Believers in an interventionist God WHY?

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I have just watched what for me is one of the best presented documentaries I have ever seen. Part 2 of Wonders of the universe - Stardust - by Prof Brian Cox. this episode above all the books and documentaries I have read and watched brought home the enormity of the universe. It deftly explained not only what we know about the universe but more importantly how we know what we know. More than anything it confirmed my belief that the idea of an interventionist god is completely beyond reason.

So I was wondering why those of you who have even the most basic knowledge regarding the science of astronomy and the related sciences (particle physics especially so), would still believe that God has a peculiar interest in the goings on of planet earth.

What bearing does the size of the universe have on God? Frugality is only a virtue to the limited. As to how small we are, taken at a large scale, well as a Christians we already have a firm grasp on that.

I think you will enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhn8j7S4uKU

In this you tube Brian Cox "tells" us the the world is fookin' humongous.

ruveyn

Why given the utter insignificance of the Earth in relation to the rest of the Universe do you believe god has singled us out. Specifically as the building blocks for life are abundant throughtout the universe, why would you believe what you do.

[quote="ruveyn"
I think you will enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhn8j7S4uKU

In this you tube Brian Cox "tells" us the the world is fookin' humongous.

ruveyn[/quote]

"Physics is all about trying to work out what the fook is going on"

LAUGHING ALOUD, thanks

You would be saying that on any planet in the universe. It's a pointless claim.

Exactly, so why the heck do you believe god singled out earth. I can understand the argument for a creator of the universe, although I think of that as the ultimate god of the gaps, but given the knowledge we have regarding the universe why do you and others still believe that god has this planet as the jewel in his creation. I am especially bemused by people who accept evolution and yet still believe in an interventionist god. IE they accept that life came about as the result of an extraordinarily improbable combination of factors, but that these factors require no intervention from god other than (if you must) the creation of the universe. So given this why the belief in intervention, when logic suggests that there will be thousands perhaps tens of thousands maybe even millions of planets supporting life.

Well the big trump is personal experience of divine intervention. But even without it your conclusions only make sense following your assumptions, which don't make much sense to me. I see no reason to grant that God' attention would be finite in amount or necessarily wide in scope, or that size dictates significance. If gravity applies to everything in the universe, why not God?

Jesus said something like, "My father's mansion has many rooms."
Given his proclivity for using parables, it's possible he was talking about the universe and inhabitable planets.

... the alleged personal experience! Being personal, such experiences are subjective. Being subjective, they are un-provable.

Nothing has to make sense to you or to anyone else to be real.

Are you saying that size does not matter? To the very small, perhaps...

... assuming that God exists, of course.

The universe is so big, so why would an omniscient and omnipresent Being show interest in a single planet with billions and billions of individual lives? Why not? Are you God's psychologist that you should understand God's mind? If God is the creator of the universe, then God would know everything there is to know about mathematics, physics, chemistry, in complete and fully accurate detail with every iota of minutiae included, do you claim to even grasp a reasonably sized fraction of that knowledge of the material universe in order to be able to grasp a small fraction of the thoughts of God?

Maybe God made the universe so big because seeing past it would blow our tiny minds.

or embarass us to no end?

Hey, one of my earliest inputs [besides adult reference books all over the house, you grow up in an academic family you may be stuck with cheese strata and third hand clothes but at least you get all the reading you could ask] was "The Stars for Sam". I don;t know which came first, that or the biology interest. I was out in the backyard with my 7x telescope. Good luck with a tree edged lot in town, right?

When I saw Sagan waxing eloquent, it was no ig deal. What's he excited about? Right, the universe is a big place and we are pond scum on a third rate planet [joke] going round a mediocre star on the wrong side of the tracks. Big hairy deal, say something that isn't obvious.

Actually, Sagan is one of the few popularizers whose populatizing I don't mind. Kaku is a jerk, but Sagan - you can't get mad at sincere enthusiasm. He's not my type, but he's not a snot.

So we are here and it is Solville inhabited by patchy-haired biped who think they are special.

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Option A: we are the only semisapient life there is. Your probabilities say no. I agree that is the probability. But evidence for NOT ALONE is zilch. Starship sighting accounts unconvincing, evidence for even life out there inconclusive. Someone has to be first u=intelligence; someone has to be last. I will believe we are not alone when the expedition from Beta Cygni 24 lands and demands I take them to my leader.

Option B: we are unique, no other semisapient life is built like us, looks like us, thinks like us. That could be good for the universe. Still - no evidence.

Option C - we are no big deal. Still no evidence.

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So why would I believe

1. a divine entity exists

2. a divine entity is interested in and has a use for outback pond scum

3. a divine entity plays an active role in the procedure, stirring the pot and skimming the scum and adding a soupcon of this and a pinch of that?

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Until 1986, I didn't. Only at that point the chef [joke] thrust in his spoon and gave a special stir, making me aware of is existence and making clear his prevously covert and subsequently overt intervention.

Personally, I see a challenge to get out there. I want to conquer the universe.

That beats the fable of the frog and the ox.

We just got through talking the immensity of the universe.

Since the earliest settlement, through several changes of administration, the current inhabitants have come close to conquering Britannia.

So - even if in the next 50 years your brain and / or consciousness and / or psych profile is installed in a self propelled glozine powered titanium alloy vehicle, how much conquest of the universe do you personally expect to do?

And what do you think are the odds of the Beta Cygni 24ians homing on your hypertail 40 parsecs from here and conquering you out of the sky?