Perspective, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

Mr. Owl,
How many earths
Could fit in Jupiter’s storm?
One, two….. three, three

Mr. Owl,
Would our sun scowl
If it new the largest black hole
Could swallow 66 billion of thee?

Mr. Owl
If I counted
Every grain of sand on earth’s beaches
Would they surpass numbers that stars reaches?

Number of stars vs each grain of sand
Stars obliterate , 10,000 to 1
2 trillion galaxies add to a septillion suns

So when you bring me
Old mythology and claim
“All this” was put here for humanity

I see a person without humility
I see willful ignorance, insecurity
I see a person afraid of change

Mr. Owl
Is only wise
When he scraps bad claims
And they meet their demise.
(end)

Notes on this poem.

“Mr. Owl” was a character in a cartoon Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop commercial back in the 1970s. In it a kid asks an owl in the tree how many bites it took to get to the center and it ends with “The world may never know”.

But not knowing is not an excuse to plop in gap answers based on old mythology. If our species never questioned social norms, our species never would have left the caves.

The largest black hole currently known to science is called “TON 618”. Roughly 60 billion of our earth suns could fit into that black hole.

And if you really want to freak out. The next time you go to the beach, look at a single grain of sand, and know that there are roughly 10,000 stars in the universe for that one grain of sand.

Now, I am very realistic that on a planet of 8 billion religion isn’t likely to go away. But more human progress has come when religious claims about the nature of life and the universe were challenged, not simply accepted because the church said so.

Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the church for daring to postulate that the dots in the sky were other suns and could have planets around them. That went against the church’s teachings that the earth was the center of not only our solar system, but the entire cosmos. That is one of countless examples where believers in mythology targeted, harassed, bullied, arrested and executed someone who dared to tell the truth and think for themselves.

Today science denying is used to deny the shape of our earth. It got millions killed during a pandemic. It has taken the rights of female body autonomy away. And most importantly, this dangerous science denying is a threat to our species existence.