religion in space

[volcaniclastic]

Re: religion in space

[quote author=Madness link=topic=741.msg11323#msg11323 date=1289353529]
Unfortunately I have to disagree. I think that humanity should have already outgrown its need for religion yet we still have it. I don't see advances in technology making a difference. I hope I'm wrong actually...
[/quote]

You know, to be honest, I think the same thing - yet we still have it. I suppose I'm just holding out hope for the day that we do. And I mean, hey - I still use religion, but I look forward to a day where I don't feel the need to believe that there is something more out there. Or at least, don't feel the need to justify that there is something more out there.

[TaiganPagan]

Re: religion in space

There was a movie which touched the aspect of religion in space.
You people should remember it. It was Wing Commander, with Tcheky Karyo and Freddy Prinze Jr. (I may be misswriting their names)
The story was that the Pilgrims discovered how to navigate through space, by an act of faith using gravity wells, which later on became a natural ability evolved only for the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were so imbued in their own bliss of superiority, that they forgotten that they were part of the human race. And thus they were war on and persecuted. Since the "normal" humans destroyed the Pilgrim society. They were stuck, because they destroyed the intuitive ability to use the gravity wells and now must rely on technology only to navigate the shortcuts without risking death.

[Ophidia]

Re: religion in space

[quote author=Dumuzi link=topic=741.msg11366#msg11366 date=1289359243]
It's not like god is bound to a certain place or time, so it wouldn't make a difference which planet you are on. The truth is the truth.
[/quote]

It's true, most of my patron deities are earth-bound and earth-born. But Selene/Luna is definitely not, although without the earth's embrace, She'd be hurtling recklessly through space.

I don't view the afterlife as being a physical place, with specific map coordinates, nor do I see the Otherworlds as being map-bound. I'd be the last person you'd find volunteering to venture forth into space, but just because some unknown calamity forced me into having to evacuate earth doesn't mean I'd be leaving my faith behind.

[spartacandream]

Re: religion in space

[quote author=Dumuzi link=topic=741.msg11366#msg11366 date=1289359243]
Second verse of the Qur'an:

"Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds"
[/quote]
It's funny, when I began to read, i thought of that. Also, Etana's journey to the heavens.

[Ananta Androscoggin]

Re: religion in space

Perhaps rather, the question might be rephrased as:

What kinds of Philosophies of Life will humanity take into space with it, and how will they split apart and evolve and recombine in the first few centures?

Will the Stoic school be functional in space? Or will it adapt to the kind of environments necessary for living and working there? Or will its advocates insist on a purity of ideology to its originators in Classical Greece?

The same for almost any other philosophical system for living and dying. These are the kinds of thoughts that were going through my mind when I was first drafting that silly handbook linked to in my first post in this topic.

[Juniper]

Re: religion in space

Whether I live on earth, in space, on Pandora, the moon or inside a washing machine makes no difference to me in my path. It's energy based and therefore flexible to whatever my surroundings are.

Religion will not go away just because humanity figured out space travel. It will, however, evolve into something else. People will adapt. They always do. After all, humans are the ones that developed religion, faith...what have you.

[CttCJim]

Re: religion in space

y'know, I worried that reacquainting myself with Science might shake my faith, but I boldly watched all of Cosmos anyway. And you know what happened?
I had a religious epiphany.
Carl Sagan (who was basically agnostic, but dodged the question his whole life) made me feel MORE faith in my religion.
Watch the show, and you'll know what I mean. When he talks about the vastness of the universe and the way it interacts, and the actual location of the Earth (an outer spiral arm of a pretty average galaxy), you either lose all faith entirely, or you feel suddenly and strongly that all this was put together by someone for a reason.
I cannot imagine going out into that void and exploring and having it lessen that feeling.

