“Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails.
Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big,
others quickly copy it. Then you do something else.
The trick is the doing something else.”
— Leonardo da Vinci, thinker, scientist, artist
Presently our scientific knowledge doesn’t know the origins of our existence and we may never be able to answer the questions associated with those origins. Most of the enormous amount of what we do know, we have learned in the past 100 years or so.
Imagine what a prehistoric man would have thought of the things we take for granted today. If he saw a light bulb he would have no way of understanding what it was. If the light was turned on, he might very well have fallen to his knees and worshipped it as a godly thing. There are still people deep in some jungle somewhere who haven’t advanced much past the prehistoric state who might do the same. Not knowing the origin of the existence of matter does not mean that we should turn to thousand-year-old superstitions and folk tales for an explanation.
What is the purpose of life?
More so, whoever said there had to be one? Maybe, we just live. Maybe, we just are. What we do know is we are born through a natural biological process and die from the same process. Do dogs or cats or rabbits or rats need a purpose to justify their existence? Of course not, they are animals of low intellect. Just about every cell in our bodies contains the evidence of our evolutionary origins. By assuming that living things have some sort of metaphysical purpose, they are intrinsically assuming what they want to prove.
Purpose is an abstract human concept that exists only in our minds, much like beauty — with no physical reality. The basic process of life on Earth is so common that we share about 50% of our genes with carrots, and 98.5% of our genes with chimpanzees. In fact, according to the journal Nature, “earliest known ancestors of modern humans might have reproduced with early chimpanzees to create a hybrid species”.
But even though we share almost identical DNA with chimpanzees, most have nothing more than the basic survival instinct. That instinct is why they were able to survive and evolve while other species became extinct just as Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals lacked the ability to survive and Homo sapiens flourished. We have the same basic instinct as lesser animals, but we also have the ability to make tools and to use REASON.
We are simply smarter animals at the top of the evolutionary chain. No other animal has the ability or the need to contemplate his or her life. It’s only us, the smartest animals. We are aware of our existence and the world around us. We are sentient. We know that we are alive and will some day die. It is the fear of death that drives people to hope and/or imagine that there is a life after this one. Even I, a committed Atheist by my own admission, hope there is a life after this one.
Unfortunately, I have never seen any proof that there is, and of all the friends and relatives I have known that are now dead, not one has ever come back and told me otherwise. With absolutely no proof to the contrary, it appears that when you’re dead, you’re dead…end of story. “Death is therefore nothing to us and does not concern us at all, since it appears that the substance of the soul is perishable. When the separation of body and soul, whose union is the essence of our being, is consummated, it is clear that absolutely nothing will be able to reach us and awaken our sensibility.
“Not even if earth mixes with sea and seas with heaven.”
— De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), Roman poet Lucretius (d. 55BCE)
Can it be that Gods and our ‘souls’ were created out of peoples’ misunderstanding of natural things, their fear of death and the desire to live forever? At one time people worshipped the sun because they thought it was some magical thing, but we know now that it is simply a huge ball of burning hydrogen held together by a powerful gravitational force and that there are millions of stars just like it in the universe. Consider someone worshiping the sun today: Would not even an elementary school student consider them odd or primitive in their thinking?
“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.”
— Ecclesiastes 9: 5-6 (King James Version)
So where are we in all this? Maybe, the same place as everyone else. We decide what life we want to lead. We define our own purpose. It’s OUR responsibility to create the life WE desire. We don’t need to worry about whether there is a supernatural purpose for our existence or some existential meaning to life. I prefer to live my life by a very wise tradition establish in India circa 3000 BC. Does the following sound familiar?
“This is the sum of duty. Do not unto others that which would cause you pain if done to you.”
— Mahabharata 5:1517, from the Vedic tradition of India
Let’s strive to enjoy the life we have!
Life just is! And so is death!
*****************************
Orlando Jack founded the Orlando Atheists and Freethinkers in 2002.
Sphere: Related Content
Related Posts: