How do religions explain all the zillions of planets?

Spirogyra · 12-09-2014 12:56pm #1

Hi, there's so many of them, and they all seem to be empty, why does religion not make reference to them, and why does it not tell us why they are empty? why did God bother making so many lifeless heaps of floating rock, water, fire etc?

yeppydeppy · 12-09-2014 1:06pm

You might want to ask the people who actually believe in God / religion?

Cabaal · 12-09-2014 1:12pm

God did it and its gods will,
thats basically it, I don't think you'll get a detailed explanation or commitment to anything when it comes to all the planets and the possibility of life on them.

If they claimed god only created life on earth (I think they already have to be fair) then it makes them look like ejits later down the line if life exists somewhere else. Of course it wouldn't be the first time they got things wrong.

swampgas · 12-09-2014 1:16pm

I'm afraid most religions are far too busy worrying about people's sex lives to actually think much about the planets.

lazygal · 12-09-2014 1:46pm

swampgas wrote: »

I'm afraid most religions are far too busy worrying about people's sex lives to actually think much about the planets.

That's really unfair. Some of them are worried about tuned instruments too.

Delirium · 12-09-2014 1:50pm

Spirogyra wrote: »

Hi, there's so many of them, and they all seem to be empty, why does religion not make reference to them, and why does it not tell us why they are empty? why did God bother making so many lifeless heaps of floating rock, water, fire etc?

Because if he created life on other planets, eventually Kirk and Spock will find and destroy him :P

Gumbi · 12-09-2014 2:43pm

Godidit.

mewso · 12-09-2014 2:55pm

Ah folks that's an easy one. He put them all there because he plans ahead. In several millennia we will need the space.

iDave · 12-09-2014 2:56pm

Works in mysterious ways

Akrasia · 12-09-2014 3:12pm

Well considering that the early christians believed that god was literally a bearded man in the sky (the heavens referred literally to somewhere above the sky) which original christians believed was the 'firmament' in was a kind of solid barrier between heaven and earth in which god installed lights to 'seperate night from day

So basically, religious people need to first account for the lack of any firmament and lack of any heaven before they even start to look at any explanation for why there are billions of other planets including 7 other uninhabited planets in our own solar system

nagirrac · 12-09-2014 4:11pm

Spirogyra wrote: »

Hi, there's so many of them, and they all seem to be empty

How did you arrive at this startling claim? We have begun the quest of trying to determine if the planets surrounding suns in the nearby portion of our galaxy have the kind of physical attributes that could support life (as we know it at least), but we're hardly at the stage of calling the approximately 2 to 3 trillion planets in our observed universe empty.

The answer to your question, as newso correctly pointed out, is its obviously for us to expand into as we go forth and multiply. Ray Kurzweil has proposed that we will populate the Milky Way with self replicating AI robots within the next 1,000 years.

Kidchameleon · 12-09-2014 6:14pm

Spirogyra wrote: »

Hi, there's so many of them, and they all seem to be empty, why does religion not make reference to them

The Catholic church has had a long interest in astronomy. They have had in their employ astronomers for hundreds of years who have made significant discoveries about the universe which we all live in. The Vatican observatory is one of the longest running astronomical research centers in the world! I'm sure other major religions are equally interested in astronomy. Why do you think religions don't make reference to other planets?

Spirogyra wrote: »

and why does it not tell us why they are empty?

Perhaps like the rest of humanity they simply don't know themselves? Go on, you tell us OP!

Dades · 12-09-2014 8:18pm

Well obviously when most religions were being put together they simply had no idea even one other planet existed.

They're not mentioned for the same reasons dinosaurs aren't.

Sheldons Brain · 12-09-2014 8:19pm

Spirogyra wrote: »

Hi, there's so many of them, and they all seem to be empty, why does religion not make reference to them, and why does it not tell us why they are empty? why did God bother making so many lifeless heaps of floating rock, water, fire etc?

God doesn't need to explain Himself on Boards.ie.

Hotblack Desiato · 12-09-2014 10:07pm

Kidchameleon wrote: »

The Catholic church has had a long interest in astronomy.

So that's why the parish priest wanted to see Uranus.

On a serious note, the real question would be why does so much empty space exist? The universe is almost entirely empty, the atom is almost entirely empty...

EunanMac · 12-09-2014 10:13pm

There's bound to be some evidence for alien life out there somewhere, even though no evidence has been found yet.

Custardpi · 12-09-2014 10:20pm

Dades wrote: »

Well obviously when most religions were being put together they simply had no idea even one other planet existed.

They're not mentioned for the same reasons dinosaurs aren't.

What about the Behemoth, mentioned in the Book of Job? This site gives makes a very plausible argument for biblical knowledge of dinosaurs.

