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Does the Universe Have a Purpose?
I really enjoyed reading these answers, all well thought out and interesting.


http://www.templeton.org/purpose/

Haven't read them yet and don't know if I will but I'll tell you beforehand that "impossible to know" is the correct answer!

None of them, regardless of how smart and educated they are, really knows.

No.

Through an awe-inspiring cosmic history we find ourselves on this remote planet in a
remote corner of the universe, endowed with intelligence and self-awareness.We should not despair, but
should humbly rejoice in making the most of these gifts, and celebrate our brief moment in the sun.

JohnStOnge wrote:Haven't read them yet and don't know if I will but I'll tell you beforehand that "impossible to know" is the correct answer!

None of them, regardless of how smart and educated they are, really knows.

They pretty much all agree with that point Johnny

Chizzang wrote:

JohnStOnge wrote:Haven't read them yet and don't know if I will but I'll tell you beforehand that "impossible to know" is the correct answer!

None of them, regardless of how smart and educated they are, really knows.

They pretty much all agree with that point Johnny

The universe is my oyster...it is here to serve me in my adventure.

Cluck U wrote:

Chizzang wrote:
They pretty much all agree with that point Johnny

The universe is my oyster...it is here to serve me in my adventure.

You sound like a fundamentalist christian... They think the universe was built for them specifically

One of my favorite YT vids:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8P1Y1a7-L4[/youtube]

Chizzang wrote:

Cluck U wrote:
The universe is my oyster...it is here to serve me in my adventure.

You sound like a fundamentalist christian... They think the universe was built for them specifically

Nah...we all make our own worlds...and universes. Your universe reflects your thinking, so you see what you want to see.

∞∞∞ wrote:One of my favorite YT vids:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8P1Y1a7-L4[/youtube]

Damn near the best 10 minutes on the internet... ^ right there

Vidav wrote:No.

Typical nihilistic Russian.

Chizzang wrote:

∞∞∞ wrote:One of my favorite YT vids:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8P1Y1a7-L4[/youtube]

Damn near the best 10 minutes on the internet... ^ right there

Yes, that was very good.

Me? I'm still struggling to appreciate the importance of nature, beauty, and gratitude for what we have here on earth. This video helps...quite a bit:

http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartz ... itude.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(sorry cleets, but you have another 10 minute video to watch. If the kick-ass time lapse photography bores you, skip to about the 4 minute part and see his piece on being grateful for the world around you)

kalm wrote:Me? I'm still struggling to appreciate the importance of nature, beauty, and gratitude for what we have here on earth. This video helps...quite a bit:

http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartz ... itude.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good one.

This vid from the same Sagan series above might help as well (reminds me how awesome life is):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U49i8HYM ... 0315EA40FE[/youtube]

And my favorite quote ever:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." ― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Grizalltheway wrote:

Vidav wrote:No.

Typical nihilistic Russian.

Grizalltheway wrote:

Vidav wrote:No.

Typical nihilistic Russian.

I haven't read them all yet but read a few. So far the best statement I've seen is near the beginning of the first one;

As Carl Sagan said, in another context: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

In spite of the "falsification" fad, science is not about that. Science is about building evidence of what is; not about demonstrating what is not. It's not about falsifying hypotheses except in the sense that in statistics you reject the null hypothesis in order to infer the alternative. But the point is to infer the alternative (which is that something has the hypothesized effect).

Interesting that I saw a quote reflecting what I think is a misunderstanding of what science is when I was watching a news report on atheists pushing for atheist chaplains in the military. A young atheist on screen said that science has shown there is no afterlife.

No. It has not; nor could it ever show that. The only conclusion the process of science can support with regard to that issue is that there is not sufficient evidence to conclude that there is an afterlife. That is unless someone could somehow show that there IS an afterlife.

!

