What Is Man’s Place in the Universe?
What Is Man’s Place in the Universe?
“What are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” David asked God this question 3,000 years ago. Since then, man has learned more and more about his place in the universe, and we have learned more about just how small we really are.
Are we as insignificant as we seem? Is the Creator to whom David spoke real? Does He care for us? If so, why?
Utter Insignificance
Five hundred years ago, the Catholic Church was teaching that everything revolved around Earth. In 1610, Galileo Galilei proved it did not. The same year, he also showed that the Milky Way was not simply a fuzzy cloud, but a vast group of stars.
For the next 300 years, mankind believed the Milky Way was the universe. In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble proved that there are galaxies outside the Milky Way. We now know that our galaxy is just one of hundreds of billions.
Harlow Shapley, one of Hubble’s main rivals, spent years ridiculing the idea there could be “island universes,” as he called these other galaxies. When Hubble proved him wrong in a letter laying out the evidence for multiple galaxies, Shapley immediately grasped the magnitude of this new truth. He called it “the letter that destroyed my universe.”
Now we know the universe does not revolve around us. Instead, we live on a speck of dust, orbiting a speck of light, one of 200 billion similar specks in a galaxy that is just another speck in the cosmos.
“If there is some special grandeur in our position in space and time, I fail to find it,” wrote Shapley. He described man’s “material inconsequentiality,” stating that he is not remarkable or superior “in his location in space, or in his times, not in his energy content or chemical composition.”
Yet in another sense, the more we study, the more we realize how special and unique our spot in the universe is.
Consider: Earth travels a perfect orbit the perfect distance from the sun and the perfect distance from the moon, within a magnetic field that protects human life from dangerous radiation, and its atmosphere and surface contain the right chemicals we need to sustain life. Our neighboring giant planets are perfectly positioned to trap asteroids in their gravity. Our sun is the perfect type of star, producing the right amount of ultraviolet light. We’re safely distant from other stars that could disrupt our stable orbit. We’re in the perfect type of galaxy and the perfect part of that galaxy—far enough away from the deadly radiation of its crowded center. And tiny though we may be, standing on the surface of this planet in this solar system in this arm of this galaxy happens to be the perfect place for us to observe the rest of the universe.
Now the latest discoveries reveal yet another mind-boggling truth. The position of the Milky Way galaxy, the vast structures it is part of, stretching billions of light-years across, all appear to be designed with man in mind.
The universe doesn’t revolve around man. But are we central to its shape and structure?
Galactic Organization
Once proved wrong, Shapley embraced Hubble’s view of the universe and became a pioneer in studying this newly expanded cosmos. It has taken decades but this study is proving a startling truth: The universe is far too well organized to be the product of random chance.
One of the first big breakthroughs of this field came in the 1950s. Scientists discovered that the Milky Way is part of a larger structure, the Virgo Supercluster. Shapley called these “metagalaxies.”
In 2014, a group of scientists made headlines suggesting that this supercluster is actually an appendage of a greater concentration of galaxies. They found that there are 100,000 galaxies that all flow together, drawn by their gravitational pull. They proposed calling the overall structure “Laniakea,” Hawaiian for “immeasurable heaven.”
Last year, a new study suggested that even Laniakea is part of a yet-larger construction, a “basin of attraction” that some call the Shapley Concentration. So Laniakea, vast as it is, is not so much a river flowing all the way to the sea but a tributary of a much larger system.
“This discovery presents a challenge: Our cosmic surveys may not yet be large enough to map the full extent of these immense basins,” said Ehsan Kourkchi of the University of Hawaii. “We are still gazing through giant eyes, but even these eyes may not be big enough to capture the full picture of our universe.”
“Our universe is like a giant web, with galaxies lying along filaments and clustering at nodes where gravitational forces pull them together,” said University of Hawaii’s R. Brent Tully. “Just as water flows within watersheds, galaxies flow within cosmic basins of attraction. The discovery of these larger basins could fundamentally change our understanding of cosmic structure.”
Big Bang?
Even the Shapley Concentration is “small” compared to the largest large-scale structure in the cosmos (that we know about). A year before Laniakea was discovered, astronomers found the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall. This wall of galaxies stretches one 10th of the way across the entire observable universe. At 10 billion light-years across, the Great Wall is impossibly big—literally. Why? It is too large for the standard theory of the big bang to be true.
