BidenPresident
Verified User
Not really.
What is the meaning of life?
- Thread starter BidenPresident
- Start date
Not really.
To the best of our current knowledge, we are the only advanced sentient life in our part of the galaxy.
If there is sentient life elsewhere, there's no guarantee they think like us about values and meaning, or whether they evolved to be strictly purpose-driven and strictly pragmatic.
Either way, I am reasonably confident that in our galaxy, advanced sentient life that thinks about meaning, values, and ultimate truth is exceedingly rare. We might even say precious. Our minds may be the only rational conciousness that contemplated the ultimate meaning of truth and value, whether mathmatical truth, scientific truth, aesthetic truth, or transcendent truth.
Even when we are gone as a species, I still think that would have created a unique moment in the cosmos. The Grand Canyon will be gone someday too, but I don't think that diminishes the beauty it imparted to the Earth.
NiftyNiblick
1960s Chick Magnet
All I can say in response is that I've seen the Grand Canyon up close and personal with my own eyes.
As advertised, it's a massive hole in the ground.
At least we have general consensus that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
Even still, I cannot deny that things exist in this universe which at least "feel" spiritual.
Breaking 80 on the golf course for the first time.
Coitus and companionship with somebody you really love.
A great meal with great wine and a great dessert.
Having kids that still love you when they're 47 and 50.
A good face licking from a loving dog.
Life tries its best to suck, perhaps,
but sometimes it does really fail,
even if it's just in moments.
I said the universe is neutral.
BidenPresident
Verified User
Are people part of the universe?
You see, I believe this universe is teeming with life. Is it self aware like us? I have no reason to believe otherwise.
BidenPresident
Verified User
God is the ultimate narcissist.
Does not answer your prayer? He does not feel like it.
Rules for living? Does not explain why those rules are good.
You have to worship and praise god.
Does not answer your prayer? He does not feel like it.
Rules for living? Does not explain why those rules are good.
You have to worship and praise god.
Cellular or self aware life is substantially different than the kind of higher conciousness that contemplates values, meaning, and the cosmos.
It's definitely possible there is microbial or multicellular life out there
Homo Sapiens are the only species in 4.5 billion years of Earth history that has advanced sentience. And I'm not sure if that was preordained by evolution, or just a fluke of environmental circumstances.
In addition, any life that is conceivable in the observable cosmos requires basically a perfect storm of conditions which rarely found.
Based on the information we have, I just see the possibility of higher conciousness that contemplates meaning, values, and truth to be slim or exceedingly rare
NiftyNiblick
1960s Chick Magnet
That's because you don't believe that the universe is infinite, C.
If the universe is infinite, there would probably be an infinite number of planets identical to ours,
and our self-assessment as a very special species
would be very presumptuous.
I honestly have no reason to care, frankly,
because my curiosity tends to ponder different things,
but my personal perception, lacking the understanding of physics to have inclinations otherwise,
is that the universe is indeed a random manifestation infinite in its dimensions,
matter suddenly existing, occurring by phenomena I can't even imagine,
or perhaps always having been there in the incomprehensible concept of backwards infinity,
and since it's all-inclusive, there is only one of them.
I'm not at all making an argument to defend this against other theories, understand.
I'm nowhere near qualified for that.
It's just what seems most logical to me,
the few times that I think about,
usually after reading one of your thought-provoking posts.
I am not particularly persuaded by the infinite copies of Earth in an infinite universe argument.
First, infinity is a problematic concept. We've never seen evidence of infinity in reality, and don't know if it's just an abstract concept in number theory, or if it's something that could be manifested physically.
Next, I don't think it's follows logically that the laws of physics are uniform everywhere else outside our observable horizon of the big bang/cosmic microwave radiation background. In order for complex matter to even form, a very precise and finely tuned set of physical constants had to freeze out of the hot big bang. I don't think it's neccesarily a good assumption that these physical parameters hold uniformly everywhere else outside the observable horizon of our Big Bang event.
evince
Truthmatters
May be the most optimistic post I have ever seen you post
evince
Truthmatters
Millions of people every year choose to tour the Grand Canyon, rather than tour the Toledo Ohio wastewater treatment plant.
I believe that is because humans nearly universally recognize that natural beauty of the highest order has an intrinsic aesthetic value we want to protect.
It proves it can happen once, and it's not unreasonable to speculate it could happen elsewhere.
But we don't even know how it happened here yet. The science of abiogenesis has been an area of research for 70 years, but we still don't really have the explanation for how complex biology emerged from inert chemicals, although there is plenty of ongoing research and conjecture
evince
Truthmatters
Our attempts to understand the processes when we don’t have the evidence to base our conjectures on doesn’t mean there is no process
We are missing puzzle pieces
We may not be able to find evidence of those things here on earth
Multiple life seeding events may have taken place on our earth
So it appears to come from no where
We are the proof those responsible events can happen
Life here has flourished
So in the right conditions it works great
We possessed a planet with the right conditions when that celestial seeding took place
Most likely an accidental seeding
But maybe not
We don’t have the facts to determine
If we can manage not to destroy our viability for life
We will someday know these answers
NiftyNiblick
1960s Chick Magnet
If most people think the Grand Canyon is beautiful, it's beautiful.
I thought it was a pretty visual, but that's about it.
I'm sure that I see beauty in things that others wouldn't appreciate.
I guess that I'm not a nature guy, because I view nature as a random manifestation and not anybody's achievement.
It can be pretty, but that's about it for me.
I agree that there is definitely some currently unknown physical-chemical process involved.
A question I have is how readily and easily this process takes place, and can it be expected that life is ubiquitous in the galaxy?
The speed bump I keep running up against is that in 4.5 billion years, life only arose from inert chemicals once on Earth. Our information is that all life today, and all life that ever existed came from a single called universal common ancestor that lived around 3.5 billion years ago scientists call LUCA. Everything else has just been evolution and speciation
Whatever the process was, it doesn't seem like it happens very often. In fact, given a time span of four billion years, it seems exceedingly rare and almost fluke like. We have never seen evidence since LUCA that complex biology ever emerged from inert chemicals.
That makes for great scientific question.
If you are the type that appreciates great art, great music, elegant culture, then that's just another form of appreciation of aesthetic beauty. Without quibbling over the details, profound appreciation of aesthetics is uniquely a human value.
I don't think rats really care if they live in Windsor Palace, or in an abandoned factory.
NiftyNiblick
1960s Chick Magnet
We don't know for sure, but I see your point.