I am new to Astronomy Cast and I love it. I subscribe to quite a few podacsts but yours became my favourite from the first listen. I think there are two main ingredients for a great podcast or radio show and that is great contact and a great voice. You have both. In spades. I could listen to you all day. I love you.

I am a steadfast atheist and admit to getting impatient and irritable when I hear what I think are irrational beleifs. Reading your story here may make me a little less grumpy with Christians now because I love you so much.

Beleif may be an emotional need for you and others and that is quite understandable, so I don’t expect to shake your beleif in God, but you have to admit that the Bible is not and cannot be the perfect word of God.

I don’t necessarily believe in a God per say, yet in a universe where we are discovering things like quantum entanglement, and the very distinct possibility of multiple universes and realities, how can anybody rule anything out as an impossiblitly.

Perhaps there is an all encompassing “thing” which governs everything in the universe, like a unified field theory, of even more simply put, something like “The Force”. Would that be all that different from a God?

Again, I am truly sorry that you, and some rather closed minded people, feel that you must explain what you believe inside.

To quote the immortal Crumb, “keep on truckin’ and keep on enlightening your adoring fans.

Sincerely
Jaymz

Do you believe in ONE God? If so, why only one? On what basis or evidence do you believe in ONE God?

Do you believe that this ONE God is a Father? Not a mother? Do you believe this God to be any sort of parental figure?

Do you believe that this God is Almighty? Omnipotent? Can do anything? If this God can do anything, can this god defy the laws of physics? Cause the planets to change their courses? Affect history by direct action?

Do you believe that this God was and is the maker of all things? Did this God make you? Did this God make the universe?

Do you believe in a singular Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe that there are no other Lords? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the ONLY son of God? Do you believe that there are no other sons or daughters of God except for Jesus Christ? Do you believe that Jesus Christ was “begotten” of the Father rather than being the product of human copulation or being “made” by the Father? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God, Light, and the only True God? Do you believe that the human being of Jesus Christ was one-in-being with the perviously described God? On what basis is this belief made?

Do you believe that it was through Jesus Christ that God made all things?

Do you believe that Jesus “came down from heaven” for “us” to “save us”? Literal heaven? As in the stuff you study? Do you believe he was born of a virgin?

Do you believe that this person suffered, died, and rose again on the third day of his death bodily?

Do you believe that he bummed around for a bit and then ascended bodily into heaven?

Do you believe that Jesus Christ will return bodily to Earth someday to judge the living and the dead? Do you believe upon that return he will establish a monarchy on this planet that will last for the rest of time?

Do you believe in the Holy Ghost? Do you believe that the Holy Ghost precedes from the Father? Do you believe that there are prophets through which the Holy Ghost talks? How do you know this?

If you don’t believe in these things or take issue with their literal interpretation, why do you insist on calling yourself a Christian? Are you just in it for the metaphor? Is the lack of a basis in any sort of reality for most of these ideas concerning for you? Can you honestly say that if someone posted this as a possible belief system to you and didn’t call it “Christianity” that is based on your heritage that you wouldn’t scoff at these requisite beliefs? Because I have a hard time seeing these beliefs nothing more than mythological ramblings of a bygone era.

Maybe that’s why you’re embarrassed to be called a “Christian”. Because the major spokespeople for your religion hold out in belief in some really wacky things that most thinking people, including those who self-identify as Christians, dismiss out-of-hand like UFOs, homeopathy, or 2012 apocalypticism.

Good science does not negate a religious belief. Good theology does not goes against good science. There is no contradiction. The only contradiction I see here is a bunch of supposedly open minded, non-judgmental people being closed minded and judgmental.

My best to you. I enjoy the podcast greatly.

Thank you for your amazing explanations…a veritable cornucopia of knowledge…you make me a more informed person.

This question ocured to me some years ago…

The moon orbits the earth. It does not rotate relative to the earth. The moon perpetually shows the same face to earth.

The moon is approximately one sixth the earth’s mass.

The moon is liberally defaced by many craters. These craters were caused by cosmic bodies colliding and impacting the moon.

The moon’s side that continually faces the earth is cratered. These craters can be seen with the naked unaided human eye.

How were these earth-facing craters caused?

The earth is like a giant umbrella for the moon. How did cosmic bodies pass the earth’s gravitational influence and still impact the moon? Why in recorded history has there been no evidence of an impact on the moon’s earth-facing side? Or, a notation of a new crater?

I am stumped: How were these earth-facing craters caused? I cannot find answers to this seemingly fundamental question.

Or:
a) Is my umbrella analogy inappropriate?
b) Did the moon once rotate at a different speed?
c) Were the moon’s earth-facing craters created when the moon was a different orbit?

Thank you for your time, and answers…I am indebted…

Graviously,

Ian Becker
PO Box 370831
San Diego, CA 92137

619-409-9665

IanSBecker@yahoo.com

When I came to know God as my Father, I was part of a community of artists, craftsmen and musicians who prided themselves on open-mindedness when it came to social aberrations, all kinds of philosophies and the use of drugs, however, when word got out that I was now a Christian, it was voiced about that I was “out to lunch”.

