Not any particular religion, just that, if there is indeed such a thing that could be understood as "god," well, that's a picture of it right there. Maybe that makes me a Saganist.

Well, part of it. because that's a photo of a miniscule, tiny, unmerited "empty" patch of sky. One such patch out of a potential infinite number of such patches. And what you find there... is only what is revealed by the light that has reached us. There is undoubtedly vastly more beyond that, imperceptible depths of the universe, that the laws of physics - namely the speed of light (and the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum) limiting our perception to things that are sufficiently close.

"Sufficiently close" is a hell of a notion when you're talking about stuff tens of billions of light-years distant, isn't it?

The things we have learned from science so vastly exceed what religion offers, it is unfathomable.

I'm thinking more in terms of experience than in material benefit, though... I think science triumphs there, as well. I'll never fathom people who imagine science is dull and joyless, devoid of awe and wonder. if anything, the scientists I've met - and though maybe they're not many, they're not few, either - have been anything but devoid of awe.

The first act of every human being is an act of science - looking around, grasping at things with newborn hands, struggling to make sense of this crazy new world we've suddenly found ourselves in. Every young child is by nature a scientist, amazed by the universe, always looking to learn more, never content to settle for just one answer to a question, no matter how simple. If every child were afforded the right to follow this path, guided to new ways of understanding and learning by parents who had the same, I can't think that this world would be anything as harsh as it is right now.

Well, except we'd probably have more tigers... So... maybe just a totally different kind of harsh, is all. But i feel my point is sound

I ponder such vastness when I go out and look at the clear night sky. I'm out where there is no light pollution or even lights if mine aren't on and I can see a lot without optical enhancement, and sometimes it scares me because I don't know what else to feel. And then I don't watch out for bears being that distracted!

Sometimes I look through my pretty strong binos (10x42) and I can see a lot more, similar to the video at times. Any enhancement makes the view so much more phenomenal.

Knowing how far out the view extends, as shown in the video, and that it is so much more than I can actually see is astounding. I might have to not look out there at night for a while, it's almost too much to fathom all at once.

Thanks for posting... I think I have to go curl up for the night, that might have been a bit more than I needed to see this late at night and know that that's right outside if I look.

Wow.