I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals Himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
What purpose have we? Survival is a matter of qualiadelic relationships, some inherited and some chosen. If we have a purpose it is to discover the best of them, and to consciously ritual them into reality. To notice the landmarks and follow the pathways into a “higher” landscape.
We inherit a landscape of instinct evolved from the natural world. Also, there is a symbolic instinct, inherited from culture. But one can’t say whether a human is superior to an animal, or even a plant; the symbolic world provides only glimpses of harmony, while instincts are, by their very nature, in tune. Yet we symbol users do get glimpses of the orderly harmony of what exists; that is, our ability to reason lets us imagine something deeper, something beyond the landscape of the senses that we share with animals.
Our symbolic instincts are, perhaps, not yet quite instinctual enough to be sure; but nonetheless, just as we must control our natural urges, so too must we use symbols with care. That is where conscious ritualing comes in: evolving with controlled spontaneity and playing with reason. We choose (and sometimes even create) the qualia with which we react. Nature, culture, a personal God, beauty, harmony, and the aesthetics of the universe — it is our purpose to notice these, to ritual with them. As our sense for their landmarks and pathways develop, so too will their value (whether ill or well).