Someone once told me he assumed I was religious because of the wonder and beauty I see in sunsets. I told him that as an atheist I see sunsets as naturally occuring phenomena, so with my explanation they just happen to be breathtakingly awesome, whereas with his they’re expected to be.
Work in Progress 
“You realize that the sun does not go down, it’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning ’round”
— Flaming Lips
It’s sad that the vestiges of our ignorant roots huddle in the mystical explanation of something that should actually be overflowing with glory about the nature of physics, biology, and cosmology. Simplistic explanations are so boring, where the true awe and wonder is embedded in the stunning nature of this awesome natural world. If God *HAD* created sunsets, we would be blase about them. “What a show off, okay enough.. God. Sheesh”. But I think the true awe comes from a deep seated knowledge that it isn’t just how beautiful the sunsets are…. it’s that we are extremely lucky to even be here to see them. Not just with our eyes, but to have developed higher brain functions and complete nervous systems to comprehend it. There isn’t much we know…. we know that life is rare and uncommon in this universe… and I think it’s Sagan who said, of all the things we think we are sure about, the only one truth is that all we we really know is that we have each other.
So have some Sunset pictures. Enjoy. This isn’t all of them, and I need to be a bit more selective… until I can update and do a best of, enjoy scrolling. <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/118246307859485381903/Sunsets"
Thank you so much! I have always thought that I appreciate life more *because* I’m an atheist. That we are here because of a spectacularly improbable chain of events and sometimes through sheer determination is so much more amazing to me than the idea that we were just sort of casually (and seemingly haphazardly) put here.
I don’t really care if the sun isn’t really “setting”. It’s still the most beautiful and comforting phenomena I’ve seen in my life.