The Purpose of Life

Sidenote: The below is philosophical discussion. I don't intend to change any opinions or to say that my opinion is ultimately correct. I am simply posing food for thought.

I often ponder the reason for life and existence. It seems improbable that all of this world could just appear randomly and it is comforting for me to believe there is a God, so I believe there is a God. However, I am no longer convinced that humans are as great in His eyes as we believe we are.

The idea of creationism, and much of the Bible, is that humans were God's end-goal. He created the earth, seas, skies, and animals all so that humans could live well. Adam and Eve sinned, kicking us out of the garden of Eden and forcing us into a cold, dark world with painful childbirth (thanks a lot Eve).

But science has proven that humans have existed for an extremely short amount of time compared to the rest of the world. The earth has been around for about 4.54 billion years, an expanse of time too large for us to truly comprehend. Modern humans, on the other hand, have been around for only about 200,000 years, and even though this number is equally difficult to completely comprehend, we can easily see that 4.54 billion is much much larger than 200,000. If humans were God's goal all along, why did it take so long for us to come into existence?

There is, of course, the extremely valid argument that time is irrelevant because we can't possibly know how God experiences it. Perhaps those seven days discussed in the Bible are really 4.54 billion years, but in terms that us humans with our puny mortal brains can understand. However, recently, a new theory of life has emerged before me and inspired a new thought: Maybe humans aren't the main characters.

I highly advise you to read the full article here, but I will also supply a brief summary in order to highlight the parts I thought were important. At a bare minimum, the article states that a possible "purpose" for life is to fulfill the second law of thermodynamics and move everything into equilibrium. The idea is that evolution is driven by the tendency for atoms to find the most efficient way to move energy and that life itself is a result of atoms organizing in an attempt to reach equilibrium.

All of these ideas got me thinking that maybe humans are not God's great intention. Humans have placed themselves on top of a pedestal ready to be loved and praised, but perhaps the praise will never come because we are not the great success. We may merely be a stepping stone to something even more amazing that, like 4.54 billion, we cannot truly comprehend.

If you consider humans in context of the world we understand, we're very smart and successful creatures. But if you think of humans int he context of the world that has existed and will exist beyond us, we are hardly a speck of dust. There are species, such as the shark and the turtle, which have vastly outlived humans. So who are we to think that we, with our meager 200,000 years of existence, are the best creatures that have ever existed? That we are what God wanted from the very beginning?

Someone from Welcome to Nightvale (a strange, but entertaining podcast) once Tweeted:

Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you.

— Night Vale podcast (@NightValeRadio) January 6, 2015

And maybe they have a point. We have this strong tendency to place ourselves as the main character or the main species. But perhaps it is time we try looking at humanity through the lens of all time rather than the lens of what we have succeeded in our small expanse of 200,000 years.

When I began learning about evolution, physics, geology, and all those other sciences that conflict wit the bible, I began reworking my idea of God to make Him fit in with all this new knowledge. God went from an all powerful being who created a miracle to a "mad scientist" of sorts who created complex laws to govern the universe he created. My ideas of miracles changed from God making the impossible happen to God making the implausible happen. I referred to that concept as God "bending statistics." It is not that I believed that God was bound by his own laws, but that he chose to stick with them. After all, a world without rules would be utter chaos.

The purpose of this post is not to change anyone's opinions on God. I don't endeavor to make you believe or disbelieve. I simply wanted to share my thoughts with you about how humans may not be the main character we seem to think we are. If we aren't the main character, what does that imply for how we should be using the earth? Are we here to pose a challenge to all life on the planet or to make the planet better as the bible suggests? Leave me a comment if you have any ideas about this concept. I'd love to listen or discuss.