Lyle, this is a great point. It is very true that reductionism to
smaller and smaller scales is a completely arbitrary perspective
and that, like you said: "Atomic events are not separate from or
prior to large-scale events." Like several other people have
pointed out, we look at this from the human scale because that is
what is relevant to our lives.
On the other hand, there is no absolute reason to stop at human-scale
when evaluating our place in the cosmos. Not only do the atoms in
our bodies move with us when we move about, but so do the atoms in
our bodies circle the sun at 18 miles/second as the Earth orbits,
and this is just one step out of many going upward to larger and
larger scale events.
-- In the Ecstatic Service of Life -- Omega