A thought that seems to plague my mind from time to time is the increasing 'reality" of the insignificance of human existence. Recently in secular (and scientific) thought the global understanding towards the sheer vastness of the universe and the nature of reality (explained through science) has given rise to "cosmic horror" a genre (and stemming worldview) I'm sure your all familiar with
The idea that humanity is not significant. That any claim towards it being so is an outdated, "narcissistic" viewpoint from a primitive mind. However this can be avoided through an enjoyment of life and a trust in science and human knowledge to grow and understand our material universe.
This thought is everywhere. I'd be hard pressed to find a modern secular person who, at some level, doesn't agree with this. They accept not as a opinion, but as an undeniable truth of reality and existence proven by scientific foresight.
So… How do you combat this belief? Obviously as a modern Christian you disagree with this assertion. Why?/How? What would be your response to someone who believes like this and how could one rationally combat this mode of thinking? Why are you not convinced by this, again, "undeniable truth of reality"?
Easy, take solace in God's love. The cosomos may be a vast and inhospitable place that may be filled to the bring with cosmic horrors we cannot even begin to fathom, but God's love for His creation is greater than the dread the fiction writers try to fill your heart with.
God>>>>>>>>>>>Universe>Humanity Yet Humanity is God's favorite creation. This view ultimately stems from secularism and materialism. Without God to put all of reality in perspective, all we can see is a big empty space all around us that doesn't seem to care about us. It is as if we were in a painting, we know the artist is God, and that we are the central figure in the painting. If you don't know God or what he's trying to do, all you see is all there other parts of the painting that have nothing to do with you. You can't know that the universe is a frame to hold us unless you know that God loves us.
Jose Hill
Because I believe that God created us in His image, and that life has a meaning and purpose. I don't care how small I am compared to the rest of the universe, God still loves me enough that He'd die on the cross for my sins so I may have eternal life in heaven with Him. He is boundless, even moreso than the universe, yet He still loves all of us, His creations. What is there to be afraid of when you're wearing the armor of God? And what does it matter if my actions have no effect on some galaxy millions of light-years away? If I help out someone right next to me I can see the change with my own eyes, and that's what matters.
Oddly the reverse is true, the universe is cold and inhospitable, but this is nothing to the boundlessness of love.
Is that Jesus and Cthulu? You're shitting me
Julian Nelson
I think it ultimately doesn't matter OP. God is infinite. It's very possible that out there, far faaaaaaaaaar away in space there is another planet with other creatures and God has another relationship with them that he has with us. And that's only consider the material world… Who knows what might happen in the *realm of the air* as the bible calls it. It's not merely filled with demons trying to take down mankind. There is probably a lot of creatures doing their stuff without caring about us.
And yet… YET In that tiny corner of this universe… God puts an eye on us and created this miraculous planet (if you changed any of its parameters everything would die) for us. So? Who cares if we're not THE ONLY ONES(tm), it's just a narcissic thought… just like a painting discovering that its painter might have painted something else and getting jealous… not realizing how much the painter cared about its conception.
So thank you for the answers that you provided however they all share a central theme. "God's love" or "divine love".
If this person doesn't believe in the Christian faith how would you convince them that god's love is real, and not a human fabrication?
Ethan Green
They just need to observe how harmonious nature is. Any healthy mind can observe how well crafted our whole world is especially our planet. Perfect distance to the Sun, so we get perfect temperature, we have a protection against its deadly ray and a moon to protect us from asteroids, etc. The way we see "love" today is very sentimental but it wasn't always like this. Divine "love" is not limited by the human's one. The fact everything stands up so well is a proof of a maker and that He made it perfectly for the creatures inhabiting it. Other religions acknowledge this already. Christianity is *special* because The Maker chooses to assume our condition and sacrifices Himself to save us.
