Article 9 of 14 | Honest Questions
By Dr. Timothy Mann
The size of the universe does not determine human significance. Significance is not a function of mass or dimension; it is a function of meaning, purpose, and relationship. Human beings matter not because of how large they are, but because they were made by a personal God, in His image, on purpose.
This fifth installment of the Honest Questions series takes up a question different from the others addressed so far. It is less of an intellectual objection and more of a personal one. It does not come primarily from the head; it comes from the gut. And it is, in many respects, the question that sits underneath several of the more intellectual objections. Deal with this one, and the others often start to look different.
The question is: why would God care about me?
We live in an observable universe that is approximately 93 billion light years across, containing an estimated two trillion galaxies, each containing hundreds of billions of stars. The Earth is a small rock orbiting an average star in the outer arm of one of those galaxies. And one human being, one of eight billion currently living on this small rock, one of approximately 108 billion human beings who have ever lived, is supposed to matter personally to the God who made all of that?
It sounds absurd. It sounds like the kind of cosmic narcissism that a scientifically literate person should have outgrown. And yet it is precisely what the Christian faith claims: that the God who created the universe knows your name, knows your story, has numbered the hairs on your head, and cares about what happens to you with a depth and a persistence that no human love can match.
The anchor text for this question is Psalm 8:3 through 6:
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.” (Psalm 8:3-6, NKJV)
The Size of the Universe Does Not Determine Human Significance
The first assumption worth challenging is that the size of the universe has any bearing on the significance of human beings. Modern culture almost universally accepts this assumption, but it does not follow.
The argument goes: the universe is vast and ancient, human beings are tiny and recent; therefore, human beings are insignificant. But that argument only works if significance is a function of size and age, and there is no good reason to believe that it is.
A painting is not significant because of its size. A piece of music is not valuable because of its duration. A human life is not meaningful because of the physical space it occupies. Significance is not a property of mass or dimension. It is a property of meaning, of purpose, of relationship. The Christian claim is that human beings are significant not because of how large they are but because of who made them and why.
The psalmist in Psalm 8 is asking precisely this question: what is man that You are mindful of him? He stands under the same vast sky and feels the same smallness modern people feel when they contemplate the scale of the universe. His answer is not to inflate the size of human beings. His answer is to locate their significance in the God who made them and the purpose for which they were made.
A person is not significant because they are large. They are significant because they were made by a God who intentionally created them, in whose image they bear, for a purpose that extends beyond physical existence. The universe being big does not make a person small in the way that matters. It makes the God who knows that person extraordinary.
The Evidence Suggests That Human Beings Are Not Ordinary
The second point worth making is that the scientific picture of human beings, followed honestly, does not actually support the view that we are merely insignificant specks in an indifferent universe.
Human beings are, as far as anyone knows, the only beings in the universe who are aware of the universe. The only beings who can study it, describe it, be moved by its beauty, grieve at its suffering, ask questions about its meaning. The only beings who create art, write poetry, compose music, develop mathematics, build civilizations, and wonder about God. The philosopher Blaise Pascal observed that a human being is a reed, the weakest thing in nature, but a thinking reed. The universe does not know it has crushed him. He knows. That knowing, that consciousness, that self-awareness, that capacity for wonder and grief and love, is not nothing. It is, in the entire observable universe, extraordinarily rare. Possibly unique.
The Christian explanation for this is that human beings are made in the image of God. Genesis 1:26-27 says that God made human beings in His image, not physically, but in terms of the human capacity for reason, for relationship, for creativity, for moral discernment. Human beings are, in a way that no other creature is, like the God who made them. That likeness is the ground of human significance and the explanation for human uniqueness.
Why would God care about you? Because He made you to be like Him in ways nothing else in creation is. Because you bear His image. Because you were not an accident of cosmic chemistry but an intentional act of a personal God who wanted creatures capable of knowing Him, loving Him, and being known and loved by Him in return.
APPLICATION & REFLECTION
Your significance was never a matter of scale. It was settled the moment God made you in His image, on purpose, for relationship with Him.
This week, notice when you measure your own worth by comparison, achievement, or how small your problems seem against the size of the world. What changes when significance is rooted in who made you, not how much space you take up?
Next time: the cross is God's answer to this question, not in words but in action. Part two takes up the most costly proof of all.
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If you missed the beginning of our series “Honest Questions” find the article links below:
Article 1: If God Is Good, Why Is There So Much Suffering? (Part 1)
Article 2: If God Is Good, Why Is There So Much Suffering? (Part 2)
Article 3: Has Science Disproved the Bible? (Part 1)
Article 4: Has Science Disproved the Bible? (Part 2)
Article 5: How Can a Loving God Send Anyone to Hell? (Part 1)
Article 6: How Can a Loving God Send Anyone to Hell? (Part 2)
Article 7: Isn't the Bible Just Written by Men? (Pt 1)
Article 8: Isn't the Bible Just Written by Men? (Pt 2)
FAQ
Q: Does the size of the universe make human life meaningless?
A: No. Significance is a property of meaning, purpose, and relationship, not size or duration. A painting isn't valuable because of its dimensions, and a person isn't insignificant because the universe is vast.
Q: What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
A: Genesis 1:26-27 teaches that humans bear God's image not physically but in the capacity for reason, relationship, creativity, and moral discernment, a likeness no other creature shares, and the basis for human dignity and worth.
Q: Why do humans feel like they matter if the universe is so vast?
A: Because human beings appear to be the only beings aware of the universe itself, capable of wonder, grief, art, and the search for meaning. That capacity points toward a Creator who made humans distinct and significant, not an indifferent cosmos.