Quote of the day

Michael's Blog » Quote of the day

Here's an interesting quote I ran across the other day that at first I didn't understand.

"When a man ceases to believe in god, he does not believe in nothing. He believes in everything."
..........G.K. Chesterson

I didn't get it because after awakening to the idea that God is a myth, I was also enlightened to the idea that all the superstitious crap that so many people believe was also a lie. Psychics, Astrology, Mysticism of any kind, ghosts, UFOs and anything supernatural all went by the wayside for me as simple foolishness. But after pondering this for a moment or two, I realized that what is probably meant here is everything in a very real and natural way.

Part of my process of releasing belief was studying science, becoming aware of just how incredible and awesomely huge this universe is.

Think about this. A single grain of sand on your average beach, how absolutely small and insignificant that single grain of sand is in comparison to the whole beach. That grain of sand is our planet within the Milky Way galaxy.

Now imagine that that beach was a single grain of sand on a beach billions and billions of times larger, and you might sart to get an idea of how small that first grain of sand (the Earth) is in comparison to the entire universe.

Releasing religion enabled me to look at everything in a much more awe inspiring way and appreciate and believe in everything for what it really is, the result of an incredible and natural process that through tens of billions of years was (and is) as destructive as it is creative and as horrifying as it is wonderful, but a natural process nonetheless, unconcerned and unknowing of the amazing little accident that occurred on an insignificant tiny planet, orbiting a common and unimportant star, in a bland and cold planetary system, hidden in some far off corner of a large but otherwise unremarkable galaxy floating in a sea of billions just like it.

That accident was life. A struggle that this planet has sustained and nurtured, cared for and punished, nearly wiping it out countless times throughout a period of over 4 billion years, a struggle that has to this point, ultimately culminated in us, the first species on this planet to evolve with the ability to understand and appreciate the awsome natural processes in play here.

If that isn't enough for you to believe in, then by all means, keep your god.

Posted Nov 17 2005, 01:23 PM by michael
Filed under:

Comments

Diane wrote re: Quote of the day
on 11-18-2005 12:13 PM
I think that being free from a God based concept, does leave one open to seeing the law of cause and effect of all things. In that way, we can perhaps get a glimpse that we are not subjects of a God that needs pleasing, but rather we are part of an infinite universe and subject to laws of action and consequence. Some god-fearing folk claim that without a God-based belief system you can have no moral compass. I believe that one can look to cause and effect as a basis for conduct, judgement and aspiration

We are at the top of the food chain and can look to the tool of reason, yet I know there will always be things I don't understand. Somethings can't even be scientifically explained yet. In a way, this keeps me humble and not so solidly grasping on to my ability to reason everything away. To me this is important because I could become a slave to my own mind, when mostly I strive to truly get beyond it. Indeed the ability to reason is awesome, but also some of the things I can do with my mind and emotions are the very things that keep me stuck and unhappy unless I have the capacity to let go of it. My ability to understand the nature of things or the origin of the world won't change it's existence or non-existence. In fact, we could break down that grain of sand (or the world for that matter) into particles so small they don't exist, so maybe the world is made of nothing...
Ok I'll shut up now.....boy it's a good thing I don't do drugs anymore...LOL
MuddyG wrote re: Quote of the day
on 03-08-2006 11:30 AM
Good quote.

Here are my very brief thoughts on the other things you don't believe in any more:

Psychics - there are many things about the human mind we don't understand. The brain runs on chemical electricity. We know that we get interference with electrical fields and radio waves al the time. To say it is utter and complete nonsense is premature. The jury is out. Though I agree; 99% is pure chicanery.

An example, have you ever read the work of pioneer FBI profiler John Douglas? He is an FBI criminologist and some of his past work is simply astounding, and would be considered by some to be almost psychic. I do not believe it is. However, what if another individual were to have a similiarly analytical mind, yet they themselves had a much more "mystical" outlook, and their thoughts and ideas came more from their subconscious mind? They themselves may think of their abilities as some sort of psychic gift. I suppose that doesn't make it any more psychic, but it just illustrates how we don't always understand how the mind works. We now know that fire is not supernatural, but fire itself is obviously still quite real.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671528904/sr=8-1/qid=1141842227/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9345530-8646408?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Astrology - Bullshit. I, and all the people born the same month as I, share personality traits due to the position of stars and planets in the sky at the time? That's gonna take a lot more proof.

Mystics and ghosts - Gonna agree with you on that for the most part, too, though if someone can provide some credible evidence, my mind is always open.

UFOs - Again, probably not, but there certainly has to be other life out there.

Anything supernatural - this is pretty broad. There are plenty of "supernatural" things out there that I'm sure we just haven't figured out the natural phenomenon behind yet. Fire was once thought to be supernatural.

Add a Comment

(required)  
(optional)
(required)  
Remember Me?