Written by Justin S. (KIS '20)
Edited by Johnny P. (VHS'20)
━━ August 5th, 2018 ━━
The Vast Universe
When we look up at the stars, what do we see? Maybe we just see a star-lit sky. Or perhaps, we see a universe that is incomparable to our perception of the world. Then, we start to compare ourselves to the vast size of the universe that we don’t even know how big it is. Even those little specks on that pitch black sky are unimaginably bigger than us. How can something so small to our eyes be a billion times larger than us? And where does that leave us? Why did we come to be? The question regarding the existence of everything is, and always has been deeply rooted into human society.
Before realizing the significance of the universe, civilizations created images of gods or a God to answer the question of how the world came to be. Our ancestors formulated stories to talk about how we, humans, ultimately came to be from supernatural powers. Looking at religious history, it is obvious that our species looks at itself as one of the most important beings in the universe. For a while, humans believed that the Sun rotated around the Earth, and not the other way around. It was only 500 years ago when Copernicus created the model of the Sun being the center of our solar system, with our planet orbiting it. This means that they thought that the Earth was the most important object in all of the cosmos. Until scientists like Galileo and the others developed the telescope, nobody really knew what was out there. With scientific advancements in astronomy and physics, in the 20th century, humans discovered the distance between the stars and planets using the speed of light. With this discovery, we started to understand how big space really is, and that the universe is still expanding.
Learning this truth started the bitter philosophy of cosmicism, which is a philosophy that there is no god or divine presence, and that humans are insignificant in the bigger picture of the universe. This kind of thinking inspired many to question the church’s authority. The Bible implies that the Earth is the most important place in the universe, but the size of the universe challenges this thought. Afterall, how can Earth, a minuscule dot in a mysterious and expanding universe, be the most important part of it? On top of that, that minuscule dot is surrounded by an immeasurable number of stars and planets that may be significantly different or similar to that dot. We probably have only scratched the surface of the universe. Maybe the observable universe is a big portion of the actual universe, or maybe it is much less than we think it is. The point is that we will never know how big the universe actually is, especially with the technology we have now.
Cosmicism also questions whether or not life exists outside of Earth. As of now, we know that life flourishes in Earth, but most likely does not in other places. NASA also found potential planets suited for life in the deep universe, but still hasn’t found life anywhere. Knowing that the universe is big and old (13.8 billion years old), it questions many to think why the universe isn’t filled with life, and why Earth seems to be the only one with life. In order to answer these questions, people like Enrico Fermi thought of the Fermi Paradox, which, according to Wikipedia, is the the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations.
This explains why there weren’t any aliens visiting Earth and why there may not be any aliens visiting Earth soon.
For some, believing in cosmicism may give deeply pessimistic views of the universe and life as it can make some people think that whatever they do in their lifetimes will ultimately not change anything in the universe. For those who think this way, I would like to kindly advise them to reevaluate their priorities. As a student looking for his place in the world, I think that it is important to think that we do have a place in this universe as all things do. What matters is that we have the freedom to choose what we can do with the time given to us, and truthfully, that is all we need (Does anybody get this reference?). In a universe like ours, it is a miracle that we ever happened. So, whenever you think that you don’t matter in this universe, remember that you literally are a miracle.
I understand the basics of cosmicism, but personally, I still do not think that the human race is insignificant in the cosmos. I think that life itself is a miracle, and that even if Earth is not the only planet with life, humans are important in the universe. Even though stars are amazing, if I were to watch the timeline of the universe from the beginning to now, I would be more interested in the life forms inhabiting a planet like Earth. They can move and talk and interact with their environments in ways that stars can’t. Life is interesting, and without it, the universe would feel... dull. There isn’t anything as complex as life so far, and in my opinion, humans are the most complex of all creatures as we can learn from other people’s experiences (collective learning). Our presence changes the way of the universe as we can observe, study, and take advantage of it. Even though we may never understand the full extent of the vast universe, I believe that we can travel through space and time and learn enough about the universe to be satisfied.
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