Deep space photo

[Backtothemac]

Hey everyone. Look at this picture and see just how small and narrow minded it makes earthlings look.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040309.html

Those are not stars, they are galaxies.

Click the image to enlarge it and then really get blown away.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

This is great stuff, saw it the other day.

The fun thing is that the farther we see, the older it gets....eventually we won't be able to see any farther....

D

 

[wdlove]

Hey everyone. Look at this picture and see just how small and narrow minded it makes earthlings look.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040309.html

Those are not stars, they are galaxies.

Click the image to enlarge it and then really get blown away.

That is awesome Backtothemac, thank you for the link. Just shows hoe really insignificant we are.

 

[Backtothemac]

That is awesome Backtothemac, thank you for the link. Just shows hoe really insignificant we are.

Well, more than anything, arrogant. How can someone look at that, and think we are alone. And for me only, how could I deny God when looking at that creation.

Unreal how huge it is.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Unreal how huge it is.

Its really impossible for anyone to grasp the size of the universe, especially since that image is such a small slice of the whole.

D

 

[Doctor Q]

Makes a good desktop pattern. That's probably what Mother Nature had in mind when she created such marvelous scenery.

I like that there are galaxies at various angles to our line of sight.

 

[Backtothemac]

Its really impossible for anyone to grasp the size of the universe, especially since that image is such a small slice of the whole.

D

Oh, it is unreal. It is almost scary to tell you the truth. I don't think that mankind will ever truely understand the scope of it. Mankind as a whole. Yea, there are those of us who will, but in general, people just don't get it.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Yea, there are those of us who will, but in general, people just don't get it.

What anyone looking closely at this will soon grasp is that its too large to manage in terms of understanding and complexity. We're looking at a fine detail in that picture and yet it holds billions of suns with who knows how many planets. Its hard enough to imagine 1,000,000 discreet elements of any object, let alone numbers exponentially larger.

D

 

[Backtothemac]

What anyone looking closely at this will soon grasp is that its too large to manage in terms of understanding and complexity. We're looking at a fine detail in that picture and yet it holds billions of suns with who knows how many planets. Its hard enough to imagine 1,000,000 discreet elements of any object, let alone numbers exponentially larger.

D

You are 100% correct. There are thousands of galaxies in that picture. How many suns and planets in a galaxy? Thousands? Millions?

It is like that line from Contact. If only 1% of all galaxies had a solar system that could sustain life, and if only 1% of those had planets that were capable of sustaining life, there would be billions of earths out there.

 

[wdlove]

You are 100% correct. There are thousands of galaxies in that picture. How many suns and planets in a galaxy? Thousands? Millions?

It is like that line from Contact. If only 1% of all galaxies had a solar system that could sustain life, and if only 1% of those had planets that were capable of sustaining life, there would be billions of earths out there.

It was all made by God, the great creator. As Jesus said. "In my fathers house there are many mansions." We can only be humble and awesome awe.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

It was all made by God, the great creator. As Jesus said. "In my fathers house there are many mansions." We can only be humble and awesome awe.

Using God as an example is somewhat appropriate here - but it doesn't bring the point home. We're talking an almost infinite expanse, limitless - giving the word or idea a definition still doesn't mean we can handle the truth.

And as for God and religion, when life on other worlds is found/contacted, there's going to be a large shake up about everything we hold to be true. If it happens soon, I don't think we'll be able to handle it very well as a society.

The day that faith and reality collide will be amazing, but such enlightenment is far off.

D

 

[agreenster]

And as for God and religion, when life on other worlds is found/contacted, there's going to be a large shake up about everything we hold to be true.

I often wonder if that will ever happen. I mean, thats like saying that a protozoa in the Great Barrier reef will someday contact a flea on the back of a dog in Kenya. Its just too big, and too complex for us (or anyone else, really) to make that trek, much less understand what we are seeing when we see it.

