Are they trying to make us feel insignificant?

[flobadob]

http://blog.jmlynch.o.../02/13/pale-blue-dot/

[naomi24]

I don't think 'they' need to try. We are insignificant!

[naomi24]

Another thought. Looking at that, how can anyone honestly claim, and believe, that the creator of the universe takes a particular interest in (arguably) the most intelligent species inhabiting that speck of dust?

[Rev Sermon]

I don't see how size relates to significance. Surely something very small can be very significant. Think of chaos theory, one beat of a butterfly's wing can cause a hurricane.

[naomi24]

Rev, I suspect you've been watching too much Hollywood. :o)

[keyplus90]

Atom and its particles are too small to talk about. But we all know how important an atom is. Yes one thing is more interesting. Such a huge universe with so much sophistication created by a mere accident.

Then that one small dot and then billions people living on that dot and few people still think they know about everything.

[naomi24]

Don't they just?!! Such arrogance!!

[flobadob]

Sometimes I think that earth is an atom, metaphorically speaking.

[askyourgran]

On the scale of things we are insignificant. I remember reading somewhere that for all we know we may be a small part of a giant chair leg. Which is quite profound when you think about it.

[naomi24]

I wonder why whoever said it picked on a chair? Irrelevant of course, but nonetheless it's on odd thing to pick on. :o)

[RATTER15]

Or maybe we were created by, at the very best, an under acheiver!

lol, dont think so, no one person or being could get things so wrong :)

[jackthehat]

I'm very, very tempted to post the You Tube link showing the Islamic take on the earth and its positioning 'in the heavens'............but I feel that 'that' honour ought to reside with birdie. :o)

How can one not stand, on a starry night, look up into the skies and feel just how insignificant we really are.............?

[jno]

tut, jack, relying on the stars for information...

[jackthehat]

Sorry, jno........it's because I'm Libran ;o)

[jno]

repeat after me: constellations don't actually exist...

[jackthehat]

They don't !!!??!!!

[jno]

things like the Milky Way do, I suppose, but the astrology ones are just the way stars looked from ancient Babylon, I believe. What looks like a pair of scales from Nineveh looks like nothing from Alpha Centauri, so I don't know how Librans from that part of the universe foretell their future. Tea leaves?

[ll_billym]

I disagree that we are insignificant, the technology, human endeavour and of course chance occurences of 'nature' that have happened along the way to enable this picture to be taken are phenonemal, seeing as it started with - we think - a few molecules mixing together billions of years ago. All those other little dots in the picture share a lot of the same properties, our little dot is the only one that harbours life, show this picture and writeup to an alien species it is that little dot they will be most interested in.

So insignificant is not the right word when it comes to this particular photo, it may be the right word when applied to the universe - who knows there may be billions of planets with intelligent life on them, but nonetheless our planet is still pretty special.

[Rev Sermon]

Naomi,

I take your comment in good spirit but I'm not sure why you equate size with significance. Would you say a white dwarf star was less significant than a gas giant of the same mass. Would you say Bernard Manning was more significant as a person than Stephen Hawkins?

You know I'm not a believer in a god but if one did exist why could it not be infintesimally small?

[jake-the-peg]

Good point Rev - significance is down to how many others just like you there are:

http://upload.wikimed...Deep_Field_part_d.jpg

It covers about as much sky as a postage stamp at arms length and contains about 1,000,000,000,000,000 stars

Feeling insignificant yet?

[naomi24]

Rev, since this question is posted in R&S, my comment comes from an irreligious perspective. In the grand scheme of things (for want of a better term), I cannot believe the God of Abraham made the universe specifically for the human beings inhabiting this one speck of dust. Therefore despite the special status the religious are so eager to bestow upon themselves, in my opinion, we are in reality, insignificant.

//You know I'm not a believer in a god but if one did exist why could it not be infintesimally small?//

It's a hypothetical question of course, but that said, why not?

Jake, precisely.