(September 3, 2013 at 2:25 am)ronedee Wrote:(September 1, 2013 at 8:42 am)Tonus Wrote: There is no reason why it should be logical to expect there to be some greater, overarching meaning to the existence of the universe, or of Earth, or of humanity.Why not greater?
Just because we don't know something; means its not possible to have higher thoughts, or that we are overarching meanings of things?
You misunderstand me. There is no reason to assume that there must be some greater purpose or meaning. It may make us feel better to think that there is, and if it drives us to progress in some meaningful way, then it's beneficial to do so. But wanting there to be something does not make it so.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould