The enormous disproportion of the size of the universe as compared with human size has always been a matter of concern in the reflections about our relation with God and the Universe. This uneasiness is expressed by Dante, Milton and Pascal, among other authors. We will examine the cultural impact of this topic in poetical works of different epochs, showing how poetry conveys these philosophical and theological considerations.

We consider the mentioned disproportion in spatial, temporal and complexity perspectives. From the spatial perspective, we consider the formation of atomic nuclei, the evolution of life, and the cosmic expansion. The formation of nuclei requires stars which, after forming them, explode and expand them in the galaxy. A second generation of stars must be formed, accompanied with planets suitable for life. The evolution up to an intelligent species has taken some four billion years. During these processes, the observable universe has fastly expanded. Thus, intelligent species could not exist in a small universe.

From a temporal perspective, one argument to dismiss our relevance is that, would be the cosmic history written in fourteen volumes, one for each billion years, human beings would only appear in the last few lines. However, in an informational interpretation of time the conclusion is rather different. Indeed, the first three minutes contain much information; in contrast, the period until the decoupling between matter and radiation lasts three hundred thousand years, but is described by only two simple expressions. Thus, there are periods requiring much information –the origin of galaxies, of life, of intelligence- and other which imply few information. In this perspective, the disproportion between humans and cosmos is not so disparate as in a linear interpretation of time.

A third aspect is the complexity of the universe and of the human brain. In the visible universe there are one hundred billion galaxies, and in our brain a similar number of neurons. However, all the galaxies interact through the gravitational interaction, whereas the neurons interact through many different kinds of synapses. Thus, from the perspective of complexity, human beings are not so extremely disparate from the cosmos. In summary, the current view of nuclei formation, evolution of life, and complexity modifies our intuitions about our disproportion with the universe. The complexity of the brain is comparable to that of the universe, and spatial and temporal immensity of the universe is a necessary condition for our existence, and not a hint of our insignificance.

References

R. J. Russell, N. Murphy and J. C. Isham, eds, Quantum cosmology and the laws of Nature, Vatican Observatory & CTNS, 1991.

R. J. Russell, N. Murphy and A.R. Peacocke, eds, Chaos and complexity, Vatican Observatory & CTNS, 1993.

K. Schmitz-Moormann, Theology of Creation in an evolutionary world, Pilgrim Press, London, 1997