The men of religion speak to us, and they tell us that science and skepticism reduce our wonder and thus reduce the glory of creation. They tell us that we are attempting to diminish god, as though a phantom could be diminished.
The universe is 13.7 billion years old. That is 13 thousand and 700 million years. Imagine a dot. Now imagine a box of ten. Now imagine ten of those boxes in a crate. now imagine ten of those crates in a rail car box. Now imagine ten of those rail car boxes on a tanker ship. Now imagine ten tanker ships. We are only up to one hundred thousand.
The subtle interplay of simple rules, variation and time allow miracles that we cannot comprehend- not because they are withheld from us, but because our perception witholds itself from them.
The size of the universe. The scale of geologic time. The effect of small genetic changes on a population over time. The movement of plate tectonics. The interplay of prey and predator upon the ecosystem. Millions of millions of small interactions, and large but painfully slow interactions over vast stretches of time and space.
There is a mystery there that defies conventional religion, and mocks it as simple and trite.
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