Miriam Abrams says:
"'But Creation must have a purpose.'" (p. 87)
I quoted her here but did not respond adequately to her statement - although we have discussed this kind of issue often enough before! The word "Creation" begs the question. If someone created the universe, then no doubt they created it for some purpose but was it created? Purposes exist within conscious beings within the universe so how could the universe as a whole have any purpose? Any conscious beings that created this universe must have evolved in some previous universe so did it have a purpose?
Does this universe look as if the purpose of stellar fusion is to synthesize heavy elements that can become the basis of life and consciousness? Life is only temporary, local negative entropy and consciousness is a mere by-product of undirected natural selection. Cosmic processes are complicated but do not seem to be purposive.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It would have been more logical of Miriam to have said she believed the universe to have been purposively created. But if she was an at least hesitant agnostic, then she might well have felt unsure about expressing what amounted to a belief in a Creator.
Ad astra! Sean
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