The Biggest PURPOSE Part 1

Part 1. A Big Universe, A Bigger Question:
Does my life have purpose & value, or are we just Dust in the Wind?
Part 2. An intelligent cause of the universe or pure chance: How can you know? Part 3. The evidence is in: Learn some amazing science facts.
Part 4. What are you standing on?

What was covered so far & What’s next?

While what we know about the beginning & cause of the universe exposes faults in almost all worldviews, it provides unmatchable support for the validity of the biblical worldview. Is there any other evidence to support either a personal, intelligent creator versus a purely natural cause of the universe?

Also, aside from further scientific support, how do the worldviews handle the other big guiding questions in life, such as: “Does life, my life, have objective meaning, purpose and value?”

Part 1: A Big Universe, A Bigger Question . . .

Why such a big universe, if God made it specifically for us?
When first asked this question I thought . . . good question . . .
and it seemed even better when I started looking into it.
If our Sun were shrunk to the size of a basketball, the Earth would be the size of the head of a pin, 100 feet away. The Earth is a dot in that prominence pictured on the Sun, and the Sun would be a dot compared to the size of other stars, like VY Canis Majoris (which is Latin for the “Greater Dog”).

And, in our galaxy there are 100 billion other stars.
And, our galaxy is not alone, there are billions of other galaxies.
Andromeda, pictured at left, is the closest galaxy to ours. If you had a
friend living there, and had a ship that could travel at the speed of light, you better pack a lot of toilet paper, food, and necessities for the
generations after you, as it would take 4 million years for the round-trip.
The universe is vast, and is expanding.

What is the meaning/value of life? It depends what is true.

From the absolute vastness of the Universe, we are led directly to this big question about life. It sounds like I am just an insignificant spec, on an insignificant spec of a planet, in an insignificant galaxy = Dust in the Wind, as well-known thinkers, writers, songs, and paintings, like the one to the left, have displayed.

If nature and natural law is all there is, then we are carried along by forces with only the appearance that we have some control, with no meaning or purpose to life, which is just accidentally caused, can be lost at any time, is all determined by natural laws, and without lasting or objective value, at least no more than other animals. How much time do you spend thinking and talking about your great, great grandparents, who felt the same sense of value about their life just a spec of time ago? Nihilists, and those that believe nature and natural laws are all there is, understand this grim reality well.

Stephen Hawking states: “Though we feel we can choose what we do, our understanding of the molecular basis of biology shows that biological processes are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry and therefore are as determined as the orbits of the planets.”[1]

Francis Crick, co-discoverer of helical structure of DNA, accurately in-line with the no-god belief notes that: “You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”[2]

It sounds extreme to say that if there is no God, there is no objective value or meaning to life, no real right and wrong, no inherent rights, and none of us have the ability to freely think or choose. But it all logically follows, and if you want more support or details why this is true, see “Do I actually choose anything?” article in the Frequently Asked Questions folder.

[1] Stephen Hawking, Grand Design, pp.31-32

[2] Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis, 1994, p. 3

So, above is one possible answer to our big question. However, there is another possibility.

… Life, your life, is special, with meaning and value worth more than all the massive galaxies combined, because a personal creator made it all, specifically with us in mind. Sounds really nice, but just because it sounds good, that we have real value and importance endowed by a creator, with an actual purpose for what we go through in life, is not evidence that it is true.

I understand it may seem like there is no way there can be evidence to supply definitive answers, but that assumption gets overwhelmed when you actually start seeing the answers, because – there are so many evidences, including some of the most amazing and important discoveries in all science – a few of these will be covered in part 3.

So how can we know which of those two possibilities is true, purely natural chance or a purposeful creator? No real value & meaning, or infinite meaning established by an authority? We determine which answer is accurate to reality the same way we do with other questions in life, we follow the evidence where it leads.

Part 2: How do we Know when an Intelligent Agent is Involved? Answer: CSI.

Evidence of Purpose: Ranges & Combinations

Goldfish seem so simple to sustain, basically just add some water and food periodically. Yet, as my nephew tearfully found out, all life is dependent on ranges & combinations.

Your school locker would not open unless you follow the pattern, and are close enough to the right values on each stop in the combination. Like the locker, unless the universe matches each requirement within a safe range, and all requirements fit in combination with each other, then the locker to life stays closed.

Researchers know, and study the difference between intelligent agents acting and purely natural results. This understanding is productively used in criminal jurisprudence (CSI), copyright law, patent law, reverse-engineering, cryptanalysis, archeology, anthropology, information theory, etc. And we will use it.

The next article will cover how we know when an intelligent agent is involved.

Then in article 10 we will cover . . .

The Fine-Tuned Evidence, which has some amazing stuff to know about our universe

So, why a universe so big if it is just for us? Answer: because it had to be JUST PRECISELY that big.

If the universe had less than a dime’s worth more or less mass when it began – we would not be here!