Since I don’t believe in God, I’m addressing the question that’s the title of this blog post to those who do. If God created the universe, why is it so goddamn HUGE? Of course, God believers don’t really have the answer to this, even if God exists. I’m just interested in what hypotheses are in the minds of the religious.
Because theologically speaking, the Christians in medieval times had a more satisfying perspective on creation.
The Earth is the center of the universe. The sun, stars, and moon circle the Earth. God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, to incarnate on Earth via a virgin birth. So we humans and the planet we live on are absolutely special. We’re why creation happened. Everything else literally revolves around us.
Other religions, including the Eastern religion I belonged to for 35 years, have a similar conception when it comes to us Homo sapiens. Supposedly we are the top of creation, the pinnacle of living beings, made in the image of God. This also places humankind near the top of the cosmic pyramid, second only, perhaps, to angelic beings and God.
Modern science, though, presents us with knowledge of the universe that is far removed from these sorts of religious conceptions.
Our Sun is a star that is one of about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. There are estimated to be about two trillion galaxies in the universe. Assuming that each galaxy averages about as many stars as our galaxy does, this means…
The answer is an absolutely astounding number. There are approximately 200 billion trillion stars in the universe. Or, to put it another way, 200 sextillion.
That’s 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!
The number is so big, it’s hard to imagine. But try this: It’s about 10 times the number of cups of water in all the oceans of Earth.
Think about that the next time you’re looking at the night sky – and then wonder about what might be happening on the trillions of worlds orbiting all those stars.
Well, I suspect it is highly likely that on only one of those trillions of worlds, our Earth, billions of people are worshipping Jesus. Or believing in the many religions other than Christianity our species has come up with.
But let’s assume, against all odds, that a God actually created the universe with us humans in mind. Why, then, is it so inconceivably large? Perhaps infinitely large. Large enough to contain 200 billion trillion stars. So large the observable universe is 93 billion light years in diameter, with a radius of 46.5 billion light years stretching in every direction from Earth.
This means that if you head off at the speed of light, 186,282 miles per second, it would take you 46.5 billion years to reach the edge of the observable universe. Which doesn’t mean we can actually observe everything in it. It just means this is the physical limit created by the speed of light itself. That’s what Wikipedia says. Don’t ask me to explain it. And probably a lot more exists beyond the observable universe. Maybe infinitely more.
So it seems clear that if God created the universe, we humans were a minute speck in God’s consciousness, given the immensity of what isn’t Earth. Sure, I can visualize religious believers saying “God works in mysterious ways.” Fine. I love mysteries.
However, if religious believers can’t come up with a coherent reason for why the universe is so huge, why should I take seriously all the other pronouncements about God found in our planet’s holy books and spoken by our planet’s holy people? If why the universe is the size it is, is a mystery, then it seems to me that every other question about the nature of God also is a mystery.
I’ve got no problem with people believing that everything about God is a mystery. That leaves God as a belief consisting of a gigantic cosmic question mark. Indicating, answer to be revealed. Perhaps. Maybe after death. Maybe never. Impossible to tell. That question mark contains no clue.
My problem is with religious believers who confidently make statements about the nature of God. I used to do that myself. Which means I have a problem with my previous self. (Fortunately, he doesn’t exist anymore, so I get along just fine with who I am now.) No one knows if God even exists, much less why God made the universe so unimaginably large.
Science presents us with a picture of the universe that is just as awesome as any religious proclamation. With the added benefit of being true, given the current state of human knowledge.
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>> …… the universe, why is it so goddamn HUGE?<<
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsT9qOsxAk
It is all about the cultural and the natural human being. In the first part he answers that [simple] question in a simple way.
He is known as an [Christian] mystic .. over the years there has a rather great flock of followers developed mostly due to the slik marketing of an interested "friend".
That said is in a way very zen like … stressing .. PRESENCE … as the word often used pointing at the tool and the outcome of using that tool.
Like the Japanese used and developed an everyday practice … SITTING on the floor .. he uses the practice he developed as a farmer.
Any way .. and a word for Hon. Mr. Spence Tepper … have a look at the man ..and than try to figure out what objection I could make … NOT .. in relation what his presence does with HIM … but in what he does with that experience towards others and how that would look like standing before a fellow human being struck by a natural or man made disaster.
God is the universe. It created itself.
Why is the physical creation so large? It isn’t. According to mystics, this creation with its vast array of stars and planets (including those we haven’t seen yet, as in yet unseen galexies awaiting even better telescopes), is but a single drop in a reality that is practically infinite and unfathomable. The physical reality you think is vast is hardly a speck of dust in the true expanse of reality.
