Quote:
Originally Posted by tore
Tying in with the subject of this thread, PoorOldPo is wondering why we are here. Of course, I'd just say we're a consequence of the physical rules that apply to the universe. That elements were created and combined in various ways and at some point created early replicators which, through evolution, eventually gave rise to all the life on our planet. Extrapolating from that, I would think there is no objective meaning to our existence; there was a cause and we're a consequence.
If you start studying this rough idea, you'll find that it is supported in many little ways by present day proof, but we probably won't find fossils of the very earliest replicators. In other words, believing they existed requires a little bit of faith.
I think people who have a hard time having faith in science have either been more or less indoctrinated at some point with competing ideas or they don't understand enough science to make sense of it properly.
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This is how I'd explain it as well
. To me, junk theories or extremely vague ideas which explain little to nothing and without much progress is subject to the razor of Occam. Of course, sometimes the bluntness of science with reasonable evidence backing it up can shake people up. Evolution by natural selection is a prime example - at least in earthly terms (and with some aid from chemistry), it can explain
why we are here. That we evolved from a common ancestor and many other animals share our features.
The implication can be terrifying - only those who successfully passed on the genes went on to survive with most others nearing extinction. But this also points to the vast imperfections all around us - that we don't see, hear or smell as well as some other species doesn't make it any less real and are just the consequences of the continuous sculpting process at work. I would certainly focus a lot more of my time on studying the fossil record or the images of the Hubble Space telescope or on improving (read: investing in terms of
money) the current scientific framework than to inadvertently carry on along the lines of "to what purpose is all of this".