Personally, I doubt we’ll ever know in this life.
I doubt we’ll know in this life just how big the universe is. Physicists might be able to posit a certain size due to mathematical calculations of necessary amounts of matter and energy required to do this or that, but they couldn’t know about anything too many light years away for any view of it to be seen yet, and they most certainly couldn’t know anything about an entirely different construct similar (or perhaps not similar) to the one we know about, that’s a trillion light years farther on.
If, as some physicists say, there are other dimensions, do we count them too? Can we really ever know anything about them other than what physicists come up with to explain a limited number of observed things or things believed “necessary” to make the equations work out?
And most definitely we can’t know the mind of God. We would be God if we did.
So, we’re pretty much at sea with the question, and necessarily so. As one previous poster said, however, inasmuch as all of creation is created out of God’s benevolence, about all we can do is accept that the vastness of the universe is somehow benevolent.
But benevolent to whom, and in what way? About all we can do is speculate about that, without being at all sure we’re right in that speculation.
Christians believe in angels because their existence is in scripture and for other reasons. We know a little bit about them, but not very much. We do know they are magnificent creatures and well beyond us in that. We know they are not obliged to follow some of the rules we must follow when it comes to space, the limitations of matter, and perhaps even those of time.
Those who are not believers snicker at the notion of angels while accepting the idea that there might be some other kind of natural being far superior to us. But if you accept the idea of the incredibly intelligent and magnificent being from a distant galaxy, you really can’t deny the possibility of angels.
It’s possible, certainly, that the vastness of universe is not directed at us at all, except tangentially by a God that knew we would someday view some of it and be awe-struck by it. The universe may be so vast (and perhaps far more vast than we even suspect) for the benefit of other creatures entirely.
We are told in scripture that no man could see the face of God and live. We can guess at why that is, but it isn’t too hard to picture it in terms of an attempt of a finite mind to grasp infinity. Our arterial intergrity might fail at being suddenly infused with the most basic trillion equations in God’s mind. Our hearts might rupture at the sudden infusion of a miniscule portion of God’s love or the sight of the very outermost portal of His Being.
And what of angels, then? It has been said that if we were confronted by an angel in its true nature we would be absolutely convinced that it was God, so great is its magnificence. So what are they? Well, they’re spirits, Christians believe, which puts them beyond human science. What do they do? Well, as incorporeal beings, perhaps they are “ideas” in the mind of God; “ideas” that He gave consciousness.
Might one angel, then, be the principles that govern the performance of energy? Might those principles be a segment of the mind of God to which God has given consciousness?
Christians are told angels perform functions in the conduct of the universe, but we don’t know how it all works. Possibly we’re not capable of knowing.
So, in considering the question why the universe is so vast, I guess I would come down on the side of those who say 1) that we don’t really know, and (more precariously) 2) that the vastness might not fundamentally be for us at all.
Only God could do that.
