I'd like to show this to some people.

woahification · 5 months

Ragnalypse · 5 months

"Significant" is a human concept. The universe doesn't give a shit if it's significant.

Since significant is anthropocentric to begin with, it's logical to say that we are significant.

VWftw · 5 months

I disagree with insignificant because all of that vast infinite space isn't people. We are all of a very limited edition and our place in this cosmos is up to us to decide. If the universe is completely indifferent to you then you are free to intrinsically define meaning.

blazingscience · 5 months

I just want to say something.

Significance is a subjective trait. It requires a conscious mind to be meaningful. Stars and galaxies are inanimate objects. To them, nothing is significant because they don't have the capacity of thought.

To you random people reading this, I'm insignificant. If you saw me, I'd be another face in a crowd. To my brother, I'm one of the most significant things in the universe and vice versa.

If you're going to say something is insignificant, I feel compelled to ask, "Insignificant to whom?"

Humanity is significant to me, because I'm a human. It's not significant to some race of beings living on the other side of the universe, but I don't really give a damn what they think. Those beings are insignificant to me.

hayashirice911 · 5 months

"...These ingredients (nitrogen,oxygen etc.) become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems. Stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So then when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe; we are in this universe. But perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact I look up. Many people feel small because they're small and the universe is big, but I feel big because my atoms came from those stars." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

Link

keberos · 5 months

I want something like this in Facebook cover image dimensions. Yes, I'm quite aware I'm being lazy. I'll see if I can pull it off later, but my image-fu is weak lately.

Jollyranchr · 5 months

Although some people find this to be quite depressing, it's actually kinda nice to know that all your problems really mean nothing in the vast scheme of things.

JeremyKean · 5 months

Oooh, so size matters? Not the fact that we are alive or thinking?

Ok, yeah. Fuck us. Our sun doesn't think, I mean, it's just a ball of hydrogen and helium. But it's bigger than us.

How about our brains? I mean, they're so stupid and tiny! Pssssh. Who cares that it's taken a few billion years to fine-tune them to be as shitty and sophisticated as they are, today. They may seem cool. But compare them to The Pillars Of Creation and maybe you wouldn't be so impressed.

I bet that VY Canis Majoris and his big star friends have developed hundreds of languages by now... Oh, they haven't? Whatever, Canis still has a radius of 3 billion km.

This post doesn't really deserve a diatribe. But I get kind of frustrated when people always seem to insist that humans are no big deal because we're half a spec on the ass of a spec, orbiting a spec, among trillions of specs.

I say fuck that. Life is significant to other life. We are a pretty big fucking deal, no matter how large we are in size.

oftenalone · 5 months

You are 1 human being.

Composed of 78 organs.

Composed of around 100 TRILLION cells.

Composed of around 7 OCTILLION atoms.

Composed of....mostly empty space... never mind

mycroftxxx42 · 5 months

My heart is an engine that runs on dead stars.

eltycreative · 5 months

I hate this solely because of the kerning.

gsrt · 5 months

I'll leave this here, as I think it's both related and beyond awesome. His Noodliness knows how many hours I've spent starting from the quantum fabric, scrolling ever-so-gently until I reach the other end. Think I even teared up the first time.

PivotalPlatypus · 5 months

Relevant.

auandi · 5 months

This doesn't treat the universe in a relativistic way though. Yes hundreds of billions of other star systems exist in this galaxy and hundreds of billions of galaxies exist, but given the relativistic limitations on travel for all real purposes most of it might as well be theoretical since we will never reach them. So from our perspective, our "universe" is not the whole of the universe, so why compare ourselves to it?

We are such a freak occurrence, the number of things that have to go right to get self perpetuating chemical compounds complex enough to understand what a self perpetuating chemical compound is boggles the mind. I would propose this uniqueness, not in the face of the whole of creation, but within the realm of our localized area of creation, makes us utterly and fantastically significant.

We shouldn't diminish the fantastic nature of our self awareness by comparing ourselves to a quadrillion fusion explosions millions or billions of light years away traveling away from us at high multiples of c. Many of these are so far away it is possible light itself could not reach them between now and a hypothetical end to the universe.

I just don't see the point of diminishing what is by all objective measures a crazy, unlikely series of events that is unique in that it allows us the self awareness to marvel, analyze and dream about the majesty of our own unlikely existence. Marvel at the vastness of space, but do not try to use it to diminish what we are, we are unique, we are significant, the fact that we can analyze significance at all ensures it.

rdwj · 5 months

oh, this again. How long until someone posts the "enormously significant" one?

