Does the universe have a purpose?

Manc Skipper said:

The adult accepts that what is, just is. The child seeks meaning where none resides apart from what the child magically infers.

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No one ever accepted that. Lack of curiosity is hardly the signature of our species.

The child wonders. The adult investigates. Resignation plays no part for either.

Suppose there were nothing. Then there would be no laws, for laws after all are something. If there were no laws then everything would be permitted. If everything were permitted then nothing would be forbidden. So if there were nothing, nothing would be forbidden. Thus, nothing is self-forbidding. Therefore there must be something.

It would make perfect sense that we would not know the purpose of the universe.

Heck, we don't even know the purpose of the galaxy.

And my own purpose is up for grabs as well.

There may be a purpose to the things I do, but that purpose is my own.

In the bigger picture, my very existence, I'm not really sure what my purpose for being is.

Ultimately, my purpose may only be known by a greater entity.

That could be God ..

.. Though the Pres and other government officials may have an opinion on what my purpose should be, as it suits them.

So maybe my purpose is to perceive God's "message" to me, do what God asks of me, perceive the "world" in and around me, and report that back to God .. wash, rinse, and repeat.

And maybe I do all that all the time .. just by being me.

That's kind of like a blood cell in my body. It's purpose is to serve me in those ways .. or at least that's its purpose from my perspective. It may have other ideas, as it goes about its business.

Still, that makes me wonder what God's purpose is. Does God have a purpose?

I would suspect that the greatest entity of all, within which all that exists exists, would be hard pressed to know his own purpose .. though I may just be projecting.

Maybe his purpose would simply be to be.

Maybe his purpose is to bring us into creation, the universe, our galaxy, our world and each one of us.

Maybe the purpose for us all is simply to be.

Anyway, until we can know what's on the creator's mind in this regard, we too will be hard pressed to answer the topical question.

Though that likely won't stop people from telling me what my purpose is, especially in early November in election years.

I believe that the Universe itself does not have a purpose, but the life in and throughout the Universe has a purpose. There are many ideas that support a centralized purpose of the universe, but none are necessarily supported. Each living thing has its own reason for being here, so in a way, individuals have individual purposes, but no form united purpose unless they themselves create a united purpose.

This question and its responses center around man's view of something instead of the something itself. It began and it will end depending on how one defines "end". What will be in billions of years from now will or will not be affected by the human species. What was before the universe and does it contract, expand again, then contract and so on and so on?

rhinefire said:

Suppose there were nothing. Then there would be no laws, for laws after all are something. If there were no laws then everything would be permitted. If everything were permitted then nothing would be forbidden. So if there were nothing, nothing would be forbidden. Thus, nothing is self-forbidding. Therefore there must be something.

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I think I get this. Nothing cannot exist by it's very nature of nothingness, therefore something DOES exist or we could not comment on it. So the purpose of the Universe is to exist, instead of nothing?

Makes sense to me and that is frightening. :shock:

In regards to OP I think the purpose of the universe is that a temporal universe where there is time, birth, and death, is mandatory for eternal creations. Given there is opposition in all things, laws that organize creations, matter that is eternal, for living intelligence light matter to reach the positive ends of eternal life with its infinite attributes there must be a second sphere of existence where they can temporarily fall and progress.

ThePlayDrive said:

I don't know if it has a purpose, but Neil made a mistake. He said that "anyone who expresses a more definitive response [than his own to the question], is claiming access to knowledge not based in empirical foundations." The error of that statement is that Neil doesn't know whether or not such assertions were based in empirical foundations because he doesn't know if the person making the claim has had an experience that Neil has not had, making Neil ignorant. What Neil should have said was that anyone who expresses...is claiming access to knowledge not based in scientifically verified foundations. He has no legitimate authority to dismiss other people's potential experiences.

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If you are talkng about people with "visions" or those hearing voices, they are included in those claiming knowledge not based on "empirical foundations". Seeing and hearing things that others don't is not proof of anything.

Jetboogieman said:

I'll let the great Neil deGrasse Tyson get us going here...

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Which one?

iguanaman said:

If you are talkng about people with "visions" or those hearing voices, they are included in those claiming knowledge not based on "empirical foundations". Seeing and hearing things that others don't is not proof of anything.

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In can be a symptom of various medical problems though.

If a thing exists, it might mean it has a purpose. That purpose might be transitory, or permanent.
If we remove a thing from existence without knowing its purpose, that can be risky, might even undo the supposed "delicate balance"s in the equations of life and living.....
aka, Don't mess with Mother Nature.....enjoy, but don't destroy.

