If you’ve ever watched a video zooming out from Earth to the edge of the observable universe, you’ve probably felt it—that deep, awe-filled tug of perspective. The cosmos is big. Unimaginably big. And the more we learn about it, the harder it becomes to believe that all of this was created with one planet, one species, and one story in mind.
Most Christians don’t see a problem with this. In fact, they often say, “The vastness of the universe just shows how big and powerful God is.”
But is that really the best explanation?
Let’s take a journey through some cosmic distances—and then ask what this scale says about the idea of a personal God who created the universe just for us.
📏 Cosmic Distances in Human Terms
To grasp the scale of the universe, let’s start small.
☀️ Earth to the Sun: 93 Million Miles
If the distance from Earth to the Sun were shrunk down to 1 inch on a ruler, then…
- Neptune would be about 30 inches away.
- The nearest star (Proxima Centauri) would be over 4 miles away.
- The center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, would be over 500 miles away.
- And the edge of the observable universe? Roughly 25,000 miles away—about the circumference of the Earth itself.
Let that sink in: If our entire solar system were the length of a ruler, the universe would stretch around the whole planet.
🌌 How Big Is Our Galaxy?
Our Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across.
- That means even if you could travel at the speed of light (670 million mph), it would still take 100,000 years to cross it.
- The Milky Way contains an estimated 100 to 400 billion stars.
- Our Sun is just one of them, located about 27,000 light-years from the center—a cosmic suburb.
And that’s just one galaxy.
There are estimated to be over 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe, each with billions (or even trillions) of stars.
❓ What Does This Mean for the God Question?
The scale of the universe doesn’t disprove the Christian God—but it certainly challenges a few central ideas.
1. The Bible’s Focus Is Shockingly Earth-Centered
If the universe is so vast, why does the Bible never mention other galaxies? Other planets? Or the actual scope of creation? The Genesis creation account describes a flat Earth, a firmament, and stars as lights in the sky.
It reads more like Bronze Age cosmology than the work of a being who crafted 2 trillion galaxies.
2. What Was God Doing for 13.8 Billion Years?
Modern cosmology tells us the universe is 13.8 billion years old. Earth has existed for only 4.5 billion years, and humans for a mere 200,000 years.
Why wait so long for humanity to show up? Why so much time, space, and material if the goal was us?
It would be like building an entire continent just to place a single ant on it.
3. Life Appears to Be a Tiny, Fragile Exception
The universe is hostile to life. Most of it is freezing cold, bathed in deadly radiation, or impossibly hot. Earth is an island of habitability in an otherwise barren sea.
If the universe was designed for life, it’s the most inefficient design imaginable.
🧠 A More Natural Explanation
From a scientific perspective, the size and age of the universe aren’t confusing at all. In fact, they make perfect sense:
- Stars needed to form and die to create heavier elements.
- Galaxies had to evolve to host planetary systems.
- Life took billions of years to emerge—and may still be incredibly rare.
We see a universe unfolding naturally, not a carefully crafted backdrop for a single species.
📌 Final Thoughts: Is Belief in a Personal Creator Still Plausible?
When we zoom out—really zoom out—it becomes harder to see ourselves as the central point of it all.
And that doesn’t mean life is meaningless. In fact, it may mean the opposite: our meaning is something we create, not something handed down by a cosmic architect.
Maybe the awe we feel when we look at the stars isn’t proof of God—it’s proof of our ability to wonder, to question, and to find meaning in our brief moment beneath the galaxies.
🔍 What to Read Next:
God or Delusion? 