MrTurtleSlap · 5 months

This is a lame way to look at it though. I like to think the world is my world because once I die, the world is over. At least for me it is. So I am actually extremely significant to myself. This post to me just seems like you're trying to cut down on someone feeling good about themselves, which is cool and all I guess....

Unending · 5 months

This makes me feel nothing, other than enormously significant. It is an amazing fact that we exist in this universe. That alone is astonishing. To be human is of great significance. We have so much information, and yet so much more to learn from the universe around us. To exist at the current peek of civilization, culture, technology, and science is truly significant. We as a species are significant. And, as a unique individual among billions, you are significant. I suggest you re-evaluate your stance on life.

OneofthemBrians · 5 months

Someone needs to watch Neil deGrasse Tyson's- The most astounding fact.

DangerousIdeas · 5 months

Wasn't it NGT who said he feels empowered knowing that his particles used to be shared by the cosmos?

simpletonlol · 5 months

Where is the other half of this pic? OP mutilated a good picture. Props to anyone who can find the full one.

Bladelink · 5 months

Thanks for the new desktop background bro.

SimilarImage · 5 months

Age	User	Title	Reddit	Cmnt	Points
6 months	zynna	Just a reminder that... [Fixed]	here	129	649
6 months	TheFleetFox	Just a friendly reminder that...	here	114	328
9 months	rkirshenbaum851	You don't need a demotivational poster to be demotivational...	/r/pics	64	159

See 6 more matches at KarmaDecay

This is an automated response

FAQ | Send Feedback | Report Error

Joe_The_Atheist · 5 months

Even though it's been years, I still forget that we only have 8 planets. RIP Pluto.

sj070707 · 5 months

DAE find this thought inspirational? Great design, btw.

mtldude1967 · 5 months

"Matter flows from place to place, and momentarily comes together to become you." - Richard Dawkins

I find that pretty significant.

Strudol · 5 months

um dont mean to be a douche bag. but there are actually 200 billion stars in our galaxy. and they believe most of them have planets. just pointing that out

dem_aqplez · 5 months

I tried to follow it like a path and got lost and out of sequence

bitterweasel · 5 months

I really dislike this way of thinking, it depresses me. Interesting post though.

IllGiveYouAnUpvote · 5 months

I honestly find this quite demotivational.

NorMel1 · 5 months

This makes me think of my favorite saying: Just remember that you are unique, just like everybody else.

ShockedSystem · 5 months

Whelp, time to go kill myself.

SuddenDeth · 5 months

Insignificant ... relevant to what?

Zideburnz · 5 months

What is this trying to prove? What does this have to do with atheism? I have NEVER understood the whole "THE UNIVERSE IS REALLY BIG, JUST THINK ABOUT THAT." argument that people like to make here.

It's just posting about space, using the word science a lot, and whoring for karma.

Manickel · 5 months

I've always felt that this is a somewhat ineffective and pessimistic way to view an individual. I mean, does size, disbursement, and population really determine significance? I get that it's supposed to be humbling; we certainly aren't the center of all the goings on in the universe and we shouldn't view the world in a self-centered manner. Still, I don't think we should view ourselves or others as insignificant.

I2ichmond · 5 months

There's an important phrase in eastern philosophy: "as above, so below." The little picture is important to the big picture, so your life is very significant in a way that has nothing to do with religion.

pcnerd37 · 5 months

I'd almost like to show this to some people I know just to piss off the self esteem movement people.

[deleted] · 5 months

Think of it this way. If a sailing ship is off by even the most minute amount, the consequences are exponential and the captain could end up miles away from his/her destination. Its the same way with the universe. I just hope to make that small change that just might set the course of the universe's history over the infinite years that it exists.

dontgogreen · 5 months

i get that we are just very small people in a huge universe but i dont feel that any person is insignificant

AdrianBrony · 5 months

wasn't there a version of this that was the inverse?

kingseed · 5 months

Depressing but true.

Not only are you a momentary blip in the grand scheme of things but so is every human collectively.

I think this is just a tough pill to swallow for most religious people.

CunningTF · 5 months

It's not a particularly good argument against god/religion. If I was religious I could post the exact same poster, and just tag a line onto the bottom that said something like : "And only one planet has any life", and to the best of our knowledge, it would be true. Not that I don't think that there's life elsewhere in the universe, but until you prove its existence, it sits in the same state of null as God if you ask me.

thehitchrestinpeace · 5 months

I thought of three while the page was loading...

