Arrogance and atheism (rant)

[orpheus last chant]

I was reading from a site dedicated to astronomy. A friend of mine wants to make a mini solar sistem and I offered to help. I said we'll make it proportionally corect.

I always thought I have the right image of the universe, and it's greatness. I was wrong. I have no idea, and i doubt that I will ever have. Let's give the sun 17 cm in diameter, how big should it be.....well, pluto has to be put at 4500 km! and it has to have the size of a speck of sand.

I've passed though all of feelings concerning religion. Addiction, doubt, dissapointment, despair, disgust, irritation, anger, fear, regret indiffrence. Pity.

I now find this strange enjoyment in talking to theists, to watch their meek superiority, and hear their loving hell-wishes. May i say that I am very dissapointed in my kind, and myself?

Who is the fool that named us homo sapiens sapiens? The humanoid who thinks well? It is not us.

I feel irony when hearing phrases like "this modern times" "the age of freedom". Is it such a proud age to live in? When a big portion of the world worships elephant headed gods and phalic symbols, others worship the image of divine sadism and try to replicate it, where we think that this unthinkable universe and galaxies are here to tell us what our day will be like?

But the paroxism of irony is when I hear of humbleness. I have a friend who thinks that if I do not believe in cozy gods and souls I somehow miss all the wonderful and amazing things that this world is about.I become this nihilist that is blinded to beauty and has the emotional level of a dead frog, nothing can make it twitch, no matter how much shock you put into it. And that giving up this follies I become this arrogant and full of it person, who only wants to be right, and win arguments, who has nothing absolute to hold on to and no black and white answers. That all by giving up lies and embracing a love for truth.

How deluded they must be. If I may paraphrase, there are more things in the sky and earth than your pathetic myth can concieve of. How can I feel arrogant when I know that compared to the infinitezimal part of the univers I can see, I am still nothing. How can I feel arrogant when all I know is that I know very little, or none. How can I hold on to absolute truths when I know they are lies. How can I apply 6 year old technics for answering hard questions, when very few if none have simple answers. How can I be so arrogant to think all that exists was made so that I have a nice panoramic view from my window.


And how dare he tell me I am blinded to beauty and amazement. nothings seems more and amazing than my existence, nothing more exciting than the force of life (not personalised).
It is strange but the fact that I will one day dissappear forever does not scare me anymore.

Nothing really matters, except this moment in time, I feel like a drop of water in an edgeless river, I am drifting with the flow. I feel crushed by this immenseness, by this infinity. No one can stop it, no one can reach above, but, as I stand beside other drops of water, I am grateful, that for a moment in time, I am conscient of what I am. At peace that this moment will pass, and I shall drift into the water.


End of rant.

[Heathen Dawn]

Perfect beauty of God, beauty of the angels, purity of angel-song, majesty of the hidden realms... so-called beauty is open only to a select few who have a brain disorder, or, ostensibly, to those who suspend disbelief. For the rest of us it is left to be content with what is put in front of us, with what our eyes can see.

Yes, deny the world, deny it completely, say it is just a hallway towards the hall of a more beautiful one. Keep on going that way, world-deniers, and you'll be making a perfect sacrifice of your life in favour of the other world, as did the WTC terrorists, who saw no beauty in this world, and opted instead for the virgins, cushions and rivers of an imaginary one.

[Buddrow_Wilson]

Bravo orpheus last chant! Very well put. I imagine that this in itself well refutes the empty claims that theists assume of your life's inadequacies.

[PopeInTheWoods]

Very nice chant, err, rant!

The "arrogant atheist" assertion always sets me off, too. Which of these statements displays more arrogance?

- I am a finite being trying my best to make sense of the infinitesimal portion of the universe that I'll experience in my limited time.

- I have a personal relationship with the omnipotent creator of the universe, and will spend all eternity in his presence.

Andy

[Corgan Sow]

I used to be pissed off by such assertations by theists. As time flies, I usually ignore them. It is strange, because any theist tries to argue with me about religion, I mow them down mercilessly. It'll be a miracle to that person to debate with me twice.

Again, you don't find skilled apologetics in malaysia.:rolleyes:

[Godless Wonder]

There is a handy dandy scale model solar system calculator here: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system/

(Can't remember where I first saw this, (maybe here) but google remembered where it was).

[Secular Elation]

Good rant, orpheus last chant. Well put, and I was particularly struck by your last passage.

Nothing really matters, except this moment in time, I feel like a drop of water in an edgeless river, I am drifting with the flow. I feel crushed by this immenseness, by this infinity. No one can stop it, no one can reach above, but, as I stand beside other drops of water, I am grateful, that for a moment in time, I am conscient of what I am. At peace that this moment will pass, and I shall drift into the water.

[xorbie]

I would hardly call this a rant. That last portion in particular was some great poetry, better than a lot of the "classics" IMHO.

[orpheus last chant]

[puff, puff, puff]

Tadda! My new inflated ego.

There is a soap opera I watch with my mother (we play this game, who can predict the next brain tumor, obssesed ex wife, miraculous healing,my husband is my brother etc.)

I had no idea what my mom was. I was rather scared of some theistic variants. When I was in my praise god mode, she used to be slightly sarcastic, and that was her way of saying "dont' do that". But I never, ever talked to her about religion. We seldom communicate using words.

So we were watching this crap, uh, movie. One old lady makes a funeral for her long dissapeared (but not dead) husband. She was the catholic freak of the show, always gettin toghether with the gals' from the church group.
Next is a 10 min scene of the priest's speach, her speach, everbody is crying, and they say a psalm. Ps 23 I think. I was overbored and irritated. Then , they show a scene of the guy (who had amnesia) rembering her wife's name in that very second.

:boohoo:

My mom says: It was telepathy right?
And I say: Noooo, it was the psalm.

She looks at me, and I look at her, and she says: Yes.
And starts laughing.


Oh boy, not even the new teleevangelist show on the TV can bother me now. We are fa-mi-ly! Atheist and religion free...

I am now reading a book by Asimov - Extraterestrial civilizations
and struggling with this angular momentum thingy, but everything is going my way.

What I found to be most comforting is a sort of renounciation of ego. I do not remember the exact quote, because it is in latin, but it said. I am human and nothing human is foreign to me.

Not one thought is mine, and mine alone. My inner struggle can be mirrored in so many of others. To me the image of the sea seems a metaphore for the human spirit(as essence not supernatural entity). As full of abisses, powerful currents ripping it apart and never at rest. An infinite inside edges, where memories are buried in sand like the remains of ships.

And perhaps I am much drifting into yet another poetic mood.