Henry Bennett
Interesting and thought provoking take there. Thank you. That makes sense. I think of… a tree. How much significance a tree can have relies on perspective, no? If there's one tree then it would be gravely important. Rarity is often seen as valuable in human thought. Having a single entity is valuable. However there are many trees. A forest of them! A planet of them, at one time. So an individual tree is meaningless in the totality of the forest right? Not quite. Sure there are many trees, but there is only one of that one specific tree. So thus it can still have un-measurable value. Depends on the perspective.
Not to mention the creation of Jupiter. Jupiter is so massive and it's gravity so pulling that, if I'm not mistaken, it's existence is a main reason for why Earth hasn't been struck by asteroids over and over again: halting life I agree with you user. The idea of "intelligent design", or the idea that things in the Universe are so beautifully complex that they have had to be designed at some level. Even a thing as small as a human eye is so beautiful in it's engineering. Humans are profound creators. Our minds are always striving for new thought, new creation, and further expansion of reality through our own means of creation. So thus I, at one point in my life, had to ask the question: "Why are humans innately like this?" and that obviously lead me to that this strive towards creation must be an integral part of our own existence. On some level it must be what God wants for us.
Noah Hughes
Yep you quite got it. Human perception is ultimately flawed… That's why we can never truly be happy in this eath because to really appreciate something we need to have it contrast with its absence… However God is not a human (even when He assumes our Humanity He is not *merely* human)… The entire universe is nothing compared to His infinitude. He doesn't need the universe… THE UNIVERSE NEEDS HIM TO EXIST. This is why we say that God cares about every little one of us, even if from our perspective, any human can be switched with one another and why scriptures says that *his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.*
God is a maker and He made us in His image… So it makes sense that we are creator ourselves… With our own limitations however… He doesn't want us to "Play God' not because He might be jealous, but for our own safety… And we can already see the results of this.
My pastor focused on the fact that before the resurrection, Jesus' last words were "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He made the suggestion that people, who believe in God but who are not Christian, are unwilling to accept the 'nearness' of God implied by such a human outburst, even though it is also true that this line is the first line of Psalm 22 as well.
So I have to ask, if we're talking about the vastness of the cosmos, and we aren't strictly confined to atheism/ just being agnostic, then isn't this whole question of the vastness of the cosmos just about how we imagine God, and not the humble man that God chose to be? Is the qualm about the size of the universe not therefore, about God's qualities, but rather about maintaining distance between yourself and Him?
When Isaiah came to Ahaz and asked the king to ask for a sign from God, Ahaz said "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord" to which Isaiah replied "Is it a small thing to weary men, but will you weary my God also?" (Isaiah 7:11-13) Meaning that Ahaz was distancing himself from God by declining to ask for a sign out of false reverence, and Isaiah called him out for it. I think we have a similar problem with the "but the universe is so huge" agnostics. In the process you cannot be covenanted unto something that cares not a wit for you, so the agnostic gets out of the real duty of reverence to the Creator.
Brandon Edwards
I never understood why people seem to think that the size of anything has anything to do with anything else.
Dylan Rivera
I never understood this mindset. Not significant to whom? Lifeless space rocks? Nothing is significant to lifeless space rocks, so who cares.
Jonathan Clark
I guess the fullness of this thought is not that we are insignificant to lifeless space rocks but that we are equal in our mutual insignificance. That us and lifeless space rocks are just things that exist in this thing we call "the universe" and that there is no why.
Alexander Nelson
God is really all-powerful man. That's funny I study physics and we have never learned that nor its possible to do that with some mathematics or a lab. it's a philosophy supported by the meme pop scientists so they can sell their books. It's extremely flawed as you can see by reading some Stephen Hawking books. No surprise they say philosophy is dead because sane philosophy blows them out of the water. It's materialism under a disguise And again they have no proof of that. They just assume an axiom that is there's no supernatural. Like any axiom it cannot be proved, just like the axioms of geometry. We could have chosen those or others. So either believing in the supernatural or not has the same truth value. Christianity is proved by another means. How can I trust a method? How the winnie the pooh studying natural phenomena answer metaphysical questions? The second law of Newton tells me there's no god? Top kek. F=mass*accelaration hmmm this means God ain't real checkmate christcucks. Because like every philosophical system cannot be proved in a lab or even mathematics. Not even in a thought experiment. Its philosophy pure and simple, and I can choose to believe in wtv philosophical system I want. And I prefer to be with Aquinas than some failed physicists who need to make money.
