Our earth is very unique from all of the other planets in our solar system, and not just because it’s the only planet in the solar system which is known to support life. It’s unique because most of its core is comprised of extremely heavy elements that were forged within massive stars eons ago. These heavy elements, as well as the lighter elements, were all ejected into space after the former stars had died in massive explosions. One of the other things that make our earth unique, are that soon after the earth was formed, a large object (possibly another planet) collided with the earth and penetrated the earth right down to its core, which then ejecting about 1/3 of the total mass of the earth into outer space – this is believed to be how our moon was formed.
From its very beginning, the earth was a molten lifeless planet floating in space – for millions upon millions of years as the earth cooled somewhat, and as the earth was forming its outer crust, it was also being constantly bombarded with objects from space including asteroids and meteorites – it is believed that most of the water here on earth, was delivered via these impacts. From the very beginning, the earth has been a very violent and chaotic place for life to exist – we live on an ever changing planet; we live on the surface of a living planet floating on top of a sea of molten matter - one might say that the earth is simply a big furnace powered by the radioactive decay of the recycled star matter from which the earth was formed. Our earth has been shaped and reshaped many times over the eons by these same forces, and these same forces will continue to change the earth for at least the next few billion years, until the time when our sun begins running out of fuel and starts expanding, at which time it will engulf the inner planets, including the earth (this might come as a comforting thought to some of us to know that some of the atoms, which comprise our own bodies today, may help fuel a future star – or that our atoms might even become a part of some other living creature someday in the future as well).
These same forces that have shaped our world as we see it today; are the same Forces which have driven the evolution of all life here on our planet. And life only exists today because we are currently living in a period of relative calm on an otherwise very violent and chaotic planet. The fact is that everything within the whole universe is constantly moving and changing – everything is headed somewhere, and nothing stays the same; everything is in constant motion; and the earth is simply a microcosm of the universe as a whole. Relevant to our own geological time, it’s easy for some of us to conceive, that everything within reality was made just for us, when in reality, we only exist as a consequence of our current geological time, and the fact that we haven’t had any major extinction level events since the last one which occurred 65 million years ago, that killed off the dinosaurs; although there have been many minor such events, and some of these events have even been catastrophic.
These same forces of nature which keeps everything in motion here on earth, including all of the continents (via continental drift) are the same forces that cause the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions – again, everything in the universe is in constant motion and going somewhere, with the exception of religion – for years, I have compared the beliefs of all three of the major religions, with those of the beliefs of the volcano theists, and anyone who believes that their "god" caused the recent earthquake in Japan, and killed tens of thousands people, and simply to show all of us none believers, just who is in charge – those sick, ignorant and deluded people, need to be institutionalized and treated for their mental illness – they are the ones who elect these same sick and deluded leaders, who believe that everything that happens here on earth, is the plan of some "god," and we are all simply along for the ride until "jesus" "returns." The Japanese leaders knew full well, that Japan is located in one of the most seismically active zones on the planet – and despite knowing this fact; they decided to roll the dice and build nuclear reactors anyway. If we can only learn one thing from these tragic events unfolding today in Japan, I hope that we will learn that we are impart in control of our own destiny, and if we don’t change this ignorant mindset that some "god" placed us all here on earth, simply to test our worthiness as ignorant and mindless sheep, and if we don’t start speaking out in opposition when our allies engage in such reckless activities as building nuclear reactors in these types of unstable areas – and if we don’t stop dictating our environmental policies based on a book of old deluded fairy tales, (god made a promise to an 800 year old man; so it’s Ok to keep pumping carbon into the atmosphere, and finding other ways of fucking up the planet because “jesus” will return soon, so it won’t matter anyway) then the only place where we will all be headed is to “hell” in a fucking hand basket!
Worshiping a god, who you believe causes earthquakes, is just as stupid and ignorant as volcano-theism.
