Trillions of reasons to wonder why we’re here
Might this be a game changer?
Two weeks ago, an international team of astronomers announced that the observable universe is now 10 times larger than previously thought.
Who knew?
A tenfold expansion right under my nose and I missed it!
This “growth” has been detected through Hubble Space Telescope and other deep-sky methods. Rather significant, don’t you think? Shouldn’t we be stunned or gobsmacked or something?
Crickets.
Look at it this way: what if your broker advised you that your nest egg is suddenly 10 times larger than what you thought? Would that not be a game changer? Or, what if the American Medical Assn. assured you that henceforth people will live to be 790 rather than 79?
Seems to me this “times-10” universe adjustment is, well, rather noteworthy.
We’re now being wheedled by the scientific community into accepting this new paradigm. Our universe, 10 times larger than conventional wisdom had it a fortnight ago, contains a minimum of 2 trillion — that’s trillion with a TRILL — galaxies.
How long, by the way, does it take a cluster of international stargazers to count to 2 trillion?
When I was a kid, I was fascinated by our Milky Way and the cosmos — filled with thousands upon thousands, no, make that millions upon millions (now billions upon billions) of stars — and maybe a couple of other galaxies spinning nearby. And beyond the ultimate and final membrane of the cosmos? A huge black, silent, squish void, a nothingness (not an easy concept for a 7-year-old).
After that, what? God?
This 7-year-old kid’s universe seemed humongous. What a difference 60 years makes.
The gargantuan universe that we inhabit today is far more gargantuan than the gargantuan universe we lived in three weeks ago, or the gargantuan universe this 7-year-old occupied before humankind invented smart phones and plastic water bottles.
How big is big?
“Gargantuan” doesn’t do it justice. Our universe is immense, much larger than my pea brain can comprehend.
And what power and intelligence is its author? A super-magnificent Beethoven or Shakespeare? Certainly an artist.
This 10-times-bigger-than-we-thought universe, some say, is proof of the anthropic principle: the law of human existence. That principle asserts that all features of the universe appear to be fine-tuned for the benefit of human life.
Could we humans, after all, be something special? Dare we even think that? Does the one outside the cosmos actually love us? To my way of thinking, the answer to that question is a resounding yes.
“Real estate brokers often say the key to property value is location, location, location,” writes Christian astrophysicist Hugh Ross. “If this principle applies to the cosmic scene, Earth’s location would be considered way beyond ‘prime.’
” … Earth appears to reside in the only neighborhood in the universe where humans can exist and thrive long enough to enjoy a global, high-tech civilization and to discover how rare they are.”
Wait. With 2 trillion galaxies in a universe 10 times larger than previously imagined, we’re in the only habitable nook available? Then, with the exception of our sun and solar system, what’s the purpose of all the other matter, as useless, it would seem, as a roll of pre-popped bubble wrap?
Stephen Hawking in his book, “A Brief History of Time,” muses that the vast array of stars and galaxies are a waste. Au contraire, responds Ross.
Michelangelo never had a superfluous brushstroke. Everything in the universe is essential. The sun, the solar system, the Earth, life and human beings couldn’t exist without everything. We are the stuff of stars.
But, here’s the conundrum of conundrums:
“If God made everything in the vast universe just as it is simply so that we could exist, we must begin to wonder why,” Eric Metaxas argues in his book, “Miracles.” “What are we to him that he would do all this? Why would he make it all so extravagantly, even so unreasonably perfect? If it was all done just for us, the question arises: Who are we?”
My thoughts exactly.
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JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.