The Sun is Burning Out cult feared
the inevitable. I thought it was a reasonable fear. Although a bit premature.
Of course, I hold true the scientific hypothesis that the Sun will blow-up like
a giant bubble and burst (a Red Giant stellar event), but they thought it was
actually burning out, very slowly. At the time I found the SBO cult, the
process of Sols’ death did not matter very much to me as it was an event, not
on my calendar yet. The cult’s basic premise remained intact. They faded out
after about 3 years, but the site was untouched for almost ten years, then gone
one day, after a simple small message had appeared on its front page. But I am
glad I had saved their images and banners, for posterity and for a lesson to be
taught to someone, in the future.
I remember being impressed that
they actually had a couple of retired astronomers they had video interviews
with, saying seemingly absurd things. “The scientists must have been
padding the old’ Social Security income.” I thought.
They took solace and peace in
expending their energy on a futile attempt at advocacy of an issue, with
complete, only imaginable, catastrophe occurring in our very, very, distant
future. They seemed be living in contradiction. They would make clear that
their obsession may be a waste of time and may be the most unimportant thing a
person could be concerned with. But still they came and grew for a few
years.
Towards the end of the cult, most
members shared an odd appreciation for the absolutely fruitless efforts of
somehow stopping the sun from burning out. Some were sharing a mutual
feeling, that they had achieved a Zen like peacefulness in the pure futility of
their purpose. Because they had found the epiphany that they had all the time
in the world.
There was turmoil within the
organization, which occurred between those embracing the Sun is
Blowing Up hypothesis, and the founders and their loyalists who
maintained the whole things was a burning-out issue. But a picnic was held for
two summers, where the SBU’s joined in volleyball against the larger SBO’s, and
they eventually accepted they had strong mutual concern. There had been
a newsletter, I have since lost it, where the whole guff of
understanding was explained, and the truce was called for, prior to the
first picnic.
I thought the SBO’s highly
amusing. It was very entertaining to check-on their website now and again. They
were for me a sociological study in beliefs, paranoia, and fear in general. It
struck me as such waste of human energy since humanity has so many priorities
on its plate in this millennium. Never mind what’s on our plate in about:
2,500,000 millennia. I thought and concluded, “It’s good, I guess, that
somebody is worried about this. I think there’re enough people now, on Earth,
that we can happily allow a bunch of them to be concerned with Sol’s inevitable
death. Who knows? Maybe we can stop it one day, inspired by the writings of
these whack-jobs?” So I never insulted them. I respected their concern.
Reason, I concluded, is not unreasonable, even it’s a reason for concern
of something 5 billion years from now. It is just, a bit early.
The SBOer’s teach us lessons about
life. About entropy, extinction, oblivion, dissolution and the many other
concepts, of existence ending. About the constant fear of ending that remains
in us all. They also cause us to wonder about the puzzlement, that is doing
nothing to prevent our demise, when it seems out-of-control. Because
they are planning on an event, billions of years from now, they teach great
patience and control of our desires for our survival. They cause us all to
consider in contemplation our unreasonable fears of this time we are in
now.
Live for today - not 5 billion
years from now. Did the Buddha say something like that?
Now a confession:
I created the cult. It was online
only. Had one member. I was into getting really stoned and making humor web
pages, around 1999-20002. I actually paid for the domain and hosting services.
Had a chat forum set-up with fascinating running dialog from fake members. But
the internet was still too young to appreciate it. There was no (large) atheist
community to obtain the interests of, but places like AOL and Prodigy. And
marketing your website was very difficult, very manual. So I moved on to a few
months of making fake missing animal posters to hang around the neighborhood.
There was the missing talking pigeon that looked like 150,000 others in my
city. The childhood dog that eloped with its gay lover and was rumored to be
hiding on empty properties nearby - an appeal to saving a romance, shunning
dog-homo love, and returning to a boy his dog. And other important humor for my
community.
There is a half irony here . . .
SBO could only have been created by someone with too much time on their hands,
or an interest in providing comedy (in reality). And, if you’re worried about
an event billions of years from now, you are a candidate to join the SBO,
because you feel you have a lot of time. So, I guess, if you have a lot of
time, you can reasonably worry about something that occurs, a very long time
from now. You might even be productive in your concerns. Who knows, how
history will remember the SBO?
#comedy #atheism #philosophy #cults #religion #spirituality
