Pale Blue Dot (an atheist's view - tiny update)
Created on: September 27th, 2006
Damn that's a lot of comments. I've responded at http://skeptobot.blogspot.com - but that is just a quick rant. I will put a more professional post there later. It also has the picture & quote in full.
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I know this comment will be lost in the sea of praise for you, and I do not care. I am a Christian myself, and I believe that this was very well done and a very good thing to counter the "Cries of the Infidels", which I cannot bare to watch for more than seconds. I do not agree with your choice of religion (or lack thereof), but I feel that this was actually profound, and one of the better ytmnds I have seen in my time. I do hope you may, by some chance, at least see this comment. I truly doubt it.
what you did here was the equivalent of a believer saying "i believe because look at a sunset."
you fail at disproving god or making a point that is any better than those arguments the beilevers make.
however, we here at ytmnd do not judge on the maker's opinion. 4 for the delivery. could have been a little more stylistic and cool.
Elitism..
It's the reason that the "crazy" Christians don't like Athiests.
You say that religious people are small-minded, but that statement can be made about you, as well. You believe only in what you feel can be positively proven, unwilling to acknowledge that this makes you just as small-minded as those "small-minded" people. Of course, you will try to refute this, no doubt spitting some sort of anti-religious drivel. I've seen it before. People are tired of it.
I'm tired of religious ytmnds.....I mean, we have a purpose within our confines and I believe in life on other planets and they also have a purpose on their planet. It's totally true that we are so small, but really, what does it have to do with the existance of God? I mean, if it's like trying to say that we're limited and so how can we believe in something that created something basically endless, why? Is that saying that we can't explore the vast reaches of space. No, but in all honest, it becomes we...
5 for the cool image, -1 for the hypocritical viewpoint. human's success and understanding is not limited by belief in God or science. theists and atheists have discovered, invented, prospered, suffered, died, fought etc. throughout history. there are multiple viewpoints to every belief, religious or not. it is folly to think that you standing up for your belief is superior to someone else standing up for their's, regardless of how widely accepted or ignored it is (i.e. taught in schools or a cave)
"god is god and he can do whatever he wants" that is the best quote I have heard yet. It makes me wonder why anyone would want to follow a guy who does still simply because he is so powerful that he can. Anyway I know that you made this from a pre-existing peice from Sagan but it turned out quite beautiful and though I have never heard it before, it sums up how I have always felt quite nicely. Anyway I am glad it was made and no matter how many people will try to dispute it, at least the reality exists.
I am a devout christian. I personally believe there is a God. People who care to listen hear my ideas on religion, the world, and the universe. I don't think this is the proper forum for such discussions. I think these discussions should be more personalized so people get a better understanding of what the other truly believes. With that said I think this is a wonderful YTMND which makes a very interesting and valid point that everyone should take something from regardless of what you believe.
The whole point of religion is to bring people together and not to exclude or persecute anyone. I guess that just shows the imperfection in humanity. If being a Christian is calling atheists or anyone an infidel the persecuting them for there beliefs then I am ashamed to call myself one. Thats the problem with most modern religions today, they're to exclusionary.
This YTMND is full of FAIL. If I wanted to be f*cking emo, I'd go on Myspace, not Voyager 1. He was right on one point; we make our stand here. DESTROY RELIGION. DESTROY HABBO HOTEL. If we ever want to get off this speck of dust, we must fight to do it! Those who are unwilling will be cast aside like the sheep they are!
I don't see this as a debate about a God. I see this as an insightful look on human nature. How quickly it's forgotten that we, humanity and our home, are so tiny and insignificant. It's also apparent you've completely missed the meaning to Carl Sagan's words. If you understood the message he was trying to convey, you wouldn't have made this YTMND. I'm with NarcoticHobo, -4.
This is beautiful, man, it proves that there is definitely room on YTMND for things besides humor.
And I'd appreciate it if people would stop questioning the religious and atheist perspectives of this, it's entirely beside the point. We ARE small, did he ever force his beliefs on you? No. I'm a christian and I still found this utterly deep. The guy made a web page, he didn't force you to watch it.
