Significance

On Boxing Day a tweet went around the world to millions of people. It was a recommendation from a humanist website to read an article called, ‘We’re Puny, Insignificant and Doomed – and that’s the good news’. It was written by a man who described how he told his 3 year old about the universe.

That’s it son, you’re ‘puny, insignificant and doomed’.

Now I happen to believe that the universe is 14 billion years old, that it is absolutely ginormous, that one day planet earth will crash into the sun, and that compared to these things we are tiny and short-lived.

But I really object when we use descriptions of stuff to talk about value.

The value of a person is a personal thing. It’s got little to do with size or lifespan.
God is a person. He is the ultimate person. We need to remember that people have value. Not stuff. Whether it is the stuff of stars or the stuff of ipads. Value is a personal thing. Not a stuff thing.

http://richarddawkins.net/news_articles/2012/12/26/we-re-puny-insignificant-and-doomed-and-that-s-the-good-news#.UOGvom_eQ6l