“Death May Be Worse than Life” The saying goes that there are two absolutes in life: death and taxes. I’m not so sure about the second one—some people have a talent for out-maneuvering the IRS—but there’s no doubt about the first: No one gets out of this life alive. As philosopher William James put it, “Old age has the last word.” In saying this, James wasn’t just making a lighthearted comment on the inevitability of death. He wanted his readers to see that eventually we all face the fear, reality, and drama of ultimate death. He continued with these sobering words: The purely naturalistic look at life, however enthusiastically it may begin, is sure to end in sadness.… The old man, sick with an insidious internal disease, may laugh and quaff his wine at first as well as ever, but he knows his fate now, for the doctors have revealed it; and the knowledge knocks the satisfaction out of all these functions. They are partners of death and the worm is their brother, and they turn to a mere flatness. Some full-blooded atheists are so committed to naturalism that they deny any form of life after death. I suspect they are few and far between. Even those who cling to secular humanism as a worldview generally believe in some kind of deity and draw the line at absolute atheism. They call themselves agnostics, skeptics, or whatever, but in the deepest recesses of their hearts, they believe (or at least hope) that they will somehow outfox the Grim Reaper by moving into another dimension of conscious existence after death. The late Edward John Carnell said it well: Something inside cries out against the conclusion that a purpose-seeking man has been hatched by a purposeless universe. The urge may be ill founded; it may have to be disqualified. Yet, there it is: Our heart tells us that there are destinies at stake in this life. We cannot eradicate this voice. Wisdom dictates, therefore, that before one decides whether or not this witness is trustworthy, a thorough investigation be conducted; lest through either oversight or default an everlasting loss in the soul be sustained. This innate yearning for the transcendent is exposed even in the lives of some of the most notorious atheists. Friedrich Nietzsche “found his atheism unbearable. Sartre, too, complained of the seeming unlivability of his position, declaring that ‘atheism is a cruel and long-range affair.’ ” The traditional way to seek an answer to the question, “What happens to me after death?” has been through religion, particularly here in the West through the Christian religion. However, Western culture is now dominated by a secular worldview, and atheistic naturalism is the favored source of ultimate truth. Many people no longer accept Christianity as an avenue to truth and instead seek answers to life’s great mysteries through science or nontraditional religions such as the cults and the New Age Movement. But out of the myriad of religions and secular worldviews, only one can actually reflect truth. People who claim that they are being open-minded by accepting all religions as gateways to truth are actually being empty-headed. It’s logically impossible for religious worldviews that contradict to both be right. And when we reject logic, it doesn’t make everything true; it makes nothing true. God either exists or He doesn’t exist. He is either the God of Christianity or some other God, but He can’t be two different kinds of Gods at the same time. Logic, experience, and science don’t operate in contradiction and neither can religion. If we are to make heads-or-tails out of reality and if religious truth is to be known at all, we must adhere to the rudimentary rules of logic that govern all other areas of knowledge. We have demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that only Christianity is internally and externally consistent, logical in its approach to reality, and in harmony with human experience as universally understood and lived out. Moreover, only the Christian worldview is confirmed by applying the scientific method to discovering truth; that is, only Christianity is verified to the highest level of certainty possible by historical, legal, scientific, and rational evidence. In these last pages, I want to review a couple points and further emphasize the urgency of considering “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Story, D. (1998). Christianity on the offense: responding to the beliefs and assumptions of spiritual seekers (pp. 171–173). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 15:45:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015