and something that really bothers me is that i cannot come with a logical reason why someone has faith in god. i was a very content protestant for most of my life who believed in god in one form or another. but after doing a lot of critical thinking and studying a lot of logic, ive realized that the only reason i believed in god before was because i had been told to. i know thats nothing new to you guys, but at the time it was to me. now i still respect most religions and the people who participate in them, but i find it shocking that so many people are incapable of thinking for themselves. religion is, in nasty terms, brainwashing. you tell someone a thing so many times that they eventually believe it, no matter how preposterous it may be. any one who has taken even low level philosophy classes knows that it is critical to question everything (why is that so critical?), and a very simple application of self interrogation would quickly reveal that there is no substantial evidence of god, and therefore its not worth putting your faith into.
then if i apply that same principle to astronomy, i would have to say that there is no such thing as extraterrestrials, because there is no evidence. however, i have faith that somewhere in our unthinkably large universe there is life besides on earth. i have no idea where or in what form, but i believe the odds are in favor of their existence, although i do not think aliens will look like wookies and klingons, like they are portrayed in science fiction. similarly, i have faith that a higher power exists, although it will be very little like the Judea-christian god. given the fickleness of what we call "reality" and the lack of a full explanation of the universes origins, i think it is logical to believe that there is something greater than humans. i dont necessarily believe that said high being (s) will ever make contact with humans, or will provide a Utopian afterlife, but it is likely, given all the infinite possibilities, that there is something larger.
