atheism, atheist, rainbow, science, This is what I saw from my deck yesterday. That picture is actually a pale imitation of how beautiful a sight the rainbow was. I could see the entire arc, the colors were vibrant, and at either end there was an echo of the rainbow, a second rainbow in reverse that only went up about one quarter of the way on either side. (See how dark the sky is to the right of the rainbow towards the bottom? That's caused by the second rainbow.)
It was amazing.
The science behind rainbows is amazing, too.
From Science & Discovery:
Rainbows are seen when raindrops, falling in the distance, bend and bounce sunlight back towards your eye.
Raindrops reflect sunlight, like a mirror. However raindrops also bend, or refract, light, like a lens. The reflection is spread into a cone of light. The edge of this cone is bright, because sunlight is concentrated at this angle (called the rainbow angle).
Each colour of sunlight is bent and bounced in a slightly different direction. The colours separate around the bright edge of the reflection.
The collection of raindrops that send the same bright colour towards your eye is curved. The centre of the curve is the shadow of your head (called the anti-solar point). The rainbow always appears at the same distance from this central point, at the rainbow angle.
That might be the essence of atheism- to look at a rainbow, be amazed by the beauty, and not need god at all. It doesn't have to be magic to be beautiful and amazing. It just is.
you have it all wrong, rainbows are God's reminder to never flood the earth again... geez you think you're smart don't you, don't you know the convenent of God when you see it (On an actual serious not when I went to Hawaii in 2000, I saw rainbows almost everyday)
ReplyDeletei remember the first time i went to Sunday School. i was maybe 11. the "teacher" was telling us about the "Visible signs of God's promises"
ReplyDeleteshe asked us if any of us knew what rainbows were. i raised my hand, then said "rainbows are what happens when rain gets between you and the sun, and the raindrops reflect light into colors that bend because of refraction. we're learning about refraction in science class" (i was very much a know-it-all when i was a kid... as if you hadn't guessed that already ;)
she sat there for over a minute, stunned i think.
then she said "NO how stupid can you be? rainbows are a reflection of the Promise God made to never bring another Flood. they don't have anything to do with "science" (she actually scare quoted science). and then she ignored me for the rest of the class.
i brought in my textbook the next week to show her how rainbows are created (i was trying to help her, as it seemed obvious that she was totally uneducated) and she confiscated my book! i had to have my mother get it back!
i mean, seriously, if you believe in a God why can't you believe that She uses science to do things?
if you don't believe in God, then hell there are still rainbows and they are still pretty.
hey, did you know that rainbows are the favored mode of long distance transportation for unicorns and other mythical creatures? and that when they are riding the rainbow they hear wonderful symphonies in the colors that would strike us mere mortals mad from the beauty?
we need to incorporate rainbows into our logistics; we also need to adjust our ROE to use rainbows against the conservatives - the music might sway some to our side :D
I like how you said that. It is the essence of atheism.
ReplyDeleteDenelian:
ReplyDeleteThat, right there, is what I like to call "an awesome story."
Also, it's my personal belief that the rainbow is god's promise of Skittles. And the prophecy of the future arrival of Skittlebrau, the beer with candy floating in it.
i thought skittlebrau was the coming fruity candy apocalypse. there will be horrible suffering, but it will be tasty.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no.. PF you're thinking of the Apocabunny which will turn everything in to chocolate and cause canabunnism which will lead us to try to eat all of existance.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I get my apocalypses mixed up. Do I leave "left behind" messages for the apocabunny, too?
ReplyDeleteI don't know PF, I guess if you are "left behind", that means you ate everything ;)
ReplyDeletewho's laughing at my high metabolism now, bichez!
ReplyDeleteThe nice thing about the Appocabunny is that after it is over, you are still given your own universe that will be created as you wish it to be. Truely the Great Bunny is a wise God :)
ReplyDeleteoh wow...
ReplyDeletei missed that whole exchange
*sob*
i miss all the cool kid conversations!
also: beer+Skittles?!
are you *trying* to make me ill! "two horrible tastes that taste worse together!" i can see the commercials now...
there is no appoco anything! Ragnorak, bay-be!