Religion was probably a powerful and effective coping mechanism in the days when people were dying younger and more often from violence, accidents, starvation and most of all from diseases that we now know to be caused by microorganisms. Its utility should not be underestimated. It attempts to frame the human existence within a sweeping cosmic drama, giving meaning to otherwise mundane events of everyday life.
How can "everything's random" beat intelligent design, from an aesthetic point of view? I think atheism has more potential for an imaginative person, because admitting the mystery surrounding creation, rather than having a pat answer, encourages a different hypothesis to be considered at any time.
One of my fantasies (not elevated to the status of a theology yet) is that human life is an experiment conducted by greater beings who wish to determine, through the scientific process, the answers to certain questions. True scientists, they are not content with just one specimen, but require a large number, for the purpose of statistical accuracy. In part, maybe the most important part, they want to know what is good and what is evil and why. To this end, human beings play upon the stage. We live, breed, talk, fight, and die. In the ongoing debate over this and that, sometimes one side holds sway, sometimes another.
If that system were real, then scientists would be the ones closest to God in a manner of speaking. They would be the new priests.
Another fantasy I have is that we are the creators. That is, we created the Universe and everything. Not in the past, but in the future; we are progressing towards our divinity. Those alive today are the primitive ancestors of the future gods, just as primordial slime were our ancestors. Time in this system must be viewed as a circle, rather than a straight line. I am not sure how to conceive of time. Upon achieving divinity, time no longer represents an obstacle, although the past cannot be changed.
Let me see whether I can explain this imaginary system better. In the distant future, let's assume we become god-like beings, immortal and almost omniscient (I can't even conceive of omnipotent). A problem remains. The Universe is finite, because the rate of expansion continues unchecked. Foreseeing the destruction and rebirth of the Universe, which dooms all life, even the life of an immortal, and wishing to preserve a vestige of themselves, future beings may encode some undetectable vestige within their constituent parts, as tiny as atomic particles, to our way of thinking non-living, which would endure however long it took for the universe to be reborn. Their advanced science would predict that on a small number of planets, life would evolve from organic molecules at some point in the distant future, and on an even smaller number of planets, intelligent life would develop, and through the process of evolution, some relic of themselves would reappear, maybe even a clone of themselves. This cycle of the rebirth and destruction may have occurred many times.
I've often wanted to write a good science fiction story, but my early attempts were lamentable, even embarrassing to the extent I can't even locate any backup copies. They are erased forever. Part of the reason are the rejection slips I received from publishers and the stony silence I received from others. Rejections are bad enough, but being simply ignored does not help a writer's self-esteem. The general financial outlook for writers is terrible, so my decision not to pursue writing seems pragmatic. I'm dazzled by creative superpowers like Tolkien, Anne Rice and many lesser writers who have the ability to transport a reader to a fascinating supernatural universe where anything can happen, unlimited by the laws of physics. I can't imagine how such writers get as good as they do. I am also dazzled by the writers for television shows like True Blood, Downton Abbey, Beautiful People, Peep Show and Mad Men. I think they are absolutely brilliant.
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