Why should someone care about the universe and the big bang theory?

Answer 1

One should care about the Universe because one is in the Universe. Earth, and thus all that is on Earth, including humans, is in the Universe. There is nothing outside the Universe and the concept of outside the Universe is meaningless unless one is trying to comprehend a multiverse theory. The Universe consists of billions of stars, all of them (with relevance to humans, particularly Sol the star at the centre of this Solar System) showering Earth with nucleosynthised particles (elements) and it is the elements which make up everything. 'We are made of star-dust' is an oft-quoted statement that means all the elements within us and Earth and the rest of the Universe (except much hydrogen) was produced within stars. In other words, we react with the Universe, not just with ourselves and our own societies. If nucleosynthesis stopped, we would be out of constituent elements and perish. Thus we should care about the Universe. Life exists only on Earth.......perhaps. But still, even if life exists on billions of planets, life is a rare thing in the Universe and thus, if we think life is special, we should protect and care about. If Earth is the sole planet of life, that makes Earth seem all the more special. But Earth is not as autonomous as we may think. It exists tenuously between the gravities of the Solar System planets and the gravities of the stars and all life on Earth relies on light from a 150 million km-distant star. How precarious are we in space really?

The question is, where did it all come from, and I think many people are rather desperate to have this question answered. The nature of the Universe and the evidence we have points to a Big Bang demarcating the beginning of space-time (and mass-energy if the two originated nearly or entirely simultaneosly). The Big Bang theory explains a lot about the way the Universe is; its expansion, the red-shift of galaxies, the Cosmic Backround Microwave Radiation. The Big Bang is the likeliest and most supported answer to the question of the origin of the Universe. If we want an answer to that question, we should care about the Big Bang Theory.