The human species you refer to when you quote eastern religious philosophy is in consciousness, not body. In body we are different colors, orientations, sizes and shapes. In consciousness, we are aware. That is the top of creation: the species that can know its creator and return there, where the creator calls home.
That species could look very different, galaxy to galaxy. But being aware of the path to God, and able to connect with a local Saint, they are the same species.
It’s not difficult to give an answer to a a question the questioner isn’t interested in hearing. The question itself is framed by the limitations of the questioner. You could just as easily ask why the creation is as small as it is. It’s a matter of where one is standing.
Hi Um
I very much like what this fellow had to say. Thank you for the link. I think he answers Brian’s question much better than I did.
“Don’t worry about it. All things happen naturally. A question like this illustrates how unnaturally ordinary life is, that the answer to everything lies in human cleverness, that Man has to work out what to do. And then it all goes terribly wrong, doesn’t it? “
Page 38 from …. guess book title and author.
“Material science, on the other hand, laboriously attempts to piece together the fabric of Ultimate Reality by working from the ground up. By learning more and more about the laws that govern this creation, it is hoped that the nature of the Creator will be revealed. Hence, as was noted previously, we find physicists writing books about “the mind of God,” assuming that this can be deduced from clues found in material existence. It is much as if an unusually intelligent bird were to carefully say the details of how its birdhouse was constructed, hoping thereby to understand the person who built it. How, pray tell, could such a bird ever grasp the essence of the human mind by counting the number of nails that hold its house together, or by measuring the dimensions of its dwelling? Yet this is the approach used by physicists and other material scientists who assert that by knowing the creation, we can understand the Creator. Does this seem reasonable?”
@ Spence T.
For a while I did listen to his tapes on you tube on instigation of one of the members of our family … hahaha … given my tastes it is not that simple to find an restaurant that serves food according my liking and where the staff leaves me in peace and do not draw attention.
I was very impressed by what Mrs Yolande Duran Serrano had to say about her experience of total inner silence … Unfortunately after writting her book “Le silence guérit” and some interviews she disappeared from the public stage.
What I liked is her more or less “innocent” description of her experience have no spiritual background or interests before. In her search to give her experience “hands and feet” she looked into some of the explanations that are around but as I understand she let go of it ..she was not interested in teachings, traditions etc .. her personal experience was more than enough for her.
Sorry to butt in on what is more or less a theological question, but I couldn’t help noticing that all the old platitudes (probably expected) are being aired. As I mentioned in my previous post (below), all the reliance on gurus, mystics, wise old men, consciousness hypothesis and so on, can be understood as attempts to avoid facing the fact that we just do not know.
—-
“Actually, the truth is, apart from living and experiencing the ‘here now – we just don’t know. All our grand concepts in these matters are conjectures based on what we have absorbed through ancient books and by those who say they know!
We become adept at avoiding what we just don’t know, closing our eyes to the fact that all we ever are is all that we are right now – beyond that is a mystery. It seems that we habitually evade entertaining our ignorance and fleeting impermanence by resorting to faith or conjuring up creative, though essentially empty, arguments.”
Hi Ron
You wrote
“It seems that we habitually evade entertaining our ignorance and fleeting impermanence by resorting to faith or conjuring up creative, though essentially empty, arguments.”
These are ways of dealing with the unknown, Ron.
Even Atheism is a means of dealing with the unknown. And our own ignorance.
Even the idea that we seem impermanent is just an idea people choose to believe bolstered by very limited experience and a great deal of ignorance and faith.
Believe what makes you happy, Ron. It shouldn’t harm anyone else or yourself. It shouldn’t have any business with how others live.
So simple. Pick what appeals to you and if you find yourself blaming others for being different, that’s just a flag that your system isn’t really working. So pick another.
Freedom of Choice, baby, it’s a cool thing. You are in a huge shopping mall of ideas. So go shopping! That is an incredible wealth!
@ Spence T.
The saying says: C’est le ton qui fait la musique.
Maybe it is my lack of command of your language but the way you answer Mr. R. E. sounds like squeaky chalk on a blackboard
IMHO
There are two streams that complete the creation.
Spiritual and Science.
Spiritual is exploration of inside
Science is exploration of outside
Both are knotted together.
If a question exists in one stream, it’s mirror must exist in other stream.
