There's a few different points to unpick there but the first to point out is that the idea of a "X leads to Y" logic chain based around something like selfishness is inherently flawed. Selfish isn't a concrete description and the word means different things to different people, what I consider selfish you might not and vice versa, therefore any "this makes you selfish and it's a fact" is flawed because the definition of selfish is too flexible. It's not a classification, you could say "if you commit murder then you're a murderer and thta's a fact" and that's fine because the word murderer is well defined and concrete unlike selfish.
The second and somewhat off topic but still important point seems to be that your idea of the Universe as serving no greater purpose has left you in a sort of existential crisis about your ultimate place and everybody's ultimate place. Perhaps as somebody who believes the same as you I can offer my own thoughts on it?
The truth is you don't matter. Not
really. Every single thing that you do, good or bad, charitable or selfish, nasty or nice to one or one billion people is a speck of a speck of a speck on the history of the Universe and will be forgotten about into irrelevance. There are some for which this idea is crippling and I do think it's a stage which all people go through in their lives at one time or another. However when you come through the other side of this then you get the realisation that because you don't matter and there's no ultimate point to anything then it's a liberating idea.
There's no parent to nurture us or protect us or to tell us what we've done is wrong or pat us on the back for a job well done. There's no naughty step to be banish to for all eternity. There's just us, a bunch of lonely apes on a floating rock in a non-descript Solar System. We are both the prisoners and the guards of our own situation. The masters of both our own destiny as a collective tribe and of how we treat each other. We get to decide what's right and wrong, what's good and bad, how to treat others. I often say that I'm an atheist but that's not really a true reflection of my beliefs. I think we're all personal Gods to each other with the power to create, destroy, love and punish each other and it's how we wield this power that is the reflection not just of you personally but our species as a whole. I also think that we're capable of immense acts of kindness and miraculous acts of invention when working together.
Obviously my views on things like soldiering are well known and somewhat controversial but what greater demonstration has war given us for both the inventiveness, the beauty and the evilness of humanity? The ability for a collection of people to be organised into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts? The amazing acts of kindness, the passion for freedom and liberty which has driven humanity since we came down from the trees, the savageness of which we're capable when we treat others as "less than human", the speed of which we can create and invent when driven by a singular purpose. For me war has always been the thing to avoid but has also reflected the special nature of humans better than any other interaction.
This period of human history is the greatest period that has ever lived and I am absolutely certain that in 1000 years it will be remembered greater than we remember the Renaissance. It is a period that worldwide humanity has decided to get its shit together. Every day people are becoming better fed, with better medical care. Every day there are more people fighting against the tyranny of dictators and demanding the voice of the populace be heard. Every day we are creating a more compassionate society and stretching our arms further out into new science, new technologies and new breakthroughs which will further spurn our development. In the last 100 years the planet has changed more than any other 100 year span in the 2 million year history of our species. With the media the way that it is, it is very easy to forget this and be caught up in the religious strife, the terrorism, the murders and rapes. But that is not an accurate reflection of the modern human society in which miracles happen every single day. I am currently sat just outside of Manchester in England writing a message using a posh version of a typewriter. This message can be instantly read by somebody in Shanghai, and it will be translated automatically to their language in such a way that they will get the drift and they can reply back in their own language to which can be translated automatically and instantly back to my language. That is a miracle. Literally, 100 years ago that is the power of a God.
Just today the world was made a better place.
On a cruise ship, a baby was born at the 26 week mark weighing only one pound eight ounces, yet managed to survive because somebody built a makeshift incubator. That is an absolute miracle that never could have occurred at any other point of human history. That person is alive because of the achievements of its ancestors who also lived in the same Universe that you do.
Today marks the one year anniversary of any naturally occurring cases of polio in Nigeria. A feat which has never been accomplished in the history of that country before. . Over the last 30 years alone, this is what has happened to Polio as an epidemic
What's 30 years on the lifespan of the Universe? Absolutely nothing. Not even a speck of a speck of a speck of a speck. Yet that's what we have accomplished in that time frame thanks to a collective effort from people all over the world.
I don't share your view of a pointless existence because I see the point in almost everything around me. Nobody builds a tower on their own, everybody stands on each others shoulders. We couldn't achieve the things that we can achieve now if we didn't do the hard work that we've done over the past 2000 years. Everything mattered because it all ultimately led us to where we are now just as everything we do now will ultimately lead us to where we are going to be in the future. We are the masters of our reality and can shape it to our collective will. Yes, the world isn't perfect and there's thousands of problems that we are still yet to solve. This to me is a motivator and not a downer. It reminds me that there's still so much work to be done by us and so much more left to achieve. But to ignore all of the achievements that we've made not just in the past 30 years but the past 100,000 years to me is reducing the complexity of existence down to an overly simplistic form. It matters because we want it to matter and that's enough. It doesn't need to be any more grandiose than that.
