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cosmic purpose

In an earlier post I talk about how "Atkins denies that the universe has a meaning or purpose, and then displays at every point in the discussion, a craving for unbounded knowledge of what is. That atheist is so purpose driven."


More on the same theme.  It seems to me that Atkins' objection to cosmic purpose is based on the fact that there is no measurable "purpose-fact" out there in the world.  Granted.  But he's looking in the wrong place.  Instead of looking for purpose in galaxies and black holes, look at    human beings (and possibly by other rational beings) engaged in distinctively human activities.  That is because of the way that purpose relates us to each other and to the universe.  Place a bunch of humans in the same place and you get -- not a sum of individual purposes -- but a community with one purpose: to discover what others would also recognize as true... something naturally achieved together with them.


Whatever our ultimate goal or purpose might be, it involves truth.  And seeking truth relates us toward all rational beings at any time or place for truths are judgments that hold for all.  And the world is the dwelling of those who share the truth in common, shares in that one goal of all rational beings.  If the world has a purpose, it is (let's risk sounding Heideggerian) to be our home.

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