A quick word: I don't want any creationists ranting about their views in this thread, that's not what this is for.
Right. So basically, I've always kind of held this view in the back of my mind, and studying A Level biology has really made me consider it a little more seriously. The deeper and deeper I go into the workings of life, the more awed I am by the sheer beauty and wonder of the whole thing.
To try and put it in words (and most likely failng terribly); it seems to me a huge, huge coincidence that a reality has come to be in which lives such as the ones we live are possible; by which I mean a reality where there are emotions, and varying life experience, and symbols and beliefs, and music and art and literature and love and wonder and colour and dreams, just to name a few... all these things I consider to be beautiful and sacred: and, to name what I consider to be the most crucial thing of all, conscious experience.
I want to take that as an example to try to highlight what I'm saying. Conscious experience; what are the odds? I mean, we start with the fundamental laws of nature, which give rise to particles, energy and time. Then the particles form into vital groups with vital behaviours; protons and neutrons group together forming mass, and electrons buzz around them in elegant shapes which are equally vital to the behaviour of elements and the like; and also we get photons, which are vital for motion and basically anything involving energy.
And then due to the shapes of electron shells, this whole system of behaviours of elements simply falls out. And from there you get the organic compounds, which give rise to organic structures and, crucially, DNA, which virtually just pops out of the ground all by itself. And then it just keeps going, and it builds up and up. You get bigger and bigger organisms, until finally, due to the very same process of evolution, you get intelligence. And the whole system of neurons is just waiting there to be harnessed, and consciousness just appears all on its own, just like that. And due to a vast number of other coincidences, it appears in a beautiful world where there is infinite variation of experience, and others to experience it with.
So, from this set of incredibly simple rules, there automatically arises this beautiful, fractalesque world which is the optimum, or perhaps only possible medium for consciousness. Can we really just accept that? Because - and again, I stress that I don't believe in any religious nonsense and I'd ask if we could lean away from that in this discussion - but it seems to me a huge coincidence that this could just come to be with no purpose; by which I mean, it really does look designed. And that implies, for me, that there is something designing it. Is this all of reality the product of a conscious architect with some big idea?
Very convoluted, obviously, but there's a lot there that I've really been wanting to express of late, and I'd really appreciate it if you could contribute a little.
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