I've been thinking a bit about reproduction and the first stream of thought that came into my mind was that if living things reproduce, then there must be a fundamental reason or purpose for them to do so. In other words, if there must be a goal or purpose for living things to reproduce and attempt to stay alive, then what could that be?
Then I began to ponder about the possibility that there is no purpose of reproduction though it seemed counter-intuitive to me at first. But what if the desire to procreate is simply a random mutation from the very early beginnings of life, without any necessary inherent meaning, that happened to spawn a continual cycle of living organisms only as a result of its nature. Picture the site, whatver it may be, of the original formation of the smallest units of life. Let's say in the beginning there is a random soup forming one-celled organisms without any instincts or desires. So these organisms keep springing up, living, and dying without procreating. Then suddenly, a random natural mutation arises where one of these organisms decides to divide. This organism would continue to divide spreading its natural instinct to reproduce eventually leading to continued evolution, perhaps into the varied forms of life we have today. In this hypothetical situation, it is clear that all of the different future organisms would have this instinct to reproduce, but is it necessarily meaningful? This propagation of life would simply be an extension of this original random genetic trait. No necessary purpose, no underlying or greater meaning.
I'd love to hear some opinions about this.