I may never know if there was a creator of the Universe but if there was I suppose a 'God' is as good a word as any for it, but when I look through my telescope at a Galaxy a billion light years away, although it might be the tiniest faintest smudge in my eyepiece I feel like a have appreciated and touched its creation in an incredibly more meaningful way than kneeling before a man while he puts a wafer in my mouth.

(To clarify, I am Atheistic towards all human religions and Agnostic with regard to whether there was a creator of the Universe)

Watching that video was a 'Spiritual' experience

Well for me,I dont think believing in the existance of a god explains the universe anymore then believing in the easter bunny does.
anyway, interesting video.
hell is a warm place, so long as its warmer the here, then thats good enough for me!

Religion has no place in science.
Weather one does or does not believe in deities
is of no concern, to me anyway.

2.bp.blogspot.com/-E1z75CgQcQQ/TeFJAOpnD...e-occurs-cartoon.png

EMI have blocked the You tube video here for some reason. Funny, I was watching an episode of Cosmos last night where Carl Sagan was making his point on the existence of a creator. Which came first, the chicken or the egg. I guess we will never know.

Do emi own the rights to the 'Sunshine' Theme music or the song at the end I wonder.

I posted primarily because the first 5 minutes describes how astronomy makes me feel and obviously being atheist I would agree with the rest of the video where he then talks about the implications in terms of religious belief of what he had said in the first 5 minutes.

Its funny how as an atheist I look at the unimaginably large universe as a reason not to believe in God and a Christian friend see's it as a reason to feel even more blessed that his awesome God made all of it just for us and that his God has a personal interest in him and his life on this planet in this backwater solarsystem in this backwater galactic arm in this backwater galaxy in this backwater local group in this backwater supercluster..... I thought the religious were supposed to be humble folk?? That to me looks like ego gone mad!

There's a beautiful question that, as long as one is willing to deal with the universe in logical terms, makes a creator not only seem redundant but irrelevant: Who, or what created the creator? Please do not attribute this to me, a far more intelligent person realised it.

The universe is a far more challenging, complex and beautiful place than the world's most revered 'holy' books portray. You will find no hint of how we exist as unfathomably giant creatures on the atomic scale and simultaneously brief flashes of irrelevance on the universal scale.

Isn't just being here amazing.

Well said Martinus. I find reality infinitely more interesting and comforting than the paranormal. As an example heres a little story about something that happened to me a year or so ago...

I walked into the kitchen one night and turned on the light. The back yard outside was still in darkness. Then right in front of out in the yard I saw an apparition of Jesus Christ from the shoulders up. Now while another person might react in shock, run upstairs to tell someone what they saw only to come back down to and find the apparition had disappeared, I on the other hand stopped dead in my tracks and stared at the apparition. It disappeared. After some further staring the cause of the illusion became apparent. It was actually a towel hanging on the back of a chair inside the kitchen reflected in the glass patio doors superimposed over some objects hanging on the back wall of the yard. I was then able to switch how I perceived the view not unlike shapes in clouds or the candlestick illusion where one see's either a candlestick silhouette or two faces opposite each other. Jesus -> towel on chair -> Jesus -> Towel on chair.

Now to me, the evolutionary basis for how the brains neurology means it can fill in the details/guess wrong when painting an image on our visual cortex is infinitely more interesting than the thought that the creator of the universe appeared to little old me and that the not very comforting conclusion I must draw is that if he exists then chances are some of my loved ones are in or will end up in eternal torment in a christian hell for some minor transgression of dogma. More comforting for me is the thought that my Grandad has achieved the eternal sleep of non existence than the thought the he is roasting in hell for not going to Mass after his 'God given' rationality made him an atheist while a murdering pedophile supposedly got in to heaven after accepting Jesus as his personal saviour!!

Here, here... It's all just Santa Claus for grown-ups...but anyway, whether your a religionist or an nonbeliever - both can enjoy an uplifting experience and experience awe at the beauty of our night sky.

For me the question is: are there other lifeforms scratching their spotted bald head thingeys with their tentacles and wondering whether the great octopus is out there somewhere hmmmmm

signed
tiny little lifeform
Declan