What Difference Does it Make?

When we consider the Universe and our role within it, not to mention our meaning within it...we can begin to feel insignificant. Pre 16th century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, it was widely accepted that Earth was the center of the Universe and Planets revolved around the Earth. Given our egocentric childhoods, this belief seemed comfortable. Just as a small child is completely sure that his universe revolves around him. It would be uncomfortable to believe otherwise. In essence it gives the child importance, without which he may grow depressed and hopeless. Perhaps we never outgrow the fear that we are insignificant and manufacture a reality that allows us to feel significant. Copernicus was fearful of publishing his findings that the Sun was actually the center of the Universe and we revolved around it. His fear was based in the power of the Church of Rome and the universally accepted beliefs that allowed society to feel the security of being the, "center." Copernicus died 24 May 1543 after lapsing into a coma after a stroke. His work, De revolutionibus, was published on the day that he died. History says that his manuscript was laid in his hand on that day and he awoke briefly to see his life's work and he peacefully passed away.

Copernicus may have felt confused about his belief in God, a powerful force in a Roman Catholic society. He may have found it difficult to merge his science and his beliefs in God...we can only imagine. We do know that he was fearless in his search. The following text is from the minds at the University of Colorado:

As scientific instruments have probed farther into the reaches of space and time, and

deeper into sensory realms beyond the puny range of human experience, humanity has

gradually receded from their view. Where our unaided eyes perceive humans as the

center of existence, telescopes and microscopes reveal no special role for their inventors

in the grand scheme of things. So vast is the universe we see with our instruments, and

so small is humankind, we are forced to conclude that the earth could explode

tomorrow and the rest of the universe would hardly take note.

The insignificance of humanity is almost impossible for most humans to accept.

It was bad enough when, in the sixteenth century, Copernicus suggested that the earth

may not be the center of the universe. It became worse when, in the nineteenth

century, Darwin proposed that we are an accidental mammalian species and not some

unique creation of God. And this painful message was only reinforced when, in the

twentieth century, astronomers declared that the sun is but one of ten billion trillion

stars in a universe at least a hundred billion trillion kilometers in extent, and geologists

showed that recorded history is but a blink of time: a microsecond in the second of

earth’s existence.

OK, so given that thought...where is the hope of anything making a difference? I must admit that when I first read this treatise, I felt small and meaningless and found some initial comfort in the fact that all the problems I see are really not that big of a deal...then I felt confused by my insignificance. What difference did I make? The Colorado writer continues:

Ego has shown no signs of changing for thousands of years, while science is

characterized by progress, flexibility, and the continual discarding of old ideas to make

room for new discoveries. Scientists readily admit that their conclusions are tentative.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if science could only finally confirm what our inner voices

have been telling us all along - that we really are immortal personalities with a

meaningful, if not leading role in the cosmos?

A host of recent authors have proclaimed that this revolution in scientific

thought has in fact occurred, that the new physics of the twentieth century has

discovered that human consciousness, not matter, is the fundamental substance of the

universe. This notion has struck a responsive chord. But is that chord being played on

the fine strings of a heavenly harp, or is it simply the stroking of the last bits of straw

grasped at by an ego incapable of accepting reality?

OK, like a small child, am I threatened by the fact that the World does not revolve around me or for that matter even care if I am part of it? Consider this, maybe I am only matter and in that matter I do not matter, but what does that say for others in history that were matter and really mattered?

In early the 1800's a man and woman moved to New York from Ireland...insignificant? Many Irish immigrants made the same trek. The couple had a son in 1823, his name was Matthew Brady. Matthew was perhaps insignificant and could have lived and died in obscurity as most of us do from a societal view. Brady however, took a technology from a Paris artist and chemist, Louis Jacques DaGuerre, the developer of the first practical camera. From this idea, Brady became the man who documented the Civil War with photographs. Prior to this, society took images of life with their mind and their memories were their albums. The images were passed down to generations with words. Our imaginations were the palettes that we documented unseen people and places. War and the brutality of war was described and never seen by most. This fact alone could have made society more eager to commit others to carry out violent actions in distant lands, without first hand exposure to most of society. Brady changed that fact in our Country's brutal battle within our borders. For the first time, pictures were disseminated to the fathers and mothers, family and friends and our political leaders. The carnage of young men's bloated traumatized bodies were for the first time on the front page of newspapers. In essence our society made a decision that has only grown to this day. We now visually know the price to be paid when we commit troops to battle. This fact has increased public awareness of the carnage of war and also the valor found in victory. This also decreased our cultures "heart for war." There is intense public pressure on our leaders as we receive images and reports from our embedded correspondents. Other cultures do not have this aversion to war or the images they produce and that may be the weakness that places us at a disadvantage from a "survival of the fittest," concept. Consider the images of the last helicopter leaving Viet Nam, or the American flag being raised on top of Mount Suribachi in Iwo Jima. These images crystalized who we are and who we are not. Is this significant when viewed from space? No, but to date the view from space is not our reality. Matthew Brady has offered us something that has been so very significant. Consider this when you E-mail that picture of your one year old blowing out his candle. We now save memories photographically and the empower our hope and happiness. Brady also had a chronic problem with his vision since childhood and through his setback he brought not only vision to us, but insight.

Our Colorado scholar finishes:

I ask myself: Do I really want to be one with the universe, so intimately

intertwined with all of existence that my individual existence is meaningless? I find I

much prefer the notion that I am a temporary bit of organized matter. At least I am

my own bit of matter. Every thought and action that results from the remarkable

interactions of my personal bag of atoms belongs to me alone. And so these thoughts

and actions carry far greater value than if they belonged to some cosmic mind that I

cannot even dimly perceive.

The mystical holist trades the real, pulsating life of the outer world for what he

perceives as an inner world of peace. But that peace is the peace of a prison. Science

has always provided the means for breaking us free from the prisons of ignorance and

superstition. I hope to convince you that science has not suddenly reversed its course

and become yet another set of shackles for humanity to carry. On the contrary, science

continues to provide the key that unlocks all of our chains so that our bodies and minds

are free to roam the universe.

I agree in the sense that we are at the least the Captain of our own ship of atoms, but isn't that what Copernicus debated? We are not the center of the Universe, the Sun is...that is "our Universe." There is so much more out there that we can discover and define scientifically, but we still can't grasp it. My young Grandson can tell you that Buzz and Woody live in his room and will be there when he goes inside, but he cannot fathom the structure outside of his house, yard, neighborhood, town, city, country...he would be overwhelmed and in that overwhelmed state, he draws comfort from his little yard and the comfort there. He is in fact very significant at that moment. Ignorance is bliss? No, I think ignorance is essential. If Copernicus could have fully understood what his discoveries would hold, if Brady could have all at once seen the photographs that the future held, would he have continued? We can't know for sure, but we can say they were significant. If these few pioneers felt insignificant would they have even survived. The Universe is vast for sure and it that vastness we can feel lost. We can feel that we created God to give us boundaries and meaning...significance. We could also say that Faith in something unseen is a coping method and ego driven. After all, didn't every theory we now know as truth begin as just that, faith in the unseen. Maybe this belief of faith is what drives our curiosity, tempered with hope. I can only say that at this moment feeling significant doesn't minimize the real problems around be, but qualifies my hope in solutions...or maybe I'm simple ignorant.