Does the immensity of the universe make you feel that humanity is insignificant?

Yes, I am just a little speck of dust in that that has been and all that will ever be in this great big universe of ours.

When I think about it, sometimes.

But then all life has its own personal sigificance.

no.

No, because it goes both ways; the macro and the micro. I actually find it quite comforting.

Dang right it does!

We are so insignificant, it's just too hard for the "average" human being to fathom. Just look at the self importance we give ourselves; Political correctness is a good example or save all lives at all cost (human lives that is - with no regard to any other creature on this planet). Has anyone here been given the key to the Universe? How is it that we, as living organisms, have a more of a right to life than any other organism? With our piddly minds, thinking that we know it all? Pftt!

To coin a phrase; The more we learn, the more ignorant we become.
Gad! I'm so dumb and insignificant!

Funny thing is that I like it that way and I'm convinced that the day I die, I will know EVERYTHING! Don't get me wrong - don't believe that I will know it all by retaining my human life's identity in the afterlife (what ever that is...) but my experience here will join the melting pot of all experience lived by all organisms from all of the universe.

My only real question is; "What is beyond the Universe?" ...I guess I'll have to wait and see.

sometimes, yes

Yes! To the same degree that ants are insignificant to the rest of life on earth. We count but we are not "all that". Our importance will grow as we grow. To really impact the universe we have a lot of learning to go. Only through knowledge do we balance our physical limitations with nature. We have learned more than once we are not the center of the universe.

Ah..I was just thinking about this yesterday. I actually felt it made humanity more curious and "special" for lack of a better word. In an infinite universe, why are we here???

Oddly enough, no. I believe the immense universe is also mostly empty and generally hostile to life. So, we're pretty special in that respect.

In the overall scheme of things, maybe. To me, of course not.

Actually, ants are pretty important.

No.
It makes me feel part of the universe.

Yay!

Yes, as we are important.

Yes, and we are

It's all about balance

*hugs*
I don't think I could have said it any better

No

yes and no

We're part of the immensity. Transcend and include, transcend and include.

I wonder at times if earth is the only planet with human life? and on this planet I do not see life being respected look at stem cell research and cloning and abortion it is so sad! all this talk about aliens I say no.

To me, stem cell research *is* about respecting life.

Yes, because we are. On the universal scale, humanity is very much insignificant. The best thing to do, is to try and not think about it.

(from "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams

The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses. To explain --- since every piece of matter in the Universe is in some way affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation --- every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake.
The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife.
Trin Tragula --- for that was his name --- was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.
And she would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space, or mulling over the mechanics of safety pins, or doing spectrographic analyses of pieces of fairy cake.
``Have some sense of proportion!'' she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day.
And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex --- just to show her.
And into one end he plugged the whole of reality as extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, and into the other end he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it.
To Trin Tragula's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.)

The universe may be immense, but human progression and the possibilities we have and everything about us is much more immense then the universe is or ever will be.

Not the be too direct here, but what the hell does that mean?

Yes!

that the universe is immense, but since we're imperfect and not immense we can only keep growing and get better, because we will never be perfect, so we can only keep improving?

I think.

Yes, in a universal sense. In a local sense, no.

If we never meet; we will surely melt together!

Definitely not

Yes, all the time.