IAP Political Forum
December 03, 2008, 02:48:17 PM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
News: Welcome to the new "IAP 2.0" -- please re-register before continuing to post.
 
   Home   Blog Forum   Help Search Chat Login Register  
Digg This!
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 5   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Does the Universe Have a Purpose?  (Read 1547 times)
jpn of Seattle
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +241/-233
Posts: 2,022



View Profile
« on: September 16, 2007, 05:58:31 PM »

What do you think?
Logged

What you got is everything-and I mean everything—run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis. --John DiIulio, former White House official
daedalus 2.0
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +69/-397
Posts: 1,145



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2007, 07:35:58 PM »

No. We are along for a ride. Passangers of a Deterministic, Natural Universe. There is no goal, there is no final solution, or predetermined finish line, except as predicted by material mechanisms.
The average human lives about 1000 months. Enjoy it while you can. Wink
Logged

\\\\"SUCK IT, JESUS!\\\\" Kathy Griffin
\"Hitler burns Anne Frank for a day, and it\'s Evil.
God burns Anne Frank for eternity, and it\'s Just.\"Anon
neorealist
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +33/-33
Posts: 1,116


Mod of further light


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2007, 12:17:57 AM »

pretty deep thread JPN.
Yes, I think the universe has a purpose designed by a grand architect.

I think there is an easier question that stems from you question, "what is the purpose of man?"  IMO its to procreate.

As far as narrowing what the purpose of the universe as a whole is, well thats.....my brain just exploded
Logged

The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. - Robert Bloch
Major Zee Lee
Forum cat lover
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +64/-169
Posts: 566


Kooks not allowed in (Secret meeting is next door)


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2007, 02:54:48 AM »

I use to swing between feeling it's a bugger and feeling it's a gorgeous joke.

So, has the universe a purpose? Who cares. If it had, we wouldn't know; if we knew, we would be wrong; if we where right, it would suck; if it didn't sucked, we wouldn't be a part of it; and if we were a part of it, it couldn't be anything else but a joke...

As my new signature goes: Don't take life too seriously; nobody lives to tell... Smiley
Logged

Do not take life too seriously; nobody lives to tell.
Gojira
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +69/-101
Posts: 1,606


Blasphemy!


View Profile WWW
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2007, 04:40:22 PM »

What do you think?

To transcend and include for that which is old and new.
Logged

Our democracy has created an environment of indecision at times of impending crisis. 

If life is easy for you, then you aint livin.
Abraxas
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +212/-207
Posts: 4,098


"You do not speak for the rest"


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2007, 04:54:47 PM »

No purpose.

Does it need one? Is "purpose" some kind of precursor to "existence"? Does your ring finger have a purpose? What about your second toe?

Why can't something "occur" simply out of randomness?
Logged

Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like its from Neptune.
- Noam Chomsky

... you can almost see the high water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
- Hunter S. Thompson
Philosofear
Jr. Member
**

Karma: +10/-10
Posts: 65


View Profile
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2007, 05:15:27 PM »

No purpose.

Does it need one? Is "purpose" some kind of precursor to "existence"? Does your ring finger have a purpose? What about your second toe?

Why can't something "occur" simply out of randomness?

Why can't something occur out of randomness? Well random causation is a possibility but it is totally incompatiable with the orderly and structured operation of our world. If things were random, their would be no order, no reason, just things occuring and not occuring, an inconstruable uninterpretable ridiculous paradox.

Does the universe have an overriding purpose? Oh most definitely, but it is most likely self defined.
Logged
Abraxas
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +212/-207
Posts: 4,098


"You do not speak for the rest"


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2007, 05:42:10 PM »

Just because the creation is "random" does not make its function "random". If the universe's creation was random does not mean everything occuring inside it would be too. I don't see why a things function is a result of it's creation.

I was born from a very controlled set of perameters but I have choice to be as controlled or uncontrolled as I want.

Of course, this now begs the question whether the universe itself makes "choice". But that is going off topic.

Creation does not define function. That's the point I'm trying to make.

Quote from: Philosofear
Does the universe have an overriding purpose? Oh most definitely, but it is most likely self defined.