I pray God’s blessings on all you do.
Jean Clink

Thanks for the courageous post and the excellent work you do.

Best Wishes,

Zack Flummerfelt

I am glad that you found the courage to show your deep personal beliefs. Since you are practicing your critical mind very actively in your daily life, I believe that when you say “no contradictions”, you have checked thoroughly However, if your message is to have useful meaning to anyone else, as it should coming from such an outspoken person, I think it would be very important to clarify some deep assumptions in your text. I do not seek contradictions in your confession. I only want to understand it better, and compare it to my own beliefs.

If I start, as you do, by disregarding all outlandish beliefs (which are unfortunately plaguing the minds and words of so many people today), I can only understand your letter as an acceptance of morality based on the Bible. The entity called “Jesus” you then probably ‘feel’ as some sort of a “Way” (an abstract or concrete truth or method), or an “internal agent” (innate to us feeble humans, but hidden), or even an “external agent” (a ‘Buddha figure’), or some notion like that, which can “save” us. Hence, the Savior. A personal Jesus (Depeche Mode ). If you say he was an actual remarkable person like Buddha (no angels and virgins and such things. Let’s allow for his birth or life to might have been a “miracle” as in “not understood at the time”, or “highly improbable”, etc., whatever “son of god” is a metaphor for), that’s also fine.

The first question is now: Do you believe in a Deity? What is the Bible “God” metaphor for you? If you believe in a Deity as a metaphor for some unknowable force of beauty hidden behind the Cosmos, why should this personal Jesus have anything to do with that Deity? Do you then believe (“feel”) that the entire Universe and everything in existence is in servitude to the human race, i.e. that the Deity created this whole playground so It could play with saving and tempting us humans? It would be quite sad, and a bit offensive to the lineage of brave people who gazed the stars through the centuries, if one is to believe that. The stars showed how small we are and in which way we belong to a much larger Nature around us. So I assume no important role for “God”, just morality coming from the Savior. (Logically leaving the undecidable question of Deity open.)

It is next obvious to you that Christian morality is in no way superior to many other religious moralities, right? We might take the Calvinists in the Netherlands as a prime example of a thriving culture based on pristine Christian morality. However, I don’t see that other religions were less efficient, or less spiritually fulfilling, in the creation of the mighty Chinese, Indus, etc. cultures? So, Christianity is not about the “weakness of the heart” only. It’s also maybe because one is too old or too lazy to try to learn about other magnificent cultures of us humans? The scientist in you should be trembling in pain if this is indeed the case! I respect you, and assume you are well versed in world religions, and Christianity just “rang a bell” for you. Then you understand that this choice is based on you being raised in the Western culture; it is therefore just another way to stay alienated and absent from joining the collective of all existing human civilizations? Your love of the Sky should translate also to love of humans on Earth: Love of everything that connects us, not necessarily contained in few particular passages from this or that worshipped book. So I feel the Bible-based morality you advocate is actually a quite vague “buffet-religiosity”, a collection of vague notions and metaphors which hardly warrants the name “Christianity”. You just “believe” in your interpretation of a few metaphors floating around in the Western civilization. These metaphors have been around much longer, and nicely depict the human condition, and at the same time raise your morals and faith in survival (personal and as species). You see, understanding the human condition is essential to morality. Christianity is a very specific and simplistic story you try to cherry-pick to extract something you feel should be there to make you feel better about yourself and the world. And this is not attacking the problem head-on. I am sorry if it sounds offensive, but isn’t it very simple and logical?

So, let’s take a look at morality, since that is the crucial thing you seek! (And as I argue above, you unfortunately seem to satisfy your search with some vague notions from a particular scribble.) I encourage you to turn your heart towards where your mind is pointing. The crucial and wonderful joint effort of humanity in understanding the brain, society and primates. Don’t say it’s “just science”. No it isn’t. It is our quest to understand how and why we feel or do things in certain ways. After comparing our personal and social behavior to other primates’ (where things are somewhat simpler), I cannot avoid this sense of belonging and the sense of fantastic gradual emergence from complexity. And now comes the precise claim: Any true morality comes from this sense of belonging, of being a part of a huge and ancient lineage of “individuals” that died, that are alive, and those who will come after us. Morality is understanding that you are part of a whole, and therefore some basic Rules of good and wrong are ingrained, and part of the simple natural biological process. Your sense of wonder is also a gradually emergent phenomenon in the brain, a necessary consequence of self-reflection. (With some effort, people managed to ‘open the mind’ of a gorilla to learn about mortality and fear of death.) Of course our immense rational powers (the “divine spark”) and our carnal instincts are mixed together. No external “Jesus” will save you, and if “Jesus” is internal to you, why call it that way, as if He is something out of this world? You have to raise above yourself, understand your motives in life, who you are and who you are to others. What behaviors and thoughts will elevate you, which ones will destroy you. Why subsume this incredible, intrinsic, beautiful, and sometimes dark power of being a Homo Sapiens to any vague fairy tales and distorted metaphors that have been misused so severely by humans through the ages?

