Sunday, September 25, 2011

Putting Things in Perspective

     If you have been following my blogs so far you know that my posts usually consists of thought provoking topics that invite or challenge you to consider ideas you may not have before. In keeping with this theme I would like to bring up the concept of infinity, both within and without.

      Most people are familiar with the idea that the universe goes on forever. But have you also considered the opposite side of this concept--the infinite within.  Think of the smallest thing you can imagine--an atom. But as you know an atom is composed of even smaller parts--electrons, protons, and neutrons. And these parts are composed of even smaller parts still, ad infinitum.

     And so here we stand, somewhere in the middle of an infinitely expanding universe made up of infinitely smaller parts. Just think about that for a minute....Of course it is like asking an ant to solve a calculus equation, it does not have the necessary mental faculties to do so. Likewise, we are missing the faculties necessary to comprehend this concept of an infinitely small and infinitely large universe. We can only think in terms of a beginning and an end. However, what we can do to benefit from this concept is put our lives in perspective. Sometimes we can think too highly of ourselves and we would do well to consider we are only but a speck of matter in an infinite universe. Conversely, if we think too low of ourselves, we can be encouraged by realizing that no matter how insignificant we feel, the universe could not be the universe it is without us.

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