//And I for one, welcome our new lizard overlords.//

I don't. They're bloody lizards for God's sake. When the human race gets subjugated by aliens, I want them to be decent aliens. No bloody useless Daleks with their fearsome sink plungers of doom or unimaginative lizardmen. Proper Lovecraftian horrors that are all eyes and tentacles, and nothing less.

//the next nearest galaxy to us is 2,400,000 light years away and its further away now than when I started this sentence. We'll never get there unless everything we think we know about the universe is wrong.//

We'll never get there?

We're due to collide with it in about 4 billion years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision

Dear Not_Now.Soon,

«I do hope on God. I wish I could say that God is my only hope. He is one of my biggest hopes that I have though.»

We are all in the same boat. Having other hopes is a sin - and we are all sinful to one extent or another, but let's continue to improve our intentions and dedication, it's a work in progress and I wish your biggest hope comes true soon.

«As for other life, haven't you ever looked up into the stars and be filled with wonder?»

Yes, as a child.

Early in my life I was interested in all those things like science, extra-terrestrials, space-travel, how the world started and how it works. I only now begin to realise to what extent I was pushed into it by my family's expectations, but the more I discovered religion and the inner/spiritual dimension, I found it more fulfilling and lost interest in those outer things, so probably by the age of 22 or 23 I was deep into spirituality and no longer interested in science (yet I was still forced to do it for a living and to please my family).

«Hope is a fascinating thing»

Hope can be used as a crutch when times are tough, but it is a poor substitute for fulfilment and contentment.

To Yuyutsu. Now it's my turn to be suprised by what you've said.

[Hope can be used as a crutch when times are tough, but it is a poor substitute for fulfilment and contentment.]

Hope can be a crutch, that's true. But how can it be a poor substitute when you hope on God. Much of what you've said about God seems to be in the ball park of hope.

I would say that hope is an integral part of life. It's not nessassarily an all consuming part of life, to be our only focus. But it is part of everything we do.

To David f.

[That is sick. Jesus wants a man to love him more than his father, mother, son or daughter. It is Jesus who is not worthy - not someone who loves family more than a demanding religious figure.

In the Bible God is sometimes nasty, and Jesus is sometimes unreasonable. A man or woman should love family more than Jesus.
A good person would strive to keep families together rather than break them up. In Matthew 10:37 Jesus comes across as an attention demanding psychopath.]

Your wrong though David. Loving Jesus doesn't mean we lack love for others. That's not how love works. But a focus on Jesus (in my experience) helps in other areas of life too. Including the family. If a person wants to break up their family, I'd say something else is going on in that sitution. Something harmful or hurtful could be the cause. Bipolar for instance might break up a family, bacause though the family loves one member, they can't handle that person. It can reach a point that harms their ability to love. Breaking up families is also part of the claim of adultry. A seductive want that just wants a person to leave everything and start again with the other person. With religion if something asks you to seperate yourself from your family, that is a red flag, and is not what Jesus is talking about.

Although I know my ancestry back into the 8th century

oops ......18th century

although,come to think of it, I am a descendent of Charlemagne

mhaze, and I thought you were a descendent of Adam and Eve.

Come to think of it, I am related to Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan and Albert Einstein, along with my dog, cat and budgerigar, and even you mhaze. Due to Evolution we are all one big family.

Dear NNS,

That saying attributed to seeing makes him not worthy of me. I can read. I can think. He comes across as an attention demanding psychopath. I don't need that nonsense.

Neither Jesus nor the nasty God in the Bible are worthy of me.

I only love those who I know - not imaginary deities or cult figures.

A religion is not only a belief system. It is a social nexus. If you are of a particular religion chances that your family is of the same religion as you are. Conversion from one religion to another my destroy family bonds. I doubt that missionaries consider that. They just want people to accept their nonsense. Love is for real people who can love you back. It's crazy to love an imaginary deity.

I am wrong because I don't accept what you believe? I don't expect you to believe what I believe. However, you are completely unreasonable in expecting others to believe what you believe.

I doubt that this exchange has changed anybody's minds. In my opinion you have absorbed primitive nonsense, but it makes you happy. It is apparently not enough that it makes you happy. You want other people to accept the same nonsense. I see no need to accept your nonsense in preference to the nonsense of other religions. I see no need to accept any religion at all that requires faith in deities or the supernatural. Christianity is only one delusion among many others. I don't think we need any of the different kinds of nonsense.

The wise men who wrote the US Constitution did not put the word, God, in it. They realised the word and the belief were unnecessary. However, they supported the right for people to have what religious delusion they want, and I support your right to have your delusion.