How do we fit in the Universe?

[00:00:01] How do we fit in the universe? [00:00:04] Written by Bart Ehrman, read by Ken Toutch. [00:00:10] Yesterday I put out a post that involved psalm eight, one of the great passages of the Old Testament, and I remembered that I posted a reflection on it many years ago, since it had made me think about something, well, rather significant, where we I fit into the universe. Ok, then I've decided to come back to it here because it still sometimes reflects in my head. Here is the psalm in the non inclusive King James version, which, as it turns out, is the way I memorized it when, oh, so much younger than I am now. [00:00:46] O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Who hast set thy glory above the heavens, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings? Hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger? When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visited him for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madeest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, that whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. [00:01:43] Some eight years ago, I had become rather intrigued as a complete outsider by astronomy, and still am ignorant as I am. The words of verses three and four still recur to me, even without any training. One of the things I'm intrigued by is just how vast the universe is, whether or not this universe is simply one of an infinite others in a multiverse. And just sticking to the universe, we are even now just starting to know there is plenty to boggle the mind. When I got interested and started watching lectures and shows on the universe, I was most struck by the enormity of it all. At the time it was thought that there are about a hundred billion stars in our galaxy, our sun not being one of the bigons, and that there are about a hundred billion galaxies in the universe, and our galaxy not being one of the bigons. [00:02:38] This is almost literally unthinkable. There is no way to get one's mind around the enormity of the universe. And then came a report from astronomers seven years ago now that these numbers may be very, very serious underestimations. You can find the report in various venues, including a nice synopsis in the Atlantic. The short story some astronomers are now arguing that in our single universe there are not 100 billion galaxies, but 2 trillion galaxies. That is 20 zero galaxies, not stars galaxies. [00:03:22] Suppose there are indeed 100 billion stars on average in these galaxies. Well, do the math and start adding the zeros. Occasionally during one of my daily meditations, thinking about who and what I am, how transient life is, and how I we fit into the created big banged universe, psalm eight pops in my head again. It says, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained. What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou visitest him. [00:04:00] The psalmist lived in such a simple world compared to ours. For him there is no universe, no galaxy, no solar system. This earth is all there is. Above it is the firmament, which, as its name suggests, was a firm buffer between us and the place God lived in heaven. Right above the firmament is water. That's why it rains through holes in the firmament. It has to be firm to keep the water out, and placed in the firmament somehow are the sun, moon and stars which move around inside of it. Below the surface of the earth is more water, which is where rivers, springs and fountains, etc. Come from. That was it. It was all the author knew about. And yet, with just this earth beneath his feet and the firmament above, the author gazed in wonder at the enormity of it all, and wondered how, in a world of such mind boggling size, magnitude, and grandeur, God could care for paltry human beings. God had so much else to care for. And the psalmist was amazed that God could take time out to care for humans and even reveal himself to them. It took his breath away. [00:05:13] What would he think if he knew what we know today? [00:05:17] I suppose he probably would think pretty much the same thing, but more so, but millions of trillions times more so that's asking a lot. Is it asking too much? It is interesting how different people respond. Believers probably respond with awe and immense gratitude that despite the incalculable enormity of reality, God has shed his love and attention on them. Here on little old earth, unbelievers might respond with equal conviction that in a universe of this size, even if it's not just one of an incalculable number of other universes, the idea that there is a God whose principal concern, or even one very minor concern, is with humans on this paltry planet, in this paltry solar system, in a paltry galaxy that numbers one of trillions is literally beyond belief. They simply can't. Don't believe it. I have one of these responses, and you may have the other, but whichever response we have, surely at the root, the response is the same, one of absolute awe at the greatness and magnitude of it all.