Sunday, October 28, 2018

The Scale of the Universe and Meaning of Life

Recently I have been taking an interest in space and the universe and have done some research to try to get an understanding of what is out there and how it relates to us and life in general. One of the things that becomes clear right away is how incomprehensibly large the universe is. It is way bigger than we can make sense of and that is only considering the amount we can see with powerful telescopes.

It is predicted that there are many other Earth like planets out there with the possibility of life, but the problem is they are way too far away to reach or even make contact with, at least with the resources and technology we have available to us today. Even traveling at the speed of light, which is incredibly fast, is not nearly fast enough to reach the other galaxies out there.

One question to think about is what would happen if you just kept going out further and further in the universe? Would you get to an end or would it just keep going on into infinite amounts of space? Based on our knowledge, it is hard to comprehend something going on forever, but what if it does? If not, what is at the end?

Is it possible other lifeforms from other planets have found out how to travel faster and have been able to reach us? It is possible, but there is still not much concrete evidence despite many claims of sightings here on Earth. It is possible other civilizations have developed further and if so, they may find us before we find them.

When you zoom out and realize how small our planet is in the universe, it makes you wonder about our significance. Here on Earth we have so much going on and we care about so many things but in the big picture, we are merely a speck of dust in the universe. Given this scale, we may not be as important as we think we are. For example if the Earth was destroyed somehow, the rest of the universe would go on and there wouldn't really be any noticeable change outside our solar system.

But what about life? This is one of the mysteries that is still difficult to explain. The scientific theory is that life on Earth started billions of years ago as very tiny cells and organisms and over time evolved into everything we have today. There are theories of how it started, but it is still not clear exactly how life was created.

It makes us think about the importance of life and what happens after death. For example, when we die, is that it, or does our consciousness or spirit live on somehow? There is still so much we don't know that anything is possible.

One thing for sure is that we are lucky to be living in these times and should be thankful for every day. Humans have really developed a lot over the past few hundred years. Imagine being born thousands of years ago and think about how difficult life must have been back then. Sure the world is not perfect now and there are still a lot of issues and bad things that happen, but overall it is a pretty good time to be alive.

This leads to thought of what the future may be like. Of course there will be new developments and inventions over time. Some things may make life better, some things may make it worse. There are many predictions out there as to what will happen on Earth over the next hundreds and thousands of years. I think it will be good for some time, but eventually the effect of human actions on Earth will take a toll on the planet even more so than it already has.

People will have to continue to adapt to survive in ever changing conditions with growing population, limited resources, and changes in the environment. Some time way down the line, it is likely that life on Earth may come to an end. What will that mean for us and what will that mean in relation to the rest of the universe?

Despite all we have learned over time, there are so many unknowns to some of life's biggest questions. Which brings up another one of those big questions, “What is the meaning of life?”

Why does life exist and is there a meaning? It is possible there is no exact meaning or purpose. It is something that happens to exist when the conditions in the universe are just right. It is ever changing. At any time in the universe new life may be starting while old life may be ending.

So what should be our goal or purpose here on Earth? It is up to the individual to make their own decision on this. Everyone has different thoughts, cares, and values. We must decide what is important to us and what we want to do with the time we have here on this planet.

It is a lot to think about but it is a topic that is important to give some thought since it can help give direction and meaning to life. What are your thoughts on the meaning of life and how it all relates to the universe? 
 
Check out more discussion and questions about Life After Death

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