Do the blueprints of a bank building have a purpose?
The architect would say, “Yes, the blueprints bring my architectural designs to life.”
The contractor would say, “Yes, so I can follow the architect’s plans and construct the bank properly.”
The bank owner would say, “Yes, so I can see the construction preferences for my business have been followed.”
The robber would say, “Yes, so I can learn all the details of the bank’s security features.”
The firefighter would say, “Yes, so I can see the layout and plan my rescue, should the bank catch on fire.”
In a relative universe like spacetime, purpose is similarly relative and arises from varying intentions, which may conflict. The purpose of the robber directly conflicts with the purpose of the bank owner. In the absolute universe of ultimate reality we will explore as we go along here, purpose and intention are united and arise from a single experience—love. Conflict is meaningless in ultimate reality A Course in Miracles says, because all share the same intention.
What is the purpose of the physical universe? An astronomer sees the universe as an object of study. The painter Van Gogh saw the starry sky as a source of inspiration. An ancient navigator would see the night sky as a navigational tool. Einstein gazed at the stars with the wonder and awe of a child.
Each of these purposes for the universe is relative and is dependent on the intention of the observer. Modern physics suggests there is no such thing as an independent physical universe wholly devoid of our observation of it (we’ll explore this idea later), so we must consider our intention and purpose as we observe it. The same can be said for any projected reality, like our imaginary island in question #1.
Intelligent or sadistic design?
Our Milky Way galaxy consists of 100 billion stars; one galaxy in a universe made up of 100 billion such galaxies. Every two hours of every day, one of those stars—our sun—shines enough sunlight on the earth to produce the energy equivalent of a 2,200-calorie diet for every man, woman and child on the planet. That’s more than enough to fill all of our bellies for a full day, if we could simply and easily convert the energy all around us into usable nutrition, like a plant drinking in sunlight to make chlorophyll. But we can’t, and so our children die by the thousands every day.
Do plants weep for their dead offspring? Yet they simply need to open their leaves and drink in that sunlight. Our children lie down in that same sunlight and die of starvation. A parent can be traumatized for years from the death of a child. How long is a plant traumatized?
Intelligent design? Or sadistic design? Some 100 billion suns and yet humans struggle to have enough energy to stay alive—the most sentient, self-aware species on the planet who do not want or intend for their children to die. The universe ignores our intentions; a clear sign it is relative, not absolute. Would you hire an architect to build you an office if he ignored your intentions?
The architect of spacetime wouldn’t last long in residential
Malnutrition is a lack of energy in a universe built with an inconceivably vast amount of energy. Yet that vast, powerful universe fails to give that mother the one thing she wants; for her child to be with her another day.
What would you say to an architect who designed your house from scratch yet failed to give you the one thing you wanted most from its design? Making it so difficult for your family to eat in your own house that your children died? I certainly wouldn’t gush and fawn over that architect—or his creation—with breathless wonder.
Who will hold the universe accountable for its radical design failure?
Gandhi said “The first principle in non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.” I would say a universe ridiculously fine-tuned for human life from the first moments of its Big Bang beginning yet still killing children from the single bite of a peanut is humiliating.
Far more in line with a ritualistically detailed serial killer than an intelligent architect. Architects worry about their designs causing harm; spacetime shows no such concern.
What is the purpose of the universe from the mother’s viewpoint? What would she say if she knew, as physicists do, that all kinds of fundamental variables were controlled from the very beginning of that universe to produce human life, variables controlling a staggeringly vast amount of energy, yet failing to provide her child with enough energy to stay alive?
She would say the purpose of the universe was to kill her child.
The universe: not exactly our best friend
Author Sam Harris notes in The End of Faith:
Finding ourselves in a universe that seems bent upon destroying us, we quickly discover, both as individuals and as societies, that it is a good thing to understand the forces arrayed against us.
The question science has to ask itself is, “Is the universe a science fair or a crime scene?” The purpose it has for scientists will depend on their answer to that question. I can tell you how Jesus would answer. “Follow me out of here,” he would say. “I am the way and the truth and the life.” The Buddha would say that which changes and suffers is not our true Selves. He would teach us to become non-attached to the physical universe in order to overcome its change and suffering.
Sam Harris again from The End of Faith:
We live in a world where all things, good and bad, are finally destroyed by change. The world sustains us, it would seem, only to devour us at its leisure. Parents lose their children and children their parents. Husbands and wives are separated in an instant, never to meet again… This life, when surveyed with a broad glance, presents little more than a vast spectacle of loss.
To Harris’ point, a firefighter might add, “What is the purpose of a burning house?” The answer is, it has none. Its former purpose—to safely house human beings—has been lost. Does the universe safely house humans? To Harris’ point above—not by a long-shot. The firefighter is only concerned with getting everyone inside that house completely beyond the threat of suffering and death.
This is the mindset of a savior—or a bodhisattva. In order for an observer to become a savior, the motivation to observe must be converted into the motivation to save. A firefigther needs observation skills, yes, but they must always be subjugated to the larger motivation to save. Einstein echoes this thought with his quote “Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.”
A man can observe his prison cell door is open for years, yet never tell his cellmates it’s time to leave; a point Plato made in the allegory of the cave. Fear is the underlying motive. Fear of unity, to be more precise. Read Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers to see the too-afraid-to-leave effect in a real-life case history.
The Buddha’s advice: endless reductionism equals procrastination
The Dalai Lama says in The Universe in a Single Atom:
According to the early scriptures, the Buddha himself never directly answered questions put to him about the origin of the universe. In a famous simile, the Buddha referred to the person who asks such questions as a man wounded by a poisoned arrow. Instead of letting the surgeon pull the arrow out, the injured man insists first on discovering the caste, name and clan of the man who shot the arrow; whether he is dark, brown or fair; whether he lives in a village, town or city; whether the bow used was a longbow or a crossbow; whether the bowstring was fiber, reed, hemp, sinew or bark; whether the arrow shaft was of wild or cultivated wood; and so forth. Interpretations of the meaning of the Buddha’s refusal to answer these questions directly vary. One view is that the Buddha refused to answer because these metaphysical questions do not directly pertain to liberation.
What directly pertains to liberation: the only thing on the mind of a firefighter—and a savior. Their intention is to end suffering, not to make the suffering ones more comfortable inside the fire.
This universe began with an explosion and has been burning ever since. Its purpose was lost. It has caused humanity suffering from the very first moments of our existence. Until we can see it honestly for what it is—a ridiculously overwrought killing machine—and forgive it, we will remain under the spell of maya, gladly, breathlessly appeasing its machinery of death—even helping it.
What percentage of scientists and engineers spend their days creating weapons? My sacred brothers and sisters, the universe is very, very good at killing people. It doesn’t need your help.
Wake up from your dream of death, gentle ones. You have not become the maker of death, but its willing prisoner. The firebell is ringing and your help is needed.
