What the point of life; If we are nothing more than an ape, and the soul is just electrical impulses?

Question

I'm wondering if the fact that sciences pushes evolution on the young people is one of the deciding factors in the rise of depression? As if science has all the answers. Ask a scientist how man came to be, obviously he'll say we came from Apes. Ask him why? and he'll say chance. As if chance is an answer. Its just a way for science to avoid saying we have no idea. According to science(The Green Bank formula) technically life should exist on other planets, yet we haven't heard a whisper. Ask a scientist how life came to evolve on this planet, and not others, again we get chance. There has to be a reason, I don't believe its all a coin toss. Love to hear your feedback.

Answer 1

The point of life if we are just apes and our souls are just electrical impulses should be to try and make the world a better place. So much better of a place that can one day hope to call it heaven. I believe that peoples goals in life should go down the path of trying to become more then the sum of thier parts. If we just accept the fact that we are ants on an anthill then we are doomed to play out that fate. But if we have the dream of being something more perfect in our present view point we will always be moving twoards perfection. I can agree with you that some people might be getting depressed because of what science AND religions teach because everyone is gona interpret text books or religious books differently and where some will see great joy others may see great sorrow. I do also agree that saying the chance of something happening is not proof that it will happen but at the same time we really dont have much better to go on with some areas of knowledge.

Answer 2

The question should be thrown back to you. Do you believe only to comfort yourself? Do you believe in fairy tales only so you can sleep soundly at night?

You don't know it, but you are proof of how correct several existentialist were about religion. That it is the philosophy of the lamb. That it is just something to protect you from the threats of depression. You do not want the feeling of being left alone in the world. You want to believe someone is watching you.

And the reason you don't like science, is that it admits it has weakneses. It admits when it does not know some things. You want someone to tell you that he has all the answers, even though deep down, its a lie. What you fear in science is its honesty.

There is indeed a reason, if we choose to make it. Do you fear even this choice? You are free to give reason to your own existence. Why do you crave to be enslaved by a creator who would take away that choice? Does it make you feel less alone? Do you hate science because it gives you freedom?

Now look around you. Look at all that was made possible because of the power of man. We are more than just apes and electrical impulses, not because of nature, not because of chance, but because of the power of our will.

Answer 3

We are sufficiently complex to ask, "What is the point of life?" Of the trillions of creatures on Earth, there are only six billion who can ask that. The essence of the soul is that we think in terms of right and wrong, not pleasure and pain.
There is nothing to disprove chance. You can load the Green Bank formula with any numbers you want to produce the answers to want. Unless you've been to other solar systems (enough for a statistically significant sampling), you don't have anything better than a guess to go on. Abiogenesis requires chance to create a catalyst that produces self similar molecules. From there, life becomes inevitable. The evolution from ape to human wasn't just chance. Once intelligence reached a critical point, it became a dominant survival trait. In other words the dice were loaded.

Answer 4

Why don't we see life on other planets? Let me tell you, in our solar system this is the only planet that has the correct properties to sustain life, and the nearest star from us is 4.2LY (One light year is 9.461×10^15 miles) away. It would be extremely difficult to reach another solar system, let alone reaching another galaxy. I don't think you realize the size of the universe. It is infinitely large (it has no center, and it has no edge). Even if we could somehow reach the nearest star, there may or may not be life in that solar system, but there is an almost infinit amount of stars that could be searched (although highly improbabe by us alone).

We see that on Earth, life can survive in some of the most extreme cases, and research is being done to find out if maybe life exists on some of Jupiter's moons (in the oceans).

As of right now science does not claim to have the answers to the origins of life, what science can provide us with is the best logical explanation for our origins.

We did not evolve from Apes, we evolved from Primates. Please don't get our origins confused. Their is evidence for evolution on Earth, by observing fossils, although we cannot look too far into the past because our planet is always changing due to movement of our Earth's plates. We know our planet's surface is constantly changing because when we look at our Moon, we see a lot of craters. Wouldn't these comets and asteroids hit our planet as well? Of course they would (aside from the tiny ones that burn in our atmosphere). Because we don't have as many craters on Earth as the Moon, this suggests to us that the Earths surface is constantly changing, and we physically can see new land SLOWLY rising in the oceans, and falling into the Earths core in other parts of the oceans (the hot magma is the cause of this).

