Is life special?

[Venuscent]

I apologise in advance if this thread already exists, if it does I did not come across it.

In Sophia Vol. 40, No.1, June 2001 an article by Stephen Coleman appears. The article entitled 'Fine-tuning and probability: Does the universe require explanation?' argues that yes the universe does appear to require explanation. Coleman argues about a number of things and for the sake of this discussion we'll assume his right. He reaches the conclusion that the only way we can say that the universe does not require explanation is if we do not regard life as special.

An example Coleman gives designed to illustrate that things we see as special we want an explanation for:

'For example, if I am throwing a six-sided die ten times, the probability of throwing '2,5,3,5,1,4,6,4,2,4', is exactly the same as throwing' 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 '.Yet the second sequence seems to require some explanation that the first sequence doesn't. The second sequence seems to have some special significance that requires a special explanation.'

So is life special and why? Not just human life but any imaginable life.

[wanabe]

Life is the only thing that makes similar forms of it self under its own "independent" power. That is why life is special.

There is a difference in probability between those 2 hypothetical dice rolls. Identical succession (ordered) is less likely than non identical succession. That is why dice rolls of 1,1,1,1,1,1,1 are amazing, because they are rare. No two dice are the same (and they change constantly, especially when rolled) so the odds are not equal.
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The Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, And Help All Others To Do So. Fear is weakness leaving the mind.

[ape]

[Boomerang]

Answering your question as to whether life is special would require your idea of life and where it came from.

If life has no meaning or purpose then it wouldn't be special, If it has a meaning and a purpose then surely it would be special. Do you consider your life special?

[Scott]

What does it mean for something to be special?

Meaning and purpose are based on the intention of conscious beings.

Something only means what its creator intends it to mean, or what some other conscious being misinterprets it to mean.

The purpose of something is what its creator created it to do or intends to do with it. For instance, the purpose of a stove is to cook. The stove-creator created it for that purpose, and the stove-owner owns it for that purpose.

So conscious intent precedes meaning and purpose. And since you can't have consciousness without life of some sort, then life precedes meaning and purpose. Thus life and consciousness have no inherent meaning or purpose.

But I think importance and specialty are subjective. There doesn't have to be some objective, inherent meaning of life for one to realize that some things are important to oneself, that one cares strongly about certain things, and that one enjoys certain things. We can still love, be happy and work to achieve what we want.
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[Belinda]

[Scott]

I can see the emotional support one whose life is very unpleasant would get from believing in some sort of greater design or purpose. In my last post, I just meant to point out that, by definition, conscious 'life' precedes meaning and purpose. People can believe whatever they want if it makes them feel better or makes a harsh life more bearable. People can believe that the moon is made of cheese if it makes them feel better.
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[wanabe]

Special and unique. What is the difference? There isn't much (per dictionary.com).

Life is unique or special because it is the only thing that multiplies by it's own power. I have said this before; regardless of any purpose that life may have; life has this unique/special quality, nothing else does. Therefore life is inherently special, in addition to any unique purpose it may have. Even if its purpose is to be the thing that does what it wants and not necessarily what physics/chemistry dictates; like "most" matter.

Life being unique/special is not a matter of opinion.
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The Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, And Help All Others To Do So. Fear is weakness leaving the mind.

[Nothingman]

[wanabe]

If we were unique like everyone else, then we would not be unique. We agree that we are unique. So obviously the mug is a little short sited; so as to be comically cynical.

People are only one living thing, the rest of life is also unique.
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The Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, And Help All Others To Do So. Fear is weakness leaving the mind.

[Nothingman]

[wanabe]

I'm quite aware of that nothingman: "so as to be comically cynical."; but I simply can't let that kind of thing go. Especially if it's included in a serious discussion.
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The Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, And Help All Others To Do So. Fear is weakness leaving the mind.

[pjkeeley]

Judging by the OP I assume that life in the context of this thread means existence, the universe, consciousness, reality (in other words everything there is).

For life to be special, in the usual sense of the word, there would have to be something other than life to compare it to. We have no idea whether there is (and if life is defined as everything there is, then logically there couldn't be). So if we have no basis for comparison then we can't say for sure if life is special or not. It could be said, as some others have pointed out, that life is unique, because it is literally all there is and there is therefore nothing else like it. That seems a fairly obvious point to make.

I think trying to reason whether or not life is special is quite silly. We can skip to a conclusion very quickly: things are special if we value them. Thus, if we value life, then of course it is special. Objectively, as with anything else, nobody can be sure.

[wanabe]

Since we have a gorilla poster for this thread pjkeeley, we cant be certain. I think that if Venuscent meant to include all things he would have said that, and not "life".

Life is not defined as everything there is, I made what I think is the most accurate description for life earlier in this thread (though its accurate the way a shot gun is; quite broad. but not so broad to be able to call life everything there is).

The difference between unique and special;(seems to be the opinionated thoughts that are lacking with the use of "unique") the two can be used interchangeably.

If that's the case what makes life unique then (if you feel more comfortable answering that)? (Which I answered earlier since they can be used interchangeably)
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So it seems that you have read the thread and may have questions about my definition for life. The keys are "independent power" and "similar copies of it self".
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The Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, And Help All Others To Do So. Fear is weakness leaving the mind.

[Animus]

What makes our experience of "life" unique is manifesting reality. Reality can only have objectivity as long as there is a subject. It is not a things or anything on its own. And yet, it is completely on its own. This is not an easy moon to point to. It is indeed pointing to the moon. How else could the moon be a moon without someone pointing at it? There could be infinite alternate realities happening, in infinite past or infinite future and none of it will actually be said to exist unless there is some "one" to say it exists. I don't mean a kind of solipsism. I'm just saying that temporally speaking, it cannot be any other way, there can be no definite point in space-time without it being referenced by a subject. Now is but a flash, it slips away as fast as it happens, there is no hanging onto it. Imagine if there were no one to perceive it? Well of course you can't imagine that. Which is precisely my point! There is no existing outside of existing and that is what makes us special. The human mind is the curve in a mobius strip. Its like when you fall asleep and don't dream and you wake up as if time had stopped and started and passed all the same without you knowing it. That's what reality is like in the absence of consciousness. Nothing. Consciousness is the Knowledge of Good and Evil because it is fundamentally dualistic, for every up is a down, every left a right, for every tear a smile, for every good and evil. A differentiation of an otherwise undifferentiated nothingness. I think that's pretty unique, but its also a kind of prison because it creates separation.