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From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: talk.religion,net.origins
Subject: Re: The Cosmological Argument
Message-ID: <547@gargoyle.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Aug-86 12:42:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.547
Posted: Fri Aug 15 12:42:16 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Aug-86 02:30:09 EDT
References: <15222@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <6011@fortune.UUCP>
Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept.
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Xref: linus talk.religion:13 net.origins:3371

>2. Why does anything need a reason to exist?
>
>This reminds me of a piece in my local sunday paper (the SF Ex-Chron)
>recently, stating that "the house fly is totally useless to humans -
>there is no known reason for its existence"! The colossal
>egocentricity of this took my breath away!

Not only is it homocentric, the statement is a very ignorant one.
The writer undoubtedly would have called fruit flies "totally useless
to humans" before Drosophila proved its immense value to genetics.

Flies, while often annoying (they've pushed me to the brink of
insanity on mountain hikes) are of considerable benefit to humanity.
First, they are decomposers: they feed on dead organic matter such as
wastes and animal carcasses, recovering the nutrients in these
materials for the food chain.  Second, flies are food for many types
of animals (and some plants!) which are of more direct benefit to
people.  Third, many flies are pollinators; without pollinators, a
large proportion of plants could not reproduce.  Finally,
notwithstanding horror movies starring mutant arthropods, flies are
beautiful, both in their structure and in their adaptations.

Richard Carnes