"Small minded religious ideas." This is why I stay out of religious debate. Zealots talk down to atheists as "lost children" and the like. Atheists talk down to religious folk as "simple and/or stupid." This is why I'm a buddhist. "Believe nothing. No matter where you read it, or who said it, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." - Siddhartha himself. It's called respect, people. The man you quoted knew of respect for other beliefs. Why can't you?
I read that book when I was 14 (1994) It's amazing. Carl Sagan lived in a world ruled by scientific thought. Regarding God, many scientists would say "There's a God? Where is he? How can I examine him? Weigh him? What is is pH level? Can I take a sample and view him through a microscope? What elements is he made of?"etc. However, most atheists hold their beliefs not because they are scientists, but because they want to be able to look in the mirror and not feel guilty about the immoral life they are living
I think God merely triggered the Big Bang, then walked away, laughing at our worries over nonexistant hells and heavens which have no plausible existence in this universe created by his laws of atomic matter and physics. However he probably has endless other universes under his belt which follow seperate laws from atoms and physics such as heavenly or hellish ones. All religions however, are product of a happenchance chemical gathering of amino acids in one of his universes which became advanced primates
I must start off my post by saying that i can lean to neither a religious nor aitheist standpoint as my beliefs, trusts, and understandings have been completely tossed around as i have grown. I'm not here to argue a religious (or non-religious) standpoint. The fact of the matter is that besides a small amount of defense of his own views this YTMND (though it is odd to call something so serious a YTMND) hardly attacks anyone. Even Whetstone. This is something that should be loved not only for the portrayal of a Grand idea, but also the beauty of it's artistic movement. Does no one else remember the "We are Artists!" post? This is a form of art and should be appreciated for the moving words in harmony with a VERY fitting soundtrack. If you cannot feel the need to appreciate a post such as this please do not make futile attempts at using your head to bash it into submission. Love it for what it is. If you cannot appreciate it. Take it somewhere else. Bravo Lave.
i like how both sides try to box giant groups of people into a single-personality type. i've never once treated someone nice just because i didn't want to go to hell. thats ridiculous. not all chrisitians just sit around waiting to damn people to hell. i have never once thought an atheist couldn't see beauty in life because he didn't believe in God. you all want to talk about being nice to people, religious or not, yet so many of you get on here to bash each other. just relax, have some cake.
If a god of anything like the traditional sort exists, our curiosity and intelligence are provided by such a god. We would be unappreciative of those gifts if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves. On the other hand, if such a traditional god does not exist, our curiosity and our intelligence are the essential tools for managing our survival. In either case, the enterprise of knowledge is consistent with both science and religion."
-C.Sagan
I like the part where you attempt to capture the beauty of the world, through an athiest's eyes, by packing every human life, emotion, and idea into a tiny blue dot, backed up no less by the profound description delivered by Carl Saggot, while completely ignoring the fact that you just sh*t all over your originial point by merely waving a pretty picture and being swayed by pretty words. That isn't the beauty of the earth. That's only the sensitivity of the human mind.
Well, I might as well share my views. Think about the fact that all of our ancestors, humanity from many thousands and even millions of years ago - these humans struggled to survive. They evaded predators, suffered disease and famine, natural disasters such as droughts, floods, storms, and even an ice age, and STILL managed to survive as a species. Not only that, humans succeeded in becoming the dominant species out of millions of other species on earth.
Oh god, why are half the commentors total a$$ holes? Jesus guys, if your idea of enjoying a site is by throwing minimum votes around and making stupid, narrow comments... Well I don't know what you should do. Say those things to yourself then slit your wrists? Psh, just try to be fair! You bitch about how his site isn't perfect, then give him a one. Try making a perfect comment. Psh, this just cements my dislike for people in general.
Very thought-provoking even with all the innane aethist musings before the actual quote. I just find it amusing that you're so willing to strike back at your percieved antagonists when you yourself are so charinged by their remarks. It's easy to complain about being persecuted, but much harder to stop belittling your antagonists. I'm not picking sides, I'm just observing an amusing and endless cycle of ignorance.
