Your insignificant self

[Jerry D]

I was writing an article for this thread like this:

Foremost, who thinks that it is worthwhile to protect Mau forest?

There is this scientist who is pushing for the discovery of medication that can cure death...for the time being let's say he is very interested in the discovery of a drug or a combination thereof that can cause an indefinite longevity of life. In his own words, he would be happy if he could live forever.

We know, however, that we can't live forever given the big bang big bounce cycles.

But still we strive to live forever, to see tomorrow...

We also stupidly think that we deserve to live. If you think I'm lying then look at the human right movements, including the right of atheists to believe, to be heard...

...the right to life, freedom of speech, the right to be wrong...

We are so inclined to fight for our rights to the extent that we opt for the others' deaths, sufferings...

The answer to the above questions is that we react or act the way we do because we think that we are very SIGNIFICANT...

But, aren't viruses (e.g. HIV) significant too? If yes, why do we kill them or, if no, why do they constantly mutate to evade our determination of eliminating them?

Anyway, we all know that at, let's say 99% confidence level, any event observed to happen 1% or less of the times is treated as insignificant. The foregoing is best understood as a progression of events.

Given the progression of events, how many *times* does human life happen? Oh well, let's start from the earth's life. The estimate of the age of the universe is 15b years, and that the earth probably originated 4.5b years ago. As the universe recedes back to the singularity, it is foreseeable that the earth will collapse before the matter in the universe collapses back to singularity...so, if we assume that the earth will exist for x billion of years and that the recession velocity equals the progression velocity in magnitude, then the entire universe will be approximately 21 billion years older i.e. the universe will always be 21+x years as old as the year of the earth overall.

The ratio of the years will therefore be x/21+x and assuming x=1, we'll have it as 1/22 which equals 5%.

Which made me re-think...after all, the life of the earth is somewhat significant...but your life is insignificant because it happens approximately 0% of the time of the life of the earth, let alone the life of the universe.

[Sssumu Baridi]

Originally Posted by Jerry D

I was writing an article for this thread like this:


Which made me re-think...after all, the life of the earth is somewhat significant...but your life is insignificant because it happens approximately 0% of the time of the life of the earth, let alone the life of the universe.

personally I don't believe in that crap that the world or universe has been in existence for those million and billion years.
I don't subscribe to the foolish theory of evolution. Before his death Charles Darwin Recanted from his theory, I don't understand why we still hold so much to these awkward theories.

[faraway]

Originally Posted by Sssumu Baridi

personally I don't believe in that crap that the world or universe has been in existence for those million and billion years.
I don't subscribe to the foolish theory of evolution. Before his death Charles Darwin Recanted from his theory, I don't understand why we still hold so much to these awkward theories.

What about carbon dating that proves some fossils are millions of years old?

Radiocarbon dating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[jackofhearts]

Originally Posted by Sssumu Baridi

personally I don't believe in that crap that the world or universe has been in existence for those million and billion years.
I don't subscribe to the foolish theory of evolution. Before his death Charles Darwin Recanted from his theory, I don't understand why we still hold so much to these awkward theories.

Darwin didn't recant, that's somewhat a convenient myth of some young earthers.

What is of note here is the meaning of "significance", the initial poster seems to suggest time of existence alone signifies greater significance. Who decides this? Significance is very subjective; size, duration, species, etc. may factor into one's perception of significance but ultimately it's based on the subjective mind of the individual. I'm pretty sure billion year old rocks aren't discussing amongst themselves if they're more significant than us because of the time they've been around.

For Christians, our significance comes from our belief that our creator made us in his image and desires a relationship with us. For us believers that transcends our relatively short lives and small stature compared to other elements of the universe.

[al-zalzalah]

Originally Posted by Sssumu Baridi

personally I don't believe in that crap that the world or universe has been in existence for those million and billion years.
I don't subscribe to the foolish theory of evolution. Before his death Charles Darwin Recanted from his theory, I don't understand why we still hold so much to these awkward theories.

