Does the Universe Have a Purpose? Leading scientists and scholars answered:
Not Sure.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist and the Director of New York City’s Hayden Planetarium.
Unlikely.
Lawrence M. Krauss is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Case Western Reserve University.
No.
Peter William Atkins is a Fellow and professor of chemistry at Lincoln College, Oxford.
Yes.
David Gelernter is a professor of computer science at Yale and a National fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Perhaps.
Paul Davies is a physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist. He is the director of the Beyond Center at Arizona State University.
Indeed.
Nancey Murphy is Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Yes.
Owen Gingerich is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Very Likely.
Bruno Guiderdoni is an astrophysicist and the Director of the Observatory of Lyon, France.
No.
Christian de Duve is a biochemist. He received the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
Yes.
John F. Haught is Senior Fellow, Science & Religion, at the Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University.
Certainly.
Jane Goodall is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace
I Hope So.
Elie Wiesel is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and University Professor at Boston University.
* My answer is ‘no’. What about yours?
30 comments
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visitor
December 1, 2012 at 10:42 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
My answer is ‘Unlikely’.
Marcus Ranum
December 1, 2012 at 10:44 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Its purpose would be, apparently, to make black holes.
diljindernagra
December 1, 2012 at 11:12 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Don’t know.
philippeorlando
December 1, 2012 at 11:31 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
No.
Without humans there’s no meaning.
nedchamplain
December 2, 2012 at 12:04 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
I don’t know, but if it does, it remains a mystery worthy of further examination,
roger ivanhart
December 2, 2012 at 12:13 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Of course the universe has a purpose.
The purpose of the universe is to produce supposedly intelligent organisms that believe they know that the universe has a purpose. It then sucks their knowledge into black holes to carry that knowledge into new universes so that even more supposedly intelligent organisms believe their universe has a purpose.
The universe is the ultimate joke. It says as much on the message from the creator. ‘Sorry for the inconvenience.’ For further information please read the bible, otherwise know as The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the great tome that carries the message from the creator as dictated by the angel Slartibartfast to the prophet Douglas Adams.
davidmc
December 2, 2012 at 1:04 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
No, why would it?
Ash
December 2, 2012 at 2:26 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Purpose implies consciousness or awareness, since the universe is neither conscious nor aware I say “no”.
Amateur Hour
December 2, 2012 at 3:12 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Funny question, don’t you think?
Funnier still when you ask it of yourself: “What is my purpose?” while washing up the dishes, sweeping the floor, emailing friends to invite for dinner, doing work….
Gene C
December 2, 2012 at 4:00 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
The universe could have a purpose known to some alien being or beings that are not knowable nor even imaginable to humans, and is probably not a physical nor a biological being.
lpetrich
December 2, 2012 at 5:13 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Most likely not.
As far as we can determine, the most fundamental features of the Universe are impersonal and non-teleological. It might be that we will eventually run into features that are conscious and purposive, but given the track record so far, I don’t think that one should expect it to happen.
Gunnar Gällmo
December 2, 2012 at 6:07 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
If the universe has a purpose – what, then, is the purpose of the purpose? And so on, ad infinitum…
bobo
December 2, 2012 at 7:00 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
no
lorn
December 2, 2012 at 8:42 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
The universe is the playground we all playing on.
DLC
December 2, 2012 at 1:06 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Short answer; No.
Long answer, No, not under conventional definitions of the word “Purpose”, I don’t believe there is any grand design or overarching reason for being.
obscure1
December 2, 2012 at 3:06 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Could the purpose of the universe be for NASA and international capital to explore and exploit it?
mnb0
December 3, 2012 at 4:40 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Though I can’t be entirely sure I’d say no.
Once I’ve seen a video of the Lion Family happily and cosily nibbling at the belly of an antilope they just caught. It was still alive and I could see the agony in its eyes. If the Universe has a purpose the suffering of the antilope must have one too. But nobody has ever managed to tell me which one. I can understand this suffering in terms of causation, but not in terms of purpose.
Since at least 200 years science has abandoned teleological explanations. The whole idea of external purposes stems from Aristoteles or earlier and hasn’t brought mankind anywhere, either good or bad. On the contrary, because of this thinking science stagnated in Europe several ages.
So we neither can understand suffering properly nor develop our scientific knowledge further if we assume that things have a purpose. Then why should the Universe have one?
We could say that our Solar System has a purpose as the Sun will eventually burn out. But I don’t think that’s what the Templeton Foundation had in mind with this question.
Jockaira
December 3, 2012 at 4:42 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Humans are nothing more than the universe asking itself:
sumdum
December 3, 2012 at 5:53 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Just like life, I think its purpose is what you give it.
Right now my purpose is eating this chocolate and surfing the web.
billyeager
December 3, 2012 at 2:28 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Meh. Universe be Universin’
nathanaelnerode
December 3, 2012 at 5:07 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
My answer: “Define ‘purpose’.”
nathanaelnerode
December 3, 2012 at 5:09 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
OK, long answer: for normal definitions of purpose, no. Purpose involves humanlike, or at least animal-like, intent, and the last 200 years of science has shown us that most of the universe operates in a manner incompatible with the hypothesis that there is an intent behind it.
left0ver1under
December 3, 2012 at 6:09 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Purpose requires an intent, a consciousness outside the Earth capable of affecting stars and planets. Since no such thing exists, the answer is obviously No.
Take note of each person’s field of study and their answer. All those listed who said “yes” either studied nonsense (theology), arts (philosophy) or if they studied science at all, in fields that don’t force religious bunk to confront scientific fact about the origin of the universe and origin of life (e.g. computer science, which is only a branch of mathematics).
The ones who actually deal in the dirty details of science (e.g. chemists, physicists) said no. Astronomers are the only fence sitters – some said yes (those who “think” a “godidit”), some said maybe and some said no (those who don’t need fairies at the end of the garden).
mynameischeese
December 4, 2012 at 12:24 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
I vote No.
mynameischeese
December 4, 2012 at 12:27 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Also, the question only refers to one universe, so are we assuming that there’s only one universe (as opposed to a multi-verse) or are we assuming that our one universe has a special purpose among universes?
But anyway, the answer is still no.
patricksimons
December 4, 2012 at 2:02 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Even if the universe has a purpose, it does not follow that we are capable of determining what that purpose is. In attempting to determine the “purpose” of the universe, we have a far greater liklihood of getting it wrong than getting it right, and therein, lies the danger. Let’s follow the facts, where ever they lead us.
RKHB
December 4, 2012 at 3:32 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
“Not sure” is how the Templeton foundation ‘interpreted’ Neil deGrasse Tyson’s answer. That comes pretty close to breaking the 9th commandment. I would also like to see Lawrence Krauss’ full answer. I’m sure he was more on the side of ‘No’ than ‘unlikely.’
Taslima Nasreen
December 4, 2012 at 10:01 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Click on the link. You will get everyone’s full answer.
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latsot
December 8, 2012 at 7:34 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
There’s no reason to imagine a purpose so let’s say there isn’t one.