# Observations that seem profound, but you don't quite know what to do with them **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 18, 2008, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123 "2008-09-18T11:44:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123/41 "2008-09-20T19:10:46Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > The words for the days of the week- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. go back to very, very, very ancient times. And we still use these words honoring ancient gods- and we generally don’t think a thing about it. All this time- empires rising and falling, religions spreading and dying- and we still use the same words. > > Every week I when I bitch about it being Monday, I am using a word that connects me back thousands of years. I’ve sometimes wondered why this doesn’t drive the Christian fundementalists nuts, after all they’re the names of the Norse gods _(Thursday, 'Thors’day etc)_. Well except for Saturns Day… 😉 btw Peanut Gallery I believe the leaders of the French Revolution tried to decimilise time but it didn’t catch on. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123/42 "2008-09-21T09:47:00Z")
I don’t care what anybody says, I \<3 **Apollo 13**!!! Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) regarding Apollo 11, “ **It’s not a miracle…we just decided to go.** ” …we did. Something so audacious as to put a human being on another celestial object. How’d we do it? We just decided to. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123/43 "2008-09-21T09:51:49Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Thanks so much for the explanation, **Derleth**. The comment makes a lot more sense now. Most of my exposure to Christian belief comes through Catholics, as I’ve always lived in areas with many many Catholics. And what Protestants we have lying around are usually Episcopalians or something. 😉 > > And uh… **Friar Ted** darlin’…quotes like that are a big part of the reason why I don’t _get_ Christian theology! 😛 But seriously, thanks. I always like to hear relevant bible quotes, because it gives me a little insight into something that is really foreign to me, but is extremely important to many other people. I went easy on ya’ 😃 I coulda quoted a little ditty called The Athanasian Creed!:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123/44 "2008-09-21T16:38:09Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > Forgot where I saw the graphic to this, but the largest known star in the Milky Way galaxy is 1,500 times bigger than our own sun. > > We is _tiny_. We is indeed. Were you thinking of something like this, perchance? If you don’t like Pink Floyd, just turn down your sound; you won’t miss anything: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JEKXCfB9fds/hqdefault.jpg "The Relative Size of Stars & Planets (& Pluto ;-)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEKXCfB9fds) ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123/45 "2008-09-21T17:14:58Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > Not only is there no solid explanation, but it strikes me that this is one of the few things that everyone in the world just _agrees on_. Likewise, when I was researching [the names of the days of the week](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_the_week), I was surprised to find that their meanings are very far reaching. They even hold the same meanings in the Far East. Crazy. It amazes me something so ordinary can be so ancient and universal. Christmas trees also freak me out like that. Every year we all stick a tree in our house and pretend like that is totally normal. We rarely even give a passing thought to the origins of this or how objectively weird it is. ---
**Author:** ![st1d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@st1d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/st1d)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123/46 "2008-09-21T18:07:29Z")
Ugh, so many ideas, it’s hard to think of them all: 1. Regarding Lisa, the brain damaged monkey that started walking upright a few years ago…maybe we’re all just brain damaged monkeys. 🙂 2. Space is impossible to visualize, and to think there’s the “Great Attractor” out there pulling us all around with it is amazing to think about. [Great Attractor - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Attractor) 3. Just as amazing, thinking of the impossible number of particles that have come together to form me, and that they can have enough organization to move together to do things I don’t even think about…but at the same time, I can trip over my own feet for no particular reason. Boggles the mind, a clear case of omniscient humor… 4. What if Jesus didn’t return as quickly as promised because he realized we needed to work out or own problems? Probably doesn’t sit well with the fundamentalists, but maybe once he had his own version of “near death experience” (really near!), he realized that “saving us” was the equivalent of picking up the baby every time it cries. Alternatively, he did say that there would be people that wouldn’t die until he returned (mark 9:1). Does that validate reincarnation…or are there some really old folks wandering around among us? Obviously, I don’t ask these questions to too many folks… 5. Isn’t agriculture just a form of mining? Plant growth in general just “mines” nutrients from the ground. Conversely, isn’t mining just agriculture on a geologic timescale? Agro-mining? 6. My dog is the leader of the pack. I don’t know how it worked out that way, but we all bend to her needs. Food, play, go outside, etc. Smart animals, they’ve conned us into being their slaves. :dubious: 7. That days of the week thing is interesting. I never realized how far it extends around the world. 8. But the worse, at least, most annoying, is the Matrix Oracle example. Does something happen because it just happens, or do we play a part in making things happen the way they do? Is that why bad days seem to pile up, money lands in your lap when you already have plenty, women flirt with you more when you’re hooked up, and all the crazy inconsistent things happen the way they do? To me, thinking a bad thought is like triggering the event some days. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rosie\_is\_Tired](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Rosie\_is\_Tired](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rosie_is_Tired)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123/47 "2008-09-21T23:20:24Z")
> [@AllWalker](#): > > Not only that, but most of the material in the world around us is made from the debris of supernovas. Stars can create elements during their lifetime, but it is limited (I think our Sun can make up to iron, but don’t quote me on that) and much of that is trapped within the star’s gravity. Just think - all the gold on Earth is ancient, the remnants of a destructive and yet creative force so powerful it can spew forth the heaviest 3/4 of the Periodic Table from the lightest 1/4. > > And since stars start of as mostly hydrogen, they can spend billions of years generating the above mentioned quarter of the Periodic Table from an element which is, essentially, just a proton.\* > > It makes you appreciate the heavy metals in life. > > \*Yes, there is an electron too. Yes, there are neutrons thrown in as well. Hence the term ‘essentially’ 😛 We are stardust…we are stardust… I too wonder why theres something and not nothing, **cmyk** ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123/48 "2008-09-21T23:55:54Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Christmas trees also freak me out like that. Every year we all stick a tree in our house and pretend like that is totally normal. We rarely even give a passing thought to the origins of this or how objectively weird it is. [Jim Gaffigan](http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=QjJCIbC9sxA) made some similar observations. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123/49 "2008-09-22T03:15:14Z")
> [@Influential\_Panda](#): > > Go out and look up at the stars one night. > > Then consider that “up” doesn’t really exist, and you’re just looking away from the earth into the expanding universe. Consider that you aren’t standing on the ground, it’s sucking you down. Imagine yourself on the “bottom” of the world, hanging by your feet if you will. Now spin your mental self around REALLY REALLY REALLY fast. Then throw it around a big hunk of fire REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLLY REALLY fast. > > That’s you. > > Whoah. Along these lines, I am occasionally freaked out by the realization that there’s nothing between us and the blackness of space but a bunch of _air_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-that-seem-profound-but-you-dont-quite-know-what-to-do-with-them/464123.md?page=2)