Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded

[snooper2]

Our sun is over 99% the mass of our entire solar system.

Our sun is pretty small compared to others-






Think about this during the next repuke debate when they start talking about "god" and "faith" and their stupid "marriage is between a man and a woman". Then pay attention to the idiots in the audience soaking it up.

It's amazing President Obama can get anything done with the dumbing down of the country folks on the right have to continue as to even have a chance

[HopeHoops]

1. What a relief. I thought it was because of burrito night.

[tridim]

2. I take it you watched "How The Universe Works" last night?

[snooper2]

5. LOL...

Yeah, they were re-runs but still great program. And yes the idea popped in my head about the ignorance of humans in general while watching . That of course directly led to thinking about the last repuke debates.

[tridim]

8. I liked it too, but while I like Mike Rowe in general..

I'm still not sure his voice is right for the subject of the Universe and quantum physics.

Now Morgan Freeman on the other hand.

[Liberal Veteran]

16. Strange. I was watching that last night, as well. -nt

[onehandle]

3. Bull. I can hold up my thumb and cover the sun on a whim.

Nice try, Mr. Wizard.

[RC]

4. You just proved him correct. The Sun is small.

[onehandle]

9. I can cover Arcturus with the head... the point of a pin.

Much smaller than our sun. Duh.

[ronnie624]

6. "The earth and every living thing are made of star stuff." -- Carl Sagan

[bhikkhu]

10. That's the first thing I thought of...

the Cosmos series was an awesome introduction to all that when I was a kid.

[jberryhill]

11. "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe"

[Robb]

17. This made me go find this:

[ronnie624]

22. Lol. I hope the pie tasted better than is performed as a prop. n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. it DID NOT!

it was put here 6,017 years ago. Period.

[woo me with science]

12. Here you go.

(Monty Python's "Galaxy' song, with animations by the wonderful Camilla Erikkson)

http://www.care2.com/send/card/6043

[JackRiddler]

13. Only the heavier elements in my body must have come from supernovae.

The hydrogen need not have, right?

I'll ask Heisenberg to check the tracking numbers on my atoms.

[randome]

15. There's still some uncertainty about that.

[yellerpup]

14. "We are stardust,"

"We are golden..." So true.

[Arugula Latte]

18. I'm constantly amazed at the narrow focus in time and space that many religious people have.

The universe is billions of years old and there are billions of galaxies, let alone planets, in this universe, and millions and millions of Christians think this little planet and a magical dude (apparently the only magical person in the history of our hominid species) who lived a mere 2,000 years ago, a blip of a blip of a blip of a fraction of time, are the focus of some omnipotent deity who pulls the strings.

[JackRiddler]

26. The appeal of religions is really not that amazing.

You're right in all your descriptions of quantity (a "mere" 2000 years, this little planet, our lifetimes on it are but a blip of a blip of a blip) and yet you and everyone else also experience the "mere" length of an average lifetime as a seeming eternity (most of the time). Your experience of every moment contains a self-aware universe of perceptions, cognitions and feelings. As far as we know, the only thing-that-knows consciously any of the facts you cite or anything else is this blip of a blip of a blip of a brain (or organism). These sentient, conscious organisms, these people need orientating stories scaled to their actual experience of the world. Science and scholarship have usually ceded the realm of creation myths and meaning-of-life paradigms to the religions. Human psychology will always need to fill that realm with something, and for most people, a strictly correct but negative declaration that the religions are full of shit is not enough to meet that need. This is why there is now a "big history" movement among many academics.

[jberryhill]

19. "Be you dust, or be you star..."

"To be what you must just reach out for what you are."

--Yusuf Islam

[waddirum]

21. "We are stardust... we are billion year old carbon"

"We are golden... caught up in the Devil's bargain
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden"

-- Joni Mitchel

[jeff47]

20. Pedantic: The hydrogen atoms didn't come from a star

In that they're not the result of fusion.

[drokhole]

23. What we are...

[The Straight Story]

24. So...I existed in some way before my mom got pregnant? This could get good

In the bible it says God knew me before I was in the womb, which is used to argue against abortion.

Now science is saying I came from an exploded star and such so 'I' and all my cells existed before my parents had sex (well, assuming dad is really my dad....)

[ronnie624]

25. Not your cells, but their constituent atoms. n/t