"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." Douglas Adams. *quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by BicycleRepairMan.

This is incredibly awesome.

Truly great. I'm facebooking the shit out of this video.

Man, this one really got me. Facebooking the shit out of this too! This had better make it to the top. Talk about powerful.

Put not only on Facebook, but a favorite on YouTube and made it my featured video.
EDIT: Also this better make it to #1 people.

"In its efforts to stop us facing reality, religion has become the reality we cannot face."

For those looking for a reason to watch all 14 mins...here's my favorite part:

There's no word for such experiences that come through scientific and non-mystical revelation. The reason for this is because every time someone has such a "mindgasm"--religion steals it--simply by saying, "ahh, you had a religious experience." And spiritualists will pull the same shit! And both camps get angry when an atheist like me tells you that I only ever had these experiences AFTER rejecting EVERYthing supernatural. But I do admit, that after such experiences, the moments when reality hits me like a winning lottery ticket, I often think about religion...and how lucky I am that I am not religious.

You want to learn something about God? Okay. This is one galaxy. If God exists, God made THIS. Look at it. Face it. Accept it. Adjust to it. Because THIS is the truth, and it's probably not going to change very much. This is how God works. God would probably want you to look at it, to learn about it, to try to understand it. But if you can't look, if you won't even try to understand, what does that say about your religion?

Ooh, I recognise that music. It's from Sunshine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em7mzT48J4k

It is videos/messages like these that keep my faith in humanity alive.
This has to go on to #1

btw: why is it a non-star member like me can use power points to selfpromote, but not promote? Shouldn't it be the other way round?

>> ^TheGenk:
btw: why is it a non-star member like me can use power points to selfpromote, but not promote? Shouldn't it be the other way round?


We're young and inexperienced, still unsure how to satisfy others. Self-satisfaction is all we're capable of at this point

Eric Idle said it better.

The first 5 minutes were absolutely beautiful. Those 5 minutes express in words things that i never could, sat there staring up at the sky or looking through a telescope. It expresses completely my marvel when looking out at the universe and understanding the things i understand about it and then looking back down at myself and everyone on earth with me.

The rest of it i could take or leave. No need to argue for/against religion after that point. Just say those first 5 minutes, and the conclusions are your own.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 5:15pm PDT - promote requested by cybrbeast.

If only we could see the same night sky that our ancestors saw. There is so much light pollution in the world you pretty much need to go to sea to view a perfectly dark sky.

For more information check out the IDA.

Maybe this guy will some time understand that religion is part of science too.
Other than that nice to look and listen to (some passages at least), but as self righteous as the stuff religion is spewing around.

Definiely should be * music. It wouldn't be the same without it. Made the video, in my opinion. Anybody else automatically sing along with a passion whenever they hear Wake Up?

>> ^coolhund:

Maybe this guy will some time understand that religion is part of science too.
Other than that nice to look and listen to (some passages at least), but as self righteous as the stuff religion is spewing around.


How exactly is religion part of science? Be aware that I am asking this sarcastically, and am looking forward to a good laugh at the abuse the two domains will suffer in their attempted conflation.




Also, excellent video! The music from Sunshine is definitely the clincher imo.

>> ^hpqp:

>> ^coolhund:
Maybe this guy will some time understand that religion is part of science too.
Other than that nice to look and listen to (some passages at least), but as self righteous as the stuff religion is spewing around.

How exactly is religion part of science? Be aware that I am asking this sarcastically, and am looking forward to a good laugh at the abuse the two domains will suffer in their attempted conflation.


Also, excellent video! The music from Sunshine is definitely the clincher imo.


Or in other words: Youre trolling.
Why should I reply to it?

>> ^coolhund:

Maybe this guy will some time understand that religion is part of science too.
Other than that nice to look and listen to (some passages at least), but as self righteous as the stuff religion is spewing around.


I'm not trolling. I'm sure you had some sort of point that makes sense in some way, but simply saying "religion is part of science" isn't going to cut it.

Religion is defined by faith...belief something that cannot be proven. Science is defined by its quest to discover truth through experiment with empirical data. Pretty much exact opposites.

Religion is part of our world. Its even in our genes one way or the other (god gene). Thus its part of science.

You cant talk through ignorance. Just give it up with trying to explain these people that they believe in bullshit. You wouldnt listen to that either if someone came up and said science is bullshit, no matter if its true or not.

>> ^coolhund:

Religion is part of our world. Its even in our genes one way or the other (god gene). Thus its part of science.
You cant talk through ignorance. Just give it up with trying to explain these people that they believe in bullshit. You wouldnt listen to that either if someone came up and said science is bullshit, no matter if its true or not.


How is asking a question while admitting one's expected reaction to the reply trolling?

As expected, I got a good laugh out of this. Religion is part of our world, yes, just as astrology, witchcraft, alchemy and and other superstition-based activities are. That does not make them part of science. We can observe these phenomena, in anthropology, history, neurobiology, etc. but that does not necessarily make them a part of science. I think what you meant to say is "religion is a part of reality", which would be true (for now). So were human sacrifice, slavery, misogyny, etc., for the better part of Humanity's existence. Lumping it all into science just because it exists or existed makes no sense.

As for the "god gene" business, that term is a vulgarisation (a misleading one imo) of the theory that humans are predisposed to superstitious belief. Not religion. Micheal Shermer and others make a point of explaining how this would have been beneficial to early survival (projecting agency, for example).

You showed your ignorance while asking a sarcastic question and even putting in some arrogance. Thats trolling enough, and that also proved you will never acknowlegde something different.

Nope thats not what it says. Thats what you and some others interpret into it.
From Wikipedia (since youre too lazy): The God gene hypothesis proposes that human beings inherit a set of genes that predisposes them towards spiritual or mystic experiences. That includes religion.

That would make religion part of science because its part of our genes and thus pretty normal. But maybe we can remove those genes, like I am sure some militant atheists would like to.

I am also not surprised some atheists dont want that to be true, since they feel so superior to religious people and dont even want to realize that they also believe in something like that, only in a different way.

This is all I will reply to you since I cant break through your ignorance anyway and its exactly what I suspected after your first trolling.

Oh and I almost forgot: Psychology, sociology and behavioral science aren't sciences, huh?

I have a bit of trouble with the way this fellow chooses to direct and construct some of his monologue, but all in all it's a wonderful and inspiring video. *doublepromote

Double-Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Thursday, November 4th, 2010 2:10pm PDT - doublepromote requested by NicoleBee.

I can't possibly upvote this video enough.

I feel awe. And so small Hold me!

[edit]: Ah damn why does he have to spoil it talking about religion... The first 4 minutes or so were awesome!

*talks *quality *doublepromote

This video has already declared quality - ignoring quality request by gwiz665.

I find meatbag gwiz665 to be an inadequate command-giver - ignoring all requests by gwiz665.