How so?
Logged

Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like its from Neptune.
- Noam Chomsky

... you can almost see the high water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
- Hunter S. Thompson
jpn of Seattle
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +241/-233
Posts: 2,022



View Profile
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2007, 08:01:46 PM »

Here's a link to some deep thinkers who took a swing at the question:

http://www.templeton.org/questions/purpose/

I think I like Neil deGrasse Tyson's answer the best. Then Major Zee Lee's  Smiley
Logged

What you got is everything-and I mean everything—run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis. --John DiIulio, former White House official
bringbackwigs
Professional Post-Whore
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +156/-183
Posts: 3,103


Please refrain from taking my posts seriously


View Profile WWW
« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2007, 09:56:05 PM »

Too early in the world to tell. Get over it: you weren't born during a time where things like this can been explained. It sucks, I know.
Logged

In religion and politics, people\\\\\\\\\'s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination. - Mark Twain

Major Zee Lee
Forum cat lover
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +64/-169
Posts: 566


Kooks not allowed in (Secret meeting is next door)


View Profile
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2007, 02:33:03 AM »

Neil De Grasse's answer is good, yes. I like it too. I'm just a bit more cynical about mankind.
Logged

Do not take life too seriously; nobody lives to tell.
IamMe
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +39/-126
Posts: 1,271



View Profile
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2007, 11:13:27 AM »

No purpose.

Does it need one? Is "purpose" some kind of precursor to "existence"? Does your ring finger have a purpose? What about your second toe?

Why can't something "occur" simply out of randomness?

Why can't something occur out of randomness? Well random causation is a possibility but it is totally incompatiable with the orderly and structured operation of our world.

How so?

Quote
If things were random, their would be no order, no reason, just things occuring and not occuring, an inconstruable uninterpretable ridiculous paradox.

So? I know you don't like it but it could still be true.
Logged

\\\\"Anarchism is the ideal to which all societies should approximate\\\\" - Bertrand Russell

If you strike me down I shall become more dead than you can ever imagine.
Totino
High Society
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +105/-133
Posts: 1,354



View Profile
« Reply #12 on: September 18, 2007, 04:35:04 PM »

No. We are along for a ride. Passangers of a Deterministic, Natural Universe. There is no goal, there is no final solution, or predetermined finish line, except as predicted by material mechanisms.
The average human lives about 1000 months. Enjoy it while you can. Wink

I for once have to actually agree with daedalus
Logged



\\\"Since you\\\'re going to loose everything anyway when you die, you might as well get rid of it now\\\"

\\\"All creations, including god, originate in the mind\\\"
jpn of Seattle
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +241/-233
Posts: 2,022



View Profile
« Reply #13 on: September 18, 2007, 09:04:04 PM »

Just because the creation is "random" does not make its function "random". If the universe's creation was random does not mean everything occuring inside it would be too. I don't see why a things function is a result of it's creation.

The universe is definately not random. It obeys very exact laws. Where life is concerned, the products of the evolutionary process are random. However, evolution itself is guided by natural selection, which is not a random process at all.
Logged

What you got is everything-and I mean everything—run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis. --John DiIulio, former White House official
Abraxas
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****

Karma: +212/-207
Posts: 4,098


"You do not speak for the rest"


View Profile
« Reply #14 on: September 18, 2007, 09:11:10 PM »

Just because the creation is "random" does not make its function "random". If the universe's creation was random does not mean everything occuring inside it would be too. I don't see why a things function is a result of it's creation.

The universe is definately not random. It obeys very exact laws. Where life is concerned, the products of the evolutionary process are random. However, evolution itself is guided by natural selection, which is not a random process at all.

The only thing that may have been random was it's creation. Everything else follows a strict set of laws.

That's what I was referring to.

Perhaps the creation of the universe was the quinicential moment of entropy...
Logged

Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like its from Neptune.
- Noam Chomsky

... you can almost see the high water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
- Hunter S. Thompson
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 5   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.4 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC
Joomla Bridge by JoomlaHacks.com
Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
Page created in 0.076 seconds with 27 queries.