Evolution and Specialness of Humanity

I have a different view of evolution. It tells me that "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and "love your neighbor as yourself" really are our purpose in life. We are members of species that depends very much on one another. We do need each other. We are important to one another.So you really are very special, prophex.Did you follow What to believe, crisis of faith? Aztraph had some of the same concerns as you.

If we were robots, that might indeed be reason for despair. But we are not robots. There is nothing in the theory of evolution that requires we be like robots.

I tend to see it the other way. If we were created, we would be mindless robots, slaves to the creator. Because we evolved we have free will and can have meaningful purposeful lives.

No. For most people, there isn't any struggle to survive. Probably most animals don't struggle either, although doubtless some do. Think of the expression "struggle to survive" as a metaphor used to describe evolution. It doesn't mean that you will literally struggle.Your purpose in life is what you make of it. You have said that you are interested in philosophy. So you could make it your purpose in life to be a great philosopher. Or you could make it your purpose in life to help your fellow citizen, and maybe use what you will learn in philosophy or in other fields, to help you in that purpose. Or you could make it your purpose to get as rich as possible. I can think of lots of other purposes.The thing is, you get to choose your own purpose. But please don't make getting rich your purpose. Most people who do that have unhappy lives. If you strive to be a good philosopher (or historian, or whatever else you choose) then you will likely lead a pretty happy life. And if you make it your purpose to help your fellow citizens, you will probably have a happy life. There are lots of good choices of purpose out there. That's great, prophex. Of course, I do hope that you are thinking of changing the world for the better (not for the worse). You are already working toward coming up with a great purpose for your life. As I see it, if we were created, then we were created to satisfy the purposes of the creator. And if the purpose is assigned to you by the creator, then you don't get to choose it for yourself. I see choosing your own purpose as the most important and greatest aspect of free will, and we have that choice only because no creator assigned us a purpose -- that is, because we evolved so as to be able to choose our own purposes.

If you don't use the "SUBMIT" button, you can back out of that gracefully (without leaving a trace). Just use the BACK button enough times. Or, if your browser has a menu to go back to a specific item, just go directly back to before the reply.I use tabbed browsing, and my habit is to open REPLY in a new tab. If I find that I goofed, I can just close the tab.

Just a quick comment. Social/economic gain was never my agenda, either. I went into mathematics, computer science, education, because I knew I could find those fulfilling. I also find self-education fulfilling.Maybe I was filled with awe about the world, and it was my idea to explore it that I wanted to pursue for fulfillment.If I had made social/economic gain my agenda, I would probably be quite unhappy.It seems to me that you are on the right track, prophex. And my best wishes for your future. But I do hope that you get over your hangups about evolution

Does evolution say anything about love? I wouldn't have thought so.I don't doubt that some evolutionists say things about love. They also say things about altruism. Both are rather speculative, in my opinion.I don't doubt that my behavior has evolved. But that's my evolution as a person. My behavior did not evolve in the biological sense. Biological evolution gave me the hardware that I use in my behavior (well, part of the hardware). But the kind of person I am was not destined and encoded in my genes. At least, that's how I see it.Notions like love, purpose, meaning of life -- these do not come from my genes. They don't come from God, either. They come from my experiences.

I don't. I find your situation sadder, but I think it is not without hope.Mike might still need to spend some time working things out. But at least he has made a start. You are yet to do that. The Bible is part of that physical world which you say should not be trusted.As I read the Bible, I see it as the story of man trying to understand God. And different men have understood God differently. Some were like Pat Robertson, naming God as responsible for great disasters (such as hurricane Katrina). Others understood God as loving.You say "loss of God" when talking about Mike. But maybe mike has not lost God. He says he is agnostic, not atheist. What Mike has lost, is his former acceptance of a caricature of God. Mike still has to work out for himself, whether there is a God, and what kind of God that is. I won't tell Mike what to think, and I won't tell you what to think. You both have to work this out for yourselves. Mike has at least started that journey.

That's wrong.Evolution says nothing about a soul. It does not say that you have a soul. It also does not say that you don't have a soul.There are many christian evolutionists who do believe that people do have souls. Many of them see evolution as explaining how God created physical bodies. They see the issue of the soul as a different question, one that is not answered by the theory of evolution.

Do you think I could get that principle published in a logic journal?

Check Message 27, prophex; zephyr pretty much answered your question already.