Has the world been made for us? Have the trees, the flowers, the fruits, the grains, the rivers, the cattle, the rain, the fire and the seas made to benefit human existence?
Douglas Adams explores this feeling with a parable:
‘”This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!”‘
‘This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise.’
If we compressed the history of earth into 24 hours, our existence on the planet represents merely 77 seconds. Put that into perspective and we recognize how much we have in common with Adam’s sentient puddle.
Observations 