Why?

There are only a few really big questions in this world…..in my life……in your life.

How did the world begin?

How did life begin,

What happens when we die?

Mankind spends an enormous amount of energy and resources trying to find the answers. You can make the case that answering these questions is the ultimate goal of science, philosophy, and mysticism……religion. We are on a path. History tells us about a tiny part of that path. But, we feel a need to search out the more distant parts of the path. We do this to answer the overarching question……….why? Because, if we can figure out the why, we can make better use of our extremely limited time in this temporal world.

We seek out the why……..so that we won’t waste our time. And time is the most precious resource in this world. When we spend it…….it is gone…….and can never be retrieved.

The attempts to answer the big questions fall into two camps:

Science/secular humanism

Religion/mysticism

These two camps use different tools, different rules, and different assumptions. And, not surprisingly, they arrive at different conclusions. Forgive me……but I will try to condense both into a few sentences.

Science/secular humanism:

This camp uses measurable physical phenomena to explain everything. When they find something that defies measurement, they fill the gap with an assumption, based on the best measurements available. Many of these assumptions are good. Many are existential leaps……..unprovable explanations that must be true in order for the rest of the narrative to work.

The beginning of the world? There was nothing….space and time did not exist. Then suddenly, everywhere at once, space and time and an expanding universe came into being. Everything came out of nothing. They call it a “singularity”. They offer no answer as to how. They offer no answer as to why. This is the first major existential leap.

The begining of life? There was a puddle of simple atoms and small molecules (the primordial ooze). A random blast of energy struck it repeatedly and the atoms assembled themselves into progressively more complicated molecules which then began to reproduce and ultimately morphed into Angelina Jolie. There is no hard evidence documenting any of this. This process is also one of many of the existential leaps.

Where are we going? Nowhere. Because we cannot measure an afterlife…….it must not exist. Curiously, there is no existential leap here…….the place where we need it the most.

Religion/mysticism

The beginning of the world? A creator operating outside of the bounds of time and space called it into being for his purposes.

The beginning of life? The creator, God, did that too…..again, for his purposes.

Where are we going? God will either draw us back to him or cast us away.

This too is an existential leap…….an explanation that must be true for the narrative to work.

Which brings us to the overarching question:

Why?

Science/secular humanism gives us no answer. We are left to sort it out for ourselves. We like this a lot, because we get to create a series of why’s that serve our appetites. We can have a lot of fun…….for a very short time. But………the party begins with nothing and ends with dead black nothing.

Mysticism/religion gives us a clear answer. We were created to love and be loved…….by God…..by our fellow man. If we do this well, we will live a life of joy……first in this temporary world…….and then in an eternal paradise.

So………pick your existential leap.

But……know that you are choosing where you will land.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

God, ESV

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Solomon, ESV

what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah, ESV