Love others and love yourself, that’s simple. If you are a child, your civilization will help you internalize this through various ‘fairy tales’ called education. And you can resort to, or hide in these pre-baked cookies. But, don’t tell me your critical mind is not developed enough to embrace the big picture in which the heart is colored brightly and clearly, not hidden in some mystical and unknowable passages?

I know that many people are lost if they don’t hide behind that deep, murmuring voice in their head saying that there is something ‘beyond’ to hang on, to believe in. Please, be a better human being, by believing in the fact that you yourself ARE a better being.

No insults intended, I apologize if you find any.

All the best,
Andrej

I have just found out you are christian, what a total, complete and utter let down.

I’m no boffin, i have’nt had any formal schooling after the age of sixteen, i fix telephones for a living and i smoke twenty a day. If a doughnut like me can see through all the religious rubbish, why is it that a clever chick like you can’t ??

I have a clear and lucid mind made possible without the clouding crap that any religious beliefs bring.

Give it a try love, let go of the god rubbish, no doubt your parents were christians and you were indoctrinated from birth.

Watch ‘ The Life of Brian ‘ by the Python boys, it should clear up a few things for you !!

by the way you now have one less listener to AstronomyCast, i’m sorry but its a matter of principle !!

I just posted the article, “Top 50 Blogs for Learning About Private Space Travel” ( http://www.onlineengineeringdegree.org/top-50-blogs-for-learning-about-private-space-travel ) on my site. I’m happy to tell you that your website has been included in the list. I thought I’d email you about it in case you think your readers would find the article interesting enough to warrant you giving the article a quick mention on your site.

Either way, thanks for your time!

Best,
Samantha Rhodes

I do practice loving kindness and hope the world could learn to live and let live. Unfortunately, religion and radical extremeist with political/power motivated interest will divide, distort or kill any chance of us as a species to ever live in harmony. I do hope more open mnded realist could emerge from religion but that would cause church pockets to empty and doubt reason can emerge from ancient dogma.
I still love you Dr Gay, keep up the good work.

Newsflash, Dawkins-sheep: The biggest, most illogical superstition of all is atheism, as anyone with an understanding of basic logic can attest. Even the most far-fetched religious beliefs are at least more reasonable than athiesm, which requires one to a.) ignore all experimental and empirical evidence of the relation between cause and effect in spacetime, and b.) accept/believe that events have routinely occured throughout the history of our universe which exceed the commonly-accepted scientific threshold of “impossibility” (1 in 10^50).

In short, belief in atheism (yes, it is a belief) requires suspension of the scinetific method in its entirety. Talk about superstition!

Occam applied his own razor to the question of God’s existence, and used it to logically prove the fallacy of atheism. Truly hilarious/sad that the neo-atheist haters didn’t bother to look up this little fact before they started quoting him.

I have been listening and learning about the Skeptical movement for several years now. And though I consider myself a Skeptic and an amateur scientist, I know by listening that being a Christian is not really viewed as a neutral thing. I was glad to hear of at least one person out in this sub-culture with a similar view point as my own.

Reading through your beliefs, I think I am right there with you on almost every point. I feel it is my personal mission as a Christian to educate other Christians on the fact that science is not an enemy just because others have set it up that way. There isn’t a week that goes by that I am not speaking up for evolution or the big bang theory trying to get my fellow Christians to imagine a bigger God than they are used to thinking of. My theory is once Christians can speak with knowledge and respect to scientists and skeptics they may be more open to what we have to offer and that adversarial culture may diminish.

You are better connected and more knowledgeable in this area… do you know of any groups or societies that promote these ideals of the Christian Scientists, Skeptical Christians, etc? Maybe you link to some somewhere on this site, I will hunt around.

Thank you again for being honest and giving another Christian a little hope in this world.

I have been listening and learning about the Skeptical movement for several years now. And though I consider myself a Skeptic and an amateur scientist, I know by listening that being a Christian is not really viewed as a neutral thing. I was glad to hear of at least one person out in this sub-culture with a similar view point as my own.

Reading through your beliefs, I think I am right there with you on almost every point. I feel it is my personal mission as a Christian to educate other Christians on the fact that science is not an enemy just because others have set it up that way. There isn’t a week that goes by that I am not speaking up for evolution or the big bang theory trying to get my fellow Christians to imagine a bigger God than they are used to thinking of. My theory is once Christians can speak with knowledge and respect to scientists and skeptics they may be more open to what we have to offer and that adversarial culture may diminish.

You are better connected and more knowledgeable in this area… do you know of any groups or societies that promote these ideals of the Christian Scientist, Skeptical Christian, etc? Maybe you link to some somewhere on this site, I will hunt around.

Thank you again for being honest and giving another Christian a little hope in this world.