We are here because this is a planet where we can live, that our bodies can adapt to. If we lived on Mars, there would be no 'we' rather then 'emptiness' and 'desolate'. We are here on Earth because god put us here, and we can survive here. After the destruction of the dinosaurs, Earth needed a prevalent species, one to lead and be most powerful. Thats where we come in. Even though we cause tons of pollution, we keep balance in the food chain. We have actively thinking brains and can use it when needed to adapt and survive. Earth is merely one place. In the news, they talked about a faraway planet with an ecosystem seemingly indifferent to ours. Of course, if we set a ship there, it would take thousands of years. We were put on Earth and given free will to do what we want in our life. God decided he needed a place for us, and that place was Earth (My beliefs, please don't criticize them). Without us humans, the rulers of Earth would most likely be some form of predator, and what did we do when we came here? We held back the predator from its mass killing and destruction. We are the leaders of the animals, plants, and other kingdoms. We were put here for a purpose, to protect, to guide, to safeguard, and to lead. We are the rulers, and what we do with this affects everything. We can kill all, or we could bring about a brotherhood of peace. This is our place, to do with it what we decide. We mold the future and lead this planet. The reason we were put here you see, was to lead.
Well, I'm going to be the voice of dissent here and disagree with Nerdius (No offense!)
There's no reason we're here. We just are. Life started on Earth for some reason, and we eventually grew out of it. We have no purpose but the ones we make for ourselves. I just hope we make good purposes and then live up to them.
Yeah...I don't mean to jump on the bandwagon but- oh who am I kidding LET'S JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON OF DISSENT YAY!
Anyway, yes. My perspective is one that expresses what kanethebrain said...except with one small change: Instead of Life started on earth for some reason...I'm just going to say Life started on earth.
Please don't get me wrong though, what Nerdius has done is summed up in a neat passage what many people feel it so necessary to believe, and hence the prevalence of anthropocentric thinking throughout the millenia. However, when this insinuates itself into moral theory, I find the need to complain vociferously.
You are correct, Earth has life because it is close enough to the sun to get a sufficient amount of heat and energy, but not too far away that it's freezing. Earth has an atmosphere that protects us from the immense heat of the sun, and meteors that could crash into us. If we were a short distance away from the sun, Earth would be a cold, lifeless planet, like the others.
A few flaws in your passage though, we do not balance the food chain, we destroy many animal habitats, we kill off endangered species for clothing (fur etc.) and food. If this is the best we can do I am not impressed, we are causing the end of life on Earth (Global Warming, pollution, etc.). Here I go contradicting myself again: humans aren't destroying Earth, Earth isn't going anywhere, WE ARE! Earth has been through a lot worse than us, our plastic bags are no harm to Earth when compared to astroids crashing on planet surface, super-volcanoes erupting, earthquakes, tsunami's, magnetic reversal of the poles, and... ah, lost my train of thought...
When we look for planets with suitable conditions for life, our primary mission is to move to that place, and not to find intelligent extraterrestials there. We are destroying Earth and we need a new place to stay. If humanity wants to survive, we will by necessity have to travel to other planets we can live on, Earth will soon become lifeless.
If the rulers of the Earth were predators, at least everything would function properly, we aren't really doing anything about the predators except helping them kill off everything. We've become the predator causing the mass-killings.
Humans? Leaders? Ha! Protect? You mean burn/chop down forests? Safeguard? Lock'em up in zoo's?