JohnStOnge wrote:I haven't read them all yet but read a few. So far the best statement I've seen is near the beginning of the first one;

As Carl Sagan said, in another context: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

In spite of the "falsification" fad, science is not about that. Science is about building evidence of what is; not about demonstrating what is not. It's not about falsifying hypotheses except in the sense that in statistics you reject the null hypothesis in order to infer the alternative. But the point is to infer the alternative (which is that something has the hypothesized effect).

Interesting that I saw a quote reflecting what I think is a misunderstanding of what science is when I was watching a news report on atheists pushing for atheist chaplains in the military. A young atheist on screen said that science has shown there is no afterlife.

No. It has not; nor could it ever show that. The only conclusion the process of science can support with regard to that issue is that there is not sufficient evidence to conclude that there is an afterlife. That is unless someone could somehow show that there IS an afterlife.

I think you'll find a small percentage of confused atheists
Those who don't believe in God "actively"
Which is completely different than actively dismissing iron age stories and highly modified texts of lore
The active disbelievers would also be more likely to not completely understand the role of science

Side Note:
I have noticed that the Bronze Age Gods are making a solid comeback with the kids
(Very popular right now) and these 20 somethings are alarmingly well studied on them and really seem to dig it

Who Knew..?

I don't think there is a purpose. We all do whats best for ourselves. For some that is working, others that is making sure they climb every peak in America.

Ibanez wrote:I don't think there is a purpose. We all do whats best for ourselves. For some that is working, others that is making sure they climb every peak in America.

Interesting. I find myself not doing what's best for me quite often. Sometimes it's what's best for others...or are you saying that's really what's best for me anyway?

Interesting. I find myself not doing what's best for me quite often. Sometimes it's what's best for others...or are you saying that's really what's best for me anyway?

My son once won a national essay contest writing about the idea that when you engage in kindness towards others you're really being selfish after all because the bottom line is it makes you feel good. It's really all about you in the end. That was the thought process anyway.

Well, to be fair I think he presented it more as an unanswered question than an outright assertion.

kalm wrote:

Ibanez wrote:I don't think there is a purpose. We all do whats best for ourselves. For some that is working, others that is making sure they climb every peak in America.

Interesting. I find myself not doing what's best for me quite often. Sometimes it's what's best for others...or are you saying that's really what's best for me anyway?

That depends on you. We always do what's best for our selves and sometimes that is doing what is best for someone else (aka selfish and selfless.)

Ibanez wrote:

kalm wrote:
Interesting. I find myself not doing what's best for me quite often. Sometimes it's what's best for others...or are you saying that's really what's best for me anyway?

That depends on you. We always do what's best for our selves and sometimes that is doing what is best for someone else (aka selfish and selfless.)

The only selfless act is one that helps others
and is done completely anonymously

Chizzang wrote:

Ibanez wrote: That depends on you. We always do what's best for our selves and sometimes that is doing what is best for someone else (aka selfish and selfless.)

The only selfless act is one that helps others
and is done completely anonymously

That isn't true. I was in Hardee's about a month ago and this black girl was trying to buy lunch for her kids. The girl was probably in her early 20s and had 4 children. Well, she couldn't buy two cheeseburgers. Her face got bright red and you can tell she was embarrassed. So, I bought a cheeseburger for each of them and went on my way. I did it and went on my way.

Ibanez wrote:

Chizzang wrote:
The only selfless act is one that helps others
and is done completely anonymously

That isn't true. I was in Hardee's about a month ago and this black girl was trying to buy lunch for her kids. The girl was probably in her early 20s and had 4 children. Well, she couldn't buy two cheeseburgers. Her face got bright red and you can tell she was embarrassed. So, I bought a cheeseburger for each of them and went on my way. I did it and went on my way.

Selfless act...
You just described a "helpful" act

Selfless is difficult to capture in words
But being helpful and kind loving etc. etc. those things (also) serve thyself / however intangibly
Ones ego is the primary benefactor / establishing higher self worth

True Selflessness is Anonymous