BetterThanOP · 5 months

this is so relieving

CaptainAsshat · 5 months

Hmmm, I think I'll eat a whole cake.

FajitaofTreason · 5 months

In case you were interested in a Higher Resolution

Edit: apparently coolplate found it before me.

evilcanuck · 5 months

I liked Pluto

teamgonuts · 5 months

I remember when it was 9 planets ='(

ShutupBiz · 5 months

this is why i have this tattoo

Asplundh · 5 months

I'm insignificant as fuck, but I matter a lot to myself.

aweeleprechan · 5 months

I like to remind my self of this with my ringtone.

A_wizard_actually · 5 months

gee thanks go ahead ruin my day!

Iannic · 5 months

Ahem...nine planets...forever.

identity_free · 5 months

This is now my desktop wallpaper. Tyvm :)

robson0 · 5 months

Excuse me while I go hang myself.

Pigtroll · 5 months

"But I'm too pretentious to accept that the world doesn't revolve around me" -Every religion ever

somebodee · 5 months

And give them existential depression? No thanks, I'm already unable to sleep thanks to my fear of the pure size of existence

thatgamerguy · 5 months

It's shit like this, not making fun of Christians, that makes people hate Atheism. It's the fact that most people think that atheism does indeed lead one to being insignificant and worthless that makes them hate us. It's why they fear our beliefs.

But we aren't insignificant at all. Each and every one of us is significant to someone. Significance is a term created by us, and applies to things we find significant. Since each of us is found significant by someone, we're all significant :)

Bahamy · 5 months

On a side note, not sure if anyone linked this. Neil Degrasee Tyson explains how I feel about this.

gaspah · 5 months

This is dumb. because you don't mention the fact we only have EVIDENCE of life on ONE of those planets/stars etc

SubtleMockery · 5 months

Significance, like many other things, is relative. I'm plenty significant to me, and those close to me.

idonotcollectstamps · 5 months

Not only is our scale of size insignificant, our scale of time is as well. If we are extremely lucky we get MAYBE 122 orbits around the Sun out of the possible estimated 2.5 Billion or so that have happened since oxygen was first manufactured on Earth in the Proterozoic era.

It is believed that the Sun has enough fuel to burn for another 5 Billion or so life sustaining years that you could also ride around on the Earth orbiting the Sun playing Skyrim games, fapping and surfing Reddit. I believe the oldest recorded human lifespan was 122 years. So that is the most you are probably going to get and the current world average is 67.2 years.

Hello anyone in the future or in the multiverse/alternate time line/alternate dimension who is receiving this signal! Please res me after I wipe. Thank you for your time.

Trugger · 5 months

9 planets what they did to pluto is unforgivable

deadcow5283 · 5 months

I think significance is a relative term. An ant is relatively insignificant to us but that doesn't mean it cares how we feel about it and its role in the universe. So why should we care what the rest of the universe think of us? I'm significant to my family and friends as they are to me, and that is all that matters to me.

cosmic_charlie99 · 5 months

LIES!!! ALL LIES! I refuse to accept that Pluto is no longer a planet!!! there are 9 Planets.

Ceigee · 5 months

I Do believe there's another part to this. I recall seeing this image a while back. I will try to paraphrase as much as I can.

What you got is the first part which is supposed to be what you are to god.

To science, out of one hundred billion galaxies, out of one hundred billion star systems, inside a planet among eight others, with 7 billion people, you have a unique genetic make up. To science, you are enormously significant.

bhig3 · 5 months

Insignificant to whom?

TrimHopp · 5 months

8 planets? Really?

Le sigh.

FriendlyCommie · 5 months

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT_dqETarHQ that is my response

FahmuhA · 5 months

So murder's no big deal, then?


New posts:	New	Rising
Self posts:	New	Relevant
Non-image posts:	New	Relevant


GodlessWomen	YoungAtheists	AtheistParents
BlackAtheism	AtheistGems	DebateAnAtheist
skeptic	agnostic	freethought
antitheism	humanism	Hitchens
a6theism10	tfbd	AdviceAtheists

Events
10/5-6	NAPCON2012 - Boston
08/11	Regional Conference - St. Paul MN

Ex* Groups
ex-Muslim	ex-Catholic	ex-Mormon
ex-JW	ex-Jew	ex-SistersinZion
ex-Bahai	ex-Christian	ex-Adventist

atheism

MODERATORS

you'll need to login or register to do that

create a new account

login