Interesting. I don't know what you actually believe, but if you're a Christian, I find it amazing that you can believe in eternity, but not in a planet billions of years old. Billions of years doesn't come anywhere close to eternity.

[jackofhearts]

Originally Posted by al-zalzalah

Interesting. I don't know what you actually believe, but if you're a Christian, I find it amazing that you can believe in eternity, but not in a planet billions of years old. Billions of years doesn't come anywhere close to eternity.

For young earth Christians, it has more to do with a particular Biblical interpretation than the concept of a lengthy period of time.

[faraway]

Originally Posted by Sssumu Baridi

personally I don't believe in that crap that the world or universe has been in existence for those million and billion years.
I don't subscribe to the foolish theory of evolution. Before his death Charles Darwin Recanted from his theory, I don't understand why we still hold so much to these awkward theories.

Sssumu, don't forget that God says "my time is not like human's time." Read: GOD’s time line

[Jerry D]

Originally Posted by jackofhearts

What is of note here is the meaning of "significance", the initial poster seems to suggest time of existence alone signifies greater significance. Who decides this?

Who decides this? Presumably, our significance is decided by us; just as the significance of the HIV is decided by *them*...

It is noticeable that the significance of other things, according to us, will be rated according to how our existence depends on them. Oxygen is significant for us, not because it is more important than the Vibrio cholerae,but it seems it draws its superior importance from the many important roles it plays in the providence of our energy requirements.

Originally Posted by jackofhearts

Significance is very subjective; size, duration, species, etc.

Size? Only if it is measured from the point of view of our size Don't you think that, probably, the Higgs Boson (assuming its existence) might be a *thing* trillion plus plus bigger than its components? That is, if for instance there is an intelligent life whose size is bigger than the size of the already observed universe, do you think ITcan microscopically (its microscope might be the size of our milky way galaxy)detect our sun? Don't you think that if it does, it will label our sun as the smallest scalar elementary particleof its existence? For it, you and I can't exist.

Originally Posted by jackofhearts

may factor into one's perception of significance but ultimately it's based on the subjective mind of the individual.

Here, the individual is best redefined as humanity.

I'm pretty sure billion year old rocks aren't discussing amongst themselves if they're more significant than us because of the time they've been around.

The billion of years are relative to the duration of our significance.

Originally Posted by jackofhearts

For Christians, our significance comes from our belief that our creator made us in his image and desires a relationship with us. For us believers that transcends our relatively short lives and small stature compared to other elements of the universe.

I think, as Christians, we tend to think that we are the most important creatures God ever made...we assume that God loved the angels less by not giving them a chance to repent - that if He did, all the angels who rebelled were incapable of repenting and earn forgiveness...something that has a possibility of occurring but never occurred has the zero probability of occurring.

That the other animals on earth including HIV are not significant that much...that it is all about US. It is thus easy to realize that, according to the rationale of structural functionalism theory, we as HUMANITY are just but expressing our unified selfishness...it's all about me me me; where me equals humanity. If it doesn't contribute to me qualitatively, it is not as equally significant.

Originally Posted by al-zalzalah

Interesting. I don't know what you actually believe, but if you're a Christian, I find it amazing that you can believe in eternity, but not in a planet billions of years old. Billions of years doesn't come anywhere close to eternity.

You mean eternity of time? As in infinity of time? Our time, the way we measure duration and progression of events, could only begin when God said, "let there be LIGHT". You know, since we can't have speed faster than the speed of light, there couldn't have been a basis for measuring time before there was light...or photons...but again, photons might just be our bias of over emphasizing our significance.

Originally Posted by faraway

Sssumu, don't forget that God says "my time is not like human's time." Read: GOD’s time line

Why would God express the duration of His creative work in the framework of our literal time? For what intent and purpose? Please explain.

How many other things other than time, in the spiritual books, do we have God having His other way of understanding yet He chose to somehow let us *understand* them according to our frame of reference?