You know nobody asked me if I wanted to exist. Yeah, one day boom there you are
and you think to yourself why am I here? Well, what do you think? Is there a reason
we're here? Do our lives have any real significance? Well that depends. On what?
On whether or not God exists. Wait hold on, are you saying that my life has no
significance because I don't believe in God? No not at all! I'm saying that if God
doesn't exist it doesn't matter what you believe our lives would have no
objective meaning, value, or purpose. Many atheists themselves recognize this. If
atheism is true life is absurd. Okay, and why do they think that? To begin with if
God does not exist then the physical universe is all there is which means you
and I are just accidental byproducts of nature. Right, so? That means we were not
intentionally designed so there's no purpose for us being here. Whoa! It gets
worse. If God does not exist there is no absolute standard of moral value. You've
heard of Richard Dawkins, the atheist. He points out that in a materialistic
universe there is at bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but
pointless indifference. So you're saying atheists can't be good
people? No I'm not saying that. Many atheists live good lives. What I'm saying
is atheism fails to provide an objective basis for seeing any particular action
as good or evil. Oh come on! After millions of years of
sociobiological evolution humans have developed a sense
of morality. We all know it's good to feed a hungry child and bad to torture
someone for fun. Of course we do, but that's precisely
what atheism cannot explain. If there's no God then what we consider right or
wrong is nothing more than an accident of evolution or a human social
convention. So what? I'm good with that. Really!? Evolution implies survival of the
fittest not morality. And social convention means that racism intolerance
and cruelty are not really wrong they just happen to be unpopular.
Okay, so atheists need to come up with some objective standard for rights and
wrongs. How about this: If an action leads to human flourishing then we can say
it's objectively good and if it doesn't it's objectively evil. But why think that
human flourishing is good? Aren't you being species centric? Why not
refer instead to the flourishing of rats or cabbages? Well... And who gets to decide
what contributes to human flourishing? Hitler was convinced killing millions of
Jews would promote human flourishing and Margaret Sanger thought forcing poor
people to be sterilized would lead to human flourishing. As Guy Nielsen points
out pure practical reason will not take you to morality. So if atheism is true
there is no legitimate basis for saying that behaving one way is worse than
behaving any other way so it really doesn't matter how you live your life
your day-to-day choices are meaningless. That's depressing. So if there's no God
what happens when you die? Well nothing. You simply cease to exist. Right. So one
person lives a kind, generous, thoughtful life.
Another lives a horrible violent selfish life. It doesn't matter! In both cases the
outcome is the same: nothingness. So how can their life
choices have any objective meaning. Well it's certainly meaningful if I
discover a cure for cancer or save a child's life. I agree completely! But
atheism can't explain why! Scientists predict that eventually the whole
universe and mankind with it will die out. So everything comes to nothing.
That's why atheist Bertrand Russell says we must build our lives on the firm
foundation of despair. No thanks! I'd rather live a happy life. You're not
alone. Every atheist has to choose between
being happy or being consistent. You can tell the whole world you're an atheist
but you can't really live like one. Okay so you're a Christian if your God did
exist how would that change anything? If Christianity is true then each one of us
is here for a reason and life does not end at the grave and God he's the
absolute standard of goodness. He knows you, he loves you, and he intentionally
created you so your life ultimately does have objective meaning value and purpose.
That means you can live a life that's both happy and consistent. Well that
doesn't prove Christianity is true. Agreed. I'm simply pointing out that for
Christians living a life that is both happy and consistent is possible. For
atheists it's not. So what are you going to choose?
you