Infinity and Beyond

Near the end of Alan Lightman’s essay on humanity’s understanding of the infinite [“Our Place in the Universe,” December], he considers what a small fraction of the universe exists in living form and concludes, “If some cosmic intelligence created the universe, life would seem to have been only an afterthought.” Thousands of years ago, a psalmist pondered a similar conundrum:

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest…