This might seem like a smart-ass question, but I'm genuinely curious what theists believe about this. I recently heard the following analogy...

If you put a soccer ball in the middle of a soccer field, the planet mercury would be the size of the head of a pin and placed several yards away. The nearest star, would be over 2000 miles away! And that's just within our own galaxy. Consider the billions of galxies and billions of planets that orbit just about every one of the stars.

So my question is if theists think that god's primary concern is what happens on earth? Is he paying just as much attention to what's going on in the billions of other galaxies? Is he tending to the goings on in the billions of suns and hundreds of billions of planets that are orbiting them?

I anticipate an answer along the lines of: God sees all and tends to all. But I'd appreciate a little more specificity. Hundreds of millions of suns are being born, exploding and dying every day. There's a lot of stuff going on beyond the earth's horizon. Theists tend to believe that god created everything with us in mind. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the rest of the universe? To me, this is like believing a guy built the entire city of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, for the sole purpose of placing a speck of gravel in the 3rd stair of a cement porch in a two house bungalow in Manhatten. If you lived on that speck of gravel, would you feel special that the builder put you there?

This presents an innovative solution to the problem of evil. God takes good care of what happens on earth, but out of control events in space keep messing everything up. If only God's earth was a closed system. Consult with a good astrologer and hope for the best I suppose. Stay inside when there's an eclipse or unusual solar flare activity which God has no control over.

The earth is the main focal point, everything else is set up for the earth.

God set everything else is in its own course.

I do believe (my opinion based on my knowledge and understanding of th word) however that originally there was not meant to be collisions ect, but that because of the war in heaven (the spiritual realm) that happened along time ago, which destroyed the first earth and its inhabitants, things have been offset in the heavens and now some things collide and are off their original intented courses.

I do not believe that originally when the universe was created perfectly and set in motion that it was designed to do that. The word tells the simple and exact purpose of the stars ect....

Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Gen 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also.

Gen 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

Gen 1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that [it was] good.

This is simple and because its so simple it baffles man why it was made so complex. The real point to it all is that God created it all for mankind, to bless the man he would put on the earth. Mankind in general is the center of Gods creation, the reason for it all. To get deeper it actually is intended that man, becomes a son of God, and has etenal life, therefore the rest of Genesis and the word of God applies.

Well we must certainly take this a the truth, let's just ignore the fact that the moon isn't a light. Seems like something god should have known about but something a more primitave human culture would not have.

imo, god exists outside of time, we just perceive time as we pass through it. Therefore he can be all places at all times, and "watch over" all of it without too much difficulty because time isn't an issue in his micro-management of the universe.

Okay, so let's forget about time for a sec. What about volume? Does he exist outside of volume too? The point being is that the earth is infinitesimally small in the grand scheme of things. All the energy emitted by the earth and activity on the earth is nothing compared to the goings on in the rest of the universe. It's like the breath of a snail in a hurricane (actually, it's many orders of magnitude more insignificant than that). I guess what I'm asking is...

Even if god can be at all places at all times, what is the rest of it for? Why build the earth and make your main creation so infinitesimally small that it becomes diluted by any standards to the equivalent of a tear drop in all the world's oceans?

This is my question. Even if the "collisions" weren't intended, the volume certainly was, right? Let me use the same analogy again. Why build 3 major cities to create a place for putting a grain of sand in the third stoop of a cement porch, of just one building in one district, of one of the major cities?

I've noticed that theists are great at stating what they believe, but they don't say why they believe it.

if god is actually omnipotent/omniscient then can't he be equally concerned with all civilizations? doesn't seem like it would be any more difficult to be concerned with one as for with billions if you have infinite power...

I didn't think theists thought there was more than one civilization. But whether they do or not, I'm pretty sure they consider the earth civilization as the central focal point. If so, then I don't understand how the rest of the universe can make any sense, which is why I'm asking this question. Would you construct Sea World in order to create a place to keep a single water molecule in one of the thousands of drainage pipes running through its foundation? The one 3 feet down and 5 feet into the wall leading from the sink in the woman's restroom on the 2nd floor on the northeast side of the park, perhaps?

obviously the theists are being geocentric in their view of god...but this is reasonable for them imo...since why would they give a **** about how god views some other civilization far away? for them god need only be concerned with them, doesn't mean he can't be equally concerned about the other civilizations he has created...

This type of comment should be banned.

The word for light in the Hebrew is used for both the sun and moon because they both are luminaries.

Please if you are going to respond at least know what you are talking about next time.

Pletho

Correct, time is only percieved by us, time is irrelevent to God, a day is as a thousand years to God, so to speak, meaning it doesn't matter to Him, He is not bound by time.

Time helps us to keep things orderly. God does however have to wait as time unfolds from our perspective which seems like a long time to us, but to Him its nothing at all.

Pletho

Right, but the OP isn't so much about time as it is to explain the other 99.99% volume that is the rest of the universe and has nothing to do with our planet, sun, solar system, or galaxy.

sorry, i'm drunk and haven't read anything past the op; lestat, are you a christian?

he is not...

thank you. and thank you for that mind blowing analogy. i live exactly 2,000 miles away from my hometown and it's crazy to think of that analogy in those terms.

Well you see the universe is fine tuned for life on Earth and if anything were changed we would all die.

It is so a light. I know this because sometimes it's so bright I can see things in its light.

What if I told you the life of one single human being is worth more than everything else in the universe?

I suspect this is true. Do you have a cite?

I'd say you have an exaggerated sense of self-importance.

lol

what do you mean. They always say they believe it because its written in the Bible. It really need go no deeper then that.

it is certainly only true if there is a citation that says it is true.

this is not really what i believe, but i have a lot of friends who are unconventional theists who believe in a 'clockmaker' kind of god. they think that there is a supernatural being that does not exist according to our laws of physics, time, etc. who created the universe and just sort of sits back and watches without any interference or moral standards that he expects us to live by. i've always kind of liked this brand of theism because it conveniently (but obviously not scientifically) can explain everything in the universe by saying god is omnipotent etc. but doesn't place any more importance on earth than other planets and doesn't contain any dogma about belief or arbitrary moral standards. so, from their point of view, god would not be earthbound, because he doesn't really care about the human race any more than he cares about the rest of his universe.