Petition for Revered Elder: Neil deGrasse Tyson

I can't pretend to understand what goes through the heads of religious people. There must be some excitement that they can only get through revelation. What I can say is that I get the same heightened rush (now this is huge for me to say) from music, reading, Super Bowl XXXII, all of those things provide the same rush for me that I get when Neil deGrasse Tyson speaks. I get excited. I want to jump up and scream Amen. I want to touch the hem of his garment. It isn't the science or the passion (both of which are just amazing), it's him explaining how we descend from a higher order. The higher order he speaks of is an order of the cosmos. And he's right. Look at the basic elements on the periodic table. Everything that we see, taste, feel, and and everything we are is made up of those elements.

We can trace these elements to the cosmos, and the cosmos brought forth life, but there is something profound and deep that connects us, and as long as we keep putting up barriers that separate and label us as Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, Atheists (and the list goes on...) we keep ourselves from discovering the true nature of the universe and potentially the great life force (and maybe even a G/god) that connects us. I just can't help but feel we're missing something here. And it's not that these religions are wrong (though logically speaking if one of them is right, then all the others are wrong), or that people should stop finding new ways to worship. It's just that we need to start making what makes us the same more important than the things that make us different. And to quote the great Bill Hicks, when we do that "we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever in peace."

I'll shut up and let the great Neil deGrasse Tyson do his thing.



EDIT: More Tyson Awesomeness!!!