A Brief Encounter with a Christian Under the Stars

[Towlie]

10. I think of Genesis 1:16 and laugh.

Genesis 1:16 says "God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars."

The unimaginably vast universe beyond our solar system doesn't even rate a full verse of its own! It's regarded sort of like sprinkles on an ice cream cone or tinsel on a Christmas tree — mere decoration for our night sky.

I don't blame our primitive, ignorant ancestors for that. In the absence of science their only alternative to admitting they didn't understand the world around them was to make shit up, and if you want to win respect from, and power over, other ignorant people, you won't get it by admitting that you share their ignorance.

But I do blame those who cling to those writings today because they no longer have that excuse. If you attempt to comprehend the size of the universe and understand that the biggest you can imagine is still too small, and then also embrace a belief that some sort of being created it all and requires our worship and obedience according to some arbitrary set of rules, then you have allowed your capacity for rational thinking to be severely compromised.