Why do we exist – Molecule Zone

Question: Why do we exist
- Keywords:
- Click on a keyword to find out more on the RSC site:
  
  Existance
Asked by anon-290200 on 15 Mar 2021.
- David August answered on 15 Mar 2021:
  
  “Why” is almost impossible to answer but there is a lot of research currently into “how” life was formed in the first place. All life on Earth is made from the same building blocks and many of these can exist as either right or left handed versions – like mirror images of each other (its called chirality). All life on Earth uses predominantly only one of these mirror images. No-one really knows why we use one rather than the other and a lot of people are currently trying figure that out.
- Paul O'Nion answered on 15 Mar 2021:
  
  Wow, that’s a big question, it really depends on your beliefs. If you are a Christian you may well believe that we exist thanks to God’s will. If you follow a more evolutionary approach then perhaps we have evolved due to a number of fortunate circumstances, the earth being the right distance from the sum to support life ( the goldilocks zone), the presence of the gas giants, Jupiter & Saturn whose enormous gravity can pull dangerous meteors into them. Then the evolution of life on the planet over a long time span.
- Martin McCoustra answered on 15 Mar 2021:
  
  That is a very big question. If you believe in God then we exist because he said so. If you don’t then you have to accept that it was a chance combination of physics and chemistry that produced the right conditions on here for life to evolve and that evolution eventually leads to intelligence. If that’s true then there should be life (and intelligence) elsewhere in the universe. I tend to believe that rather than believing in a god or gods.
- Jesko Koehnke answered on 15 Mar 2021:
  
  “Why” is a very dangerous question, because it implies additional meaning, beyond the observable. It is quite possible that we exist because the evolution of humans was inevitable. In that case we are, because we are.
  BTW, I do not think that we should search for meaning in life. It is not something you can find under a rock. Meaning is something you give your life through your actions and inactions.
- Philip Camp answered on 15 Mar 2021:
  
  To paraphrase Stephen Jay Gould, because our oldest vertebrate ancestor survived a mass extinction 100s of millions of years ago.
- Nikita King answered on 16 Mar 2021:
  
  Science can answer a lot of questions – what is life, how do things work etc. but there are also a lot questions that science can’t explain , like “why” we exist.
  It’s a big question, and I think the fact that we ask these type of questions shows we think about a bigger picture with more to life than what and how. I’m not sure this is the best place to find your answer to your question, but I think the fact that you’ve asked this question shows you’re a deep thinker!
  And similarly with science, I’d say don’t give up in looking for the answers and finding out more!

Question: Why do we exist

Comments