This blog has kind of died, which is probably okay seeing as there's no one actually reading it, but I decided to update again, as I had a really exciting conversation this morning.
I don't remember exactly how it started, but she is a religion major and I'm an astrophysics major, so I guess its sort of inevitable that we end up talking about the divine with respect to science. I am strongly of the belief that believing in God does not detract at all in studying the universe. I could go on and on about the other famous scientists that I believe share this opinion, but that's not really what I want to talk about right now. I want to talk about using science to be religious, and how amazing I think that is.
Our planet is amazing. I know this has been said so many times before, but it really is. I think that most people need to stop and think about this every once and a while. Because really, WE are amazing. Somehow, on a rock in the middle of nothing, the right elements combined and life started. Somehow, that life never stopped, it kept going and going, evolving until the right molecules mixed in the right way and suddenly humans formed. Now, some might think that someone advocating religion might not go to evolution, but really is there anything more amazing than the history of life? How beautiful is it to think that some holy power worked through the scientific processes that brought us to where we are today?
Now some people think that astronomy makes you feel insignificant, but I disagree. Because in billions of galaxies there is only one like ours, and in our galaxy there is only one earth, and of the thousands of species on earth there is only one that has evolved to have the level of intelligence that we do. And of the 6.9 billion people on this planet, there is only one of YOU. So you are not insignificant, you are one in a universe. You are the only one of you that has ever existed or ever will exist. In this perfectly imperfect world, somehow, through some amazing coincidences, you exist, and that makes you so incredibly important. Never, ever forget that.
