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Originally Posted by g__day
The Universe only has meaning because we are here, created within it and able to comprehend it.
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This is an intriguing thread indeed g__day!
The above quote appears to be mixing science with philosophy. As astronomers delve deeper into celestial objects with better equipment, we learn more. We know the evolutionary process which stars undergo and why they undergo such changes (as an example). So we know what happens and why it happens.
Does this then constitute a meaning? Just because we have an HR diagram in our hot little hands, does that automatically require stellar evolution to have a meaning? To my mind at least, it simply means it happens.
You can go back to the old "Does a falling tree make a sound if no one is there to hear it?" Does the very presence of our being in the forest "create" the sound, or give it meaning? Would not forest dwellers run from the sound of a timber giant creaking and crashing through the forest without our presence? Or would they simply stand around munching on a juicy leaf waiting to be splattered all over the forest floor because we were not there to give the sound of a crashing tree meaning?
The other query that comes to mind concerns the lack of a control or at the least, another view point. On our planet, there is no other life form with which we can communicate sufficiently to discuss scientific or philosophic conundra. Because of this one eyed outlook, we then query vast natural forces at work and put an anthropocentric spin to our observations.
If there was another race with whom we could compare notes, then we might stop to consider the point of view "there is no meaning".
This thread brings to mind my thread concerning the letter I got from a couple of Grade 7 students. One of their questions was "What is the purpose of having stars?". Now that is a very anthropocentric question if ever there was one!
The Universe is simply there. Put a meaning to it if you wish, but if you do are you not raising our species to ultra lofty heights? To ascribe a meaning to all the wonders of the Universe (regardless of them being known or unknown) and then to give that meaning relevance to human kind....wow..that beggars belief.
Peter.