Quote:
Originally Posted by mrcnkwcz
Different senses of the word 'purpose', obviously. Anything created by man can be said to have a purpose from the perspective of its individual creator. A purposeless process (evolution) in a purposeless setting (the universe) has produced a species that senses purpose in its day-to-day survival, the maximization of its longevity, and various objects of affection. An objectively purposeless realm operating on purposeless principles has produced purpose-sensing and purpose-imagining beings...call it a paradox, call it irony, that's reality. To claim that some property X of an objectively purposeless overarching 'arena' can magically be infused with objective purpose is to, I would think, intentionally obfuscate the issue by conflating two major senses of the word 'purpose'--those being 'ultimate' v 'instrumental', objective v subjective.
You still haven't let go of the Christian story of creation. You still think that in order for something to have a purpose, it must have a creator that gives it that purpose. But my car's purpose doesn't come from just its creators, it also comes from me. If I decided I want to use it as part of an art installation, then that would be its purpose. If I decided to use it as an abode, then that would be. It's true that the people who created my car knew that lots of people want something that would get them from point A to B quickly, and so made something good for that, but that is not essential to an object's purpose. Horses, which are not made by humans, also can be used for the purpose of getting people from point A to B quickly.
This is why you think atheism immediately and obviously implies a lack of purpose for human lives. If the only way a human life can have a purpose is if a conscious creator made them for that purpose, then if there is no god creating humanity, but only the nonconscious laws of science restricting the otherwise randomness of nature into certain pathways, then of course nothing has a purpose (I'll politely ignore for now the obvious fact that conscious creators called "parents"
do create humans lives for a purpose all the time). But in fact, creation is
not required for something to have a purpose. I can repurpose something created with one end in mind for another. I can use found objects for a purpose of my own.
The reason why it seems silly to think the universe as a whole has a purpose is because only a godlike being - one powerful enough to actually affect the distant stars - can truthfully be said to use it as a whole. Humans certainly can't. Individual humans are generally only able to consciously and purposefully affect the things in their immediate vicinity, and at approximately their size (although science is changing this). However, one of the things we are most able to actually affect is our own lives. We make decisions about what to eat, how to spend our leisure time, with whom and what kind of relationships to have, careers, etc. And it's not only us - other humans also use people for their own purposes all the time. It's in this sense that our lives can have a real purpose of their own.
Now, it is true that many people struggle to have this sense of control and purpose over their own lives. Their decisions feel to them outside of their conscious control and in some cases are. But that is a problem (maybe! see Buddhism) for them, not a universal truth about reality. My own life has a purpose - the purpose I've given it, along with the purposes my friends, family, co-workers, fellow hobbyists, you guys here, and others have given it. You think this is some kind of a paradox because you can't let go of something you call an "objective" purpose, which you think God creates for humans in the Christian mythos. No...any purpose God has for humans would still be subjective, just like our own purposes. Even Christian theology acknowledges the possibility of rebellion, of choosing to go against God's purposes for our own.
Last edited by Original Position; 12-06-2018 at 02:13 PM.
Reason: clarity