Science cannot dispute the fact that God may or may not exist, and because the proof only lies in the end, there is no way of disproving the existence of God. But we can disprove some of the theories in the bible that explain some (at the time it was written) unexplainable things, such as the origins of life (which today is still a mystery). Yes, the origin of life is still a complete mystery, but we can safely say that life did not come into existence the way the bible describes (in only 6 days, resting on the seventh). Does this disprove the existence of God? Not at all. It only disproves SOME of the bible's text. And it doesn't disprove that God is behind life, he could have been the cause for the big bang (which we have sufficient evidence for, we see galaxies expanding away from us, and we can observe the microwave background heat left behind from the big bang), which in effect created the stars, which in effect created the planets, which in effect created the nesesary situations to sustain life on Earth, which in effect lead to our creation. Regardless, the bible is still a text filled with amazing truths, and great moral guidance. Although, I cannot say the bible is perfect, it is pretty good, and Gods words are perfect.

Answer 5

What is so bad about being an ape? You have no concept the size of our neighborhood, let alone the size of our galaxy or the universe. We have been transmitting for more than 50 years, our signal has barely gotten past our nearest star! We are an insignificant planet orbiting a minor star in an out of the way arm of a run of the mill galaxy tucked away in an virtually un-noticeable part of the universe. We have a lot of levels to go thru before we count for much in the scheme of things. Religion tries to make us fly before we can barely walk. We have a whole lot more to be concerned about than whether or not we are the favored of some mythic God.

Answer 6

The belief in evolution is not the cause of depression. It is the reality of life itself when your view is in co-ordination with science. Once you think about what happens when you die, you come up with nothing. After you die, science suggests that you simply vanish. If this is true, there is no reason at all to live... (name one if you think contrary; and to benefit others is not an answer since they shall too, eventually, disappear). Religion suggests that you shall wind up in either Heaven or Hell, depending on what you've done in life. This gives some meaning to life. Science cannot (to me at least) explain our origin (lookie, a coin 500 years old is two times as big as a coin 250 years old; woopie, coins have evolved! Well..either that, or I'm just stubborn). Science shall not provide a reason to carry on living.

I've already spent a year in total misery because of this (quite a lot when you've only lived for 13 years...), I would advise you to find something you like; someone you like being with, someone you like talking to... Make that person the reason to continue living.

As for chance...scientists cannot say "chance", science is meant to provide explanation other than chance. It is all, however we might try to influence it, fate. According to science, all planets were formed from the same material and all should have similar properties (they did all come from the same single point, after all). In my view of things, everything has been fated to happen (my view...which I'm not asking for you to take as yours).

Ragdefender - Since it is against the guidelines to argue against everything you've said (which I would like to do...), I'll just say that you must be confused. No one has mentioned anything at all about seeking comfort in religion or in the Creator.. I also advise against calling religion "fairy tales"....

Answer 7

It's not chance, that's for sure. In order for Earth to host life several factors must be met, such as;
Water must be maintained in all 3 states at ocean level, no easy feat considering the sliver-like 100 degree spectrum in which water remains liquid. This alone means the Earth must rotate evenly in relation to the suns intensity i.e. if we had 36 hour days, one half of the planet would burn and the other would freeze. On top of this, Earth requires a satellite moon that's tidally locked with Earth so that weather can be cultivated and land masses and ecosystems formulated. These intricate balances not only have to be triggered but maintained for billions of years, and these are just a few of the seemingly endless factors that come into play.
You see structure cannot result from chaos without forethought. To assume these things came to be from chance is far more unlikely then if you were to go to your corner store, buy the same brand of lottery ticket everyday for 50 years and hit the jackpot every time. Theoretically it's possible because you can always buy the ticket, but unless someone applies the forethought and takes the necessary action to ensure that you win, it's not going to happen. So who's forethought? God(s), Spirits, Aliens, it's any-ones guess. They just have to be ever-present to oversee and intervene when necessary.

Answer 8

I agree that people often just use science as a way of excuse to live the way they want to without an obligation to a higher power. Many scientists now recognize that the theory of evolution just does not explain the many complexities of life.
I believe in the One who created life as the greatest scientist of all and that man's ego should be deflated if he thinks we have more than scratched the surface in our scientific understanding of life.
I believe God created us in his image and that we are here to bless Him and be blessed by him.

Answer 9

I work in science. Science's purpose is not to disprove faith, it is discover knowledge toward the advancement of humanity. Faith should have a similar purpose, but that's not so in the way that it has become. The problem seems to be that faith, more specifically religion, refuses to advance their understanding of god in step with that which has been proven, beyond doubt. There is no reason why creation and evolution can not coexist, there is only dogma.

Answer 10

I believe science was created and evolution was a created mechanism perpetuated by God. Evolution was Created. Makes perfect sense to me!