Perhaps a million years ago, as homo sapiens evolved from earlier hominids, our brains were more complex than those of our predecessors, and we developed unique capabilities: drawing, speaking, and the ability to think abstractly.
Prior to that, I believe, like all other animals, we simply adapted to our environments and tried to survive and procreate. During some period, later, some of us began wondering. We wondered about the Sun and the Moon; we wondered about the sky; we wondered about lightning and thunder; we wondered how we came to be.
Interestingly, we make a distinction between polytheism and monotheism in which we ascribe to monotheism a more advanced abstraction. It seems as if all ideas of god or gods gave them human characteristics, particularly jealousy. In polytheism, the pantheon of gods jockeyed for position just like today’s politicians do. In monotheism, one god was believed to be responsible for having created the universe and all contained therein. I agree with Yuval Harari that there is nothing inherently more advanced about monotheism.
One of the outgrowths of this belief in a creator is the idea that everything is preordained. He/she created the universe and everything that happens is his/her will. Later, man changed his idea to include free will. To me, it was just rationalization. What I believe is that our universe (at least) is subject to specific relationships between energy and matter. But because of the variables that occurred from the outset, in the symmetries of the Big Bang aftermath, we live in a universe where nothing is predestined beyond the fundamental relationships between energy and matter.
As I wrote earlier, initially there was only inanimate matter. Under other conditions, the universe could have stayed that way, with particles joining and breaking up as space-time continued to grow. Animate matter and life, itself, I believe, is a random event.
So, if there is no creator, and life is simply a case of probabilities and time, then what is our purpose – individually and collectively? We have no purpose beyond survival and procreation, I believe. In that sense, we are no different than dogs, cats, dolphins, amoeba, and algae.
But, clearly there is something different about homo sapiens. We abstract, draw, speak, write, invent, and record. So, in that sense, we have the capacity to create a purpose where none preceded our existence.
We know that at some point (five billion years?) our Sun will go nova. First it will explode outwardly and consume Mercury, Venus, Earth and perhaps Mars. Then it will contract becoming a white dwarf star. So, our time of existence, if we are confined to this planet and solar system is, in fact, predestined. I doubt any homo sapiens will be around to witness the onset of the nova. There are so many other ways that humans and our Sun could make this planet inhospitable to life.
But let’s not dwell on the long-term outlook. Each human being lives for some amount of time before his/her individual system stops functioning. During that period, our senses detect light, sound, temperature, pressure on the skin, odors, and tastes. How we interpret the brain’s reception of that sensory data is in part learned and in part wired into us. Most of us find pleasure in a light, smooth pressure on our skin; or the sweet taste of a grape; or the fragrance of a rose, for example. Most of us wince when pinched, or sucking on a lemon, or inhaling the odor of human decomposition.
To a large extent, in addition to surviving and procreating, humans also seek out pleasurable sensations and avoid unpleasant ones. Other animals appear to try to avoid pain, and to seek out comfort. But I doubt that a dog wakes up planning out how it will avoid pain and be more comfortable. I believe both are more opportunistic and in-the-moment, whereas people do take steps to attain pleasure and avoid pain.
So, one could add to survival and procreation the seeking of pleasure and avoidance of pain as additional “purpose” elements. However, a sadist gets pleasure by inflicting pain on someone or something else. So does a rapist. So does a serial killer. If we are going to make the seeking of pleasure and avoidance of pain “purpose” elements, we have to add, I believe, that we must also consciously try to do so without depriving another being of life, or causing it pain, or blocking it from having comfort or pleasure.
If we built a set of laws that were shaped by what I just wrote, then corruption, exploitation, violence, theft and the like could be diminished. If we modified our teaching such that the virtues of seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, and not consciously depriving another being of doing the same were extolled, we might be able to lessen the likelihood of aggression, wars, crime and celebrity based on wealth, power and ideology.
So, if humans feel a need to create a god, let’s give that god the virtues of kindness, humility, respect for privacy, and respect for other beings’ feelings. We were on the right track with Jesus but today’s Christianity is not about kindness, humility, respect for privacy, and respect for other beings’ feelings. It is about discriminating against women’s rights, discriminating against other religions, justifying violence, and elevating one human being above another. Judaism, unlike Islam and Christianity, was never meant to become global. It was, and is, a religion based on its roots – the desert. Islam, the newest of the three, is a blend of the best and the worst of the other two, and, in sum, it is the most pernicious.
I abhor religion because it makes a creator the conveyor of principles and virtues. And, in so doing, it elevates those principles and virtues above the realm of man, and therefore, beyond reproach. Man invented god. Man invented religion based on god. Man is capable of taking responsibility for principles and virtues rather than laying them off on some mythological “supreme being.” In so doing, man also is forced to stop saying things like “it’s god’s will.” No, it is man’s will. It has always been so. Rather than declaring god “perfect,” let’s declare man bending over backwards to attain a better experience for all that live.