I have been working my way through Philip Plait's Death From The Skies, a book about the many ways the Universe is able to kill us. There are some that you will be familiar with, such as the threat from asteroids or comets smashing into the Earth. If the dinosaurs were still with us today, they would have something to say on that matter. It doesn't take a particularly large space rock to wipe out most life on the planet.

But the Universe is not out to kill us really, because there is no sentient entity known as the Universe, nor is there any evidence that any planet, galaxy, star, black hole or collection thereof has any awareness of anything. It happens that on FB I read (often enough) memes expressing the contrary. It is assumed that there is some kind of cosmic consciousness, denoted as The Universe, that has a special power to intervene in human affairs. If you believe hard enough, things will be delivered to you, the contrary also being true. It seems like so much harmless nonsense, more like wishful thinking, but there is a dangerous flipside. If you believe that all will be well just by imagining it will be, then you are stripped of the agency to act. It might induce a calmness of spirit for a time, perhaps even acceptance, but magical thinking (which is what this is) is essentially fatalistic. It is believing in something that isn't so and cannot lead to positive outcomes in your life. Worse still, it sets the believer up for disappointment and the development of a victim mindset.

Better to be committed to purposeful action, and acceptance of those things we cannot change, than wait for the cosmos to bring home the bacon.