Of course the question really should be, "does the Omniverse have a purpose"?

I say that there is good reasoning that there is more than one metaverse (our own) and any purpose would have to include at least a significant part of the Omniverse.

The answer that I would give is making a Party Hat.

This is a surreal answer and its intention is not to answer the question but to point out that if there were a purpose it is beyond any framework that we are capable of understanding.:twocents:

Does it need a purpose?

Take all the wonderous pictures captured by our space probes then note the most incredible thing in all creation is the human brain. Why was it created? Why aren't we like the rest of life throughout the entire universe? So to me, the universe is as the mind is. It's that simple. The brain is a result of the creation so what is the "next step" after creation? I do not believe for a second we are existing to ask questions but to answer questions. The universe belongs to the human brain, "we will control the horizontal we will control the vertical" as the through the brain the universe can be altered. For those that have not read the theory that creation is nothing more than the workinga of a super computer, don't laugh until you can come up with a more logical explanation. Theoretical physicists are talking about the future when we may be able to create small universed and solar systems. So what happened a long time ago we may never know or we could as the "Brain" discover the brain created the universe!

Why assume creation? How do you know we are different? We arrived as pieces of amino acid in the water contained by meterorites.

The concept of ultimate meaning (purpose) is subjective, and each conscious entity decides for itself what such a purpose is. But a purpose as in how an object or an entity fits into the "puzzle" of existence is at best temporary. For example, a species may serve a purpose in a certain ecosystem, but when the ecosystem is altered in some way, said species may no longer serve a "purpose." It may either become extinct or it may instead adapt and serve a new purpose in its specific niche.

Evenstar said:

The concept of ultimate meaning (purpose) is subjective, and each conscious entity decides for itself what such a purpose is. But a purpose as in how an object or an entity fits into the "puzzle" of existence is at best temporary. For example, a species may serve a purpose in a certain ecosystem, but when the ecosystem is altered in some way, said species may no longer serve a "purpose." It may either become extinct or it may instead adapt and serve a new purpose in its specific niche.

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Or move to a new location

rhinefire said:

Suppose there were nothing. Then there would be no laws, for laws after all are something. If there were no laws then everything would be permitted. If everything were permitted then nothing would be forbidden. So if there were nothing, nothing would be forbidden. Thus, nothing is self-forbidding. Therefore there must be something.

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That is a human logical outcome. It does not has to be so.

grip said:

I think I get this. Nothing cannot exist by it's very nature of nothingness, therefore something DOES exist or we could not comment on it. So the purpose of the Universe is to exist, instead of nothing?

Makes sense to me and that is frightening. :shock:

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Why is it frightening to assume that the purpose of the universe is to exist?

DDD said:

Why is it frightening to assume that the purpose of the universe is to exist?

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Simply existing isn't good enough for most people. They want to be significant, special, and loved. Hence the invention of religion to fulfill weakened psyches.

The universe of course has a purpose. But what that purpose is remains to be answered each to their own.

I like to deal with facts: a) we shall die, b) we are getting older and going towards death by the uncontrollable flow of life "time," c) we seem to be choosing how, when, what to do within that life "time" (at least by most of it if circumstances allow so), d) on top of all that need to make sense of it all and find meaningful for us purpose (for some of us may not make others purposes intrinsic automatically).

Ikari said:

Does it need a purpose?

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No, nothing exists in this universe with a purpose. Take away this little spec called "Earth" (by man) and what is it? Is it somethingness or nothingness? We cannot reason existance. Since there is no answer there cannot be a question. Philosophy has no place in addressing the universe. Asking "why" is a hideous waste. Questions of time (that did not exist) such as what was before the start is nonsense. Our greatest thinkers and philosophers are blank as to any from of an answer and that is because there is no reason for an answer, no room in the total picture for an answer and if someone supports an answer, prove it!

DDD said:

Why is it frightening to assume that the purpose of the universe is to exist?

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That I might understand it's purpose was frightening and it was meant in a joking manner.

What do you think the universes purpose is beyond creating a lifeform that questions it's purpose?

grip said:

That I might understand it's purpose was frightening and it was meant in a joking manner.

What do you think the universes purpose is beyond creating a lifeform that questions it's purpose?

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That answer lies with anyone's imagination and current empirical limitations.

DDD said:

That answer lies with anyone's imagination and current empirical limitations.

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Oh is that so? Then why does nature imbue all species with the instinct to survive?