1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

[edhopper]

That is the estimate of how many stars there are in the Universe. There are probably 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets.

Something to think about through the lens of your beliefs or non beliefs.

[cbayer]

1. The possibilities of what may out there approach the infinite.

That is indeed something to think about through the lens of your belief or non-believ.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. oh wait, you are promoting theology based on there being lots of stars.

Just because there are a lot of stars doesn't mean the the set of what is possible changes.

[AtheistCrusader]

12. False equivalence.

[stone space]

16. Or else they reach the infinite...

...and keep going...

The possibilities of what may out there approach the infinite.

[cbayer]

19. A concept which I can't get my head around at all.

[Politicalboi]

2. But, But, But...

We're the BEST. USA! USA! USA!

God wouldn't play tricks on us.

[edhopper]

3. There is a little village in Italy

that is my favorite spot on earth.
Everyone has their special backwater place.

[cbayer]

6. I have one there as well.

Maybe we share the same place. What would be the possibility of that happening?

[edhopper]

11. We would have to divide the number

of idyllic Italian villages, etc...

[cbayer]

15. And they are countless.

I will be living there again this summer. Maybe we will run into each other.

[edhopper]

21. I won't be in Italy this year

[cbayer]

26. I will eat for you.

[edhopper]

32. lots of gelato please.

[cbayer]

34. Deal. Every time I get myself one, I will get one for you.

[edhopper]

35. yum

[bobalew]

4. An Octillion or more.

How many with Planets in the galactic "Goldilocks Zones", Who is to say? Maybe 2 or 3 magnitudes less, it's still a staggering number, nonetheless. It allows for a rather large statistical possibility of places exactly like ours scattered all about the universe. Even at billions of galaxy & maybe only 2 planets like ours, per unit is a giant number, and that's being very conservative, the only instance of that i even think of allowing.

[upaloopa]

5. I don't get it?

Lots of stars and planets means there is a god. Lots of planets and stars means random expansion and there is no god.
Or does it mean lots of stars and planets and we can't prove either side is right.

[edhopper]

10. Just a fact that can lead to interesting thoughts

I wasn't making a point, just starting a thread.

[upaloopa]

17. Ok thanks. In that vein try to describe to a person

where you are without relating your existence to anything else.
Or how were you born with out relating to anyone else.
Dependent origination is something I think about a lot.
Nothing happens without something else happening first.

[edhopper]

22. I don't get it

are you trying to make a case for a divine origin to the Universe?

[Warren Stupidity]

36. The number of stars and planets does not alter the set of what is possible.

It just increases the likelihood that each element within the set of the possible exists somewhere.

[safeinOhio]

7. and that's only

in this dimension.

[rurallib]

29. or in the 'known' universe

[Warren Stupidity]

37. So there are other stars that exist only in the "other" dimension?

I'm not sure that you and I have the same understanding of "dimension".

[Dorian Gray]

9. It's

vast. Amazing. Awe-inspiring.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Non-belief isn't a lens.

It's a lack of a lens.

[edhopper]

23. True

but not believing an deity or any supernatural component to the Universe does affect the way you see it.

That lens.

[AtheistCrusader]

25. See it as it is, rather than with a filter?

[edhopper]

33. but seeing it in a completely

Naturalistic way will still evoke emotions from that viewpoint.

[AtheistCrusader]

38. I don't know what you mean.

[edhopper]

40. does the sheer vastness

Of the Universe have an impact on you? Does it evoke any feelings?

[AtheistCrusader]

47. Lots of feelings.

Hope for the vast array of interesting new things out there we've never seen. Disappointment that I'll never go see them. Hope, fear, clarity, confusion.

The universe is vast and old enough, trying to grok it pretty much evokes all possible emotions simultaneously.

I don't know how that would be different from a believer, except, a filter of religious certainty might skew the array of emotions one direction or another.

[edhopper]

48. That's all I'm saying

it was the start of a discussion, not a statement.

In the context of this forum, I can see the reasons people respond to this as both confirming there is a God and that there is not one.

[AtheistCrusader]

49. I don't think it's relevant to the question of whether there are or are not god(s).

Not unless the age/vastness of the universe speaks to the requirement of a designer/mind. Which it does not appear to.

If in the end we find the universe can't exist without a designer, then the number of planets, specifically, isn't relevant. The designer could be required if there was one sun, or centillions.

[TheBlackAdder]

28. Bingo!

[okasha]

30. No lens=blind.

You should know that much physiology.

[Warren Stupidity]

39. Actually in this case the "lens" referred to is, in the metaphor,

an external optic, not the lens of your eyeball. It means "from the perspective of", or "filtered by". For example "through the lens of bitter caustic snark".

[edhopper]

41. yes

Exactly

[okasha]

42. In which case, the correct term for the optic

would be "filter," as in "through the filter of gunnuttery."

[Warren Stupidity]

43. It is a common metaphor.

"through the lens". You can google it. I surprised at your ignorance. Usually you are pretty much expert on everything under the sun.

[okasha]

44. You introduced an "external opti."

Now, where did you say you obtained your Ph. D. In Wikipedia Studies?

[trotsky]

45. Actually, ed introduced it in the OP.

Your snark and insults are inappropriate. But then again, you pal around with someone who calls other human beings "vermin" for simply having a different opinion, so I guess it's to be expected.

[edhopper]

46. And i confirmed

that that was the right reading of the metaphor.
Or don't you know the origins?


1 Corinthians 13:12

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

[Starboard Tack]

54. He thinks a lens is a filter. Go figure!

[pinto]

14. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

W. Shakespeare
- Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

[edhopper]

24. And yours as well

That quote is always used for the other fella's "philosophy".

[pinto]

50. Yeah. I meant it as supportive of your OP, though.

There's so much that we don't know out there and all around us. Accepting that has a lot of value, imo. Absolutism in any venue seems a roadblock to me.

[edhopper]

51. Thanks for the clarification

[NeoGreen]

18. Not bad...(10^27)...not bad...but if you want to contemplate something really mind blowing...

...

There are almost 10^24 water molecules in a shot glass full of water (@35ml/shot glass).

Give or take a few trillion.

[delrem]

20. That's why I'm convinced that mine is the one true church.

Nothing else except that conclusion makes sense.

[hrmjustin]

27. That is a lot of stars.

[F4lconF16]

31. And around ~95% of all of the known universe

Isn't even directly detectable yet.

And on top of that, there might be more universes.

That's what blows my mind.

[Half-Century Man]

52. And after that, G*D spent eternity worrying about Dale and Gary's marriage in Cleveland.

oh, and stop masturbating too.

[edhopper]

53. and in all the 15 billion years

he only talked to people in a small corner of the Middle East in the Iron Age.

[Starboard Tack]

55. Indeed it is something to think about

I have spent many moonless nights, under clear skies, hundreds of miles from land, staring for hours on end at that vast blanket of stars, in absolute wonderment.
Interestingly, the idea of a deity rarely, if ever, enters my mind. There is also this mountain in Umbria that brings back so many memories of shooting stars on August nights.

[edhopper]

56. The greater we see the Universe is

the more the quote "Your God is too small" in reference to the God most of the monotheistic believers worship makes sense.

But I'm with you, in that I rarely think about any deity when pondering the scope of Universe.