I’ve been to the Grand Canyon three times, even hiked it once. While it is a sight to behold, it never once made me start believing in a deity.
Edit: The other part goes without saying.
That’s because, as it’s often the case, the jump from “The Grand Canyon is beautiful -> An higher intelligence must have created it” is not a logical conclusion, but rather the rationalization of a preconceived belief.
It reminds me of the first time I went to the US. Of course I got to be seated in the plane next to some religious nutjob. So he looks through the window at some clouds below us and turning to me “isn’t god’s creation amazing?”.
As I had little experience with his kind, I didn’t comment (which, luckily, was the right answer).
Wouldn’t the existence of anything which formed over 80 million years directly contradict every creationist theory from established religious texts? I can’t imagine seeing the layer of 270 Million year old Limestone and thinking “How wild that God made this 5,000 years ago with such sophistication” like that’s just asinine.
Lol my thoughts exactly… I’ve also been, it’s literally a testament to geological change over time and rich in archeological significance from the natives that once lived there.
Also having been to many national parks it’s not even the most impressive imo, even in the area. I thought Bryce Canyon was cooler 🤷♂️
Nature can be beautiful without attributing it to God. Everyone must have seen beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, canyons, etc.
That’s what I don’t get… seeing all the earth’s wonders and knowing it took millions of years and all these geological processes to create impresses me much more than “some guy” zapping it into existence.
The fact that all of this is beauty was formed through completely random powers of haplenstance is far more impressive to me than someone’s imaginary friend creating it.
I find it funny when Christians say that everything is far too complex to have happened at random and it must have been designed by a deity. Bitch, God doesn’t know Math.
Exactly. Anyone who has studied even one course in geology, like I have, will know that. We have seen features that have existed when humans didn’t exist, let alone a civilization. It is incredibly humbling, for instance, to see Himalayas knowing they preexisted the very minds that named them and probably will be around after the civilization that named them ceases to be.
It’s also incredibly human centric even though it borrows from humility, like look at this awesome sight this thing that is bigger than me, that was put here for me to experience!
It’s also incredibly harmful to see the world as a possession made for you. We are not masters of the earth, we’re stewards. It is our home, and we treat it like our slave because we believe it was made for us. We were made by it. We are sustained by it. The same natural processes that have created all the wonders we can behold have cradled our development and nurtured our growth. And like a petulant, entitled child, we demand more.
That maxim, “There are no atheists in foxholes,” it’s not an argument against atheism — it’s an argument against foxholes.
- James Morrow
“If it can be said that there are no atheists in foxholes, then it can certainly be said there are no theists at funerals.”
One of the most brutal lines spoken by Mr.Deity lol
Weird then that theists are typically not the ones concerned with preserving that natural beauty.
For them, god put that oil down there for us to extract and burn. Nature be damned.
Tbh I think this one’s on the Bible. It does say that we are the Shepherd of God’s creation or something, and I guess a shepherd is technically allowed to exploit the fuck out of their flock 🤷
that they choose to interpret this as “give a fuck about nothing at all” is one of the biggest problems people have with christians.
Well… That one sort of depends more on what variety of spirituality is in play. If you have something very human centric where people are considered the apex of creation or that things were created for people to inherit then people tend to treat natural resources as theirs by divine right.
Critically there ARE theistic systems that veiw things from a decentralized point of view. If humans are just one of many or if the spirits/God’s / ghosts of the ancestors etc. are tied to the well being of the land and the whole thing is treated spiritually as shared property or a closed system you see a very different attitude. It’s part of why many indigenous peoples tend to foster very symbiotic arrangements with land use. Multi or pantheistic belief systems are more likely to be this way than monotheistic systems and the problem with monotheistic religions is they tend to be very aggressive at taking over the space and support a colonizers mindset of “this is mine because it is otherwise unclaimed or the claim is illegitimate.”
Too many times in discussion people conflate Theist to basically just mean Monotheist religions… Which sucks because it kind of feels like it buys into the monotheistic mindset of being the only thing out there worth learning or caring about.
This seems to only happen in mostly two-party political systems.
Grand Canyon is proof that the world isn’t 5000 years old.
