Ch. 31 The Purpose of Life
"All life forms have one essential purpose: survival. This is even more important than reproduction... To be alive is more than passing genes along. To be alive is to want to remain alive." - Marcelo Gleiser, Does Life Have A Purpose? (npr.org) If we set aside the musings of philosophers and the claims of the religious, the purpose of life boils down to some very simple, very practical principles. Living creatures are born with a biological imperative to survive. The living want to stay alive. The next most important instinct for the living, is the instinct to reproduce, perpetuate life and save ourselves from extinction. However, as (relatively) evolved beings, perhaps it's safe for us to expand these biological, existential necessities to include some social and moral imperatives. As humans, we feel a desire to learn and to grow. If we didn't, we might still be living in caves and wearing animal skins. Instead, we mastered the mysteries of fire, we invented th...