In inside things converge
Outside diverge
To give balance to creation
On pondering further, inside everyone wants to merge in top,
You may call it Radhasoami dham or Nameless
Since everybody is trying to converge there
It’s opposite happen outside thats divergence from centre of universe
Where is center of universe?
That’s why saints say Human body is temple of God
that inside outside thing is in relation to human body only
That’s special gift to humans
@ October interesting way to see things as you wrote them in the first of the last 3.
But I doubt if all humans are seeking the top … some do … those that climb the Mnt. Everest are an “happy??” few and out of them there are evne less people that have no egocentric motivations that have nothing to do with the sheer pleasure of mountaineering
I am talking about humans that (have )(had )(will )awaken so they are in spiritual ocean. There are specific people who like to explore oceans just like same like mountaineering
@ October
That is right n…I only have always wondered WHY they exist!
I understand that there were always people, that had “spontaneous” experiences that came to be known as spiritual, mystic, transcendental etc but the rest the majority can have no motive.
Simple … I nobody spreads the rumor that the inca’s buried a larger treasure ..how could anybody have the idea and motivation to embark on treasure hunting???
Deep behind this answer is what I read in the words of the Late Great Master and and the late Baba Garibdas of Rohila-Delhi .. they divided humanity in 8 classes .. classes that were all associated with this or that selfish motive, material, mental and even spiritual … best expressed with the saying … many are called [by hearsay] but few are chosen.
Just another question!
On the way home from buying some “oil-balls” ..a dutch end of the year tradition, made of tennis-ball size balls of bread dough with mixed in sultanas and deep fried in oil .. I passed a shrub of “wild apples” and asked my self
What are they doing here in this universe?
Have they any7 idea that they are winter foder for little animals and birds?
They certainly have the inborn drive to survive but otherwise what are they doing here?
The game gets messier if I try to explore these type of questions
But to answer your curiosity it’s dimensional thing which I haven’t pondered yet
But I am sure of Truth that answer exists
@ Oktober
Yes, yes ..from childhood on I have that notion that there must exist for everything a simple explanation, explanation that EVERYBODY can understand, not only scientists on your one side and Mystics on your other side …that said .. SEEKING .. is an waste of time [ any other qualification is alright too] …. It is like wishing tomorrow to be a shiny day .. anybody is free to do so but reality shows up on his own accord.
I guess I am not a seeker, nor was in the past …but the company [SAT sang] of the late MCS and caracters like my late dear friend, has been a great pleasure, to say the least. ..and of course enough coffee to swallow
Spence: “These are ways of dealing with the unknown, Ron.”
*Indeed, people deal with the unknown by inventing stories and beliefs; all to avoid the realities of life – and death.
Spence: “Even the idea that we seem impermanent is just an idea people choose to believe bolstered by very limited experience and a great deal of ignorance and faith.”
*Life is impermanence, it’s all around us, everything eventually dies; which is nature’s way – without impermanence there would be no life. No one has ever demonstrated permanence – except through fantasies.
Spence: “Believe what makes you happy, Ron.”
*Having no beliefs, just living life as it is with its happy times and sad times is all that’s needed – indeed, all there is.
Spence; “So simple. Pick what appeals to you, and if you find yourself blaming others for being different, that’s just a flag that your system isn’t really working. So pick another.”
*Everything works just fine when you accept reality.
Spence: “Freedom of Choice, baby, it’s a cool thing. You are in a huge shopping mall of ideas. So go shopping! That is an incredible wealth!”
*Almost right; though the ‘huge shopping mall of ideas has infested the minds of the bulk of humanity via so-called holy people and institutions by playing on humanity’s fears and insecurities – primarily, the fear of extinction. And, such ‘ideas’ are not at all a wealth, more a burden that needs to be seen through and dropped.
That’s it Spence!
Hi Ron
You wrote
“Everything works just fine when you accept reality.”
If you are including accepting all the things you don’t really know, I agree.
Hi Ron
You wrote
“Everything works just fine when you accept reality.”
If you are including accepting all the things you don’t really know, I agree.
But once you do that, it’s very difficult to judge anyone else. Your version of reality is based on limited information.
And one new fact can entirely reverse a beloved version of reality.
Happens all the time in science.
And spiritual awakening.
And Ron, as for dying, that’s a good thing, a chance to make a fresh start.
We see birth but don’t really know where life comes from. We see death but don’t really know where life has transferred to.
You assume what you don’t know equals nothing. It’s your belief system.
But the entire history of science discredits that system. Because all the scientific findings were unknown before they were discovered. They existed, but no ones know about them or saw them before. They thought nothing was there. And they were wrong.