Earth time? Then why did Methuselah live to be 939--or whatever his age was--years old. Then it talks about some people giving birth to children at age 60 or something like that. Am I missing something? Seven days, 939 years, 60 years, and other complicated dates...
Well this just shows how unintelligent humans were at that time period. Yet they did have some intelligence, but they had many many questions. Their brains were just as evolved as ours, but they lacked the knowledge that only time can fill up.
The age was filled with wars, gossip, disease, famine, and etc. Many people had that inquisitive mind and enough intelligence to ask themselves "How did we get here?"
With that and all the mysteries they faced--including the mysterious points of light in the night sky and the bright orb in the daytime--they attempted to answer their many questions, yet having no tools to help them. They wanted to get rid of war and inhumanity in order to secure their lives and their children's lives. But they also wanted to give themselves hope and hope to the people. Perhaps they were also inspired by dreams and mysterious events in their lives. Perhaps astronomical events such as meteors, comets, novae, supernovae, transits, and etc. inspired them as well. With all of their questions and inspirations, perhaps they started to write documents explaining things.
Of course, then there is the fact that astrology was increasingly common back then. People attempted to foretell events that would take place in the future and the direction of their lives. I can see religions taking up some of that and calling them "prophecies."
Now, let me circle back to how we came to be. Well the Earth was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago in the early protosystem. Now who knows what its composition was, but we can say that collisions were very common, as you can see by evidence from the Moon, Mercury, asteroids, and even here on Earth. It is very likely that organic compounds were deposited on Earth's surface and attempted to form other compounds. This being that the early Earth environment was hostile and very chaotic. With volcanic eruptions, cosmic collisions, intense tectonic activity, and a very stormy atmosphere, atoms and compouds were very likely to become ionized and disturbed.
These ionized atoms and compounds bonded with other elements and compounds in order to stabilize themselves through valence electrons.
With the stabilization of the Terran environment, the formation of oceans and continents, and the formation of an atmosphere, life emerged. But why? I suppose that is a question that just can't be answered. But we can all theorize.
That is why so many people say an entity created us. Why would life have formed otherwise?
Well let's keep an open mind. You can either believe in a religion or not, either doesn't offend me. I just happen to follow scientific proof.
Let me just say that unicellular microbes were first, and then multicellular organisms eventually arose. Through fossils we can carbon-date certain stages in climate changes of the Earth (Jurassic, Pennsylvanian, Cetacean, etc.) and determine the organisms that were alive during that period.
I just don't really know how life came to be or the Universe for that matter, but I do know that religion has changed constantly over the years in order to go along with scientific discoveries.
Replies are MOST welcomed.
Sincerely, jcastro
I was previously a devout Christian, but have since become a "teetering totter" as far as where my views are.
I would like to say that religion has transformed over the centuries in order to go with the flow of science. What I mean is, when science discovers a truth, religion has to regroup in order to keep its validation as the religious see it.
In the past, Catholicism openly denounced the theories that Earth revolved around the Sun instead of vice versa. In fact, they went to great lengths to silencing these Astronomers and even killed them. But now, we see differently. Earth does revolve around the Sun and we have mathematical proof to verify it. Not to mention observational proof collected over the years from satellites.
Today, there are heated debates about Creationism, the Big Bang, and other "infant theories." However, mostly Creationism and the Big Bang are being debated at current.
I ask this: "Why do Christians feel that Creationism is truly how the Universe was created?"
And drifting apart from Christians, why do religious people as a whole believe in a God or multiple Gods?
How do we know that religion didn't arise due to our own insecurities in the past and that we are afraid to give them up due to possible punishments (i.e.: hell) we may receive if we cease to believe. Let me ask you, what God would sentence an ignorant human being to a lake of burning fire if that human led a moral life and contributed greatly to human society?
Apparently you absolutely have to believe in God in order to achieve a magnificent and glorious heaven in which your spirit will live forever.
