07 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
Does the Universe have a Purpose?
Anyone who expresses a more definitive response to the question is claiming access to knowledge not based on empirical foundations. This remarkably persistent way of thinking, common to most religions and some branches of philosophy, has failed badly in past efforts to understand, and thereby predict the operations of the universe and our place within it. To assert that the universe has a purpose implies the universe has intent. And intent implies a desired outcome. But who would do the desi...If it does, it's difficult to see what that purpose would be in light of what we see around us.
13 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Constant and Free Life
Constant, or free, life is the third form of life; it belongs to the most highly organized animals. In it, life is not suspended in any circumstance, it unrolls along a constant course, apparently indifferent to the variations in the cosmic environment, or to the changes in the material conditions that surround the animal. Organs, apparatus, and tissues function in an apparently uniform manner, without their activity undergoing those considerable variations exhibited by animals with an oscill...Mammals and other animals that maintain a constant environment within themselves are free of the changes to the world outside them.