A Universe Conducive to Life, Love and Purpose
10/29/2010
Either the universe exists on purpose and human life has meaning, or we're a bunch of hopeless, hairless primates using our three pound brains to grasp after answers that do not exist. Can I make it any plainer?Sure, there are other possibilities. It could be that the universe exists on purpose, but we'reonly incidental and therefore just as insignificant as we'd be if the universe had nopurpose. Or, we could try to cheer ourselves up by saying that the universe is just something that happened, and we have the joy of making our own purpose. This latterperspective is short‐sighted, given that whatever meaning we give to our own livesdepends only on our own perception, and will die with us.Bertrand Russell, an atheistic philosopher, laid out the meaninglessness of existence in thestarkest terms:
“That
man
is
the
product
of
causes
which
had
no
prevision
of
the
end
they
were
achieving;
that
his
origin,
his
growth,
his
hopes
and
fears,
his
loves
and
his
beliefs,
are
but
the
outcome
of
accidental
collocations
of
atoms;
that
no
fire,
no
heroism,
no
intensity
of
thought
and
feeling,
can
preserve
an
individual
life
beyond
the
grave;
that
all
the
labors
of
the
ages,
all
the
devotion,
all
the
inspiration,
all
the
noonday
brightness
of
human
genius,
are
destined
to
extinction
in
the
vast
death
of
the
solar
system,
and
that
the
whole
temple
of
man's
achievement
must
inevitably
be
buried
beneath
the
debris
of
a
universe
in
ruins
–
all
these
things,
if
not
quite
beyond
dispute,
are
yet
so
nearly
certain
that
no
philosophy
which
rejects
them
can
hope
to
stand.
Only
within
the
scaffolding
of
these
truths,
only
on
the
firm
foundation
of
unyielding
despair,
can
the
soul's
salvation
henceforth
be
safely
built.“
He's right, except that I can't see any way that "unyielding despair" can provide a "firmfoundation" for anyone. Still, if there is no real, larger meaning in which we participate assentient beings, why fool ourselves? Why devote time and energy to art, science, love andprocreation? Why do
anything
, except perhaps for the satisfaction of the moment?The observable reality, however, is that we live in an orderly universe and participate in aworld in which love can be experienced and purposes can be conceived. That this cosmos isconducive not only to life but also to the sharing of love and purpose should tell ussomething. We can choose either to believe what we can observe, or deny it all andembrace a faith that despite the order of the observable universe and the tendency towardlife, love and purpose, it is all without value and for nothing.
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