A lot of people think that life is a miraculous event that is a rare phenomenon, and quite a few believe that it is created by a powerful, divine being. I will agree that it is rare, but at the same time, it’s bound to happen. When you pick a card from a deck, there is a 1 in 52 chance that you will get the ace of spades. But if you draw a card enough times, eventually it will be the ace of spades. Well, life has an even smaller chance; the necessary elements on an adequately sized rock being the correct distance from the right caliber heat source… It’s just not something you come across every day. But when you consider how many rocks there are in the universe, at least one of them is bound to be the ace of spades. (In fact, there’s enough to pull the ace of spades quite a few times.) It is a very, very rare chance that is certain to happen.
‘But everything is so complex and comes together so perfectly. This can’t just be chance.” It is. Any basic high school biology course will tell you that things evolve. Are you the same as any other person? No. Our genes vary. Who are you attracted to? Someone who is in healthy shape? Someone who is financially stable? Maybe you are just attracted to someone who can make you laugh; perhaps that’s all you need. Regardless, people are driven by the chemicals in their head to seek out and pursue a partner that has genes that are important to today’s environment. That is evolution. It goes back to a point where we aren’t recognizable as humans. Our ancestors branched into several other species as well, picking the best traits to live off each other (or against each other).
Futurama's brief, comedic example of evolution.
But it's not just our attractions that are dictated by the chemicals that encourage our own survival.
Why do you do that?
“Because I like doing it.”
Why do you like it?
“I don’t know. It’s fun.”
But why is it fun?
“Because… I don’t know what you mean. It’s fun because I have to do this and this and this, and I enjoy doing those things.”
No. What I’m trying to get at is: What in your head tells you “This is fun,” as compared to something that isn’t.
Chemicals in your head. Serotonin, for example. It’s a feel good chemical that is released in your head that makes you feel “happy.” This pleasure reflex is there to drive you to do certain things, like eating, having sex, and other more obscure things. When and what quantities of these ‘feeling’ chemicals are released depends on your genetics and past experiences. Genetics, it’s fairly obvious how the build of your individual person will change what you enjoy compared to someone else’s genetic structure. But I also say past experiences because as we grow, we learn to associate things with other things. For example, cooking often leads to eating. Consequently, a lot of people enjoy cooking. On the other hand, Some people might associate cooking more with cleaning than eating, and most people don’t like to clean because they don’t like to get dirty, because being excessively dirty can lead to disease, and disease is something your body lets your conscious know feels bad; so consequently, between genetics that might already have that link figured out and the training of past experiences, some people do not enjoy cooking.
Here is a video talking about the brain's reward system, and how addictions manipulate it.
“Well it's not all mechanical and automatized. There are certain things I do that I know I will hate, but I know I have to do them. I have free will.”
Correct. We are not instinct driven animals. Our conscious mind often beats out our instincts. We might loath cooking, but we still do it so that we may eat. We may loath our jobs, but we do them so that we may earn money. We may not want to help someone with a task, but we do it so that we do not feel guilt, so that we feel pride for being a nice person, so that we can feel more comfortable knowing someone we care about is happier, and so that they might help us when we need something. We do all kinds of things that we despise because we love the effects. The instinctual chemical releases don’t always link themselves from eating to cooking; but in those cases, we can consciously link the two together and put up with the cooking to get the food.
I am on the extremely skeptical side when it comes to things like God, spirits, ghosts, and other rash explanations of anything. I’m don't like explicitly saying those things don't exist, because every now and then you may come across something that we are unable to explain with science or reason (at least, not yet). But the things that we can explain, like our existence, the complexities of nature, our “free will,” how your nervous system works, molecules, clouds, gravity, temperature… Things that are presented rationally, and with evidence, exist in nature, it’s just the way it is. There’s not a story or reason behind it, it just happened to work out the way it did.
…It had to work out somehow, didn’t it? “Of the millions and millions of generations breeding to form me, what are the odds? Miraculous.” Yes, albeit, the chances of you, the one specific, individual genetic structure being created is incredibly unlikely. But if it wasn’t you, wouldn’t it be someone else? Wouldn’t something pop out of the millions and millions of generations of breeding? Yes. The odds of at least something coming into being are pretty good, astronomical in fact. When you have something inexplicable, then you have something miraculous. Until then, all you have is something that was bound to happen one way or another.
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