Insignificance

The Universe is very big, maybe even infinite. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has over 100 billion stars. The observable Universe has about 100 billion galaxies. So, there are billions of billions of stars in the observable Universe, the number is just huge and I don't want to put here a number with over 20 zeros.

It is estimated that our galaxy has billions of planets. We have identified hundreds of extrasolar planets until now but that number is rapidly increasing as new planets are constantly discovered.

If the Sun was a 10 cm ball (in diameter), the Earth would be 10 m away from it and it would be 1 mm (in diameter). These are rough estimates, of course, but it shows us more realistically the size/distance ratios. I don't know about you, but when I made the calculations, they boggled my mind.

Our brains are not adequate to understand such things, evolution did not equip us for this, it did not have any survival benefits.

You can compare the Earth with a speck of dust. Of course, we (humans) are much smaller and more insignificant than that. It's pretty funny that humans have thought for most of history that the Universe was "created" for us. We are so small and yet we think we are so important.

Most of the Universe is uninhabited by life, because it is mostly unfit for it, so it is strange that many people believe that the Universe is "created" for life.

An atom is 99.9999999999999% empty space. The nucleus of the atom is like a fly on a stadium and the electrons are like tiny gnats circling the stadium. This means that anything composed of atoms is 99.9999999999999% empty space. This is a nice trick that reality plays on us, as everything seems so solid. A brick wall doesn't seem so empty when you crash into it, does it?

If the Earth disappeared, the Universe would carry on as if nothing happened. Energy can't be created or destroyed, so the Universe will follow its path, no matter what we do. It doesn't matter if we destroy ourselves or even if we destroy all other life on this planet.

If humans were more important than any other life form, they would not be killed by viruses. Nature does not discriminate because discrimination does not really exist, we are all life forms and it's the same if atoms are used to build a human or a dog or mosquitoes or even soil. You are not more important than a mosquito. The mosquito you are killing is you, now you are here, now you are not. It's just life fighting life, there is no you.

You should see this video:
Pale Blue Dot