If this YTMND is supposed to not be insulting, I don't know what the earlier version must've been like. Not only do you come off as pretentious and condescending, but this YTMND is an awful, boring slideshow, and what's worse is it's supposed to have a point. Go post this information on some message boards and come back to YTMND when you have a sense of humor.
Honestly, Jesus, the Buddha, members of the Hindu tradition, and any other credible religious leader would agree with every word that man said. Plato and Aristotle would agree as well in secular, not religious arguments. Religion is basically a tool for people to live out moral and meaningful lives when they otherwise do not have the logical capacity to do so on their own. God may or may not exist, but happiness is really irrelevant to that question. "We are dust...in the wind"-Bill and Ted
Carl Sagan may have been an athiest, but he included many religious refrences into his book Contact. He also was not an engioneer or scientist in the Voyager program. Albert Einstein however was NOT an athiest, and look what he accomplished. A belief in God should have no hinderance upon science and discovery, rather it is those with completely and utterly blind faith in a religion that hinder progress.
So many people have commented on this basically saying Lave shouldn't bash religion. That's not what he's actually trying to do here. All he's doing, plainly and simply is defending atheism and suggesting that humanity (and in particular religious groups of any kind) shouldnt view themselves as god's chosen people, or correct about their beliefs, or that they're the only people going to heaven (or whatever). This ytmnd says that we are insignificant, so we should stop being so self important.
I must have some sort of disease were I have to correct people. All you people who thought that this YTMND was depressing or devalued the human race, please slap yourselves. Yes, we're small. From a universal view we are insignificant. To the cold and uncaring laws that govern this universe Earth is just another planet. To us though, to the human race it is everything. Carl Sagan wasn't trashing the human race, he was marveling at just how small the giant "all encompasing" home is...
I think humans have a history of doing this. We look at our home as everthing that exists or everything that's important. Then we finaly see outside our tiny boundaries and see just how much more there is. I'm sure the first time a human saw the ocean it blew his mind in a similar way, and blew his mind again when he discovered that there were other lands in it. This YTMND dosn't devalue life, no more than saying "Boy it's a great big world" devalues your family. Beautiful YTMND. Go lave!
"Slow down the long paragraphs just a tad" See, this is exactly why this kind of thing should not be a YTMND. It's too fast for some people and too slow for other people. It's a disservice to the information (and to YTMND, but I already mentioned that). A message board or blog is a far more convenient way to distribute this type of information. Heck, a BOOK is more convenient.
I loved it man. You made a good point. I'm not an atiest, but I dont beleive anything in the bible. Im not bashing any religion, i thinks its good to have your own beleifs, but im just trying to make a point. we cant prove their is a god, and we cant prove their isnt. but i think that if the universe was created by god, it wouldnt be that big. i dont think the universe came from nothing, someone or something, but not a god.
"Why is it so hard to concede that there is a higher intelligence than
you? why is it so hard to think that MAYBE you aren't the highest point in
the world?"
What a dumbass argument. People don't believe in god because there is no evidence, not because they are arrogant. I don't believe in god, and I ALSO don't think I am the smartest or most important thing in the universe.
I guess I should explain why I'm 1'ing this. I'm doing iti because what you said about atheists was directly challenged by what your little scientist said. He described the world as minute, as minscule, as unimportant. How then, can you love it? how then can you care about your actions and your morals, if they ae nothing more then the vapor trail of a quark, in comparison to the universe? The point is, God or not, your argument was flawed just because of the quote you used.
This is one of my favorite serious YTMNDs.
BTW: I read fast, but I would like to have a few seconds to think about what I just read before you send another huge paragraph at me. Or, you know, have a longer period of time to read something that's longer than the rest. Let's try for like 2 seconds per line of text instead of .3s l/t.
