I know science is more geared towards answering the "how" questions instead of the "why" questions, but why do living things even survive in the first place? Why do they perform homeostasis? Why don't they just die?

 

Presumably, the first living organisms were just a bunch of chemical reactions contained within a semi-permeable membrane. If the microorganisms couldn't withstand the heat or the cold, it was "unfit" and died. Got it.

 

But for the more "advanced" organisms, what purpose does survival even have? Why does a conscious entity, aware of its surroundings and even possibly of itself, want to continue to live and reproduce?

 

Organisms all react to their environments in order to survive. But why? What is so special about survival?

 

What is so special about survival?

 

Selection.

 

The ones that survive get to produce more offspring that are also likely to survive. Those that don't survive (for long) produce fewer or no offspring (which are also less likely to survive) and so that line soon dies out.

 

Survival breeds survival.

"But for the more "advanced" organisms, what purpose does survival even have?"

Why assume there's a purpose?

"But for the more "advanced" organisms, what purpose does survival even have?"

Why assume there's a purpose?

Basically this. You question may be better answered by a philosopher or something, but in the realm of science, things may just not have a "purpose" as we understand it in everyday terms. The best answer I can give would be that things that are thermodynamically favorable just happen.

What is the purpose of fundamental forces?

Anything that may have existed that just died is gone. Life must replicate or cease to survive. Only that which survived exists for us to consider. Survival may be rare we don't really know yet. Perhaps a million things just died and only one survived, replicated, and evolved. We do not have enough information to quantify "why".

"Why do living things survive in the first place?"

Because we don't call things "living" unless they survive.

But for the more "advanced" organisms, what purpose does survival even have? Why does a conscious entity, aware of its surroundings and even possibly of itself, want to continue to live and reproduce?

 

Organisms all react to their environments in order to survive. But why? What is so special about survival?

 

Why do you survive ?