Believing in a symbol for The Big Bang is similar to believing in God. Like God it’s about the biggest thing there is. It’s about cosmic context and your personal relationship to this overall placement. There is however one key difference between belief in this symbol for The Big Bang and some traditional religious practices. And that centers around what you would expect from the activity of prayer. The Octagod is a system of thought and art that’s placed firmly in the natural world. It thinks of science as the proper road to truth. And in this system there can be life, culture and hope. Indeed there can be anything emergence might possibly bring. And it will.. But there’s nothing supernatural about it. The supernatural is not a real thing. It’s like singing about a round triangle. You can say it. But it doesn’t really mean anything. So from the combined standpoint of “religion and art”, the supernatural is a kind of storytelling device. Subjectively it works, but there are no real ghosts only memories. And when signs and symbols from random events seem to speak to you. It’s you, in your own opportunistic way, that gives them their meanings. Not the other way around. And finally, when it comes to praying to the sky, empty space can not possibly be conscious. It simply has no ability to remember. The rain gods aren’t really there. And so an active knowing conscious being that is somehow associated with the vastness of empty space is not really a part of this story. In this symbol of The Big Bang this sky-god has been replaced by what the sky reveals. And there are two creation stories here. One is about the beginning of the Universe. While the other is about the development of life. Life is feedback feeding on the flow of energy. The narrative image would be a waterwheel on the side of a mountain. But feedback is a sequence of events. It’s essentially a energy driven story that lops back on itself, and sometimes it can be hard to see. So here are some familiar examples; DNA makes RNA which makes proteins. Proteins help to make DNA. This is feedback. DNA uses organisms and seeds to make more DNA. This is feedback. You taste food in your mouth. This is feedback. You look at your hands, this is feedback. You look in the mirror. This is feedback. When you explore the world. When you speak to loved one, this too is feedback. Life emerges from feedback(s) and feedback emerges from the flow of energy. You can see this in the gap between the start of the Universe and the beginning of life. Just as there is a distinction between life and non-life. There are two creation stories here. So now, as a matter of context, in the Octagod symbol of The Big Bang we see a religious though that sees feedback from a distance. In this symbol of The Big Bang feedback is represented by circles. While the universal expansion and flow of energy, are represented by straight lines and the vertical axis. The Universe is ready for life. But it not alive. It can supply matter, energy, space and an arrow of time. But it does not directly respond to spoken language. Sorry about that. But those are the facts. However all is not lost. Because when it comes to language, and the non-living world, hopes and prayers can quickly turn into mathematics and technology. And perhaps that’s a more helpful result.