Microbes, Man, and the Cosmos

By Daniel Ray

“We’re quite small,” says Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, science popularizer, astrophysicist, and host of the last two seasons of Cosmos on Fox and National Geographic. Tyson informs us that our smallness renders us “cosmically insignificant. A depressing revelation for some, who would prefer to feel large,” he notes.

The problem is history. Every time we make an argument that we’re special in the cosmos, either that we are in the center or that the whole universe revolves around us, or that we are made of special ingredients, or that we’ve been around since the beginning, we learn the opposite is true. In fact, we occupy a humble corner of the galaxy, which occupies its own humble corner in the universe. Every astrophysicist lives with that reality.[1]

Decades ago, the famed planetary astronomer Carl Sagan echoed something similar, suggesting that human beings in the universe are “inconsequential, a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal.”[2] Science writers of popular-level books about the universe agree. The more we realize just how large the universe is, “the scale of our unimportance grows by leaps and bounds”.[3] “Our petty standing in the cosmos is a scientific fact.”[4] “Today we understand a great deal about the universe…cosmically speaking, there’s no indication that we matter at all.”[5]

Recently NASA successfully landed yet another robotic probe on the Martian surface. Engineers and program managers erupted in cheers as they received data that the $2.2 billion Perseverance had safely settled itself amidst the jagged, rust-laden Martian rocks. Congratulations to all those involved. It remains a stunning technological achievement.

Yet if we are cosmically insignificant, if we really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, why are we cheering? If we are insignificant, so too are our achievements. So why the mission to Mars?

According to NASA, “The mission of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover focuses on surface-based studies of the Martian environment, seeking preserved signs of biosignatures in rock samples that formed in ancient Martian environments with conditions that might have been favorable to microbial life.”[6]

Let us imagine for a moment that the venture is a success. What then? At a NASA press conference, the first microbe, disturbed from its ancient resting place by an alien robot extending a metal instrument into the rusty soil, is given a name of some kind, and hailed as the most significant discovery in the history of our exploration of the cosmos.

Microbes on Mars would be incredibly significant. Yet the extraordinary one-of-a-kind of biology of human beings on Earth is not? Sagan wrote that “The existence of an independent biology on a nearby planet is a treasure beyond assessing, and the preservation of that life must, I think, supersede any other possible use of Mars.” For Sagan, the inhabitants of Earth are just a “thin film” but any Martian biology would be a “treasure beyond assessing.”

Yet when King David considered the heavens some 3,000 years ago, though he recognized man is indeed small in relation to the cosmos, he concluded we are anything but insignificant.

When I behold Your heavens,

the work of Your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which You have set in place—

what is man that You are mindful of him,

or the son of man that You care for him?[7]

God cares for us. There is some good news in all of this confusion and despair. People are once more looking up. This past fall skyandtelescope.org reported that “A funny thing is happening during this long pandemic of COVID-19. People have been stuck at home and having to entertain themselves in seclusion, all of which seems to have inspired a newfound interest in the night sky.”[8]

Perhaps in simply looking up at the stars again, people will begin see the glory of God anew, and our significance in light of his love for us.   

Notes

[1] Richard Gott, Michael A. Strauss, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2016), 107.

[2] Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (New York: Random House, 1994), 6.

[3] Jorge Cham & Daniel Whiteson, We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe (New York: Riverhead Books, 2017), 256.  

[4] Marcia Bartusiak, Dispatches from Planet 3: Thirty-Two (Brief) Tales on the Solar System, the Milky Way, and Beyond (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), 1.

[5] Sean Carroll, The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself (New York: Dutton, 2016), 49.

[6] “Mars 2020 Mission Perseverance Rover,” accessed March 9, 2021, https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/goals/.

[7] Psalm 8, NASB.

[8] “Pandemic Inspires Surge in Telescope Sales,” accessed March 11, 2021, https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/pandemic-inspires-surge-in-telescope-sales/.

Daniel is a full-time staff apologist with Watchman Fellowship, Inc. (Watchman.org) in Arlington, Texas. He is co-editor and co-contributor to the 2019 book The Story of the Cosmos: How the Heavens Declare the Glory of God. He also produces two podcasts, Good Heavens! (science, cosmology, astronomy and the glory of God) and Apologetics Profile (world religions, cults, non-Christian worldviews, apologetics).

Image by PIRO4D from Pixabay

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