DWill wrote:The chapter is suitably mind-blowing. How much of this awesomeness can human minds handle? Ever wonder whether all we'll ever be able to achieve is a glancing knowledge of the universe before we expire?
The development of scientific knowledge over the last century, from discovery of other galaxies, relativity, black holes, accelerating expansion, cosmic microwave background radiation, the big bang, dark matter, dark energy, provides information about the universe which is coherent and consistent, albeit with many mysteries remaining. Much more than “a glancing knowledge” when considered in comparison to all previous times.
DWill wrote:
Usually when I try to fathom all of this I end up reflecting how extremely petty and insignificant our flash-in-the-pan lives seem. This time, though, I also considered the possibility that mere distance, time and even multitudes of universes might not stack up in importance to even the most mundane fact of our lives--having a stomach ache, for instance. Consciousness might trump all of it.
Scientific nihilism, the idea that we cannot base values on facts, produces the theory of human insignificance, encapsulated in the parable of the pale blue dot. But in fact significance is something that only exists for an entity able to consider things as meaningful, ie for a conscious being. I was chatting to a theologian about related topics the other day, about the idea that human evolution can be understood as the universe reflecting upon itself, that our mental capacity to represent things as symbols is itself a natural evolved fact of the universe. This reflective dimension of consciousness, especially in the deeply accurate observations of astrophysics, brings to mind the old myth from Genesis that man is made in the image of God. If God is the principle of order in the cosmos, then human science provides an image of this order in our coherent scientific knowledge.
DWill wrote:
Pardon the cheap philosophizing. Bryson is a very able and eloquent writer, and this promises to be a really enjoyable tour of science history.
I rather think that Bryson’s effort to explain our position in space time in a systematic orderly way makes these musings on meaning and mundanity quite important for setting the scene for any discussion on what could be intrinsically valuable.
In another chat the other day about the prophet Isaiah, we were reflecting on his verse 51:12-13
http://biblehub.com/niv/isaiah/51.htm
God wrote:12 “I, even I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you that you fear mere mortals,
human beings who are but grass,
13 that you forget the LORD your Maker,
who stretches out the heavens
and who lays the foundations of the earth
This presents a very different view of reality from the scientific hypothesis of insignificance, positing instead a deeply anthropic universe, a physical order providing a comforting, grace-filled framework of support for human existence. I find it hard to imagine how we could possibly have evolved without this basic fact that intelligence is of ultimate meaning.