Part Three: Questions about Origins and the Meaning of Life
Part 3
QUESTIONS ABOUT ORIGINS AND THE MEANING OF LIFE
It is not accidental that questions of origin are integral to questions about the meaning of life. One might say that it is by intelligent design that these areas are interrelated. Like questions about God and His attributes, concerns about origins are as old as humanity itself. With German philosopher, mathematician, and logician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), humans have attempted for thousands of years to reason about origins along these similar ways:
1. Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence.
2. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God.
3. The universe exists.
4. Therefore, the universe has an explanation of its existence.
5. Therefore, the explanation of the universe’s existence is God.
Leibniz’s reasoning has an intuitional quality to it; it rings true about the meaning of something that contingently exists. Something exists; it must have an explanation of its existence, right? Moreover, major areas of the history of human thought are associated with any of these points, including major questions and topics in metaphysics, cosmology, epistemology, and philosophy of religion.
The questions in this part deal with evidence for and objections against many of the points above and beyond. Whether Dr. Craig is engaging contemporary scientists like Stephen Hawking or he is exposing weak objections to a theistic cosmology, experiencing his answers in this part is like being a fly on a wall in a classroom, picking up tidbits of insight in philosophy of time, cosmology, and philosophy of religion.
By interacting with the questions and answers of Part Three, you can benefit in the following ways.
In section 1, you can come to understand
• How God is the cause of the universe.
• What it means to bring into being that which does not exist.
• How Stephen Hawking and other atheists fail to think clearly about the philosophical implications of cosmology.
• Why the ultimate cause of the universe must be a personal being and not an impersonal force.
In section 2, you can come to discover
• Why the universe is not eternal but temporal and contingent.
• Why it is a mistake to speak of “a moment before creation,” since time only exists with creation.
• The difference between tensed vs. tenseless views of time.
• How a tenseless view of time creates problems for personal identity over time.
• How God exists timelessly without creation but becomes temporal at the moment of creation.
In section 3, you can come to discern
• How life is absurd if God does not exist.
• Why meaning, value, and purpose should not be separated from each other.
• How unbelief is morally culpable before God, given our moral duty as humans to worship God.
• Why deism is a better alternative to atheism.
In section 4, you can recognize
• Why scientism is self-refuting.
• How terms like “undirected” and “purposeless” do not often mean the same things for theists and evolutionary biologists.
• How theism is not at war with evolution but in conflict with naturalism.
• Why a theist does not need to know exactly when humans emerged in the evolutionary process in order for theism to be rational to hold.
• How science sometimes masquerades as philosophy or theology.
You can discover further background to these issues, grow your understanding, and become even more skillful in your communication of what you learn by interacting with some of these valuable resources:
Dig Deeper into Dr. Craig’s Work
BEGINNER
Craig, William Lane. “The Absurdity of Life without God.” The Veritas Forum. Chicago, 2001. http://bit.ly/AbsurdityVF.
Craig, William Lane. “Has Science Made Faith in God Impossible?” The Veritas Forum. College Station, Tex., 1997. http://bit.ly/VeritasWLC.
Craig, William Lane. On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook Publishers, 2010. Chapters 4–5.
Craig, William Lane. “Why Does Anything at All Exist.” Carswell Lecture, Winston-Salem, N.C., 2008. http://bit.ly/WhyExist.
INTERMEDIATE
Craig, William Lane. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics. 3rd ed. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008. Chapters 3–4.
Craig, William Lane. “Origins of the Universe: Has Stephen Hawking Eliminated God?” Lecture at St. Andrew the Great Church, Cambridge, UK, October 1, 2011. http://bit.ly/HawkingsOrigins.
Craig, William Lane and J. P. Moreland. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2003. Chapters 15–18, 28.
Craig, William Lane. “What Is the Relation between Science and Religion?” Reasonable Faith. http://bit.ly/ScienceReligionRelation.
ADVANCED
Craig, William Lane. “Much Ado about Nothing: A Review Essay on The Grand Design.” Philosophia Christi 12 (2): 409–18. Winter, 2010.
Craig, William Lane. “Theistic Critiques of Atheism.” The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, M. Martin, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 69–85. http://bit.ly/CritiquesOfAtheism.
Supplemental Recommended Resources
BEGINNER
Hitchens, Peter. The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.
Moreland, J. P. The God Question: An Invitation to a Life of Meaning. Eugene, Oreg.: Harvest House, 2009.
Ordway, Holly. Not God’s Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Rational Faith. Chicago: Moody, 2010.
Zacharias, Ravi K. The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008.
INTERMEDIATE
Copan, Paul and William Lane Craig, eds. Contending with Christianity’s Critics. Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2009. Chapters 1–6.
Craig, William Lane and Chad Meister, eds. God Is Great, God Is Good: Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2009. Chapters 1–2, 4–6, Postscript, and the Appendix.
Groothuis, Douglas. Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2011. Chapters 13–14.
Sweis, Khaldoun A. and Chad V. Meister. Christian Apologetics: An Anthology of Primary Sources. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012. Chapters 48–50.
ADVANCED
Craig, William Lane and J. P. Moreland, eds. The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2009. Chapters 2, 4.