Erick asked:

Do you think that the universe is so huge like people say, or is this not true and they just don't want us
to ask any questions?

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Well... just what dopeople say, anyway? I'll tell you what... go read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy,especially the part where he says something like: the universe is big... really,
reallybig... mind-bogglingly big.... He's right. When you're out in the country sometime, where there
are no lights, and the sky is clear (in Britain... oh well...), you might reflect on the fact that what you
see is such a small fraction of what's out there as to be ridiculous. Try this site for some graphic
emphasis of my point:

" http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html"

and just look around it for a while.

Steven Ravett Brown

When it comes to questions such as how big the universe is, how can each of us come to an answer?
Clearly, we cannot just go out and look for ourselves. Nor can we just reason out the answer, for this
is an empirical problem (that is, the answer relies on going out and seeking evidence). To find out for
ourselves, it would seem that we would need to do a degree in astrophysics and a lot of work — but
even then we would be relying to a great extent on what others tell us. All scientists rely on work done
by others as well as their own work.

So it seems to me that the only other way we can know how big the universe is, is to trust what we
are told by scientists who have done the work. Such trust is not a blind trust, though. We can look at
what a number of people say, and the reasons they advance. Above all, we can ask questions. Does
this person seem to know what they are talking about? Are their reasons convincing?

So... yes, I do think the universe is huge, because the scientific accounts that underlie that view seem
solid to me. I'm not sure who you mean by 'they', but scientists would most certainly want you to ask
questions — asking questions is what science is all about.

Tim Sprod