This image chills me to my core. It actually scares the heck out of me

[Paul M]

4 hours ago, maw lod qan said:

When I look at that image, or into what I can see in the vast night sky there is nothing there I see that I fear.

Just picking up a theme here, I can't speak for the OP but building on my own response: I never feared what was out there or the loneliness. I was, as 10/11 year old boy when the realisation that  that nothing I held dear, nothing I knew or understood had any meaning or value in the grand scheme. My world became unfathomable. That frightened me. It troubled me for many, many years.

And still I don't know why it is that I can ask the question why I am. So deeply fundamental that I still haven't encountered a meaningful answer that is any better than "because we are!" 

Why any of it? Why even a vacuum, let alone a spontaneous universe? Even a vacuum seems to imply purpose.

So there we have it. My fundamental problem. Why was there even "nothingness" from which the Universe sprang? Even nothingness requires evaluation.

 

[mdstuart]

When I look at that image and galaxies through the eyepiece I certainly think wow wow wow that is so amazing. I feel privileged to be able to see such things, it makes me grateful to be alive. 

Rather than chilled it gives me a strange sort of peace. When I am out under the stars I feel relaxed. When I look at a large globular cluster it can almost gives me goosebumps.

It is clear from reading the posts that the universe certainly stirs up lots of emotions from within.

Mark

[Ouroboros]

When I look at that image I can’t help wondering what’s the point of it all? I know there doesn’t have to be a point, and there probably isn’t one, but I still can’t help wondering. 

[wxsatuser]

It's amazes me that all this and more came from a single point.

[maw lod qan]

5 hours ago, wxsatuser said:

It's amazes me that all this and more came from a single point.

You and me both!

[Jonny_H]

This doesn't frighten me as such. It just completely fries my mind instead 😄 

I find it both fascinating and utterly mind boggling at the same time and to some degree impossible to compute the scale/timelines etc... 

Edited July 8, 2021 by Jonny_H

[johnfosteruk]

The scale completely confounds me, even with graphics, analogies & explanations. I know of a number of greater minds than I who have admitted the same. I can (sort of) comprehend it in terms of orders of magnitude, but beyond a point, what is the... point?

The meaning doesn't trouble me at all, because I don't have any interest in understanding 'why?', only 'how?'. Why is not a useful scientific tool, except for when it is.

As Feynman once said (paraphrasing), when you ask why, you have to be in some framework that you allow something to be true, otherwise you're perpetually asking why....    .....You have to know what you're allowed to understand to be true and what it is that you're not allowed to understand. Why is Aunt Minnie in hospital? Well... don't get Feynman started (or do, because he was brilliant) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GT2zI8lVA, in case you are wondering.

So I allow myself to accept that the universe is unimaginably large and I leave that at that. My emotional response to this is awe. My intellectual response is to try to understand 'how' it got that big (expansion) & what's going on now that it is that size. In other words, within that framework I can still comprehend some of the larger scale process at work, and that's great, it gives me something to do of an evening and keeps me off the street. 

As for life, it would be cool if there was life elsewhere in the universe, unless they want to eat us which, although unlikely, and difficult, would not be cool (actually, that would be just as cool, in a way).  

But isn't it just as amazing, (truly fascinating and tremendously, mind bogglingly awesome) that (probably, possibly) from nothing (or thereabouts), an event gave birth to a 'universe' (possibly more than one event, more than one universe), protons & neutrons were formed, came together under the influence of fundamental forces to form basic elements, this matter started to come together under the influence of gravity (gravity sucks ) and stars ignited, that same force influenced the stars to come together and form galaxies, AND it's influence caused planets to accrete and orbit some of those stars, and on one of those planets, some chemical reactions formed molecules that can SELF REPLICATE (I think that might be more amazing to me than the scale of the universe. Although if I accept that I am allowed to understand it to be true, it is no more or less amazing), then, over (at least) 3,500,000,000 years, occasional errors (really? You're kidding, surely?) in the replication process caused tiny and in most cases, probably imperceptible changes in the design (just kidding), leading ultimately to a collection of molecules that is (a) self aware (b) really good with its hands, and (c) is capable of understanding a good chunk of this chain of events (or at least forming a fairly good theory), AND not only that, is capable of understanding that it is at least possible that there maybe other forms of self aware collections of molecules elsewhere in that universe, even if in fact this is not the case. 

I am completely comfortable with the fact that I will probably never see our kind escape our galaxy, solar system, or maybe even set foot on a neighbouring planet, just the fact we can conceive of such a thing is just wowsers, the fact I can understand the principles is even more so and a real privilege IMO.

As others have said, at a different time, or in a different place, we wouldn't understand the same things we do understand now, here. Imagine if you were born on the planet Krikkit, not going to end well

What makes me more than slightly upset is that with all of this going on, and everything there is to explore, learn, understand, why do so many people concern themselves with petty things. BUT on the other hand, things are better than they were n years ago, aren't they? Those of us who are curious have greater opportunities to do our exploring now than then, more resources at our disposal to aid that learning and understanding.

But anyway, you might say that if I accept the one thing (that there's no need to question why the universe is so big, etc and so on), then for consistency sake, why do I accept the other (that I'm questioning the indifference of some members of my species to all of this). Well who said I have to be consistent? If it weren't for inconsistency (in the replication process) I wouldn't even exist. So I revel and delight in the inconsistency.  

So what's the point of it all then? Don't get me started.. oh, wait.. 

I think I'm done now, and don't actually have a point, but thank you @MKHACHFE, for your thought provoking post.

 

Edited July 8, 2021 by johnfosteruk

[Rusted]

B&Q don't sell infinite tape measures.

I know, because I asked.

[Stu1smartcookie]

This thread , whilst being  really interesting ,actually demonstrates the weakness of humanity in so much that our intelligence is not advanced enough to comprehend beyond the boundaries that we have or that have been created for us by those who we look up to in the scientific world . And , who is to say , that they are right or wrong ? But , that is all we have . What a vulnerable specie we truly are . Things that were deemed right in Astonomical terms only 30 years ago( or less)  have been proved to be wrong,, or so we think ... Maybe the makers of the film "Interstella" have everything right ! Is science fiction the "New truth"

As John said ,  "The meaning doesn't trouble me at all, because I don't have any interest in understanding 'why?', only 'how?'. Why is not a useful scientific tool, except for when it is."

[Stephenstargazer]

16 hours ago, Rusted said:

B&Q don't sell infinite tape measures.

and we don't need one because we will only ever be able to 'see' the observable universe at any time from around here. It's all a matter of time.....