Is there a thing called "spirit"? We are made up of trillions of atoms and we came from this Earth. Atoms interact with each other don't they? Uranium itself gives off electromagnetic radiation due to its short half-life. It is a very active element.
Now let's look at our own bodies' composition. We are made up of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other elements. Please feel free to contribute them here.
But anyways, let's look at our brains. Our brains are made up of neurons, correct? These neurons are connected and have various functions. They are divided into many sections such as the neocortex, the cerebrum, the medula, and etc. Each has a different task and yet they all work together to keep the body living, learning, and reproducing.
What drives us to live, learn, reproduce, and etc.? Electrical pulses in our brains? Well yes, but how did our brains evolve into how they are today?
Many people say God created us--a supreme being. Well that is a simple answer to a complicated question. We can say an all-powerful entity created us, because we simply don't know how we were created. Now we are frightful of giving up that because if there truly is a God, then he could do some serious punishment to everyone who doesn't believe in him.
The Bible tells that humans were created from dust. Well I suppose that is quite accurate as we did come from the Earth. But we could have been organically deposited from comets, asteroids, and etc.
But why does the Bible say Earth was created in seven days? Many say that this is simply a different time--God's time. Maybe it was seven days in God's time and yet millions or thousands of years in Earth time? Then why did Methuselah live to be 939--or whatever his age was--years old. Then it talks about some people giving birth to children at age 60 or something like that. Am I missing something? Seven days, 939 years, 60 years, and other complicated dates...
Well this just shows how unintelligent humans were at that time period. Yet they did have some intelligence, but they had many many questions. Their brains were just as evolved as ours, but they lacked the knowledge that only time can fill up.
The age was filled with wars, gossip, disease, famine, and etc. Many people had that inquisitive mind and enough intelligence to ask themselves "How did we get here?"
With that and all the mysteries they faced--including the mysterious points of light in the night sky and the bright orb in the daytime--they attempted to answer their many questions, yet having no tools to help them. They wanted to get rid of war and inhumanity in order to secure their lives and their children's lives. But they also wanted to give themselves hope and hope to the people. Perhaps they were also inspired by dreams and mysterious events in their lives. Perhaps astronomical events such as meteors, comets, novae, supernovae, transits, and etc. inspired them as well. With all of their questions and inspirations, perhaps they started to write documents explaining things.
Of course, then there is the fact that astrology was increasingly common back then. People attempted to foretell events that would take place in the future and the direction of their lives. I can see religions taking up some of that and calling them "prophecies."
Now, let me circle back to how we came to be. Well the Earth was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago in the early protosystem. Now who knows what its composition was, but we can say that collisions were very common, as you can see by evidence from the Moon, Mercury, asteroids, and even here on Earth. It is very likely that organic compounds were deposited on Earth's surface and attempted to form other compounds. This being that the early Earth environment was hostile and very chaotic. With volcanic eruptions, cosmic collisions, intense tectonic activity, and a very stormy atmosphere, atoms and compouds were very likely to become ionized and disturbed.
These ionized atoms and compounds bonded with other elements and compounds in order to stabilize themselves through valence electrons.
With the stabilization of the Terran environment, the formation of oceans and continents, and the formation of an atmosphere, life emerged. But why? I suppose that is a question that just can't be answered. But we can all theorize.
That is why so many people say an entity created us. Why would life have formed otherwise?
Well let's keep an open mind. You can either believe in a religion or not, either doesn't offend me. I just happen to follow scientific proof.
Let me just say that unicellular microbes were first, and then multicellular organisms eventually arose. Through fossils we can carbon-date certain stages in climate changes of the Earth (Jurassic, Pennsylvanian, Cetacean, etc.) and determine the organisms that were alive during that period.
I just don't really know how life came to be or the Universe for that matter, but I do know that religion has changed constantly over the years in order to go along with scientific discoveries.
Replies are MOST welcomed.
Sincerely, jcastro
