(January 30, 2014 at 11:48 pm)Lek Wrote: I have a powerful desire to know why the universe exists and our purpose for existence as individuals. I don't see science as a way to discover this. Do atheists search for the same thing and, if so, what is their source or method? I think most atheists don't see any purpose at all.I am curious to know how the universe came about and reached its present state, but no particular concern regarding whether or not there is some overarching purpose to its (and our) existence. My own life has purpose enough that I need not worry about what may happen once I am gone, outside of those things that I might be able to influence in some way or other.
Tell me, what do you think you would do if you suddenly discovered that there is no god and that this life is the only one you get?
"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
