trailblazer

Well, the first thread has certainly generated some very interesting posts with respect to why the universe exists.

But the original post was asking a bit more: So I was hoping a separate thread could look at the other half of this question: why do we homo sapiens exist?

To get things started, I'll bring up a fairly well-known possibility, of which I am very skeptical but it still makes for good discussion, that we exist primarily to pass on our DNA to the subsequent generation. Your thoughts on that? What about other theories?

Coyote Says

I'm not too fond of that theory. It makes me wonder about the "chicken and egg" question.

Maybe we are here simply to behold the wonders of the universe. Isn't that enough?

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trailblazer

Well, it begs the question: "Who would care one way or another whether we're beholding the wonders of the universe?"

emptypepsi

Trailblazer, I like your philosophy questions

To me, the question is about the same in terms of relevance as "Why do shellfish exist?" or "Why do buffalos exist?" Life is the big picture question, but humans are really just a facet of that. Humans are the highest rung, though we are arguably not the be all and end all of life on this planet. Maybe another good question, along similar lines, is 'What is the chief end of man?' I've had a person trick-end the discussion of this once and say "to ask questions." I think there may be more truth to that than we realize.

In all honesty: being a firm agnostic, I feel that the reason for the existence of human life, the earth, the universe -- all rests on a plateau beyond even the realm of complex human understanding. Perhaps we are here to evolutionize into pure physical beauty and hapiness. Perhaps we are here to serve a purpose that has not yet been conceived.

I once heard a guy say that the second someone figures out the meaning of the universe, it will instantly blink out of existence.

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Scruff

That question is actually a fairly straightforward evolution vs. creation problem. If the chicken was first then some external force had to create the chicken (a.k.a. a god). If it was the egg then some other creature spawned the egg and the chicken was a mutation.

trailblazer

Thanks!

I suppose if you subscribe to the purpose of life as passing on DNA, you could say that shellfish and buffaloes exist for the same reason(s) as we do: after enough generations, they too will turn into humans. Of course, we humans meanwhile are likely to turn into something else - although we'll have some control in terms of how we manipulate our own genes!

The whole thing gets very trippy when you start to think through all the possible consequences...