Brooke Alan Trisel: Intended and Unintended Life

Abstract:



Some people
feel threatened by the thought that life might have arisen by chance.
What is it about “chance” that some people find so threatening? If life
originated by chance, this suggests that life was unintended and that it
was not inevitable. It is ironic that people care about whether life in
general was intended, but may not have ever wondered whether their own
existence was intended by their parents. If it does not matter to us
whether one's own existence was intended by one's parents, as will be
hypothesized, then why should it matter whether there was some remote
intent behind the creation of the first unicellular organism(s) billions
of years ago? I will discuss three possible scenarios by which life
might have originated. I will then argue that, in regard to whether
one’s individual life can be meaningful, it does not matter whether life
was intended or arose by chance. If complex life was unintended and is
rare in this universe, this is not a reason to disparage life, but a
reason to appreciate and value our existence.



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