Cosmologic philosophy: multiverse (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, January 11, 2017, 12:40 (2873 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: The meaning is the presence of us, thinking and debating.

dhw: You are welcome to think you are the meaning of the universe. I have a horrible feeling that the billions of solar systems coming and going couldn’t care less about you or me. If there is a God, you yourself have warned us many times not to endow him with human attributes (although it’s OK for you to view him “as a very purposeful guy who knows exactly where He is taking things”), but I guess there is no harm in hoping he regards us as meaningful.

DAVID: Billions of parts of the universe can't think. They can't have a thought of us, but we think about them. Why is that? Because God gave us consciousness. Of course we are meaningful. Only the appearance of our species could change the planet, which we have.

I agree that we can think. I don’t know if there is a God who gave us consciousness. If there is a God, I don’t know what meaning he gives to us – we may simply be part of a great passing show. I don’t know what is the point of our “changing the planet”, but Nature has continually changed the planet throughout its history, and in due course Nature will no doubt change the planet in such a way that we shall disappear (if we haven’t already wiped ourselves out before Nature does it for us). The whole concept of human “meaningfulness” is simply what we make it, and you and I have filled our lives with what is meaningful for us. It is the idea of a universal meaning that I question, and that applies even if God exists, because we have no idea about his nature, motives or intentions.