Nature, Wilderness, and me

To what end is nature? Emerson said that Nature was the way to reach a higher plain of thought, and turn ones self into a "transparent eyeball", and that Nature is even to god. Personally I think he's completely wrong. I think that Nature exists simply to exist. Nature simply is, because of completely random occurrences. If we take nature as the prokaryotes, eukaryotes, archebacteria, and forces that make it up, then it can be seen to exist solely by chance. The way we think about Nature is as the plants, animals, and connections between them. If we existed on another planet then our grasp of Nature would be vastly different. Had we evolved slightly differently we would probably view Nature differently. If we all lived 50 years in the future, we would certainly view nature differently. Our view of Nature exists only because, by pure chance, the world exists as it does.

This is something that humans need to do a better job of understanding. We believe that we are not caused by this randomness. We seem to think that we are meant to be here, that our existence was preordained by some higher being. Humans need to accept that our existence is meaningless. The reason we exist is because we got lucky. The reason we are here is that we got lucky. So what is the point of pondering our existence, or trying to justify it, or trying to separate ourselves from Nature? In the end, when we die, none of our accomplishments will truly matter. During our lives we affect only the tiny bit of random Nature we live in. Let us humans accept our randomness.

Nature simply exists to exist, the meaning of life is to continue life, there is no higher purpose or meaning.