Science and the meaning(s) of life

 
If the universe was not made for us then do we really belong in it? No - religion says. That is the thought behind the insistence that if you think God's plan does not exist and does not rule over the universe then you can have no sense of meaning in your life. But if we are part of the universe we belong in it. Would you think an asteroid does not belong? It has nothing to do with whether God planned us or not. And God's plan could allow for randomness. So you could be caused by randomness even if there is a God.
 
If you ask why we are here or why is there something rather than nothing you may get some attempts at an answer from science. You will be told that it is by luck you are here and you evolved by chance. You will be told it is by luck that evolution took place on a planet where there was plenty of water and a suitable atmosphere for life out of the sea. To that the believer will object, the questions are not requests for scientific data. They are not scientific questions. They are questions about the value of our human lives and our human experience and our human relations. They are existential questions. But such an objection is arrogant. It is denying that science might have an answer for why we are here. Who are non-scientists to argue with scientists?
 
The questions are asking if we have meaning in life. If the answer is that there is no divine purpose that is still an answer - an existential and a scientific one. The question of what the purpose or purposes of life is or are, is another question. It is important not to confuse the two. The scientific answer is that we are lucky to be here and that is all there is to it. That is an existential answer to the existential question that wonders why we are here.
 
Some authors believe that rather than look for an answer for the question of why you are here you can find meaning and wonder and awe in simply asking the questions and wondering. See page 280,  Born to Believe, Andrew Newberg MD and Mark Robert Waldman, Free Press, New York, 2006.
 
Don’t be involved with religion for it is to blame for all the evil done in its name because it promises to give help to live a more meaningful and better life by the power of its gospel which is the source of the grace of God. It has no right to do this without the scientific method. Science can verify that certain drugs help you but religion has no similar verification. In fact medical science doesn’t like religion. All the pages of this website prove how bad religion is so any good religion does is really a kind of sweetened up evil. Don’t help it to do its evil work.