Carson Peterson
Yet God made us in his image, the Mother of His Son is a human being and He Himself incarnated as a Man. Poor ayy lmaos they are second class citizens. There are only two rational beings. Angels and man.
Jose Perez
We dont interact with that scale, so its irrelevant. Its like getting cosmic dread from living in Siberia, or the Sahara. Yes, you cant see yourself from space, or have a noticeable influence on the environment, no matter how powerful you are, but thats not your priority in life. Its, at worst, a humbling reflection on the fragility and vanity of everything, a la Ecclesiastes.
Chase Smith
Ehh… a thing that humbles me: I look at the mighty kings that once lived. The pagan ones. The gurus. The "false prophets". People full of pride. I often wonder where they ended up when they died. Loe and behold, I am watching some random video about Hell on Youtube and I hear that person's name mentioned. It causes me to humble myself.
I am a firm believer of humility. Exalt yourself and you will be humbled…. humbled yourself and you will be exalted. Thank you Jesus.
OP, you should look at the so called “Axis of Evil” created by the cosmic microwave background. Yes, the enormity of the universe may seem overwhelming at first, but Earth is at the center of the universe. What does that tell you?
Isn't that a meme "physicist"? I'd like source on that user and if possible the scientific article where he or others posted that coincidence.
Cooper Johnson
Couldn't you just type "axis of evil cosmic microwave background" into Google? You'll probably get the same information he has, and without pestering anyone in order to get it.
Ian Phillips
Cthulhu, Azathoth, Don Lemon, all these "old ones" are nothing compared to the infinite might of God. They will be crushed along with (((Satan))) when Jesus Returns.
Thanks id like to know what to search for in the first place.
Tyler Mitchell
Who the winnie the pooh is Cthulhu and friends?
Ethan Nguyen
They are just minons of Satan trying to make your faith in God falter.
Elijah Russell
I mean where do they come from? For example Zeus comes from the Greeks, Odin from the Nords, Thor from marvel comic books. Where do these fags come from?
Charles Kelly
From the mind of HP Lovecraft (pic related). A New Englander that wrote some short stories that kicked off the Cosmic Horror genre. Each of these old ones represents the unknown. Cthulhu being the vast depths of the sea. Azathoth the vast expanse of space. Don Lemon the vast depravity of society.
These old ones are just a few in the Lovecraft pantheon if you can call it that. Also note that Lovecraft never intended his characters to be 'worshipped' even ironically though that hasn't stopped some people. It is just to show us humans the smallness we have compared to the vast expaneses of the unknown.
I personally enjoy Lovecraft's literature. It's humbling to think that there are horrors greater than myself, but even greater than those horrors is Jesus Christ.
So it's literal fiction just the personification of stuff for a story. Some people are really stupid to worship such things.
Anthony Harris
Yes, pretty much. Nothing to take seriously, but still a good read imo.
I personally liked The Colour Out of Space and Mountains of Madness. Lovecraft also has opinions that make him a favorite of Zig Forums's, but that's neither here nor there. also, i'm apologizing for my earlier autism, if you saw that post
It was also likely sacrilege by the way. Do try and refrain from things like that in the future.
Luis Baker
Oh no, im not apologizing for the joke on Cthulhu and friends. I'm apologizing for post I deleted i made in hasty judgement to an unrelated post.
Samuel Peterson
Human life is indeed very insignificant. The difference between man and God is greater than the difference between a mighty archangel and an earthworm. Everything that you are and have is actively provided for you by God at all times; you are nothing and own nothing. In spite of this, you have nothing to fear. In spite of man's insignificance, God loves us and cares for us, and that is a very encouraging thought. Consider this: if Lovecraftian-style cosmic horrors exist, they too are merely creations of God and are therefore no more significant to Him than you are.
