A Function, Not a Purpose
Aristotle (385-323 BCE) Atheists properly balk at the question Why are we here? because unless this is a request for a description of human reproduction, the question implies that a transcendent intelligence placed us here for a reason--a most flagrant case of question-begging. On the other hand, Aristotle and his fellow Greek philosophers had a notion that human beings, as creatures with a nature significantly different from other living and nonliving things, had a proper way of to live appropriate to that nature; that is, a function. He used the term final cause in this respect, by which he meant the ultimate end, or telos , toward which a thing tends under normal circumstances precisely because it is the kind of thing it is. Think of the relationship between an acorn and oak tree, though unlike a human being, an acorn does not act to fulfill its function. Think further of the relationship between the eye and sight. These are not evidences of intelligent design; they rather are e