We Are Nothing

[heumy]

I've been seriously thinking about this, just hear me out... we think the Earth is so big, but the Sun is several million times the size of Earth, making it a mere dot on the face of the Sun. So, the Sun is unimaginably large. I recently read that there is a star in another galaxy that is several million times the size of the Sun. This makes the Sun a pinhead on this star. This is basically dot-dot-dot-dot. There are probably more stars out there that are even huger. When we think about this, we seem so insignificant. However, we act as though everything is so important. That breakup is so devastating. That fail on the math test is the end of the world. But when you really think about it, that test will mean absolutely nothing to you in 5 years, and means nothing to the Earth. When you die, nobody cares. You're just another number on the obituaries. We should act like the reality, which is that nothing matters at all. When you die, it won't make a difference anyway, cause you'll be dead. If you were a millionaire or were poor, you're still just as dead as the next guy. This makes me change my view on everything, and makes me want to live for the experience. Thanks for hearing me out, and feel free to share your thought on this.

[Spartiate]

Pff, I'm not nothing, I'm 7*10^27 atoms, take that microscopic world...

[♥Mark]

Relative physical size determines value?

[Universal Mind]

I've been seriously thinking about this, just hear me out... we think the Earth is so big, but the Sun is several million times the size of Earth, making it a mere dot on the face of the Sun. So, the Sun is unimaginably large. I recently read that there is a star in another galaxy that is several million times the size of the Sun. This makes the Sun a pinhead on this star. This is basically dot-dot-dot-dot. There are probably more stars out there that are even huger. When we think about this, we seem so insignificant. However, we act as though everything is so important. That breakup is so devastating. That fail on the math test is the end of the world. But when you really think about it, that test will mean absolutely nothing to you in 5 years, and means nothing to the Earth. When you die, nobody cares. You're just another number on the obituaries. We should act like the reality, which is that nothing matters at all. When you die, it won't make a difference anyway, cause you'll be dead. If you were a millionaire or were poor, you're still just as dead as the next guy. This makes me change my view on everything, and makes me want to live for the experience. Thanks for hearing me out, and feel free to share your thought on this. I agree that nothing matters, but as humans, we will never be able to stop caring about things. Things will always matter to us, but nothing will ever matter to the universe. Check this out. http://youtube.com/watch?v=HKPUYZZbWxs

[Dreamworld]

Yes, we are basically nothing, but while were at it, lets party!

[Cyclic13]

We are nothing, but we are everything... You are the center of your own universe and that's all that matters really...

[dragonoverlord]

We are nothing, but we are everything... You are the center of your own universe and that's all that matters really... Deepak Chobra is a genius.

[Cyclic13]

His succinctness is befitting of this moment, which is why I used his clip. You must think otherwise since you are attempting to be funny by blatantly disrespecting him by purposefully misspelling his name... Real original.

[dragonoverlord]

His succinctness is befitting of this moment, which is why I used his clip. You must think otherwise since you are attempting to be funny by blatantly disrespecting him by purposefully misspelling his name... Real original. Sorry im not trying to be funny. His name is foreign and im not good at spelling to begin with, Neither is This the first time i've heard from him and he seems like a genuinely intellegent person hence me calling him a genius actually when i saw him on T.V. i wanted to get his book and i still do. Point is my comments were genuine and not some vaine attempt at humeur as you implied and im a notorious bad speller.

[Cyclic13]

My apologies then. Needless to say, I agree that he is one smart cookie

[LucidFlanders]

Why because the universe is so big are we nothing? sure we are small, but we are here unlike we are not here. We are something in a place that is SO big, so we are not nothing. People just like to look at how big things are and think we are nothing, we are a waste of skin, well guess what? we aren't. Like i said already, we are alive right now, so we are not nothing but something. We will keep on continuing to be something untill we are nothing (dead), and that's when you truly are nothing, is when you're dead and rotting in the earth. Look at the universe and say "wow, that is big" rather then "wow, that is big, i am small, i am nothing...". We are all part of the universe if we are living in here. As little as we are the universe is just space, with lots of big stuff in it and you don't have to be "big" to be something.