And if anything discredits religion, its these type of photographs and concepts. Who are we to think that we have the answer to the universe/mortality/diety, when there is SO little that we really know? Kind of arrogant if you ask me. We cant even agree on our own planet what "God" is, much less the entire universe.

 

[Backtothemac]

Using God as an example is somewhat appropriate here - but it doesn't bring the point home. We're talking an almost infinite expanse, limitless - giving the word or idea a definition still doesn't mean we can handle the truth.

And as for God and religion, when life on other worlds is found/contacted, there's going to be a large shake up about everything we hold to be true. If it happens soon, I don't think we'll be able to handle it very well as a society.

The day that faith and reality collide will be amazing, but such enlightenment is far off.

D

The only thing that people need to remember is that in the bible, no-where does it say that God did not create life on other planets. Just because it isn't said, doesn't mean it isn't real

 

[Backtothemac]

I often wonder if that will ever happen. I mean, thats like saying that a protozoa in the Great Barrier reef will someday contact a flea on the back of a dog in Kenya. Its just too big, and too complex for us (or anyone else, really) to make that trek, much less understand what we are seeing when we see it.

And if anything discredits religion, its these type of photographs and concepts. Who are we to think that we have the answer to the universe/mortality/diety, when there is SO little that we really know? Kind of arrogant if you ask me. We cant even agree on our own planet what "God" is, much less the entire universe.

Well, we know very little, but how about a world that is say 10 million years into the evolution of the society. They may know more, they may have a super transport system capable of moving someone from point a to point b at the process of thought.

We just don't know.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

I often wonder if that will ever happen. I mean, thats like saying that a protozoa in the Great Barrier reef will someday contact a flea on the back of a dog in Kenya. Its just too big, and too complex for us (or anyone else, really) to make that trek, much less understand what we are seeing when we see it.

And if anything discredits religion, its these type of photographs and concepts. Who are we to think that we have the answer to the universe/mortality/diety, when there is SO little that we really know? Kind of arrogant if you ask me. We cant even agree on our own planet what "God" is, much less the entire universe.

We put God in terms we can understand - therefore by definition its very limited since we don't know all that much. And its even more simplistic since most religions evolved thousands of years ago when science and magic were pretty much the same thing.

As for finding other life - they might find us first, which is my belief. Given the age of the universe as we know it (14+ billion years) and imagine that some race of beings has even been around for 1 of those billions of years - they have a far greater understanding of what's really going on than we do. They just might be waiting for us to evolve enough socially to handle and accept that we're not alone in the universe.

I can't thing of one of the major religions that would be able to handle ET's - they just don't fit into our definitions of religious belief regarding God and their souls, etc. Faced with the event of life outside the Earth, it would require the world's religions to *change* their views.

When in human religious history has it been easy to change a religious view with out incident?

D

 

[badhorsie777]

Well, we know very little, but how about a world that is say 10 million years into the evolution of the society. They may know more, they may have a super transport system capable of moving someone from point a to point b at the process of thought.

We just don't know.

ooooooooohh..... I just love when my love for my God and my love for Scifi get to be expressed in the same instance.

But just to chime in, I believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God to THIS people - our planet - humans. The fact that everything around us is much older doesn't fly in the face of Him creating our galaxies, planets, oceans, animals, people, etc. out of nothing. In fact, the Bible can be read as a love letter TO US. Nowhere in it does it suggest that God is incapable of creating more. On the contrary, it appears to be a constant desire of His.

BTW, I stared at that picture for several minutes, and I'd have to agree with the guy who said it's hard to fathom. I started to get a headache trying to comprehend it all.

-badhorsie777

 

[Backtothemac]

I can't thing of one of the major religions that would be able to handle ET's - they just don't fit into our definitions of religious belief regarding God and their souls, etc. Faced with the event of life outside the Earth, it would require the world's religions to *change* their views.


