If you ask a Baha’i, ‘Why are we here?’ you will prabably hear that humanity’s purpose is to know God and to worship God.
But what if you ask this of an atheist? Here is one famous atheist’s attempt to answer this ultimate question:
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Hmmm. So … just what is the meaning that we have found within ourselves? I keep seeing that auto assembly line. Is that what we’re after? No, it’s astronomy. That’s the thing.
Why is natural selection always depicted as a survival drama? Isn’t it also a drama of extinction? What makes an extant species more “successful” than an extinct species? Could it be that we’re reading too much into the science?
Finally, Richard Dawkins on a Baha’i blog! Thank you! When we will realize just how destructive religions have been to the human species and when we add this monotheistic unresponsive god to the discards already on the pile of the past gods? Then and only then can we deal with each other on an equal basis of human to human and address the needs of individuals and communities–whether local or global–making decisions for the benefit of all rather than “us” vs “them”.
Science is wonderful. It’s always good to know more about mechanisms - it sure saves a lot of superstition!
Richard Dawkins’ account is optimistic enough in its own way. But somehow I do not buy the argument that all this “just happened”. Maybe the science of the future will be able to think in the other categories needed to shed more light on what we really are.
On the problem of morality, Darwin wrote: “I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can.” It is usually the case that the greats of the scientific world were truely humble, because they understood how little they really knew.
For an interesting critique of present-day “scientism” I recommend “Understanding the Present” by Bryan Appleyard.