Perhaps, perhaps notl
It is all rather remarkable though.
The religiously inclined will see telos. They do include numerous educated, intelligent and rational people so dismissing them all "as engaging in magical thinking and childish fantasy" may be a little dismissive.

:100: I don't think you are missing anything.

I've always thought so: intentional agents make goals and the only intentional agents known to us are ourselves, mere humans. Am I missing something?

Don’t forget the dolphin’s, etc..

Or is an imagined telos merely an anthropomorphic, indeed anthropocentric, projection? — Janus

"Imagined Telos"*1 and "Projection" make the notion of a direction to evolution sound like wishful thinking. But a more positive way to label that idea is Interpretation or Inference. For example, cosmologists have interpreted the stellar red-shift to mean that the universe is expanding in all physical directions. Physicists have also interpreted physical Entropy as an inevitable result of the second law of thermodynamics. But they also imagined our experience of a flow from past to future as an Arrow of Time*2 : a Telos.

On the other hand, Whitehead's notion of Purposeful Cosmic Telos*3 is both an inference from evidence of the Arrow of Time, and a causal interpretation in terms of the original impulse that set the universe on this course into the unknown. So where are we going, and why?

Scientists tend to not ask Why? questions. But philosophers have always wanted to know Why the world is in the dynamic directional state of, not only expansion, but of qualitative evolution, from near nothing to Life, Mind, and Culture (as a supplement to Nature). As a product of the human (not animal) Mind, Teleology is indeed anthropomorphic and anthropocentric. But is the Telos a projection onto, or an inference from the observable cosmos? :smile:


*1. "Imagined telos" refers to a concept in philosophy and art where individuals or communities envision and create a future purpose or goal. This future purpose is not necessarily based on established facts or historical patterns, but rather on imagination and hope for a better state of affairs.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=imagined+telos

*2. The arrow of time refers to the directional nature of time, the phenomenon that time flows from past to future. This is a central concept in physics and philosophy, with the second law of thermodynamics playing a key role in explaining it. While the fundamental laws of physics don't inherently favor a direction of time, the increasing entropy of isolated systems (as described by the second law) creates the observable arrow of time, making it clear that time moves forward rather than backward.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=arrow+of+time

*3. In Whitehead's process philosophy, teleology refers to the idea that everything in the universe is moving towards a specific end or purpose. Whitehead believes that reality is fundamentally a dynamic process of becoming, and that all entities, including humans, are striving towards some form of fulfillment or "telos". This telos is not a pre-determined destiny, but rather a constantly evolving goal that is shaped by the ongoing creative process of the universe.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=whitehead+teleology