Cosmologists basically assume that after the big bang occurred, random fluctuations followed, and these formed clusters of galaxies. If that is true, then on a large enough scale, the universe would have a uniform distribution of galaxy clusters: Everywhere you look, it should look the same. When tossing a coin, you wouldn’t be surprised to get three or four heads in a row. But do it 1,000 times and you’d expect the distribution of heads and tails to be pretty uniform. Finding this Great Wall is like getting 100 heads in a row: It is a scientific fact that something other than random chance created it.
The second impossibility is its age. According to current theories, we are seeing what the Great Wall looked like when the universe was only 3.8 billion years old. The big-bang model keeps changing to try to fit new evidence to the contrary, but even the currently accepted model states that it is impossible for anything that big to form in such a “short” amount of time. Istvan Horvath, one of the scientists who discovered it, said he had “no idea” how it could have evolved.
Theories built on the big-bang assumption have been adjusted since, but they still struggle to account for order and structure on this scale.
Our understanding of the structure of the universe might be about to expand.
Euclid’s First Data Dump
On July 1, 2023, the European Space Agency (esa) launched Euclid. Like the James Webb Space Telescope, it orbits a spot around 1 million miles from Earth. Like Webb, it produces astonishing images. But unlike Webb, its main purpose is to give an overview of the universe, not to zoom in deep.
On March 19, the esa released its first large data dump. It includes three “deep fields”—a deep look at three relatively small areas of sky that were found to contain 26 million galaxies and counting. Euclid will study these regions 30 to 50 more times to capture as many details as possible. In addition, the esa published a more detailed survey of 380,000 galaxies.
Euclid aims to comprehensively map out where “stuff” is in the universe. It looks for galaxies whose shape has been distorted. The galaxies themselves weren’t distorted, but the light from them has been bent by the gravity of massive structures as it traveled toward us. Some of those structures we can see—galaxies or neutron stars, for example. But by mapping and analyzing thousands of pictures of distorted objects, Euclid aims to create a map of the unseen, dark matter of the universe.
As scientists study these dizzyingly huge structures, they are revealing a startling truth: Our galaxy’s position in the structure of the wider universe is perfectly suited for life.
Safe From Galaxy Killers
The Milky Way is in a relatively thinly spread area of the Laniakea Supercluster. That supercluster is the only one that scientists have spotted so far to have arms and filaments. Most are spheres or ellipsoids. Ours looks more like a stick insect.
Why does shape at this scale matter? The universe has gargantuan structures—and also gargantuan threats. The arms of Laniakea keep these threats at arm’s length. This means our galaxy is relatively undisturbed by the potent gravitational forces exerted by large clumps of galaxies. It also keeps us away from supermassive black holes, which have masses a million times greater than our sun’s. Those are at the heart of most larger galaxies.
No light can escape from a black hole. And they suck in matter at unimaginable speeds. They rotate similarly rapidly. As matter is sucked into a black hole, it accelerates to a significant fraction of the speed of light and collides with other matter moving at similar speeds. The result is that it shines with a deadly brightness.
Some galaxies contain black holes 1 billion times more massive than the sun. These have been designated super-supermassive black holes—and they are galaxy killers.
One of the largest black holes in our neighborhood is at the heart of Galaxy M87, over 50 million light-years away. It outputs so much radiation that, according to Dr. Hugh Ross in his book Designed to the Core, not only is M87 uninhabitable, but nearby galaxies are likely sterilized as well. A single particle detected on Earth believed to have been sent our way by that black hole had the same kinetic energy as a baseball traveling at 60 miles an hour. That is 30 million times the maximum energy given to particles at cern’s Large Hadron Collider.
It takes a huge amount of matter—likely millions of stars—to form monsters of this size. Laniakea’s spindly structure helps spread galaxies out, preventing the formation of many of these super-supermassive black holes. And the ones that have formed are spread out and farther from us.
These super-supermassive black holes also shoot out jets of radiation carrying much more energy and are capable of destroying life at a far greater range. M87’s jet is so powerful it causes stars to explode. The structure of Laniakea makes it much less likely that the barrel of one of these galactic guns is pointing at us.
Of the few super-supermassive black holes around us, an unusual number are dormant. There is nothing nearby to fall into them at stupendous speed, and no deadly radiation.
“The Laniakea’s neighborhood of superclusters indeed manifest extraordinary characteristics, all of them advantageous for the possible existence of life somewhere within,” writes Ross. “Astronomers see no other configuration of superclusters remotely like it.” Later he notes, “Given the vastness of the universe, it may seem strange that a conceivably safe time and place for advanced life would be so incredibly rare, but it appears to be so.”
A galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars and planets. Now we are talking about structures with thousands or even millions of components, so vast it takes light billions of years to cross. Could these structures really have been designed with puny little man in mind?
The Design Revealed
Every year scientists are discovering more proof that this universe is the work of a Designer—that He tailored Earth, the solar system, cosmos and the very laws of physics for man’s benefit. But all these studies can never reveal why He did that.
Having proved there is a Creator, the next step in the search for truth is to find His message. You can prove that this message is contained in the Holy Bible. (Request our free booklet The Proof of the Bible.)
In this inspired book, God gives us an even more astonishing truth than anything scientists have uncovered so far. The night sky, with all its stars, galaxies, superclusters and basins of attraction, is there for man.
Hebrews 2:8 answers David’s question: “What are mere mortals that you should think about them?” It states that God has put “all things in subjection” under man. The Moffatt Bible translates “all things” as “the universe.” Verse 8 goes on to say that God “left nothing that is not put under him.”
“In other words, for those willing to believe what God says, He says that He has decreed the entire universe—with all its galaxies, its countless suns and planets—everything—will be put under man’s subjection,” Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in The Incredible Human Potential. Of course, as the verse goes on to say, the Creator has “not yet” put the endless universe under us—but He will.
Our entire, vast, stellar neighborhood is not simply designed with man in mind. It is designed for man to rule!
Hebrews 2:8 is not an isolated scripture. Several scriptures plainly reveal that God’s plan for mankind includes the whole universe. That cosmic web, if that is indeed the true structure of the universe, is our inheritance.
The Apostle Paul describes the entire universe as an expectant mother in labor (Romans 8). The fate of the whole universe is tied to man. “For the creation” or the universe “waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (verse 19; Revised Standard Version).
“This passage indicates precisely what all astronomers and scientific evidence indicate—the suns are as balls of fire, giving out light and heat; but the planets, except for this Earth, are in a state of death, decay and futility—but not forever—waiting until converted humans are born the children of God; born into the very divine Family of God, forming the Kingdom of God,” wrote Mr. Armstrong.
How could mankind even begin to affect all that is out there? What could a human being do to control the awesome power of the black hole at the heart of M87?
Verses like this point to a truth so stupendous that, though it is revealed in verse after verse, most Christians cannot accept it. When the Bible talks about “sons of God,” it is not merely a nice metaphor, a statement that God’s Church is similar to a family, or an allusion to the fact that God created us all. It is a literal truth. God is offering mankind the opportunity to be born as God beings into His eternal Family. Verse 15 states that we “have received the spirit of sonship” so we can cry “Abba! Father!” (rsv). Paul says we can use the term little Hebrew boys use for their dad.
This truth was too spectacular for the translators of the King James Version. They changed “sonship” to “adoption”—but that is not what it says. There is coming a time when men will be born again into God’s Family, and God “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body …” (Philippians 3:21), and “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
No wonder the Apostle Paul wrote, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
The enormous scale of the universe helps bring to life the magnitude of the Christian calling. Isaiah 51:16 says God intends to “plant the heavens,” filling the universe with life.
Transforming planets so that they can support life is mind-boggling enough. But planting life in many parts of the heavens will involve so much more than that. God wants multiple billions of God beings who can tame the power of super-supermassive black holes, rearrange superclusters, and restructure walls of galaxies—ending the decay out there and filling the universe with life, order and beauty.
This vision puts your life, all the world’s confusion and suffering, the entire human creation, into a dazzling context. The great God who created all this is preparing man for this inheritance!
No wonder God demands that His sons, soon to be born again, are tried and tested and that we submit ourselves completely to His authority and His law. He is offering us the power of a billion suns! It takes a lifetime of overcoming to qualify for such a spectacular reward—but God makes available all the help we need.
To overcome and endure to the end, we need to see what it’s all for. It’s no coincidence that as world events get darker, God gives us a brighter and brighter view of our universal future. Will Euclid give us an even greater picture of what is ahead for us as that data is analyzed and more is published?
“[W]e need our universe dream,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in our February 2004 issue. “We need to see the stupendous possibility and the eternal majesty. … Nothing can stimulate our imagination like comprehending our universe potential! Nothing.”
“Scientists dare to introduce new theories about the universe,” Mr. Flurry concluded. “But we dare much more. We dare to believe our Creator no matter what. And then God gives us the faith we need to fulfill our incredible human potential.”
