We Are an Accident

This is a common question asked by people of faith to the would-be atheist.

It's an implication that is obvious in it's core argument. The design of the rhetorical question points to "purpose". People of faith are ingrained with many purposes, bestowed by their gods. There are countless points of interest when it comes to finding meaning in our existence when you refer to the books of whatever religion you subscribe to. Common questions I encounter are:

"So it all happened on accident, and as a product of that random chain of events, we exist?"

"Do you really think we all came about without any method of design or purpose?"

The question seems daunting at first, when you haven't given it proper thought and preparation. But when we look at the large scale of science and the timeline of life on Earth, we start to see a clearer picture. The Earth is 4.54 billion years old, or in Sagan units, 1.135Su (There's a joke hidden in there). In that span of time, since the first organisms took form in the soup of elements on Earth, we have evolved slowly and surely through the crevices of our Earth's history. From meteoric impacts, and floods, fires and earthquakes, life finds a way to continue. We share a bond with plant and animal alike, constructed of the same nucleotide building blocks and strung together in the double-helix.

The trees you drive by, or seek shade under are your distant relative-your ancestor in the chain of life. The animals are also your ancestors sharing that information that started the slow grind of evolution.

My point is that nothing is accidental. Nothing is left to chance. Life fights a war everyday. It has been fighting a war since it's existence. The fight is to survive. How to march forward and become more suited to the environment, faster, more intelligent, more efficient. Natural selection is the system by which the rules of continuity take effect. It's a game of "Go Fish". Natural selection and the environment play their cards, each taking a turn. In cases where Natural selection wins, a new species better suited to the environment emerges. In cases where the environment wins, the mutations fail to surpass the rigorous competition of other species in their habitat.

This is the way of the universe. Stars in a safe harbor, free from asteroid belts and unstable entities in space will find time to mature in their systems composed of planets and moons. We are in effect, very fortunate to witness this existence.

But imagine if we were to view this existence within a short matter of years. You only know of the moment you became self-aware, until the present. It's like the Earth was put here just for you. All of these things around you, are impossible to conceive on a timeframe beyond thousands of years. We can barely imagine the changes that are to come in the next 100,000 years.

Try to predict the outcome of all species on Earth in 1,000,000 years. Then multiply that by 1,000. Now you have 1/4th of our planets lifetime. We really can't grasp the concept because humankind hasn't even existed for 1% of our planets age.

But we were an inevitability. There was no accident or chance. Nothing was random. The guiding hand, the conscious breeder of evolution was there the whole time steering all of the species of the Earth towards a safer, more beautiful existence.

Imagine for a moment, Nature was guiding us all this time, so it could look into our eyes and see the awe in our hearts as we observe the Earth in it's magnificence. To create a species capable of sharing a bond, we take from the Earth and in return we give it an awareness. We give the Earth an ultimate meaning in the vastness of the universe, where we realize it is our safe harbor coasting through the sea of space, finite and lonely.

Then push your imagination one step further, and think, if we are the Earth's offspring. A species destined to travel across the galaxy, given the tools and nourishment to succeed in such a task. All so that we may spread to other star systems and propagate the information in our veins and in our being. Like two lovers, our progression carrying our race to the far reaches of space to a planet, fertile for our existence.

These thoughts, bring me great peace. To know that Nature has a plan, one that is greater than us all, but one that we have a choice to participate in, is undeniably beautiful. I wonder if we have what it will take.