Cosmic Indifference

An ongoing list wherein folks grapple with cosmic indifference, inspired by John Caputo's consideration of examples from Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche.

From Fear and Trembling:

If a consciousness of the eternal were not implanted in man; if the basis of all that exists were but a confusedly fermenting element which, convulsed by obscure passions, produced all, both the great and the insignificant; if under everything there lay a bottomless void never to be filled—what else were life but despair? If it were thus, and if there were no sacred bonds between man and man; if one generation arose after another, as in the forest the leaves of one season succeed the leaves of another, or like the songs of birds which are taken up one after another; if the generations of man passed through the world like a ship passing through the sea and the wind over the desert—a fruitless and a vain thing; if eternal oblivion were ever greedily watching for its prey and there existed no power strong enough to wrest it from its clutches—how empty were life then, and how dismal!

From On Truth and Lying...:

Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the most arrogant and mendacious minute of "world history," but nevertheless it was only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the star cooled and congealed, and the clever beasts had to die.

Many examples could be pulled from The Poet in the Desert. A sampler follows.

The Desert cares no more for the death of the tribes than for the death of the armies of black crawling crickets. ... I look up unto the stars, knowing that to them my life is not more valuable than that of the flowers; The little, delicate flowers of the Desert, Which, like a breath, catch at the hem of Spring and are gone. (Prologue)

What is Man, that he should oppose himself to her eternity, Or think to know her infinite perfection? Shall the child understand the mother? To one who stands upon the promontory of a star, Are not the ants and bees as precious? Their knowledge admirable? Nature is wonderful in the infinity of her largeness, And of her smallness; The clod of the field as mysterious as a star; And a grain of dust as the mountains. (Section II)