Purpose/3. Looking For A Purpose/Endnotes

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1. This would still allow much variety. Control exerted solely by general laws of physics allows limitless unscripted scenarios to unfold between programmed birth and targeted death. (See Free Will, a postscript to Chapter Five.)

2. Mathematical physicists have shown that, if any of several physical constants (for example, the charge of an electron) were different by even the smallest fraction, then the resulting universe would be uninhabitable for life as we know it. Of course, this does not prove that a God existed. It does not mean that the universe was precisely designed to enable life to begin and eventually evolve to produce humans. The fact that we are here means only that we are here—as this universe developed, conditions arose that were and are right for life forms such as ours to evolve. If the universe existed in another form, then either our equivalents would exist in a different form, or no beings would be present asking questions such as these.
The most powerful argument against the proposition that the universe was designed solely to cause humanity to evolve, is that our universe might be only one of an infinite number of universes, many of which would have started with parameters that do not permit life to evolve, and just some, such as ours, that do. We do not know what exists outside of our own universe, and so cannot say whether or not this argument carries any weight.

3. John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).

4. But see also the discussion on Free Will, a postscript to Chapter Five, for additional discussions on this point.

5. Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986), 21. Dawkins evinces the same wonder about life as the Rev. William Paley expressed when he wrote that life’s complexity proves that God exists. However, Dawkins repeatedly demonstrates that the much simpler explanation—mutations accompanying natural selection over time—is the correct elucidation, easily able to account for the existence of so many different and complex species developing (and becoming extinct) in such a long time span. The book provides a delightful romp through the nuances of evolutionary theory.
(The title of Paley’s 1802 text was Natural Theology, an evocative combination of the two words.)

6. Scientists at the State University of New York recently announced that they have built an active polio virus (that paralyses, then kills, mice) using ingredients obtainable from chemical supply houses. Viruses, although they possess DNA and can replicate under the right conditions, are not considered to be living (see Chapter Ten, endnote 8). Nevertheless, some see this as being another step toward creating life from scratch in the laboratory.

7. See the previous chapter, endnote 43, for a “definition” of life.

8. Pinker, How the Mind Works, 241.

9. Usually in small steps, and through repeated trial-and-error effort, but, increasingly, with the more intelligent animals, by way of second-level, association-recognizing, thinking.

10. Evolutionary Psychology, an important recent advance in understanding behaviour, argues that many inherited behaviours began as evolutionary adaptations to survival or reproduction problems. See David M. Buss, Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind.

11. Loyal Rue, professor of religion and philosophy at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, states the same thing. He points out that living things make much use of deception, and that humans have always used myths to ward off nihilism and the angst that comes from realizing that the universe and life are without purpose or meaning. He calls for the invention of a “noble lie” to fill the void that our loss of belief in God has produced. See Loyal D. Rue, By the Grace of Guile: The Role of Deception in Natural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
I could not agree more. However, it hardly needs saying that this artifice would have limited value if we knew the myth to be a lie. What I will be suggesting we should use is not a lie. It is an assumption, declared to be just that, right from the beginning. (A noble assumption, if you like.)

12. Physicists have been working on this for decades. Controlled fusion is still only possible for small periods of time, and energy input still greatly exceeds energy output, but progress is being made. The internationally funded Iter Project, based in Germany, intends to build a new research and development facility (see www.iter.org for their latest news), and it has the longer-term goal of constructing a prototype fusion power plant. (It has been recently shown that smaller fusion reactions can be controlled more easily than large. This may reduce the projected twelve billion dollar cost.)

13. Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek, and similar programs, are more than just science fiction to many. They seem to be calling to, and resonating with, dormant feelings of human potentiality. However, the amount of energy required to construct the reassembling matter (or convert a supply into the form needed) will doubtlessly delay this achievement several millennia. Too far ahead for you or I to benefit, but not too far for humankind—if it survives.

14. Teilhard de Chardin had a similar idea. He held that all the universe’s material and spiritual content would eventually converge into a super-consciousness that he named the “Omega Point.” See The Phenomenon of Man (New York: Harper & Row, 1959). First published in French as Le Phénomène Humain (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1955).

15. Omnipotent, because with knowledge comes power; omniscience would simply be a precondition to this final state.

16. Webster defines “meta” as follows:
Meta, prefix. “situated behind or beyond,” “later or more highly organized or specialized form of,” “more comprehensive: transcending . . . used with the name of a discipline to designate a new but related discipline designed to deal critically with the original one.”
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Frederick C. Mish, Editor in Chief (Markham, Ontario: Thomas Allen & Son Limited, 1986).
Thus, the term “meta-purpose” is intended to convey the idea that its stature is greater than other purposes.

17. See Free Will a postscript to Chapter Five.