EunanMac · 12-09-2014 10:26pm

Custardpi wrote: »

What about the Behemoth, mentioned in the Book of Job? This site gives makes a very plausible argument for biblical knowledge of dinosaurs.

Behemoth could have been any large animal.
The old testament details touches on ancient culture in north east Africa as well as the middle east. Elephants, rhino's, crocodiles and antelopes would have been known about, though perhaps termed differently.

Pherekydes · 12-09-2014 10:27pm

Kidchameleon wrote: »

The Catholic church has had a long interest in astronomy. They have had in their employ astronomers for hundreds of years who have made significant discoveries about the universe which we all live in. The Vatican observatory is one of the longest running astronomical research centers in the world!

Quite correct. The Gregorian tower was completed in 1580 for the express intention of reforming the calendar.

Their astronomers mustn't have been very good, however, because in 1616 Galileo was tried for the heresy of suggesting the heliocentric model and they didn't back him up. In fact, he was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to die by burning at the stake. Another great service brought to you by the "one true religion".

Kidchameleon · 12-09-2014 10:49pm

Pherekydes wrote: »

Quite correct. The Gregorian tower was completed in 1580 for the express intention of reforming the calendar.

Their astronomers mustn't have been very good, however, because in 1616 Galileo was tried for the heresy of suggesting the heliocentric model and they didn't back him up. In fact, he was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to die by burning at the stake. Another great service brought to you by the "one true religion".

I believe Copernicus was given a hard time aswell, you'd wonder why they bothered employing him

Kidchameleon · 12-09-2014 10:52pm

Dades wrote: »

Well obviously when most religions were being put together they simply had no idea even one other planet existed.

They're not mentioned for the same reasons dinosaurs aren't.

Well they are not mentioned in the religious texts but I'm sure religious folk of the modern era mention them as much as anyone else.

Nick Park · 13-09-2014 12:04am

Pherekydes wrote: »

Galileo was tried for the heresy of suggesting the heliocentric model and they didn't back him up. In fact, he was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to die by burning at the stake. Another great service brought to you by the "one true religion".

Really? Have you got a source for this claim that Galileo was sentenced to death by burning at the stake?

nagirrac · 13-09-2014 12:17am

Nick Park wrote: »

Really? Have you got a source for this claim that Galileo was sentenced to death by burning at the stake?

Of course not, its another atheist myth;).

He's probably confusing Galileo with Bruno, who was burned. Galileo was sentenced to house arrest, although rumor has it that he was also given a tour of the inquisition torture chambers to help focus his mind:eek:.

Turtwig · 13-09-2014 3:43am

Galileo couldn't be too severely punished because of his status. That's why astronomers across Europe were being begging him to make the stand.

Burned at the stake he was not.

Regarding OP, scientology does! :pac:

Nodin · 13-09-2014 10:43pm

Cabaal wrote: »

God did it and its gods will,
........

Satan did it.
http://www.mt.net/~watcher/endtimedelusion.html

Apparently the notion they are from The Horned One dates back to the 1950's.

TwoShedsJackson · 14-09-2014 10:15am

You don't have to worry about it as Aliens are going to Hell anyway

14-09-2014 10:20am

Ive always had two views on this.

1,

Life on Earth wont exist for ever, eventually our sun will burn out and life in the solar system will cease to exist. The Universe has been given to Humans to populate and spread out across the stars.

Or

2,

The universe is populated with Gods creations, eventually when Humans have matured enough they can join the family of creation.

ted1 · 14-09-2014 10:23am

Spirogyra wrote: »

Hi, there's so many of them, and they all seem to be empty, why does religion not make reference to them, and why does it not tell us why they are empty? why did God bother making so many lifeless heaps of floating rock, water, fire etc?

If you don't believe in it then why let it worry you?

Brian Shanahan · 14-09-2014 5:37pm

Kidchameleon wrote: »

The Catholic church has had a long interest in astronomy.

Yes, what they don't know they can't suppress for being contrary to biblical teaching.

Remember it was the 20th century before the rcc admitted they were wrong in persecuting Gallileo and admitted an earth-centric universe, as portrayed in their never wrong holy book, was wrong.

Brian Shanahan · 14-09-2014 5:38pm

Custardpi wrote: »

What about the Behemoth, mentioned in the Book of Job? This site gives makes a very plausible argument for biblical knowledge of dinosaurs.

Funny joke custardpi. Thanks for the laugh.

