Does the Universe Have a Purpose?
That was the question in a Templeton Foundation ad in a science magazine. Everybody apparently assumed that the meaning of the question was self-evident. But this question has several facets.
- Is the universe by design ordered to support the purposes of human beings?
- Is the ultimate purpose of the universe to be home for human beings?
- Do human beings themselves have a purpose, e.g., to be gobbled up by a Hartshornian God into objective immortality?
- Is there a purpose to human life as a whole? What is it?
My answers are: yes to 1; yes to 2; no to 3, insofar as human beings are ends in themselves; yes, happiness to 4.
Posted: November 6th, 2007 under Philosophy.