Nine reasons for scepticism part 2

[Dajjal]

One of our regular theists wants to talk about the universe, as if that universe is, somehow, evidence of a "Creator". So, let's talk about the universe a little bit, shall we?

• Our insignificant place in the Universe.

Our Sun is an unremarkable star, in a boring little solar system, at the ass-end of a mediocre galaxy which is completely unremarkable among the 100 thousand other galaxies in the known universe. It has been estimated that there are some 30 billion planets in the Milky Way alone, any one of 100 million of which likely has an Earth-like atmosphere capable of supporting life. The number of likely life supporting planets in the Universe is 30 billion times 100 billion - a number so astronomical that there isn't even a name for it. It's quite probable, therefore, that life exists somewhere other than here.

Then there's the question of time. The universe came into being 13.5 billion years ago. Humans developed a mere five million years ago. In other words, we have only existed for 0.000036% of the time that the universe existed. Astronomers estimate that the Sun is going to burn itself out in about another 5 billion years. So, assuming that the planet doesn't become uninhabitable before then, or that some life ending catastrophe, like the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs, or a solar megaflare,or some other mass extinction event doesn't beat the sun to it, when it explodes, and incinerates all of the inner planets, then, unless we have figured out a way to reach the stars, and colonise beyond our solar system, the entire length of human existence will be a whopping 0.0014% of that of the known universe.

How plausible is it, then, that some creator made this entire cosmic machinery solely for the benefit of our puny little species, which exists for mere moments in cosmic history, and are a nearly infinitesimally tiny little speck in the whole of the universe. Just how grandiose, and delusional must humanity's over-blown sense of self-importance be to be so out of sync with the known dimensions of time, and space?

I have studied the teachings of many spiritualist trance mediums. Trance mediums claim that they go into a trance and spirit guides speak through them using their mouths. The first point is that these spirit guides purportedly come down to earth from higher dimensions where our immortal spirit goes to after we die.

According to the spirit guides I have heard, the spirit world is the true reality and we incarnate into the physical universe for experience sake. We do this many times, hundreds of lives in different bodies and on different planets. This planet is just one of countless inhabited worlds and the beings on them are basically the same as us. In fact they are us as we incarnate on different planets that are at a stage of evolution where we can learn the lessons our soul needs .

Eventually our souls complete their cycle of evolution and then they continue on as immortal beings in higher dimensions. So this universe is filled with life and all we have to do to reach the stars is die and reincarnate on a more suitable planet.

The universe is created by God to a perfect plan for our spiritual evolution, and it is clear that it would be an utter waste to create such a vast universe if you were only going to create life on one fragile planet that could easily be destroyed. God would be dumb to put all his eggs in one basket, so it makes sense that we incarnate on many other worlds.