Science, Religion and Obama...

Seemingly, there isn't much that links the three topics, you could have war i guess, but i was thinking of something else.
First off, I'll lay my cards on the table, I'm an Atheist and a Scientist. I studied Geology for 5 years.
It's a subject pretty close to Tapas, you have a little bit of everything, but can't really say you did one thing by itself. For example, Chemistry (of rocks), Physics (of rocks), biology (dinosaurs, evolution etc), earthy stuff like volcanoes and earthquakes, and the Space one where you learn about planets and stuff. It gives a pretty good rundown of how the universe works, space and life, and you have this clarity of understanding everything just enough to be happy. That's my religion, and it all works.

Some people manage to be religious and scientific, the Muslim world were leaders of science years ago, easily as good as the western greats you are taught about at school. In my world though, you can do one of two things, ask questions, or accept answers.
Yes, i suppose you need to accept the answer to the question you just asked, that's not the point, what i mean is you either accept what you are told, or you question it, finding out the answers for yourself.
My "conversion" to atheism came from questioning what i was told in the bible, plus my uncanny ability to spot apocryphal tales (ie. Urban Legends, stories that have a moral kick in the ass to teach you a lesson).
I'm not going to go into the Science vs. Religion debate, (i'll save that for a rainy day) as it's been running for thousands of years and still no one won, so i'm unlikely to summarise it in a blog post and end theology.
What i do want to talk about is some of the themes that always crop up, the humility of man is one, which is the one that goes something like "we're pretty awesome, so something else must have made us, as there is no way we'de be this awesome left to ourselves".
Another common theme is the carrot and the stick. Be good, and you'll go to heaven/paradise, be bad though, and you'll burn forever in a fire.
That's a pretty crappy end, but if you did get burnt at the stake for being a witch, it would be quite ironic that your punishment would be like the first day of eternity, and no big deal.
The idea of an afterlife gave people something to work to. In the same way that if the world was to end in, say 2012, for example, and the world's governments knew, they wouldn't say anything, as there would be complete anarchy.
All the great punishments involve a factor of time. Murder would get you years in prison, but if the world was to end tomorrow, there would be no consequences, and no decent punishments.
Religion has always had reincarnation, or a heaven type place to go to afterwards which was something to look forward to, but what do the scientists look forward to?

The answer is still the same, heaven, or rather the heavens. Space.
The only thing is, it's not looking too good. Obama has pretty much cancelled the Space projects, and i can see why, it is a pretty expensive hobby to collect moon dust, but there was always the draw of getting out there in a space ship, and popping round to see the neighbours.
Throwing my cards down again, i do believe there will be life out there, but i also believe they haven't come anywhere near us, and they don't spend their time abducting drunks, drawing in the grass, and hovering over cities where everyone has a cameraphone, but only one person actually notices and youtubes it.
Another important point is just how big space is.
The nearest planet outside of the solar system is about 15 light years away, so even travelling at a speed so fast that even the laws of physics can't keep up, it'll take 15 years to get there.
Add to that -
Note to Captain Kirk: Warp speed will kill you
the fact that at those speeds, you'd get mashed up by some of the smallest, lightest things ever.

So we can't really travel about to different places, and research into different places has been cut back, so it looks like we're stuck.
It's not a bad planet, this one, but it's a little claustrophobic to think we'll always be stuck here.

There just might be a way out, and it's the odder bits of physics, quantum physics, Relativity etc. In short, the theory of Relativity is the 4th dimension curved space one with worm holes and warp drives, and quantum physics is one that says that stuff acts differently depending on whether you are looking at it or not, and that is somehow knows it's being watched.

Whilst religion is happy knowing that it'll get past the pearly gates, Science is crossing it's fingers that we'll figure out a way off this planet.

In the end, Science and Religion do share some common ground, we all need something to look forward to, and we're both pretty sure it's up.

The End