Is there any purpose in the universe?

[tonyrey]

Some people don’t believe there is any purpose in the universe but David Hume who was a notorious sceptic wrote:

A purpose, an intention, a design strikes everywhere the most careless, the most stupid thinker; and no man can be so hardened in absurd systems, as at all times to reject it.

davidhume.org/texts/dnr.html

What is your opinion?

 

[yppop]

Tony,
Here is my simple view:

“What do I mean when I ask, what is the nature of God and the meaning of life? I am not sure about others, but what I mean is this: our existence, our presence on earth, has a purpose. If this were not so and life had no purpose, then surely, life would have no hope. Purpose and hope are what a God-oriented paradigm sets before us; therefore, my quest begins with the belief that there is a God, that there is a purpose that promises hope; because without hope there is no meaning. For me, it is not the hope that we win the lottery—that is a very transitory hope—the hope I seek is that of something beyond this life. The secret, then, to finding the meaning of life is to ascertain God’s purpose for creating us and the nature of that promised hope.”

Yppop

 

[Padres1969]

To go really fast. I mean seriously, even if the universe has no other purpose, we do seem to hurtle through it at ridiculous speeds. We’re spinning around on this planet at about 1040 MPH. Earth is hurtling itself and us around the Sun at about 65,000 MPH. The sun and solar system are hurtling around the galactic center at about 483,000 MPH. And the galaxy is moving at 1.3 million MPH through space.

I can only conclude even if we didn’t know anything else about God, that God love speed.

 

[mikekle]

That is just knowledge we do not have yet, until space travel becomes commonplace, it will remain a mystery.

Personally I think there is likely a very good reason why there are so many different types of planets and systems out there, I think in the future we may learn about this and will probably be amazed at how complex it all is and how very small we truly are.

I mean, we are but one species, on one planet in one system…then to realize even modern day astronomers know for a fact there are billions of other planets/ systems out there, God had to have some reason to put them all there, and some reason to make them all so different from each other.

I believe our universe is probably a lot like Star wars or Star trek, LOTS and LOTS of inhabited planets/ systems, and all very different from each other, I think some were created long before us and probably some created after.

Just the life on this planet alone shows us how creative God is, why would he just create one little planet with life, when he has billions of other ‘canvases’ to work with.

 

[Crusaderbear]

We are here, thats purpose enough for today - tomorrow we’ll take the next step.

 

[Tomdstone]

To go really fast. I mean seriously, even if the universe has no other purpose, we do seem to hurtle through it at ridiculous speeds. We’re spinning around on this planet at about 1040 MPH. Earth is hurtling itself and us around the Sun at about 65,000 MPH. The sun and solar system are hurtling around the galactic center at about 483,000 MPH. And the galaxy is moving at 1.3 million MPH through space.

I can only conclude even if we didn’t know anything else about God, that God love speed.

All motion is relative. For me, it just doesn’t seem like I am travelling 500000MPH as I am sitting down drinking a glass of water. It seems that I am stationary and the rest of the universe is moving.

 

[HerCrazierHalf]

Is purpose required?

Must it be from an external source? Perhaps purpose is generated internally by the individual.

 

[Tomdstone]

Is purpose required?

Must it be from an external source? Perhaps purpose is generated internally by the individual.

Early man might have asked:
Why is this rock round and the other rock is sharp edged?
The answer is that they have a different purpose.
This rock was made round so that we can use it as a stool to sit down on.
The other rock was made sharp so that we can use it to cut our food.

 

[meltzerboy]

Is purpose required?

Must it be from an external source? Perhaps purpose is generated internally by the individual.

Yes, purpose is “generated internally by the individual.” And it is required in the sense that humans seem to have a need for purpose, goals, reasons, explanations, and meaning to their lives.

 

[HerCrazierHalf]

Yes, purpose is “generated internally by the individual.” And it is required in the sense that humans seem to have a need for purpose, goals, reasons, explanations, and meaning to their lives.

Well that was pleasantly unexpected. So would that make purpose a human need? If so, would that mean we are treating the universe in an anthropomorphic manner.

An object can have a purpose, but typically a simple one related to a task. But that purpose can be changed at anytime by the user of the object. A key’s purpose is to open locks, but in a defensive situation its purpose can be changed to a weapon.

 

[RPRPsych]

Whatever happened to “to know God, to love Him, to serve Him, and to be united with Him in eternity” - something that, in a mysterious way, encompasses not only humanity, but all of creation (Romans 8)?

Silly me. Perhaps I should save these thoughts for a religious forum and not a secular one…

Oh, wait…

 

[meltzerboy]

Well that was pleasantly unexpected. So would that make purpose a human need? If so, would that mean we are treating the universe in an anthropomorphic manner.

