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Just a recent blip in the cosmos, are humans insignificant?

#1
C C Offline
https://aeon.co/essays/just-a-recent-bli...ignificant

EXCERPT: [...] The pessimistic view, then, is that, because we occupy such a small and brief place in the cosmos, we and the things we do are insignificant and inconsequential. But is that right? Are we insignificant and inconsequential? And if we are, should we respond with despair and nihilism? These questions are paradigmatically philosophical, but they have received little attention from contemporary philosophers. To the extent that they address the question of whether we are cosmically insignificant at all, they have typically dismissed it as confused.

[...] Is the whole worry about cosmic insignificance nothing more than a muddle then? Guy Kahane at the University of Oxford is one of the few contemporary philosophers to have written about these issues in detail. He disagrees. [...] he points out that if the naturalistic worldview does indeed rule out the possibility of anything having objective value, then it would still do so if the Universe were the size of a matchbox, or came into existence only moments ago. If, on the other hand, there is such a thing as objective value, then it would exist no less in an infinitely large, old and silent universe. Matters of cosmological size and scale don’t even come into the equation.

[...] Kahane’s view, then, is that intelligent life is the primary source of value, and since only that which has value is significant, whether or not we matter depends on the quantity of intelligent life in the Universe. If it is abundant, then we are insignificant and matter little. But if we alone exemplify it, then we are of immense significance even from the supremely broad perspective of the entire Universe....

MORE: https://aeon.co/essays/just-a-recent-bli...ignificant
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#2
Magical Realist Offline
With consciousness it's as if a little piece of infinity fell from the stars and landed inside our heads. And a piece of infinity is the same as the whole of it. We stand on a threshold beyond which lies a reality we can not even imagine yet. Consciousness is the crack in the door of physicality that changes our whole situation. What was for Being just timeless darkness in an infinite room is now becoming transparent to itself and lighting itself up from the inside. We are the manifesters of this new Being. Our significance lies in the future.
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#3
Zinjanthropos Offline
We are as about insignificant as a mite crawling up an elephant's ass with rape on its mind.

For me there is only one mystery in all the cosmos and that is LIFE. We barely have a new planet 4.5 bya and before you know it, there it is. If there's an elusive force in the universe than for me life is it. My guess is that life is everywhere, in forms we can't begin to imagine yet or be able to recognize even if it was right in front of us. Life's not paranormal, it's a legitimate process in this universe. Personally I would rank DNA as the greatest marvel in the cosmos. What it can do is absolutely astounding and still, there may be something even more fantastic awaiting discovery. That's about as weird as I can get although detractors may think otherwise.
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