When you look up at the stars, and you focus on the incredible void between us and even the nearest celestial object, do you feel grateful to be alive or overwhelmed by the immensity of it all?
2007-01-30 05:48:36 · 15 answers · asked by positively_ebullient 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
As to being grateful for being alive, I am indifferent, because if I were not alive, how would I be able to miss not being alive?
The immensity.....now, here we are going deep -where does all this end? DOES all this end? These are questions I too asked myself when I was a child. At the time books on astronomy mentioned the various conflicting theories about the universe: the steady state, the expanding and the oscillating. I flipped through the pages quickly, hoping to find something to do with THE question: WHERE IS THE UNIVERSE? For this question to have no meaning, the Universe would have to be infinite. If it is expanding, as has been actually found out, what is that in which it is expanding? Would it be this then, this container of the universe, that in which the universe is expanding, that would be infinte? Or would it be that which, in turn ,contained this container? (Mathematicians call this "infinite regression").
Anyway you look at it, you end up with infinity. But still, I do not feel overwhelmed. I feel awe, wonder. This world with all its history, recorded or not recorded, everything that has ever taken place in the billions of years of its existence, all the life-forms on it, everything whatsoever that has ever been done or thought: all this on just one planet in a stellar system like which there are thousands of millions in the Galaxy. And like this Galaxy there are thousands of millions in the universe.
.......and like this universe - an infinity of universes. For in infinity there is no number. To imagine ANY number of universes in infinite space is as good as imagining it as empty. The "universe density" of infinity , compared to what it actually is, would be exactly the same were there just one or any number of universes in it.
I don"t feel frightened at all by all this. How can I be? .This is my home, infinity.
2007-01-30 09:06:36 · answer #1 · answered by shades of Bruno 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sometimes I feel amazed at the complexity of it all. But mostly I am in awe and I just think how amazing the Creator is, how everything works together how everything needs each other, and how amazing and different each expression of Him/Her there is. The possibilities are endless! it's humbling and it puts life on our tiny planet in perspective. I'm not frightened though, I think life is beautiful, everyone is going about their own business from the atoms to the plants, animals, people, and whatever else is out there in the universe.
2007-01-30 06:09:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I always feel like I'm being watched when I look up at the stars. As if some cosmic force is calling to me, asking for my presence in eternity. Usually, though, I'm pretty high when I stare at the stars. This one time, I was tripping on acid and looked up at the stars and flew into space, but then I blinked and came back into reality. I'd like to think that at that moment, I was one with the universe; an all-knowing, all-seeing high bastard.
2007-01-30 06:07:32 · answer #3 · answered by johnmfsample 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It doesn't frighten me.
It makes wonder on the awesome power of the Creator. Definitely, the world did not just happen as some people claim. It takes someone so high and strong to put all things and seasons where they are now---not a human. 'is bound to be the LORD. It is only a fool that says in his heart "There is no GOD"
2007-01-30 06:17:21 · answer #4 · answered by Super Leaders International 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I enjoy walks at night where I can drink beer and cider and watch the change in the skies and mountains. Nevertheless, I find that gravity firmly plants me on this ground, so I have no clue. Seen some pictures of Ariel, a satellite moon of Uranus.
2007-01-30 06:26:26 · answer #5 · answered by wife of Ali Pasha 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was frightened a bit by it all one day and feeling very insignificant. I laid down and went to sleep and dreamed of these beautiful moving colored patterns all flowing into each other. Just amazing. Then I heard this voice say to me that this was the flow of everything and that if I did not exist the whole thing would not exist and flow. I realized it was saying that each and every element of it is necessary for the Universe to be, as all is interrelated and really one. It made me feel less frightened and insignificant.
2007-01-30 06:00:32 · answer #6 · answered by starlite2joy 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It is not the sheer magnitude of the universe that frighten people
it is the fear of the unknown.
2007-01-30 05:58:52 · answer #7 · answered by your destiny 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's big, yes. Sometimes I actually realize that and feel a jolt, knowing that I am absolutely insignificant in the big scheme of things.
But then I remember that the universe is finite. So there's something bigger than it. So it doesn't seem quite as intimidating.
2007-01-30 05:52:26 · answer #8 · answered by Lady Ettejin of Wern 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I feel like Pascal who used to say, when he looked at the sky spread out above our heads: “The eternal silence of those infinite spaces terrifies me.”
2007-01-30 06:00:21 · answer #9 · answered by apicole 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it can be overwhelming, but I am a part of that universe and in all the stars and planets there is no other part identical to me. I am unique.
2007-01-30 05:56:40 · answer #10 · answered by loryntoo 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