I don't see how this view point is something reserved just for atheists. Belief or not, it IS the only world we have. On the other hand, I also fail to see how belief in a God that transcends everything in that picture and belief in a world bigger than our own is small minded. Some say fantasy, yes, but small-minded no. Born - Live - Die seems the most simplistic of thinking ever IMHO.
There is no proof god exists and there is no proof he does not exist. So lets not mess with eachother. If you beleive COOL! If you don't COOL! If you don't care COOL! Agnostics are cool because they are like whatever, but atheists should not be yelling at christians or Jewish people or Muslims or Buddhists or Hindis or shinoist (please excuse my spelling of anything I type ever) or animists or pastafarians, but you can yell at them if they try to control you. Just don't really yell, say ok and go.
One for using someone who theorized that the temperature of Venus was brough about by a runaway global warming process, and suggested it'll happen to earth. He assumed that the sunlight on Venus was trapped by the atmosphere of the planet and ignored the fact that the energy heating that planet’s atmosphere includes radiated thermal energy released from the planet‘s interior. The elevated temperature on Venus is not due solely to solar radiation but also to magma-released heat. Where is your (human)God now?
3 for the music and Sagan text. Ironically, Freethinking (as they call it) shouldn't involve the denial of an entity on the basis of naturalism. Freethinking should by far, involve more of a sense of wonder, mystery and the embracing of questions rather than answers. You sir, call the religious populace narrow minded because thay act like they have all the answers - a conclusion that can only be thought of by someone who carries the same frame of mind, though a different position.
3 for good effort however your point wasn't proven at all. You made it appear as though only atheists can be free thinkers. I'm an eclectic and I'm far from an atheist and no matter what you believe we'll never know all the asnwers. For now my point is this. Something, created this universe. Whatever that thing is, it is god. God may be a man watching over us from infinite distance away, or a giant floating elephant with 10 arms, or whatever created that tiny point of matter that exploded into the universe.
Lave you did a great job with this.
Seeing Ronald speed along never made me think after I closed that window. I never zoned out thinking about the cake song. Sure this isn't the YTMND that most people come to this site for, however it inspired thought beyond the surface, which isn't easy to do in this community. It transcends religious belives, and those that can't see that arn't seeing the point, or the spec of dust.
So...you're complaining about people who force their religion on others, while trying to force your own religion (or lack there of) down our throats? I'm largely accepting of other religions, (hell, most of my best friends are Atheists), but that doesn't mean I have to be accepting of crappy YTMNDs. This YTMND just wastes too much time, and comes off as just another crappy attempt to feed off of the "lol view of space" fad, with a large helping of mudslinging to top it all off.
Please remember that this is AN ATHEIST'S VIEW and not the atheist view. Also, the quotation is put into a context that the original author would never agree with in order to promote Lave's, the aforementioned atheist, viewpoint. This was in bad taste from the start and, until it is cleaned up to only Sagan's quote, will continue to be in bad taste. In fact, that wouldn't even clean it up as we would all know that it started from such a terrible place. It's embarassing that people are sponsoring such trash
new comment, imagine this: that .12 of a pixel is your everything, it is billions of times larger than you are, as you are billions of times smaller larger than some of the other things on that little 12th of a pixel. now answer me this, does that mean you dotn matter in the grand scheme of things, just liek anyone else? Then shutup and let everyone do theyre own thing, you dont like single minded views of the world, but i love believing that i go somewhere happy when i die.
I watched about as much of this as I did the other site. Because honestly, who gives a flying f*ck. One person's belief system is just as pointless to argue as the other's. The human race just isn't advanced enough to even begin to grasp our own existance and meaning, and this whole religious debate on this site is even more meaningless. As far as the scope YTMND is concerned, our meaning in life is to just have a good , laugh, and act like bitchy *ssh*l*es.
I am happy to report that yes, we are all going to die and most of us are destined to be shoveled into a ditch to be buried by a group of migrant workers at their earliest convenience.
Also the more I see people getting upset over the fact that they are indeed small and insignificant the more it makes me smile because all it does it proves how insecure a person is about themselves and life in general and are stuck up in their own little microchosm where they are the center of the universe.
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