Why must humanity be the center of the universe?

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We barely know much about our own galaxy, I dont think we can honestly say we are the center of the universe…there is no way we can know this until we learn about the rest of the universe.
 
mikekle said:
We barely know much about our own galaxy, I dont think we can honestly say we are the center of the universe…there is no way we can know this until we learn about the rest of the universe.
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Sometimes I think that the best thing that could happen to the human race would be a visit by a technologically superior race of aliens who would look us over and then leave, saying, “Sorry, you’re not worth our time.”
 
mikekle said:
We barely know much about our own galaxy, I dont think we can honestly say we are the center of the universe…there is no way we can know this until we learn about the rest of the universe.
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The likelihood that we will ever know about the rest of the universe is nil. 🤷
 
DaveBj said:
Sometimes I think that the best thing that could happen to the human race would be a visit by a technologically superior race of aliens who would look us over and then leave, saying, “Sorry, you’re not worth our time.”
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Technological superiority does not define moral superiority. A technologically superior species could annihilate us and take over the planet. 🤷

Talk about ethnic cleansing! 😦
 
Charlemagne_III said:
Technological superiority does not define moral superiority. A technologically superior species could annihilate us and take over the planet. 🤷

Talk about ethnic cleansing! 😦
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From Independence Day:

Pres. Whitmore: What do you want us to do?

Alien, in control of body of Dr. Brackish Okun (played by Brent “Data” Spiner): DI-I-I-I-IEEE!

:bigyikes:
 
Michael19682 said:
I guess psychologists are simply awesome, unconventional and “hip”, and exemplify all that is best about the human race in its capacity to set aside our lower beliefs and nature while maintaining their deeply held religious convictions at the same time. It’s why they are above everyone else, and born to lead the world into a new era of understanding.
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You better believe it!
 
meltzerboy said:
True or not, it’s what many of us believe, which justifies our belief that we are the center of life here on earth as well as in the universe.
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History is filled with examples of human beliefs which were later proven to be false. For example, it was believed that phlogiston is what made things burn. Or for a long time doctors believed that it was a good idea to drain considerable quantities of blood from people in an effort to cure any ailment.Another belief that has been discarded is the aether, which was believed to be a substance through which light was transmitted throughout the universe
 
Tomdstone said:
History is filled with examples of human beliefs which were later proven to be false. For example, it was believed that phlogiston is what made things burn. Or for a long time doctors believed that it was a good idea to drain considerable quantities of blood from people in an effort to cure any ailment.Another belief that has been discarded is the aether, which was believed to be a substance through which light was transmitted throughout the universe
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Yes, that is true. However, my point is we may need the belief that we are the center of the earth and the universe because it satisfies our need to be special and different from other creatures and gives meaning and substance to our lives.
 
meltzerboy said:
Yes, that is true. However, my point is we may need the belief that we are the center of the earth and the universe because it satisfies our need to be special and different from other creatures and gives meaning and substance to our lives.
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It also helps us survive. We interpret things as relevant to ourselves because we only have ourselves. Sure we worry about our food supply’s health, but it doesn’t seem to worry about us. Biologically we are very need heavy.
Only now are we beginning to realize that we can’t generate toxic gasses in profusion or else we will choke the planet and ourselves.
If we didn’t interpret things relevant to ourselves, we’d be overrun by the beetles.
Better us singing revivalist praise to God than to a species of insect that in no wise would do other than cause our demise.
 
We are more precious and significant than anything else in the universe because we are the only **known **creatures with the power of reason and the capacity for unselfish love. If we discover persons exist elsewhere we shall share that privilege with them but it won’t affect our value or importance. For the time being at least we should regard ourselves as being at the centre of the universe because the creation and disappearance of galaxies, constellations or planets is of no significance whatsoever if there is no underlying purpose. If nothing exists but matter nothing matters!
 
tonyrey said:
We are more precious and significant than anything else in the universe because we are the only **known **creatures with the power of reason and the capacity for unselfish love. If we discover persons exist elsewhere we shall share that privilege with them but it won’t affect our value or importance. For the time being at least we should regard ourselves as being at the centre of the universe because the creation and disappearance of galaxies, constellations or planets is of no significance whatsoever if there is no underlying purpose. If nothing exists but matter nothing matters!
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It is good to be able to count on you, tonyrey, to put things in perspective – and eloquently!
Enlightening post!👍
 
meltzerboy said:
Yes, that is true. However, my point is we may need the belief that we are the center of the earth and the universe because it satisfies our need to be special and different from other creatures and gives meaning and substance to our lives.
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What happens to the meaning of life if it is found that humanity is not the center of the universe? I don’t think you need this hypothesis to have meaning in your life.
 
Tomdstone said:
What happens to the meaning of life if it is found that humanity is not the center of the universe? I don’t think you need this hypothesis to have meaning in your life.
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Again, human life is **not **the center of the universe.

If “space aliens” are found, even if they command five or ten planets rather than our one; they would not be the center of the universe, either.

God is.

Any human “life meaning” is secondary.

ICXC NIKA.
 
tonyrey said:
Thank you for those kind words, Michael. I’m simply using the ideas of Pascal and other great philosophers. They are a constant source of inspiration…
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On reflexion I should have written:

“Nothing matters if nothing exists but matter!”

It seems clearer and neater. 🙂
 
tonyrey said:
We are more precious and significant than anything else in the universe because we are the only **known **creatures with the power of reason and the capacity for unselfish love. If we discover persons exist elsewhere we shall share that privilege with them but it won’t affect our value or importance. For the time being at least we should regard ourselves as being at the centre of the universe because the creation and disappearance of galaxies, constellations or planets is of no significance whatsoever if there is no underlying purpose. If nothing exists but matter nothing matters!
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If by “creatures” you mean humans, then sorry this statement is false.
Primates have shown the same qualities.
 
robsully said:
If by “creatures” you mean humans, then sorry this statement is false.
Primates have shown the same qualities.
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Would you equate humans and primates? If so, would you say one has primacy over the other? Or are both the same? :confused:
 
808Catholic said:
Would you equate humans and primates? If so, would you say one has primacy over the other? Or are both the same? :confused:
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I am guessing you do not disagree. Why is primacy important? But since you asked, what criteria shall we use? How we treat each other? How we treat other species? How we treat the earth? Beavers may build a dam and we build Hoover dam but, beavers never displaced indigenous people without supplying housing, and disrupted natural habitat of wildlife.
How important are we? Would the world be better off with us or without us?
 
robsully said:
. . . Beavers may build a dam and we build Hoover dam but, beavers never displaced indigenous people without supplying housing, and disrupted natural habitat of wildlife. . . Would the world be better off with us or without us?
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I am engaged in pretty much a one-sided battle (He is clearly winning.) with a beaver on some family property in the country. He is a “Rambo” sort of character who has booby-trapped a section with foot high pointed stakes left from his voracious destruction of small trees. His intent is to trip you up and impale you. Larger trees, he fells crushing and distorting brush and other growth. What he deigns as being unworthy of his limb and bark stripping, he leaves as a tangled mess. Elsewhere, he and his kin have flooded an area that remains as a gravesite of sad grey rotting monuments of a proud forest. I may be anthropomorphizing in my paranoid rancour, but clearly, he has never posed of himself, the question you ask.

BTW - Somebody did an observational study of what beavers would do with a tape recorder issuing sounds of a bubbling brook. Of course, they tried to cover it with twigs, behaving, albeit in different circumstance, not unlike my cats in their kitty-litter box.
 
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