The immensity of the universe (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Sunday, January 17, 2016, 16:44 (3231 days ago) @ dhw

An article in last week's Guardian reported that “Astronomers have spotted the most powerful supernova in human history. The cosmic explosion was 570bn times brighter than the sun and about 200 times more powerful than a typical supernova, scientists said.” -It happened last June, about 3.8bn light years away. One single light year = approx. 6,000,000,000,000 miles. Quite apart from the astonishing brilliance of human technology, I have to say once more that this puts the scale of things into perspective. Our solar system is one of billions, and all the time these unimaginably vast bodies are coming and going, and for all we know may have done so and may go on doing so for ever and ever. We may all acknowledge that we are mere specks of dust, but do we feel our insignificance deep down? If we do, how is it possible to contemplate even the idea of a single mind encompassing but also occupying this vastness, let alone creating it, let alone controlling it, let alone having some kind of purpose that entails the coming and going of billions of exploding stars and vanishing solar systems, let alone connecting us humans to itself and to all these comings and goings? This is the mind-blowing macrocosmic converse to the microcosmic (but in my view equally potent) argument for life's mind-blowing complexities as a product of design.