Apologetics for the Masses #337 - The Case for God (Part 3)

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What Is Your Purpose? - The Case for God (Part 3)

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Introduction

Is the belief in God solely a religious belief? Is it based only on faith? Or is there evidence, apart from religious faith, for the existence of God? (Part 3)

Challenge/Response/Strategy

What Is Your Purpose?

Last week I spoke of a question for which the atheist has no ultimate answer: Why is there something instead of nothing? This week, I will speak of a question for which the atheist does indeed have an answer, but it is an answer that is dark, dreary, and unpalatable to the human psyche (I would say "soul" here instead of psyche, but atheists don't believe in souls). That question is: What is your purpose?

If the atheist view of the universe is correct - that there is no Creator; that the universe just popped into existence as a result of blind, random, meaningless chance; that everything, including life, is all a cosmic accident - then, truth be told, the answer to the question: "What is your purpose?" is...nothing. There is no purpose to your life. Your life is, objectively speaking, meaningless. You have no objective purpose, you have no objective meaning. And not just you, but everyone and everything. If existence itself, if being itself, is accidental, then no one or no thing can be said to have purpose. We are all accidents. The universe is an accident.

"But," someone may object, "my life does indeed have purpose. I want to be a doctor. I want to heal people. That is my purpose in life." Or, another may say something along the lines of, "My wife and my children give my life purpose and meaning." Those are "fool's gold" objections - they appear to have value at first, but upon close examination, they are worthless.

You believe you have purpose in life because you want to be a doctor? But, if your entire existence is purely accidental, your being alive is merely the result of blind random chance, how can you objectively say your life has purpose? Can something that is the result of blind random chance be said to have purpose? Any kind of purpose? You might “think” you have purpose, but that is merely a random electrical impulse firing through the neurons in your brain. A monkey wants to eat. So, he has a desire of getting a banana off the tree. Does that desire mean his life has purpose? Does your desire to be a doctor mean your life has purpose? No, it doesn’t. Your desire to be a doctor has no more purpose than a monkey wanting to get a banana off the tree. It's just a biochemical response to various stimuli in the environment.

And how can your wife or your children give your life purpose? There is no objective meaning in that. No objective purpose. It is entirely subjective. It is imagined. It is merely a chemical process within your brain - over which you have no control - that is causing you to hold to such a preposterous notion. Besides, how could lives brought into being by blind, random, meaningless chance have any purpose or give any purpose?

Without God, all is chance. All is random. All is purposeless and meaningless. Just random chemical and biological reactions to environmental stimuli which are themselves merely random chemical and biological processes. We are biochemical robots without God, nothing more. Oh, we can fool ourselves into thinking we have purpose, but the atheist who is honest and consistent in his thought processes, has to admit that thinking there is purpose to a life that is randomly generated by blind purposeless chance, is believing in a fairy tale. It's like believing in unicorns or leprechauns. Without God, your life has no more meaning or purpose then that of a monkey's, or of a worm's, or of a bacteria, or a rock.

On the other hand, if God exists, then you were created for a reason. You are loved beyond comprehension by your Creator and His love for you gives your life purpose, meaning, and value. He created you to be with Him, for all of eternity. He created you to love Him and be loved by Him. That is your purpose.

Without God, we are all just bits of cosmic dust that exist because some primordial chemical soup was struck by an errant bolt of lightning. It just happened...by blind, unthinking, completely random, chance. We can fool ourselves into thinking we have purpose, but if every thought we have is merely the result of chemical and electrical processes over which we have absolutely no control, and which were brought into being by blind unthinking chance, then by definition, there can be no purpose to life. Purpose implies intent. There is no intent in a godless universe.

No intent. No meaning. No purpose. Maybe some atheist author should write a book: "The Purposeless-Driven Life." But, then, there really wouldn't be any purpose in reading it, would there?

I always like to tell the atheists that I get into conversations with on various blog sites, that I believe them to be infinitely loved by an all-powerful God Who has created them with purpose and meaning and Who gives them infinite value as human beings; while they believe themselves to be accidental specks of cosmic dust with no inherent value and no inherent purpose. Theists think more highly of atheists than atheists think of atheists. I find that exceedingly ironic.

Finally, lest anyone attempt to misquote me or misunderstand what I am saying here, I do not claim this to be a "proof" for God. I generally don't use that word. I merely offer this as evidence. Scientific evidence? Nope. But, evidence does not necessarily have to be scientific in order to validly point in a certain direction. You see, here's the thing: Why is it that each and every human being yearns for purpose, if there is no purpose to be had? Why does every person alive want their life to mean something, if life has no meaning? Why does the human heart ache for that which, according to the atheist, does not exist? What evolutionary advantage went to our ancient ancestor who first felt the longing for meaning, and passed that longing on to all of humanity, if there is no meaning to be found in the universe?

Closing Comments

No newsletter next week. I hope all of you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

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