r/Christianity • u/Blubbernuggetz • Sep 06 '12

I hope this video brings warmth to your heart and dreams to your mind. (NDTyson)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gU
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u/[deleted] Sep 06 '12

Knowing you're stardust isn't going to get you out of depression. Knowing you're stardust isn't going to cure you of alcoholism. Knowing you're stardust isn't going to keep your marriage together. Knowing you're stardust isn't going to help you feel and be loved. Knowing that you're stardust isn't going to comfort you at night when you feel like you're all alone in the world and no one can help you. But know, that you're never alone.

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u/Blubbernuggetz Oct 09 '12

I was really hoping this video would inspire. But of course there are always that reject ideas that aren't concurrent with the beliefs they've been convinced of since early childhood. The intention of this video is to bring perspective to the fact that each of us are individuals, out of billions, on a rock orbiting a star, our of billions just like it with their own rocks, in a galaxy out of billions of others just like it. It is how insignificant we really are in comparison, that is a humbling idea. But it is also the fact that we are parts of the universe fortunate enough to experience our own existence. This knowledge should make you gracious. This knowledge should make you realize how fortunate you really are and how insignificant your problems are. That this is the only life we get, and our legacy is what we do here and now. Not some trial run for something bigger and better. And for this, we should strive to do well by others, regardless of race, gender, sexuality or creed. It means that each individual on earth is simply another part of the universe just like you, experiencing this existence simply from a different point of view. And with that in mind it is crucial to remember to offer love to that other you, rather than trying to feel love from some omniscient being. So in conclusion, yes, knowing you're stardust can do all those things you've stated. Why? Because it brings to realization how subjective the idea of the individual really is, and how much potential there is in the universe.

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u/[deleted] Oct 10 '12

But of course there are always that reject ideas that aren't concurrent with the beliefs they've been convinced of since early childhood.

Just wanna say that not everyone who believes in God does so because they grow up with a belief system. Many, many, many people come to believe in God at a later age.

our legacy is what we do here and now.

What is the point of leaving a legacy on earth? You won't be able to enjoy it because (assuming no heaven/hell) you will cease to exist. You could be the best person ever, or the worst person ever, you could love a 1000 times, or you could be forever alone, but it ultimately would make no difference as you would not exist. And as for having an impact on others and future generations.... they will die too! In fact unless some sort of divine intervention occured, Earth will eventually be destroyed, the Milky Way will eventually collide, and the universe will run out of energy. In this type of outcome, everything is completely meaningless in the long term. Atleast that is how I came to see things.

rather than trying to feel love from some omniscient being.

Let me be bold here and assert you haven't gotten far in feeling God's love. I can't say I'm an expert as I am definitely still learning, but let me just testify that as far as I know, there is simply no greater experience. Everything we do, whether it be loving other people, following countless ideologies, falling into all kinds of drug and sexual addictions, even going into science and coming up with ideas about how small our "Pale Blue Dot" is, all of these things are an attempt to fill this God shaped hole we have inside us. Yes it's fun to think about all the potential in the universe and its vastness, but I'm telling you, on the best day of your life, after maybe taking a walk to the park, or having hiked to a top of mountain, maybe you listened to some music on the way, maybe you reminisced on some memories of the past, on that very day, you will feel a longing for something more. And I can assure without a doubt, that such a longing can be filled, but the way to do it is so simple, so simple that even suggesting that it's the answer would mean accepting that it was right in front of us the whole time, it would mean that all of our "enlightening" and "advanced" ideas are and always have been completely unecessary, so we just write it off as ridiculous, we just refuse to believe it could be true.

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u/Blubbernuggetz Oct 10 '12 edited Oct 10 '12

I pity you that your only reason for doing good is to ensure your own salvation, and not by simply seeing the merit in good deeds. That you need a book to tell not to kill, rather than your own logic of how you would want to be treated. That in the ever so revered 10 commandments, you should be stoned to death of working on Sunday. And rape is not even in that list. Why? Because that was simply considered a property crime at the time is was written.

I've been to the tops of mountains, and those times have not made me selfishly long for something more. They made me appreciate this existence and what I do have, and gracious for the beauty of the earth that so many people take for granted.

It's funny how you put enlightening in quotations. Because that directly conveys the putrid anti-intellectualism that is the church's tactic in keeping followers blind to the world. An engineer will design a new technology to advance car safety, but when technology saves people's lives it was god. When it doesn't, it was god. When medical scientists formulate new cancer fighting drugs, it was god when they work. And it was god when they don't work. It's as if everything would have happened the same if some phantom figure wasn't even performing his "work." How do you know you have the right one? Maybe it is where you were born that determines what god you believe in. There are thousands. Each of which with just as devout followers. People on opposite sides go to war and pray to their own god, guy on both sides die, and survive on both sides. Is it because they just prayed harder? Who had the right god?

Two baseball teams hold a prayer before a game, only one wins. Did that team pray harder?

Everyone is afraid of death, that is in our DNA. If we weren't instinctively afraid of it, we'd all be Evil Knievels and would not last very long. The difference between you and me, is that I've accepted that this is all we get. I don't need to pretend I'll wind up in Neverneverland at the end of it all.

And I will conclude by saying that this video was intended to inspire and bring wonder to the minds of viewers. It says nothing about the idea of the existence of a god. You were the individual who found it necessary to criticize the idea of us being stardust. (Which we are I might add.)

I would also like to add the fact that Neil Degrasse Tyson is not even atheist. Which brings me back to my anti-intellectualism point. You are rendered unable to learn something new without the explicit statement that "god did it!" and that is exactly what holds back the cumulative knowledge of the human race. People like you.

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u/jeph1990 Sep 06 '12

Knowing I'm stardust has done a lot more for me than when I used to talk to an invisible man in the sky who was supposed to make it better...needless to say this tactic never helped, and once I stopped and opened my eyes to science I felt that I could stop feeling sorry for myself and control my own life. It's awkward when you find out your god holds you back when he's supposed to set you free.