Course 101
What is Life?
People always wonder about the meaning of life, even if they have their comforts met or if their religious or not
How we answer this question shapes how we live our lives, what we value, and what our purpose is
Nature of Man
Theism
Atheism (Naturalism & Scientism)
Identity: child of God, thus eternal being with a soul with the goal of glorifying and relating with God
Survival Machines (pleasure; preserve genes; life has no meaning)
Our destiny is to die, nothing we do here means anything in the long run including love, achievement, or wealth
We're just physical matter, no soul
We're accidents
Only Goal: Maximize pleasure, minimize pain
Life is too short and we all die anyways, so might as well feed our desires in this world because we may die tomorrow
Parable of the Rich Fool
Problems
Imposing a worldview that cannot be verified by science (no evidence for science to create this worldview), only stifling actual deep thought
To answer nature of man, we have to ask: What is our origin?
Our purpose is tied to our identity. It's hard to figure out anythings purpose by its description (dog, chair, picture, lamp, our relationships) without giving it an identity
Naturalist can't actually verify that we came from nothing. We only understand science from a limited perspective. Also, science presupposes math which presupposes logic
Not many people actually live out this worldview, the people who do are actually really sad. In order to find happiness, we have to shut our brains off to the reality of life being meaningless
We have a soul
We yearn for something outside the world
Trying to find our purpose apart from creator makes no sense
We have an eternal desire that cannot be satisfied by food or pleasure, that we are made for another world after the present
Genesis
Who is this creator?
Bible is not a lab manual, its a narrative. Its PURPOSE is to tell a story about who God is, why He created us, and who we are in relation to Him, not to tell us step-by-step directions on how to create the universe. It is epic poetry, written in Hebrew (framework of days 1-3 dividing the forms, days 4-6 populating them)
God
Humans
Given dominion over Eden
Given the breath of life
Created in God's image
Special Relationship with God
We are eternal, so we are more important than anything in society because we are everlasting
We are spiritual and physical
Created
Anticipating, loving Father, calls creation good and humans "very" good
We are the crown of God's creation, sharing His nature, and meant to co-rule with Him over creation with love and wisdom
The Choice We Must Make
World is meaningless, cosmic accident, chance explosion. No reason for existence, humans are a freak of nature, no more purpose for humans than insects. Reject value and meaning
God, a loving Father, created us to have a relationship with us because we are transcendent beings. He gives us the abundances of life for us to enjoys and thrive
Does God Exist?
No airtight proof God exists, but that's assuming strong rationalism, which has no airtight proof to prove itself. Instead, there are a lot of clues about God
Kalam Cosmological Argument
Everything with a beginning has a cause. The universe has a beginning, thus the universe had a cause. The source has to be outside the universe
Fine-Tuning Argument
The chances of this universe, perfect for life, is highly improbable. It feels like it must've been prepared by someone who knew we were coming
Regularity
Expect the laws of the universe to continue even though we have no reason to believe what is true yesterday is true tomorrow. There must be something causing the universe to be in order
Beauty
Art and love gives off sense of meaning and rightness. Without God, these are just biological responses that helped our ancestors survive and the sense of meaning is just a illusion. When exposed to beauty and love, even skeptics ignore the meaningless to find the meaningfulness
Natural Selection
Darwinism claims that religious feelings helped us survival, but we can't actually apply natural selection to disproving God because its only about survival, not about truthful. It's PURPOSE is not to tell the truth, only what helps us survive
God spoke the world into existence; He prepared it for us; He's the one that ensures regularity; gives us the intuition to find beauty and love meaningful; and gives us the reason to believe in rationality
Big Bang caused itself; we lucked into the perfect universe; we don't know why nature is regular, it just is; we appreciate beauty and love because evolutionary biology; natural selection can prove something it can't actually prove
He wants to relate with us. That's why he doesn't reveal everything. You can't relate with a lab manual, and a relationship is based on faith and trust in promises
So what went wrong?
A Good Thing Gone Bad
Free Will
Free will gives us the choice to reject God
Why reject God?
What does it mean to reject God?
Reject relationship with God
This is SIN
What is sin?
Who is sin against?
Desire to become like God
Sin is against God
Reject God's rightful claim over us
Consequences of Sin
Relativism (confusion of truth)
Broken Relationships (confusion of humans)
Idolatry (confusion of value)
Instead of worshiping God, we worship anything
Instead of defining good and evil by God's definition, we define it for ourselves
Instead of loving others as God tells us to, we dehumanize others and treat them like objects
How do we fix this?
We are all sinners
We chose to sin
We all chose to be disconnected from God
How do we reconnect with God?
Who can reconnect us with God?
What can we do to reconnect with God?