Philosophical Question

[Inactive]

Evolution has been more or less a baton race for Millions of years and we humans have evolved into an incredibly formidable unit. Aside from a totally catastrophic event (super massive asteroid messing with the atmosphere or some unstoppable pathogen possibly) we are here to stay. So the question begs, what is the point? Life starts just because it can? Consciousness just because it did? That got me thinking about a couple scenarios.

Of these scenarios, which do you believe is most likely?:

1. The source of creation wants to be found. Evolution is more than just an earthly process - It is the first step in establishing an organism strong enough to eventually venture out of it's home (much like a child leaving home) and then the true quest begins.

This wouldn't explain anything, and ultimately it doesn't provide us with any more meaningful sense of purpose than what we have.

The source of creation exists just because it did? It creates organisms through this wildly inefficient roundabout process, who will eventually go forth to find it, just because it can?

2. When we die, we go back to the source and all of it's intelligence is given to us... It can never be found by us in these physical bodies. We can search endlessly, but much like the earth we live on, we will spin in an endless circle/dig down an endless rabitt hole forever or until we destroy ourselves/all power sources are exasperated.

The source of creation exists just because it did? It sends us down to suffer and die in physical bodies, with no knowledge that our lives are truly eternal, just because it can?

If it is truly the source of all creation, then it can't really have intelligence. If you are the only thing that exists, there are no calculations to make, nothing to predict, nothing to learn; you just are. If we become one with this source of everything, then we truly would just be dead. We would no longer be individuals, we would no longer have interests, we would just be drops in the ocean, doing whatever is in the nature of the source.

Evolution is simply part of the picture. I don't think Dawkins would say that purpose and evolution can't exist together, but certainly he would say purpose in the contexts of religion couldn't.

Any speculation about some a priori purpose is essentially religious. It's concocting a narrative to explain what you see, without providing any evidence for your claim, or making any serious attempt to falsify it, and generally simply ignoring everything which doesn't fit. Any arbitrary claim about "purpose" is as valid as any other.

Yeah well in my understanding evolution advocates change through random mutations and natural selection, which is far from sufficient explanation for what we have now. So to roll with these two shabby mechanisms is to be underequipped, IMO.

What specifically is that insufficient to explain?

Term is not conscious, it's self-awareness, I'd say... Although I get what you mean. But conscious is more like psyche, which every living thing has, supposedly (or maybe not psyche per se, I'm not sure of a word in english).

What do you mean by self-awareness? The behavior of most animals implies some sense of self awareness i.e awareness of some distinction between self and other. If they didn't have that awareness, they would be unable to act in their own interest.

[Swaggin916]

You are right Inactive it really wouldn't explain anything but the process of evolution seems to be the way the universe works. Nothing has happened quickly and maybe Evolution here on Earth in the grand scheme is actually extremely fast... like to a universal consciousness which likely feels time differently (being around billions of years and all) it is probably happening in the blink of an eye Of course that is speculation as this all is.

On the thought of evolution though and equating it to the universe, as far as I know, mutations happen randomly... just because they can. Evolution wouldn't even occur without that specific variant.

To me it just seems to be a never ending paradigm. This earth is simply a representation of the universe on a smaller scale. Earth System, Solar System, Galaxy, Universe are the only 4 we know for sure right now... but we speculate this could be many of one of many universes. If it is ever proven that that is the case, that would almost have to prove (though obviously not fully) that what we are in is essentially a never ending paradigm... which would tell me that we are indeed the universe experiencing itself in this paradigm and that everything is as purposeful or pointless as we make it out to be. We might as well just keep exploring though because why be ignorant? The universe is like a never ending puzzle for humans to try solve and keep busy... that might be evolutionary as well. If we figured it all out, like you said, you might as well just be dead.