Why is the Universe so big?
It has to be. Because of our presence in it.
The complex chemistry of terrestial life requires elements like carbon and oxygen. It takes about 10 billion years of stellar evolution for stars to generate significant quantities of these elements from the early Universe's primal gas of helium and hydrogen. Since the Universe is expanding, its size is related to its age. The Universe is as big as it is because it is so old--and it has to be so old so that we can exist.
Is it possible, then, that for 13 billion years, generations of stars were born and died churning out carbon and oxygen in 100 billion galaxies...so that I could give birth to my daughter? Is it possible that light must travel 5,878,625,373,184 miles 93 billion times over to cross the Universe...so that I can watch Mary toddle across the room? Is it possible that the Universe is so big...so that I can hold my baby girl close, our cheeks pressed together, the smell of baby shampoo and green peas in my nose?
Yes, I believe so.
(Credit goes to Peter Coles's Very Short Introduction on Cosmology for this epiphany of mine. And to Wikipedia too.)
