“One of the things that I think science show us is that the idea that there’s some purpose to the universe is one that we should outgrow. There’s a purpose to each one of our lives, and we can articulate what that purpose is and why we have it; but why humans emerged on earth, why there is a planet earth, why the universe does what it does, we’ve got to outgrow these questions. It is very clear that there is no purpose in that sense. The fact that the sun will expand and consume the entire earth; that the universe might blow apart; that 99 percent of species go extinct and it would be sort of arrogant to say that homosapiens would be the only one that doesn’t; the fact that the earth is one out of presumably thousands, and millions, and billions of planets that could support life – that there’s nothing distinguished about our solar system. All of those realizations say that the idea that we were put here for some purpose is a kind of medieval ignorance and arrogance. …”
Dr. Steven Pinker
Full transcript here..
http://bigthink.com/ideas/who-are-we-18
Those of you who follow these types of discussions will recognize the strong atheistic arguments of Steven Pinker. Although I find him quite brilliant, and his ideas on human evolution quite compelling, I think some times on theological points his views are a bit myopic. His argument, I think amounts to, that in a universe of vast complexity and potential for life, the human species does not have a unique or special role in some grand design and therefore there is no grand design or purpose to the universe. As far as a unique purpose for humanity, his argument is compelling, and given the type of religiosity he generally opposes, the net result is the same. Undoubtedly most conservative members of the various faiths of Abraham will be duly offended. However to say the universe has no purpose is not the same as saying that humanity is not the final result of a purpose. Pinker concedes that conscious beings such as ourselves can have a purpose as individuals and as a group but he is not willing to extend that same attribute to the universe itself. His argument is based on the assumption that the universe is not self aware. This assumption is hard to support given that we are only beginning to understand consciousness in biological systems, largely due to work like Dr. Pinkers, and we have by no means ruled out consciousness in non-biological systems. In fact our best theories of consciousness point to it being a natural byproduct of highly complex interactive systems. There is of course no more complex interactive system than the universe itself. We judge other beings self awareness by deducing from their behavior a purpose that lies behind their actions. The faithful have long looked at nature and seen patterns that implied a purpose and therefore tried to deduce the mind of the divine. Science has long tried to use natural explanations, such as the Anthropic Principle, to remove mind from the equation. In the end, if the Universe(or God if you prefer) has a purpose, it may not be inclined to inform me or Steven Pinker what it is. Only it can know for sure.
Life, Love, Mystery, that’s what it’s all about.
Does the Universe have a purpose
Yes, it does, and Pinker’s argument is lame, typical, common, lacks imagination… etc… your average “free-thinker” busily regurgitating the meaningless beliefs that fall from the uncertainty principle, and stuff like that.
But purpose in nature has nothing to do with god… it’s just thermodynamics that gets translated teleologically to us in the form of a “final cause” or a goal.
That’s my theoretically supported opinion.
I wouldn’t say that the universe has no purpose. In a sense it does. It’s purpose is simply to exist.