“Through the Wormhole” is a really cool, objective series on Discovery Channel. I highly recommend it if your child is interested in science and the universe. If not, this might make him or her interested! For the first time in a couple of years, my older son has finally been able to ponder black holes and time travel without freaking out. I 
guess time really does help kids adapt. A few years ago, my son couldn’t even read a book about the origins of the universe without having an anxiety attack. One of the downsides to growing up without god is that you are acutely aware that this life is it. There is nothing but space “out there.”
It makes sense that looking through the wormhole would be a little scary. If a kid believes that there is a loving god behind this massive and amazing universe, it’s much easier to study. If a kid believes that life was a lucky fluke and that danger lurks in all the possible collisions with meteors and black holes, then the universe and its origin is much more difficult to look at. That nothingness you see out there is what you came from and what you will return to one day.
Wow, I Googled “Through the Wormhole freaking out” just for kicks and found this page. Glad to know I’m not the only one who literally starts having panic attacks when thinking about this stuff. On second thought, I’m not glad because a panic attack is one of the worst things that can happen to someone.
For me, it’s not so much the fear of getting sucked in by a black hole or killed by an asteroid, it’s the sudden realization of grandiose concepts. Like some stars being thousands of times bigger than the Sun (seriously, try to wrap your mind around it). Or things like the notion of time not being real and only being an illusion of the human mind.
Wacky stuff.
Hi Thomas- Thanks for sharing. I think that “sudden realization of grandiose concepts” is what triggered my son’s panic attack. Also, when you start thinking about the bigger picture, there’s that existential feeling that one sometimes gets–the feeling that you’re trapped inside a video game or that nothing around you is real. The mind is powerful….