An object can have a purpose, but typically a simple one related to a task. But that purpose can be changed at anytime by the user of the object. A key’s purpose is to open locks, but in a defensive situation its purpose can be changed to a weapon.

Before you get your hopes up that I was TOTALLY in agreement with what you said, let me add that we humans’ need for purpose does not rule out that the universe can also have an external purpose, a destiny shaped by G-d.

 

[phil_at_dayboro]

Trying to understand the purpose of the Universe and how such a tiny little obscure speck such as our Galaxy fits in the much much bigger picture which is the entire universe ,
Is completely incomprehensible, I find Saint Augustine’s mystery of the trinity a help in realising we just can’t ever fully understand what it’s all about

 

[tonyrey]

Trying to understand the purpose of the Universe and how such a tiny little obscure speck such as our Galaxy fits in the much much bigger picture which is the entire universe ,Is completely incomprehensible, I find Saint Augustine’s mystery of the trinity a help in realising we just can’t ever fully understand what it’s all about

We obviously can’t understand the entire purpose of the Universe but as Pascal pointed out we are superior because we are aware it exists whereas there is no evidence it is aware we exist. We also have the power - to some extent - to control ourselves and our environment which we tend to take for granted but it seems miraculous when we consider it amounts to altering the normal course of events and apparently infringing the law of conservation of energy. Nor do we do this accidentally but for specific reasons. In an allegedly irrational, purposeless universe it is an anomaly that we are the sole rational, purposeful beings…

 

[tonyrey]

Before you get your hopes up that I was TOTALLY in agreement with what you said, let me add that we humans’ need for purpose does not rule out that the universe can also have an external purpose, a destiny shaped by G-d.

Which is a more intelligible explanation than attributing everything to Chance or physical Necessity…

 

[tonyrey]

Whatever happened to “to know God, to love Him, to serve Him, and to be united with Him in eternity” - something that, in a mysterious way, encompasses not only humanity, but all of creation (Romans 8)?

Silly me. Perhaps I should save these thoughts for a religious forum and not a secular one…

Oh, wait…

On the contrary this is a Catholic philosophy forum which welcomes members and visitors with different views but we also give reasons for what we believe. There is room for everyone here…

 

[tonyrey]

Well that was pleasantly unexpected. So would that make purpose a human need? If so, would that mean we are treating the universe in an anthropomorphic manner.

On the contrary the universe is ratiocentric because it is intelligible - which need not be the case. It could be completely incomprehensible - which seems more likely in view of its immensity and our apparent insignificance as incredibly minute specks in the context of time and space.

An object can have a purpose, but typically a simple one related to a task. But that purpose can be changed at anytime by the user of the object. A key’s purpose is to open locks, but in a defensive situation its purpose can be changed to a weapon.

It is easy to take for granted our purposeful nature which entails hindsight, insight and foresight which distinguish us from every other living organism on this planet.

 

[tonyrey]

Is purpose required?

Must it be from an external source? Perhaps purpose is generated internally by the individual.

It cannot be generated internally in the sense that we create it. We are essentially purposeful beings like monocellular organisms which seek to survive, the difference being that we can choose our goals whereas they are unaware of what they are doing - which makes their behaviour all the more remarkable. The immense leap from inanimate structures has never been explained : Natura non facit saltus…

 

[Della]

We have been told precisely why and what the purpose of the universe is in very plain language, that we too often spiritualize away or gloss over:

Col. 1:[15] He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation;
[16] for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.

The bolded part says it all. The universe was created for the God-man, Christ to do with as he pleased. And it pleased him to do his Father’s will to redeem mankind and make us into his own image, so that we too would have what was created for him. Our purpose is his purpose.

People have often asked on CAF why the universe is so big since we, who are created in God’s image, are so small. Well, how big is Christ? It’s his universe, it exists for by his design and purpose, why wouldn’t it be as big as he wished it to be, he who is God?

 

[JapaneseKappa]

Yes, purpose is “generated internally by the individual.” And it is required in the sense that humans seem to have a need for purpose, goals, reasons, explanations, and meaning to their lives.

I got to an understanding of “purpose” via an unusual route. I thought about how I would make a computer program to write a story.

In order to write a good story with interesting characters, you need to have some information about why the characters did what they did. In order for there to actually be such information, the only things the characters need are:

1. Expectations about the outcome of events.
2. A preference for certain future events over others.

With those two things alone, you can start to talk about purpose. You don’t need magic, or souls, or anything else.

A rock falling off a cliff might ordinarily seem like a purposeless event, but if a character had expected that the falling rock would lead to an outcome they preferred (e.g. landing on the bad guy) then suddenly the falling rock is purposeful and important to include in the story.

One interesting tangent is to ask whether or not God is capable of imparting purpose to this universe under this framework. God is not capable of having expectations because he can only have certainty.