[juroara]

When you die, nobody cares. speak for yourself yes the earth is a mere speck of dust in the grand scheme of things that does not make life on earth meaningless or pointless, rather realize how precious life is in the grand scheme of things. we as far as we know, we are a rarity in this universe. the value of something is not determined by size. rather, how pointless something is depends on how detached it is from reality. in this case, the reality that the cosmos are great. if our lives are detached from that reality, then it can become so pointless. if our lives are meaningless, that doesn't mean we are. as humans, we can change our lives, and choose to live in ignorance of reality or not.

[Cyclic13]

One's Perception Is Everything!!!!!!

[LucidFlanders]

Also everything has a roll, same with us. You can't be absolute garbage because you're so tiny if you have a roll to play.

[Sornaensis]

To put this in a different perspective: If the Planet Earth were to be suddenly devoid of life, how would that affect the rest of the universe?

[heumy]

To put this in a different perspective: If the Planet Earth were to be suddenly devoid of life, how would that affect the rest of the universe? The point is, it wouldn't. The universe would still exist, and will still exist long after the Earth is gone, destroyed from global warming, or everyone on it dies.

[Xei]

Hm, that guy seems to make a lot of nonsense statements. Firstly simple mathematics tells you that 50 divisions would make 1126 trillion cells. Also the statement 'each cell does six trillion things a second' doesn't mean very much if you're not going to define what a 'thing' is. It could just be collisions between enzymes and substrates or something. The worrying statement though is that 'each cell knows instantaneously what all the others are doing', which is a lie. There is no communication that links every cell in the body like that. If such a thing were true it's hard to work out why the body would let certain cells develop cancer and form tumours. My thought about the whole topic; we're very small if you compare yourself to the whole universe, spacially and temporally I suppose, but that's just an issue of scale. What's really important is that you are the only being in the whole universe that is conscious in your body, so everything you do in life is infinitely important really, not the reverse.

[wasup]

Xei, great post. I agree, that guy is a new-age "philosopher" who attempts to spurt out random, often untrue scientific assertions to claim some sort of pseudo-philosophical self-importance to the human body (or rather, justify its importance on a spiritual, perhaps religious level). I'd just like to add that even though no sort of instant communication exists in our body, it couldn't exist at any rate, because information cannot move faster than the speed of light. I don't understand what is so "genius" about making a bunch of convoluted statements which anyone with an elementary education of mathematics or biology can refute (or know, in the case that what he says is correct). Now what you just said, Xei, that's pretty profound stuff. I agree with you -- on a scale in regards to the universe, we ARE infinitely important, and all of our actions affect the course of the rest of the universe. If you ever have read about existentialism (Sartre, etc.), then you know of how he writes about every person's actions being immensely important to the outcome of mankind as a whole. Every one of our actions defines the actions, the thoughts, opinions, the philosophies of mankind. Our actions are the actions of mankind. To pretend that we are not making exceptionally important decisions to the future of mankind is simply denial.

[Forsaken]

Turn it around, what if any of those giant things so far away that you talk about were to disappear right now? Would you notice? Would you care? So those things are nothing! :p

[NightLife]

The sun is also nothing compared to the rest of the universe... So is our galaxy...