D

Wait D, I am confused. As a Christian, I think it would uphold my religion personally. Soul's and life are not confined to earth by the bible. At least I don't think they are.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Wait D, I am confused. As a Christian, I think it would uphold my religion personally. Soul's and life are not confined to earth by the bible. At least I don't think they are.

ah, but in Christianity's version, not your interpretation, its very human centric. Jesus, as the Son of God is a great example. Regardless whether you can deal with it or not, there are far more who won't be able to and will look to religious leaders for answers. Answers that aren't in the Bible. Which requires some adjustments. And what if the Aliens have their own Jesus? Its not a simple thing and something that I'm sure has been debated for as long as we've been looking up at the stars and wondering what's out there.

That's why I've been saying that we're not capable, socially, to handle First Contact yet. It would cause too much strife, anxiety and confusion.

D

 

[Backtothemac]

ah, but in Christianity's version, not your interpretation, its very human centric. Jesus, as the Son of God is a great example. Regardless whether you can deal with it or not, there are far more who won't be able to and will look to religious leaders for answers. Answers that aren't in the Bible. Which requires some adjustments. And what if the Aliens have their own Jesus? Its not a simple thing and something that I'm sure has been debated for as long as we've been looking up at the stars and wondering what's out there.

That's why I've been saying that we're not capable, socially, to handle First Contact yet. It would cause too much strife, anxiety and confusion.

D

I can see that point. Unless of course they actually called him Jesus. That would actually be very cool

 

[Mr. Anderson]

I can see that point. Unless of course they actually called him Jesus. That would actually be very cool

But you see, you're anthropomorphizing there - you're assuming that communication would be audible and have vowels and consonants

D

 

[Doctor Q]

It's not quite as important as settling the meaning of our existence, but I'd like to say that I love agreenster's avatar. It even suits the discussion of E.T.

Of course, if you change your avatar in the future, this post is not going to make sense!

 

[wdlove]

Jesus came to make the word flesh. He came to fulfill the word of the Old Testament. To God a day is a 1000 years and a 1000 years is a day. So allowing for his great creation.

 

[Mantat]

About other planet with life forms:
It as been 'proven' that we are probably alone in the universe, or at the very least, our cousins are so far from us that we are never going to see them, ever.

How they figured that our?
Statistic! Even if there are Gazillions of star system, for life to emerge (what ever the form) a planet need very specific conditions. These conditions are so restrictive that the probability are quicky becoming ridiculous. Too bad, I lost the name of the book who made the maths but I guess its on amazone...

Some of the elements were:
- existence of a big planet (Jupiter) to grab all the roaming asteroid
- size of the sun
- age of the system
- earth / water (liquid) ratio
- temperature variation
- etc...

Moral of the story: take care of the earth, she is one of a kind...

As about god as master of the universe: To an ant, a man is a god...

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Jesus came to make the word flesh. He came to fulfill the word of the Old Testament. To God a day is a 1000 years and a 1000 years is a day. So allowing for his great creation.

Unless there's more explanation to your comment above, that really doesn't make any sense in this discussion.

One thing about the universe is that we won't know everything about it - that's both scary and comforting at the same time

D

 

[Backtothemac]

About other planet with life forms:
It as been 'proven' that we are probably alone in the universe, or at the very least, our cousins are so far from us that we are never going to see them, ever.

How they figured that our?
Statistic! Even if there are Gazillions of star system, for life to emerge (what ever the form) a planet need very specific conditions. These conditions are so restrictive that the probability are quicky becoming ridiculous. Too bad, I lost the name of the book who made the maths but I guess its on amazone...

Some of the elements were:
- existence of a big planet (Jupiter) to grab all the roaming asteroid
- size of the sun
- age of the system
- earth / water (liquid) ratio
- temperature variation
- etc...

Moral of the story: take care of the earth, she is one of a kind...

As about god as master of the universe: To an ant, a man is a god...

Ah, not so fast my friend. To sustain carbon based life, you are correct. But what if the life was say, lead based? They have found bateria living in the vents of Yellowstone that are either lead or iron based life forms. I cannot remember. Life will find a way. If you constrict the rules to the rules of earth, then you are right. But there are no rules that apply to life out there other than the simple answer, which is, we don't know.