I Heart Internet · 15-09-2014 2:43pm

God created all those planets when he created the universe(s).

http://vaticanobservatory.org/

http://vaticanobservatory.org/vo-news/recent-news/94-recent-news/brother-guy-has-won-the-carl-sagan-medal

The chief Vatican astronomer is a guy called Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/sep/17/pope-astronomer-baptise-aliens

Pope Francis has also talked (more tongue in cheek I think) of baptising or giving communion to aliens.

I think you'll find the RCC to be refreshingly open minded when it comes to cosmology.

Turtwig · 15-09-2014 2:46pm

ScumLord · 15-09-2014 4:07pm

The heavens is where god lives and as we all found out to our detriment god doesn't like us messing with his stuff. If he fecked us out of paradise for eating his apples imagine what kind of horrible stuff he'd do if he found us loitering around outside his front door. Especially as he made it so hard for us to get off our planet.

TwoShedsJackson · 15-09-2014 10:08pm

I Heart Internet wrote: »

I think you'll find the RCC to be refreshingly open minded when it comes to cosmology.

Indeed, if you can call thinking 'a deity for whom we have no proof whatsoever created all these planets' open minded. Have to rise above the level of 'we don't know, therefore GOD' I'm afraid.

shruikan2553 · 15-09-2014 11:58pm

There are only lots of planets when you take it out of context.

the_monkey · 16-09-2014 12:25pm

Why was there no kangaroos on Noah's ark ??

robindch · 17-09-2014 8:50am

Dades wrote: »

Well obviously when most religions were being put together they simply had no idea even one other planet existed. They're not mentioned for the same reasons dinosaurs aren't.

Ah, but Ken Ham has pointed out that if you replace "dragon" with "dinosaur", then yes, the bible does mention dinosaurs!

https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/when-did-dinosaurs-live/were-dinosaurs-dragons/

Peregrinus · 17-09-2014 9:09am

Dades wrote: »

Well obviously when most religions were being put together they simply had no idea even one other planet existed.

They're not mentioned for the same reasons dinosaurs aren't.

Venus and (probably) Saturn are mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. There is also occasional (hostile) mention of various gods worshipped by the Babylonians who were associated in the Babylonian cosmology with Jupiter, Mars and Mercury, though whether the Israelites knew or cared about that association is less certain.

But, yes, they probably knew about the planets. Their calendar was a lunar calendar, and the progress of the year was measured, amongh other things, by observing where the moon rose and set, relative to the positions of the stars. This requires you to observe the stars, and you can't observe the stars for too long before you notice that, while they are mostly fixed relative to one another, a few of them wander around. They are the planets. There are seven of them visible to the naked eye, the Hebrew scriptures name at least two of them, all seven were known to neighbouring cultures and we have no reason to think that the Israelites failed to notice them.

Cabaal · 17-09-2014 11:06am

robindch wrote: »

Ah, but Ken Ham has pointed out that if you replace "dragon" with "dinosaur", then yes, the bible does mention dinosaurs!

https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/when-did-dinosaurs-live/were-dinosaurs-dragons/

But the bibl;e is the word of god, why would god get the name wrong and refer to all dinosaurs as dragons?

Its sad that Ken Ham can't give our ancestors any credit, people weren't stupid.

They saw giant fossils in rocks, they didn't understand how old they were but they knew they were massive and some had very big heads and long tails....after that its easy with abit of imagination

robindch · 18-09-2014 3:46pm

Cabaal wrote: »

But the bibl;e is the word of god, why would god get the name wrong and refer to all dinosaurs as dragons?

He didn't get it wrong - sheesh! No, as Ken explained somewhere, the reason that god only talks about dragons is because the word "dinosaur", being a Victorian invention from 1842, hadn't been invented when they were translating the King James.

It all makes sense, doesn't it?

ScumLord · 18-09-2014 4:30pm

the_monkey wrote: »

Why was there no kangaroos on Noah's ark ??

There must have been kangaroos on the arc or they wouldn't be around today. Maybe they just had a different name back then like with dragons, they could have been called demons or Edomites.

What I'd really like to know is how long it took Noah to sail around the world returning all the animals to their rightful continents.

vibe666 · 18-09-2014 9:38pm

ScumLord wrote: »

There must have been kangaroos on the arc or they wouldn't be around today. Maybe they just had a different name back then like with dragons, they could have been called demons or Edomites.

you're missing the really clever (dare I say devine) bit.

there WERE kangaroo's on the ark, then when the waters receded, god gave them all fossils to put in their pouches and told them to scatter them around the in just the right places on their way back to Australia.

vibe666 · 18-09-2014 10:03pm

Turtwig wrote: »

http://www.delovesto.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/what-if-jesus-visited-other-planets.gif

is it weird that my first thought was that we could be (very badly) playing a giant version of this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVupRsbx8UM

How do religions explain all the zillions of planets?

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