thread: 2006-09-08 : Picky-choosy religion, 3 views
On 2006-09-09, Sydney Freedberg wrote:
Thank you, Tim. Again, you speak much sense.
I'm going to go all geeky here and quote Star Wars—in fact, I'm even going to quote Yoda, which is nearly the nadir of geekery:
"Luminous beings are we..."
Now, Yoda goes on to say "...not this crude matter," like a good flesh-hating Platonist or Gnostic rather than an earthy Hebrew, and he's teaching Mark Hammill crazy psychic mind powers that don't exist, but that line has stuck with me.
Remember your body is mostly empty space, a loose structure of atoms held together by electromagnetic interactions so powerful that they create the effect we call a "solid surface." Remember each of those atoms is itself composed of protons, electrons, and (except for any hydrogen you have around) neutrons, which are as I understand it little more than standing waves of energy, vibrating in place. And by E=MC(2) (can't do superscripts on this computer, sorry, but I meant "squared"), that energy contained within you is more powerful than an atomic bomb.
That all this shimmering, shuddering energy holds together, let alone moves, eats, breathes, thinks, and feels, is staggering. You are a miraculous being. We all are.
The physical is spiritual, and God saw that it was good.
