I was being particularly nerdy the other day and looking at Space.com and its "Top 10" lists--including everything from "The Top 10 Best Songs About Space" to "Top 10 Alien Abduction Movies Of All Time!"...
One list I looked at was called the "Top 10 Space Science Photos" and they were pretty cool. One photo...the #1 photo, was the Voyager 1 photograph of earth from a billion miles away.
The photograph was called "Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan. He used it as a metaphor for how insignificant or planet is…and how insignificant humans are in relationship to the universe. I guess that's one way to look at it...
I look at that tiny pixel that is the earth, floating in a lake of blackness, and I think one of two things:
1) There is NO WAY that God only created one world in all that immensity of space. There must be more.
2) Our planet is a raft set adrift in space. We’re all we’ve got.
Either way, I don’t think the “pale blue dot” means that we’re insignificant. On the contrary, I think it means we…and our planet…are extremely significant.
7 years ago
2 comments:
I sometimes wonder if in this world of billions of people is each individual really important? What is one person more or less? I know what our religion says,I understand it, but it doesn't always feel true. I know we matter to the people we know, but sometimes it feels like all there is around us is impenetrable blackness.
Have you ever read the book Pale Blue Dot? It is, of course, inspired by that photo. It's one of the absolute best books I've ever read... I love Carl Sagan. Contact is also a great read.
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