[Ophidia]

Re: religion in space

[quote author=CttCJim link=topic=741.msg12963#msg12963 date=1289732439]
y'know, I worried that reacquainting myself with Science might shake my faith, but I boldly watched all of Cosmos anyway. And you know what happened?
I had a religious epiphany.
Carl Sagan (who was basically agnostic, but dodged the question his whole life) made me feel MORE faith in my religion.
Watch the show, and you'll know what I mean. When he talks about the vastness of the universe and the way it interacts, and the actual location of the Earth (an outer spiral arm of a pretty average galaxy), you either lose all faith entirely, or you feel suddenly and strongly that all this was put together by someone for a reason.
I cannot imagine going out into that void and exploring and having it lessen that feeling.
[/quote]

Quantum physics makes me feel that way.

[Ananta Androscoggin]

Re: religion in space

It's not just Cosmos that I recommend to people, there's also James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed and the later Connections series.

They can help those people who watch them with their minds still open make some of their own mental connections among things they usually already know about, and have never thought about the relationships between.

There are certain works of fiction which can also serve to help people connect other things together. Ursula K. Leguin's The Dispossessed, and The Left Hand of Darkness are two; Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and Number of the Beast are a couple more; Ted Sturgeon touched on religious themes in the far-flung cultures of the galaxy in several novels, as did Frank Herbert (sort of) with his Dune series.

Whoso reads only recent "Pagan" works by "make-a-quick-buck" authors or publishers is severely handicapped in the knowledge they gain thereby.

[cesara]

Re: religion in space

[quote author=Dumuzi link=topic=741.msg11366#msg11366 date=1289359243]
Second verse of the Qur'an:

"Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds"

It's not like god is bound to a certain place or time, so it wouldn't make a difference which planet you are on. The truth is the truth.
[/quote]

Why I am a panentheist.....thank.you.very.much! All that exists [the universe] and all the does not....truth is truth.

[cesara]

Re: religion in space

[quote author=volcaniclastic link=topic=741.msg11376#msg11376 date=1289360698]
I still use religion, but I look forward to a day where I don't feel the need to believe that there is something more out there. Or at least, don't feel the need to justify that there is something more out there.
[/quote]

That day will never come -- or at least not for a long long long long long long long long time. There IS something more out there -- there are TONS of somethings out there that we don't understand. To try to understand them is nothing to be ashamed of. Seeing these somethings in a religious framework is nothing to be ashamed of. If we want to acknowledge them (and personally, I think we MUST, which is why I cannot consider myself an atheist-all that exists is what we can see and test), we must set up some format to perceive them -- even if it's simply allowing ourselves to be agape with wonder and awe.

[Dumuzi]

Re: religion in space

[quote author=cesara link=topic=741.msg13053#msg13053 date=1289755763]

Why I am a panentheist.....thank.you.very.much! All that exists [the universe] and all the does not....truth is truth.


[/quote]

I'm not arguing against Panentheism, but I was wondering how it's related to what I said. Since what I said means that god is the god OF everything, rather than everything is IN god.

Or were you talking about the truth is the truth part of my post? So that what you believe as the truth would be the same whether on earth or not.

Is that it?

[cesara]

Re: religion in space

[quote author=Dumuzi link=topic=741.msg13762#msg13762 date=1289918396]
Or were you talking about the truth is the truth part of my post? So that what you believe as the truth would be the same whether on earth or not.

Is that it?
[/quote]

Yes, this.

[Dumuzi]

Re: religion in space

[quote author=cesara link=topic=741.msg13879#msg13879 date=1289934523]

Yes, this.
[/quote]

Oh OK, gotcha!

You and I will have no problems practicing our religions in space, yay!

[spartacandream]

Re: religion in space

I open to the idea that gods exist, I strongly believe otherwise though. I'd need convincing evidence.

We all could just be a part of god's computer simulation. Strange thing is, that's actually possible. Perhaps an afterlife our information being stored on a microchip, and we can be revived elsewhere on another program or deleted completely if we're bad. You never know.

Or we can all just be a figment of god's imagination. ;D
You'd never know.