[Omega Weapon]

Xei, great post. I agree, that guy is a new-age "philosopher" who attempts to spurt out random, often untrue scientific assertions to claim some sort of pseudo-philosophical self-importance to the human body (or rather, justify its importance on a spiritual, perhaps religious level). I'd just like to add that even though no sort of instant communication exists in our body, it couldn't exist at any rate, because information cannot move faster than the speed of light. I don't understand what is so "genius" about making a bunch of convoluted statements which anyone with an elementary education of mathematics or biology can refute (or know, in the case that what he says is correct). Now what you just said, Xei, that's pretty profound stuff. I agree with you -- on a scale in regards to the universe, we ARE infinitely important, and all of our actions affect the course of the rest of the universe. If you ever have read about existentialism (Sartre, etc.), then you know of how he writes about every person's actions being immensely important to the outcome of mankind as a whole. Every one of our actions defines the actions, the thoughts, opinions, the philosophies of mankind. Our actions are the actions of mankind. To pretend that we are not making exceptionally important decisions to the future of mankind is simply denial. i love existentialism in its complete avoidance of the new-age and pseudo-science. In particular the moral implications of it, especially as an atheistic philosophy to start with, yet entirely humanist. Anyone interested should read Sartre's "Existentialism and Humanism", which presents a perfectly concise idea of some of the basics, and how they relate to our common lives. How we can actually use this philosophy in our lives. This said however there is often crisis of the existentialist, in the realisation of the importance of the self at times. It also offers a perfect response to the problem of how small we are and so on, and truly answers the original post's problem, without implication of God, or in fact anything but the self. Certainly I prefer that kind of true philosophy to alot of that kind of new-age assertion based pseudo-scientific stuff around nowadays.

[Xei]

The sun is also nothing compared to the rest of the universe... So is our galaxy... The sun is everything when we compare it to ourselves however, which is surely how we should be doing things? The universe itself is not an intelligent being; in a sense it is pointless, as to have a 'point' you must be conscious, so comparing things to the universe has little value. Wasup; thanks. I was introduced to existentialism by a friend studying philosophy about six months ago, and it's something I've definitely adopted, yeah. I like the phrase that the universe is 'mute' to our questions; there are no grand answers waiting for us apart from those which we make for ourselves. It's a much better and more liberating way of living your life compared to letting yourself be restrained by the contradictory words of Gods.

[Sanquis]

Its even worse when, in consideration that the space between atoms is 99.9% nothingness. Then the ENTIRE UNIVERSE IS 99.9% nothing.

[ChrissyMaria]

I've been seriously thinking about this, just hear me out... we think the Earth is so big, but the Sun is several million times the size of Earth, making it a mere dot on the face of the Sun. So, the Sun is unimaginably large. I recently read that there is a star in another galaxy that is several million times the size of the Sun. This makes the Sun a pinhead on this star. This is basically dot-dot-dot-dot. There are probably more stars out there that are even huger. When we think about this, we seem so insignificant. However, we act as though everything is so important. That breakup is so devastating. That fail on the math test is the end of the world. But when you really think about it, that test will mean absolutely nothing to you in 5 years, and means nothing to the Earth. When you die, nobody cares. You're just another number on the obituaries. We should act like the reality, which is that nothing matters at all. When you die, it won't make a difference anyway, cause you'll be dead. If you were a millionaire or were poor, you're still just as dead as the next guy. This makes me change my view on everything, and makes me want to live for the experience. Thanks for hearing me out, and feel free to share your thought on this. That is how it is, yet everyone is so caught up in their own little lives they forget how little their lives mean. This is the main reason why we should do whatever it is that we wish to do, whenever it is we want to do it, we should not be held down by rules or anything of that sort. I don't mean go out and kill everyone, what I mean is, go and ask that girl out, go and eat that extra hamburger, go and have fun dancing even if you do look like a fool, be a fool! have fun! anyways yea I have this view on life pretty much 100% of the time, I hardly take anything serious anymore I have sorta that whole 'Whatever man' attitude going on lately, like thats ok, if that breaks its ok, if i didnt pay my bill on time its ok....yada we just gotta let go sometimes and say, its all gonna be ok, cause were microbes in comparison to the universe.

[Grod]

I don't care if I'm a 'microbe in comparison to the universe', or if 'my decisions don't affect the universe'. The affect ME. And I'm more concerned about myself than how little my actions affect some planet millions of light years away or someplace I'll never know or need to know.