LogFAQs > #956587184

As much as anyone can justify anything's existence. In truth, there's no particular reason for anything to exist. I'm not about to suggest that I deserve any special consideration beyond that.

If you don't want to follow your nihilism to its actual conclusion, though, and want a more personal justification, nature abhors a vacuum. If I did not exist, somebody else would fill my place, and there's a good chance they'd cause more suffering than me. They might also do better, but I'd like to think I'm above average in the "not a dick" department, and averages are all you can really cite for a comparison like this.

More broadly, if humanity didn't exist, something else would have taken their place. The niche of "intelligent apex species" would eventually be filled, and there's a fair chance it would not be with a species that gives any weight at all to the morality of their consumption. Heck, even without leaving the species, look at the number of cultures throughout history that did strive for sustainable, ethical consumption, but were ultimately conquered by cultures that had no such reservations. Nature is not forward-thinking. Those that plan for long-term survival are often destroyed by those that consume more rapidly to become more powerful on a short-term basis. Humanity's (limited) ability to delay gratification and make long-term decisions that promote survival is really what has allowed them to become so dominant for so long.

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