Carl Sagans Cosmic Calendar: An Analysis

I think that our world 's belief in extremes, that we’re either incredibly important or insignificant, is flawed. Why? Because on one end of the scale, our human existence has really, only happened in the blink of an eye. On the other, we have the ability to turn a thriving planet into a wasteland; so really, it creates a paradox. We as human beings are very self-centered. Since the beginning of time people believed that the Earth was at the center of the universe. It was not until the 16th century when Nicolaus Copernicus, a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic cleric brought the ‘heliocentric system’ to the public, starting the Copernican Revolution. Even though they had started to finally figure things out, the extent of human knowledge was very limited. To me, I think the reason that humanity is so puffed up about its existence is because we cannot comprehend the vast space that is our universe. According to Carl Sagans ‘Cosmic Calendar’, human existence has lasted only a little less than a ‘day’ in a ‘year’ of the Universe from the beginning of everything to today. From the …show more content…
For me I think I can be a part of both sides. I do think that there is so much more to our Universe than we will ever know, and maybe we’ll always be in the constant pursuit of happiness; or maybe someday we’ll find what we’re searching for. The future is unknown. But I also, I believe that we should take care of our world because it’s the only one we have. To think of the Earth as something we own and have a right to is wrong. We do not own the world, we are simply it’s caretakers; and as it’s caretakers we need to think about the future that we will leave to the forthcoming generations. So no matter the view, whether insignificant or important, we all have our own decisions. And with those decisions we can shape our own