Now, Ill admit right off the bat that reading 6 pages of this stuff may have caused me to misinterperate soe of the posts... I feel required to throw my two cents in either way.
There are some possibilites I have "come up with."
1. Religion is social control, invented by man.
2. Religion is man's attempt at explaining things that actually did occur, but couldnt be understood.
3. Religion is true as taught.
In order of importance - this is what I lean towards in terms of my opinion.
3. As taught, religion is not true.
2. Many of the events explained in the Bible may have occured, but man's attempt to explain them is flawed.
1. This is too deep to be true, methinks. Would require WAY too much effort.
Big Bang Theory: Absolutely true, period. We all know the theory, and it have been explained here - universe expands rapidly and creates various elements integral to the formation of stars. Matter not condensed into stars forms "dust" between systems or planets orbiting stars. Universe is still expanding, but the expansion is strange. As time goes on, everything is moving away from everything else at ever increasing speeds - there is no clear "center." Stars and galaxies "ahead" of us are picking up speed and increasing distance and stars "behind" us are increasing speed at a rate slower than us - falling behind. (redshift intensity). The only theory that was open to debate before 1980 was the "Big Crunch" or "Big Freeze." The Big Crunch Theory states that the force of the initial expansion would eventually be halted by gravity and the universe would collapse in on itself resulting in another "Big Bang." The Big Freeze Theory states that the force of the initial expansion is greater than the gravity that would be necessary to halt, and recall the expansion. 99% of astonomers now agree that the universe will continuously expand until the stars are so far apart that they are not visable from one system to the next. The "death" of the universe and its life will not be molten and dense, but cold and empty.
"Creation" of Life: Heres how it works... universe expands, stars are formed... hydrogen, helium, light elements rule the day. Once the stars begin to die, and nova, heavy elements are created (read, carbon). The Supernova is the ONLY event in the universe that can create elements heavy enough (through massive heat and density) to support material life as we know it. So quite literally, we are "made from the stars." The creation of life is not simply a "chemical process." It requires a VERY delacate set of conditions that must be met (life as we know it at least). Temperate climate, water, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, etc... these must be STABLE conditions... millions of years worth of stability - variations of planet orbit or planet evolution (physical evolution) will destroy the process. Im willing to bet that life - nevermind intelligent life - is so rare in our galaxy that... say there are maybe only 50,000 planets orbiting stars in our galaxy that can support life as it occured on Earth (Terra if you want to get into "non-ecocretric speak"... might as well start refering to "The Sun" as Sol too.)
Anyway - the claim that we are the only life forms in this galaxy is about as rediculous as saying "humans are the only species on this planet." There are more stars in our galaxy than there are grains of sand on every beach on Earth and there are more galaxies in this universe than there are stars in our galaxy... never mind the mathmatical possibilties of parallel or co-existing/multiple universes.
Bottom Line: There are so many possibilities we must consider, and closed mindedness is not the way to seek the answers to our questions. "God did it, it says so in Luke 3:13" is not an answer - but neither is "God doesnt exist." Personally I dont think its too far fetched to consider the possibility that Jesus was an extra-terrerstrial visitor and his "miracles" were simply not understood. Look at the stories:
1. Sodam and Gamorah (spelling?) - how many of you knew that there is actually radioactive material in the ground at the Bibilcal locations of these two cities?
2. The Museum of Bahgdad houses an electric battery carbon dated to over 10,000 years old. Correct me if Im wrong, but we didnt have this capacity at that time.
3. City of Atlantis... the "City of Gold (read, metal)" - what do you think about a temporary garrison? It wasnt swallowed by the sea, they upped and left.
4. Similarities between religions - they all have a messenger, supreme being, rules, a return prophecy, copulation between "angels" and humans, and fantastic stories of men and machines which could do the impossible (Chariots of fire that could fly).
--With that in mind... ask yourself what we would do if we visited a planet housing intelligent life that was perhaps at a neandrothal level of evolution? We would:
1. Arrive and proclaim ourselves as astronauts from Earth. We come to bring peace and prosperity to your world.
2. Yes, Earth is our home planet, it is amongst the stars (pointing skyward)
3. Bestow upon them "commandments." Rules with which to govern their society.
4. Copulate with the locals in order to assist them in skipping a link in the evolutionary chain - afterall - they could be valuable trading partners in the future - weve got to bring them up to speed.
5. Before leaving - we tell them that we will return - they had better be good and follow those rules and if everything goes well, we might just take a few you back to Earth with us.
...Now how is this interperated? "Strange men that could fly came from the sky one day in their firebreathing carts that made a tremendous thundering noise. They told us of a wonderful place called Earth, and that "Earth" is watching us - we must follow these rules... if were bad we dont get to go to Earth - and they will be back... we must be good so they will be pleased when they return. One of our cities was insolent and "Earth" sent fire down to wipe out the infidels. We build a temple where they landed and we pray to them everyday. We build statues of them and draw pictures on rock - pictures of strangely dressed humans and even stranger "craft." We follow the rules because we dont want Earth to be angry at us - Earth will return."
You know what.. its really late and I should be sleeping... I realize I just kinda "stopped" but damnit its hard to think when your tired.
If this topic continues with any amount of interest Ill post more later.
