Yet they don't accept science as a whole, just in convenient pieces they like.

He doesn't come out and say that science is knowledge derived from empirical evidence, a posteriori, but that's basically was science is, the understanding of our "natural" world after the fact, through experience. This is where scientific theories come about, the basis for how we know we can and cannot do certain things in our natural world, like send space probes to other worlds and them making it safely to their destinations, instead of just blindly pointing a rocket at an alien object and having faith it will reach its target after blastoff.

That's comforting to him knowing what he knows about scientific methods and the consistency it paints of our natural world. And I can appreciate that, because I was brought up in a liberal household where my parents didn't push their children into thinking one way or the other...although we did go to church from time to time. It wasn't until I went to college and studied from a textbook called "Science and Unreason," that I found the exposure I needed to a toolbox containing the various prepositional positions.



Now I too find comfort from what I know to be consistently true and how to separate science from unreason: my textbook prepositional toolbox, that I still have on my bookshelf.

It's the dying part that fucks with my mind. But since we are made from star material.....who knows what's there when passing from this plane of existence. It's really the great mystery that puts all other problems in perspective for me. Energy of a force not understood driving matter....wow

I'm not afraid of it and any "loss" is that that's felt by those still alive. What's laughable about the believers is their perspective. They figure: Hey. I'm a smart person and I don't see how this can all be chance! And so if I can't comprehend it, it must mean that there's a power out there that's smarter than me. And if that power's SMARTER (and therefor more POWERFUL) than me, I'd better show it some respect less it torture me after I'm dead!

It's NOT that hard to comprehend the chance being that is us. It's just not. It's like if the winning PowerBall lottery ticket tried to come to terms with it's own significance. You know - why me??? Do I hope there's a different plane or zone our consciousness moves on to? Yeah - sorta. But since we CAN'T know what such a place might be like - or whether we'd have a notion that we'd existed before. We might end up in some horrendous world. And I've learned to be cautious what I wish for.

is amazing to me.....

And the fact that we haven't found "evidence" of other outposts - that sure isn't proof that life ain't out there. Best I'm aware, prehistoric creatures weren't setting up radio stations to communicate with each other or us. And what about a form of life that uses mental telepathy to communicate? We'd likely not tune into that either!
I doubt we're "alone" in this universe. I'm bettin' there's numerous winning tickets. And BTW, I won $11K two years ago, but I'm thinkin' I done played it all back already!

doesn't ring too true any more, with me. I just can't fathom leaving one 'hell' for another. I can't handle 'pie in the sky'. If human existence is but a chance happening in a universe as huge and incomprehensible as this place in time, then, logically, god can only be one concept among many known and unknown about human/animal existence and our place in the ether....I don't fear death per se, it's just the act and why that is the conundrum for me. Just the fact that a piece of matter that is attached to the whole of conscious existence, us, has to be extinguished by some force that extinguishes life force in every individual living thing on this planet is what really is..........I've witnessed death, ain't pretty, no matter what. Some peaceful, some violent and all the most real example of the impermanence of life I know.

I do hope this isn't 'all' there is, if it is, I feel, we wuz robbed....... p.s. I wish I could get hold of one of those powerball tickets that is a winner. While I'm here.

that our sense of individuality is but a temporary state of illusion. Upon death we will recognize/remember that we are so much more than that individual and that concern over death was misplaced all along.

It's as if something huge, beyond our knowing, is seeking to express itself through reproduction and evolution. We are the byproducts of that.

'Keep on truckin'......

You mean dimwits?

My dad used to call people he was mad at "ditwits."

(Yes, creationists, those actually do exist....!)

...halfway between a nitwit and a dimwit.

is enough to actually make your teeth, gums and jaw hurt.