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Does the Universe Have a Purpose? I'm not sure.
Anyone who expresses a more definitive response to the question is claiming access to knowledge
not based on empirical foundations. This remarkably persistent way of thinking, common to most
religions and some branches of philosophy, has failed badly in past efforts to understand,
and thereby predict the operations of the universe and our place within it.
To assert that the universe has a purpose implies a desired outcome. But who would do
the desiring? And what would a desired outcome be? That carbon-based life is inevitable?
Or that sentient primates are life's neurological pinnacle? Of course humans were not around
to ask these questions for 99.9999% of cosmic history. So if the purpose of the universe
was to create humans then the cosmos was embarrassingly inefficient about it.
And if a further purpose of the universe was to create a fertile cradle for life, then
our cosmic environment has got an odd way of showing it. Life on Earth, during more
than 3.5 billion years of existence, has been persistently assaulted by natural sources
of mayhem, death, and destruction. Ecological devastation exacted by volcanoes, climate
change, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, and especially killer asteroids have left extinct
99.9% of all species that have ever lived here.
How about human life itself? If you are religious, you might declare that the purpose of life
is to serve God. But if you’re one of the 100 billion bacteria living and working in
a single centimeter of your lower intestine, you might instead say that the purpose of
human life is to provide you with a dark, but idyllic, anaerobic habitat of fecal matter.
So in the absence of human hubris, the universe looks more and more random. Whenever events
that are purported to occur in our best interest are as numerous as other events that would
just as soon kill us, then intent is hard, if not impossible, to assert. So while I cannot
claim to know for sure whether or not the universe has a purpose, the case against it
is strong, and visible to anyone who sees the universe as it is rather than as they
wish it to be.
I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson.
I was asked by The Templeton Foundation to respond to a question: Does the Universe Have
a Purpose?