Hi Rich. I get it. I think my point was that "purpose" is an odd way to put it - which I stated badly. I do believe in an ecosystem model, but not so much a purpose. IOW, since we're the top of the food chain (except for the occasional large hungry animal who will eat even a stinky human if it's hungry enough), what is our purpose? The only thing that makes sense to me (sort of) is that we are here to keep other plant and animal populations in check and then to dispose of our waste as fertilizer so that plants can grow and feed the animals we eat.

Once we take our egos out of it, we have no more purpose than any other component of the ecosystem.

Not sure if I'm expressing my thoughts any more clearly in this post, but I'm trying.