Do You Believe?

[Alex]

I'm a bit confused by this:

As an example, think of an asteroid that's millions of lightyears away, discovered to be heading generally towards earth. That asteroid is well out of a range where its physical properties have a direct effect on human behavior, yet it would surely alter human behavior. But that's very different from "the asteroid chose to alter human behavior."

There is a physical interaction with the asteroid (photons from source A bounce off Asteroid B and are intercepted by Humanity C) and physical properties of the asteroid (it reflects photons at a sufficient level for detection) that caused the change here on Earth. Thus it is astronomy. If it affected human behavior without that physical interaction then it would be astrology.

(Though I'd posit that an asteroid light years from earth would cause no change in human behavior beyond noting it was there, after all it would be millennia before it got here.)

But yeah, otherwise I agree with you. One of the great mysteries of faith (to me) is why it is at all satisfying to believe in something without evidence of any type (obviously it is to billions of people, I just didn't get that gene).