Here’s “Our Place in the Cosmos,” the third installment of the Symphony of Science autotune remixes:
From the video description:
“Our Place in the Cosmos”, the third video from the Symphony of Science, was crafted using samples from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Richard Dawkins’ Genius of Charles Darwin series, Dawkins’ TED Talk, Stephen Hawking’s Universe series, Michio Kaku’s interview on Physics and aliens, plus added visuals from Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi, History Channel’s Universe series, and IMAX Cosmic Voyage. The themes present in this song are intended to explore our understanding of our origins within the universe, and to challenge the commonplace notion that humans have a superior or privleged position, both on our home planet and in the universe itself.
I found all of these videos fascinating; they are all well-done and also very entertaining.
Cool video! I will admit that I find the thought of not existing after my death still a little scary and I sometimes find myself still asking what all of this (including my own existence) means.
An honest confession from a fairly new agnostic.
http://xkcd.com/659/
A very shallow but intuitive way to look at existence, in webcomic format.
LRA, I’m impressed by your confession, As I drifted into atheism (which I hid from myself for years by calling it agnosticism) I felt the same way, but eventually I found that I thought of my life as more important than before. And found myself glad that I wasn’t wasting my time with silliness just because it made me feel warm and fuzzy.
I’ve spent a great deal of time educating children and improving the life of the next generation, I’ve made the world a hapier place for the people I’ve known (I hope.) That’s legacy enough for me.
Anyhow, good luck on your journey!
Aw, thanks! I could never fool myself into believing (what I perceive to be) a false thing just to feel warm and fuzzy. lt might be really cool if the sky was green, but I just can’t make myself believe it. This inability to tell myself lies makes my cynical and sad sometimes, but I guess that’s ok.
Yeah, I spent months crying all night while praying to god to prove himself so I wouldn’t have to go through deconversion. but finding your own truth is so worth it. I first started realizing my view when studying world religions… so many religions have their announcer as an angel named gabriel, so I started wondering why (I came to the conclusion it was an angel others already knew) and playing with the concept, writing a play where gabriel acted as god’s press agent.
We all find our agnosticism or atheism in different ways, but the fact that you’re willing to step back and look at it without your childhood prejudice is the important part. if you can look at religion from outside the church and want to believe in that, that’s great. The important part for me is separating any belief from an institution.
“Yeah, I spent months crying all night while praying to god to prove himself so I wouldn’t have to go through deconversion”
Wow. Been there. Done that. It was painful, wasn’t it?
*hugs*
Horrible, that’s why I tend to get indignant with people that try and reconvert.
It especially makes me mad when they say, “If only you’d invite Jesus into your heart” and I’m all “Oh yeah??? I frakkin invited him in hundreds of times only to find out that he’s a prank knocker (iow he “knocks” and runs away)” or when people say, “If you’d just read the Word of God and pray” and I’m all “I FRAKKIN DID THAT A THOUSAND TIMES!!! THERE WAS NOTHING THERE!!!”
Of course, they don’t blame God or religion for failing, they blame me for not trying hard enough. Sheesh.
:(
Apparently you were never a “real christian” That’s what I’ve been told.
Arrrrrggggg!!! I know. What a load of horse sh*t.
I swear, I’ll punch the first person who tries the “you were never a real christian” line with me.
A response to the “never a true christian” line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HJrAaGJudw
This is the No True Scotsman Fallacy.
“Open your heart.” I like to ask Christians why Judaeo-Christianity adopted the Egyptian idea that the heart is the organ of cognition. It’s not a metaphor in the Bible, the ancients literally believed that the heart was the seat of intellect.
Good explanation that!
Really enjoyed that video.