Pure Chance

Teleology is defined as "the philosophical doctrine that final cause, design, and purpose exist in nature." (Dictionary.com) This definition unfortunately did not clarify the meaning of teleological thinking for me. Luckily, understanding finally struck me when Jordan said that teleological thinking is when "looking back, it is the only way it could have happened." Darwin believed that "evolution had a direction" (426), a teleological thought: humans have developed over the course of the universe to what we are today because that was the only way we could have developed, through the millions of mutations, survivals, and continued evolution.
I had a thought, that teleological thought is actually a limited way of viewing one's existence because it disregards all the possible forms humans could have taken. Imagine the sheer impossibility of our exact existence. In order for you to become you, each one of your ancestors had to meet with others generation after generation (several of these meetings were even the most random occurrence, such as your parents being at the same restaurant at the same time entirely per chance). You would, in fact, not exist had it not been for all of these chance meetings to occur the way they did. This is how the human race evolved; just think of all the chance mutations that occurred to even bring about the human race; the possibilities are endless for what we could have turned into.
Teleological thought limits the wonder one can gain from their existence because it accepts that their existence had to come about in the way that it did; I believe this to be an incorrect theory. There are so many possibilities for how we could have evolved, it is only pure chance we are who we are today.