| The Meaning of Life In the other articles on this site, you will see (or already have) that truth is not relative, that chance or science can't explain everything and that it is certain that God exists. If there is a meaning to life in general, and our lives in particular, that meaning must come from the creator. (Otherwise we are simply imagining some "meaning" of our own and we're back to relativism). We can try to deduce the creator's meaning for life by various observations but the best way would be if this creator revealed this information to us directly and plainly. After looking at the various claims that the creator has done this, I am convinced that he has in fact revealed this information to us - though not as often as people would like us to believe. To save you some time in sorting out the true from the false claims, I'm going to suggest some logical things you should keep in mind as you try to discover what the meaning for your life is. 1. Since we know that all of the world's belief systems contradict each other on the fundamental point of the creator, we have to recognize that some or all are false. They can't all be true. (See article on relativism if you don't see this). 2. Since we know that a transcendent creator exists (see article on the existence of God) and we can see the creation reflects a unity in all its elements (see article on chance), we can conclude that there is only one transcendent creator. Any worldviews that claim that there is no creator (atheism, nihilism, Buddhism, etc.) or that there are many creators (polytheism, Hinduism, Taoism, etc.) or that the creator is part of the creation (pantheism, New Age, etc.) are obviously false. No need to waste your time with what these belief systems say about the meaning of life. 3. There are only three belief systems that are consistent with what we know about the creator. They are Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Since these belief systems claim divine revelation as their foundation, it makes sense - if their claims are true - that the revelation they refer to is something that requires a supernatural explanation. This would be in contrast to a "revelation" that can be explained by natural events. 4. It turns out that the Bible - Old and New Testaments - has hundreds of prophecies and statements of knowledge that no human could have known at the time they were written. This fact requires a supernatural explanation. Islam on the other hand does not have anything of the sort, demanding that the Muslim believe in the Koran on blind faith. This means the last two contenders for divine revelation are Judaism and Christianity. 5. Since Jews and Christians both see the Old Testament as divine revelation, the main difference between Judaism and Christianity is the Messiah. Judaism holds that the Messiah is yet to come while Christianity claims he has already come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. If Jesus really was the Messiah, it doesn't mean Judaism is false, it simply means modern Judaism is lacking the more complete revelation God has made through Jesus. On the other hand, if Christianity is false, Judaism is a fairly irrelevant belief system. I say this because there would be about 300 less fulfilled prophecies to boast of, no sacrifices that God requires, no temple to worship in and no actual Messiah - the central figure of Judaism. Let me therefore explain why I believe Christianity is the best choice. 6. Christianity is based on the resurrection of Jesus being an historical event and there is enormous evidence that this event occurred as described by the N.T. writers. Only Christianity answers the human dilemma of alienation from God, from others and from ourselves that we all experience. Only Christianity has all of Jesus. Unlike Buddhism. Islam, New Age, etc. who want to a have Jesus as a minor player in their belief system, Christianity has all of Jesus. Starting from what we know confidently about the world around us, we can use reason to discover that someone knows the meaning of life. That someone is God and He has revealed His purpose for us in the Bible and in Jesus Christ. I encourage you to look into what Jesus of the Bible has said and done so you can find the meaning for your life. |