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Old 05-26-2015, 03:22 AM   #85 (permalink)
Guybrush
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Wilkes Booth View Post
yea, no doubt there is an important philosophical distinction to be made between a premeditated purpose and an emergent function

but i think in either case, the statement "x exists for y"

or in this case specifically "humans/organisms exist to reproduce/propagate genes" is still accurate

you really don't need for the propagation of genes to be a premeditated goal with regard to the 'design' of humans in order to make this statement true. because even in the alternative scenario... where humans exist as a consequence of the laws of natural selection... because for whatever reason it was statistically favorable for genes to be hosted by an organism, and this organism was shaped and modified over time by natural selection for fitness... the statement that humans exist to propagate these genes is still true, objectively speaking.

because if the laws of nature didn't give rise to this natural competition between replicating molecules which lead to the development of organisms as a way to host and spread these molecules, humans literally wouldn't exist. so i don't think you need an intelligent designer to say that organisms do have an objective purpose, with regard to the trends produced by natural law.
I don't think I understand your argument.

I might compare nature to a board with differently shaped holes in it and then compare organisms to pegs with different shapes. Some of these pegs will slip through the holes while others won't. Noone designed the board with any purpose, it just came to be through a process of cause and consequence. The same could be said for the organisms (pegs). Could you then say that the objective for a peg is to be shaped so that it slips through a hole in the board?
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