Letters to the Editor
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funny
i didn't think the article was particularly mind-blowingly brilliant- after all, it neglected the obvious idea that the universe is so perfect for us because we evolved from its conditions. but i think it's funny that all the people decrying this POV do so on the grounds of such limited perspective. their perspective is as limited and naive as they claim paulson's is, only they, unlike him, are under the impression that there are already answers out there, and that they've got them.
i don't think paulson is particularly naive or stupid or erroneous. he's got interesting, thought provoking ideas. this is just one voice in, and one side of, a much larger conversation. this convo doesn't necessarily spring from fear of the unexplained or unexplainable...just an engagement with it. which i think is just great. :)
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funny
i didn't think the article was particularly mind-blowingly brilliant- after all, it neglected the obvious idea that the universe is so perfect for us because we evolved from its conditions.
Nope, the anthropic coincidences are entirely necessary to evolution as they provide the habitable zones of "practical environmental enablement", all the way down to our local ecosphere.
The whole point of Robert Dicke's anthropic statement was about the evolutionary process that comes to "fruition" on a bunch of extreme balance points at a specific time and "location" in the history of the universe, and Brandon Carter said that this meas that "we are not central, but we are "inevitably priveleged" by the physics.
He was right:
evolutionarydesign.blogspot.com/2007/02/goldilocks-enigma-again.html
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We are not meant to be here; we insist on being here
"For many of us it seems, it is inconceivable that the miracle of human existence is a random accident. For some reason, the randomness, the accidental-ness (if I can say that), negates meaning for these poor unimaginative souls"
Meaning and purpose are human categories that have evolved to help us survive. Man can intend to go to the moon, but the moon does not intend to go around earth. To say "we are meant to be here" implies that something outside humans - "God" or "the laws of the universe" wanted to create us. Man creates meaning and purpose as survival tools. Man created God as a survival tool. But no God or law of the universe "wants" us to exist - our will to exist comes from ourselves. Life started accidentally, but we are the product of millions of years of evolution, in which organisms have the sole purpose of surviving to pass on their genes. What started accidentally has now been shaped by millions of years of purpose-driven evolution. Meaning is therefore founded on meaninglessness, like the painting of the church floating hundreds of feet above solid rock. That meaning is, at root, meaningless in no way detracts from its value. In fact, it leaves us free to construct whatever meaning we wish for human life. If it were not this way, we would be slaves to some God or some non-human purpose.
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jared2
Did you know that your statements are completely false in context with Wheeler/Davies observer dependent quantum mechanics?
They are also false if we are simply necessary to the thermodynamic process.
So you're throwing out viable scientific avenues for persuit for the sake of your ideologically pre-decided worldview about purpose in nature.
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All this just for US?
IMHO, the idea that the universe was prepared just for us is a lot of happy horseshit. I daresay that there are in all likelihood other forms of life so different from ours (in one multiverse or another, maybe even this one) that we wouldn't recognize it as such if it ran up our pantsleg. The universe is what it is, and that's why we're here, AS ANOTHER PART OF IT, not separate from it.
Pleasant journey, everyone!
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Island01
For christ's sakes island01 will you just go PISS OFF?
Yeah I know this is your pet subject but give it a goddamn rest!
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Steven Weinberg's Causation Theory
Paul Davies innocently has fallen into the groove of predecessor religions. He fails to grasp that we are very latecomers born into, literally, the latest moment of the universe. Improbable events have happened every day of eternity past, with no contemplation of our particular existence. One great truth of eternity past and eternity future is that there is always some kind of outcome. To be born into a particular time and place is one of the outcomes of random events, which we cannot appreciate with our limited experience. We can learn only with great difficulty, and not very well, what events preceded our existence.
It is easier, and exceedingly profitable, to declare instead that "GOD" is the creator of our universe - and that WE are the sole representative of "GOD"; Further, if you want to live forever you must send your love gifts, in US funds, to the address displayed on your TV screen.
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Laws of the universe
I fail to see any connection between "the laws of the universe" and meaning and purpose in human life. The moon goes around the earth, the earth around the sun, the sun converts hydrogen into helium - all according to laws of the universe, but these have nothing whatever to do with meaning or lack of meaning in human life. There is simply no connection. We need the sun's energy to exist, but the sun does not shine for us. All life, including human, is simply a photo-chemical byproduct of processes like light energy from the sun acting on the earth's surface. Our sense of purpose comes from millions of years of intense evolution which has the survival of our genes as its sole purpose. Where did this will to survive and reproduce come from? Probably it is a feature of the evolutionary process itself. A self-sustaining chemical reaction. There is no need whatever for "God" or "purpose". I suspect that millions of years of evolution in which we have the strong "purpose" to survive shaped our thinking so that we feel everything must have an ultimate purpose; this is not the case.
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why
Why is Salon interviewing a Templeton recipient- as if he has something useful to say? That's just pathetic. One more sign of how far they have fallen.
oh and does anyone understand what "island" is babbling about? It's quite tiresome.