[ckuehne]

Maybe a quote by David Deutsch will ease the pain:

"Some people get depressed when they find out how huge the universe is. They feel tiny and insignificant and think that nothing matters in this world.

That makes no more sense than getting depressed when you find out that cows are bigger than you. What is the big deal about bigness? A cow is much bigger than you, but it is a ridiculous animal and you are a valuable person. You know it’s a cow. It doesn’t know anything. it just stands there eating grass (grass!) and mooing. And if it were bigger, that would only make it more ridiculous."

[swombat]

A cow is still well within the realm of dimensions that a human mind can comprehend. You won't feel insignificant when looking at a cow because while bigger, it's not that much bigger. Apart from poisoning you when you eat it, or kicking you by mistake, it has relatively little influence or impact on you, your life, your fate, or indeed, the fate of the human race.

Now, if you had a cow the size of the earth, that just sits there and eats cosmic grass, and could blow up earth and wipe out the human race with one of its farts, then suddenly the cow is rather more significant than it was before - if only because of its possible influence on you.

Finally, if the said cow is in fact not just an object but the very substrate that you exist in, and its so big that you can't even begin to imagine how big it is, and it is filled with inhuman processes that could wipe humanity out at any moment from now to infinity, then a solid sense of insignificance seems perfectly warranted.

[cscurmudgeon]

For me, it is the opposite. If the world was small, I would be sad to be a part of a small un-awesome world. Looking at how big the world is makes me happy and excited.

The difference I guess comes from whether you see yourself as a part of the universe or as an observer separate from the rest of the world.

[swombat]

I didn't say it made me sad. I just said it made me (and you) fairly insignificant in the greater scheme of things.

Insignificance is awesome. Significance seems highly overrated, more to do with assuaging one's ego than with enjoying life.

[cscurmudgeon]

The key is to have no ego. That makes any question of significance insignificant :)