If mankind were to continue in other than the present barbarism, a new path must be found, a new civilization based on some other method than technology.
When I talk of the purpose of life, I am thinking not only of human life, but of all life on Earth and of the life which must exist upon other planets throughout the universe. It is only of life on Earth, however, that one can speak with any certainty. It seems to me that all life on Earth, the sum total of life upon the Earth, has purpose.
There is a plan, it seems to me, that reaches out of the electron to the rim of the universe and what this plan may be or how it came about is beyond my feeble intellect. But if we are looking for something on which to pin our faith – and, indeed, our hope – the plan might well be it. I think we have thought too small and have been too afraid.
I have tried at times to place humans in perspective against the vastness of universal time and space. I have been concerned with where we, as a race, may be going and what may be our purpose in the universal scheme – if we have a purpose. In general, I believe we do, and perhaps an important one.
