THE ABSURDITY OF LIFE WITHOUT GOD

THE ABSURDITY OF LIFE WITHOUT GOD

by Dr. Phil Fernandes


Psychological Apologetics attempts to deal with the whole man, not
just his reason. The will and emotions of man are taken into account.
Man desperately needs meaning in life. Apologists who use this
methodology often focus on this fact. They point to the fact that if
there is no God, then life is absurd and without ultimate meaning.

THE ABSURDITY OF LIFE WITHOUT GOD

THE ABSURDITY OF LIFE WITHOUT GOD

by Dr. Phil Fernandes


Psychological Apologetics attempts to deal with the whole man, not
just his reason. The will and emotions of man are taken into account.
Man desperately needs meaning in life. Apologists who use this
methodology often focus on this fact. They point to the fact that if
there is no God, then life is absurd and without ultimate meaning.

Psychological apologists also focus on man's innate thirst to
transcend this earthly experience (chapter 13), and the paradox of
man--that man is both wonderful and cruel (chapter 14). An adequate
world view must offer a viable explanation for these three phenomena
(the absurdity of life without God, the thirst for transcendence, and
the paradox of man). Psychological apologists argue that Christianity
provides a better answer in these areas than any other world view.

KING SOLOMON

This chapter will examine the argument for God's existence based on
the absurdity of life without God. Though this argument is popular
today, it is not new. In fact, King Solomon of Israel used this
argument as far back as 935BC. This is rather strange since most
historians place the start of philosophy at about 585BC.1 However,
there were wise thinkers at a much earlier time. As Solomon began his
reign, he prayed for wisdom and knowledge (2 Chronicles 1:10-12). God
answered his prayer and his wisdom surpassed that of all other men of
his day. People came from remote parts of the earth just to ask him
"difficult questions" (1 Kings 4:29-34). The biblical account of
Solomon's wisdom is as follows:

Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment breadth of
mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom
surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of
Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman,
Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the
surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were
1,005. And he spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even
to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and
birds and creeping things and fish. And men came from all peoples to
hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had
heard of his wisdom (1 Kings 4:29-34).

Solomon's two philosophical writings are Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In
Proverbs, Solomon teaches wisdom that can be applied to daily life. It
can be viewed as a manual on practical living. In Ecclesiastes,
Solomon shows that a man's life is totally useless until he recognizes
his relation to God.

Solomon begins his work sounding like a modern-day existentialist. He
cries, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2). He
expresses the view that life is futile and that man is thrust into a
state of deep despair. However, Solomon makes this bleak assessment of
human existence only when he considers the human condition "under the
sun" (1:9). Solomon is attempting to find purpose in life without any
appeal to man's relation to God. Take the God of heaven out of the
equation, Solomon says, and life has no meaning. Man, viewed strictly
from an earthly perspective, has no hope or purpose.

Solomon proclaims that ". . . in much wisdom there is much grief, and
increasing knowledge results in increasing pain" (1:18). The human
situation is such that the more that is known of it, the less hope
there is (so long as man is viewed in isolation from God).

Solomon attempts to find meaning and purpose in life apart from God.
He finds none. Apart from God, life is futile. Solomon surveys a list
of candidates that might bring meaning to life apart from God. But he
finds in them only frustration and "striving after the wind" (1:14).
The attainment of human wisdom is vain (1:17-18). It brings no lasting
satisfaction. Laughter and pleasure-seeking are vain (2:2,10). There
is no genuine satisfaction in the drinking of wine (2:3) or engaging
in building projects (2:4). The accumulation of wealth is without
lasting significance (2:8). Music and women can provide only temporary
pleasure (2:8). Even popularity amounts to nothing (2:9). Solomon's
conclusion is that "everything is futility and striving after the
wind" (2:17).

Though Solomon grieves for all that is "under the sun," he also begins
to acknowledge God's purposes in the affairs of this world (3:1-11).
He states that God has placed eternity in the hearts of men (3:11).
Though man cannot fully understand the ways of God, he has an innate
longing for the eternal things of God. Without appealing to these
eternal matters, man will be damned to a life of despair and
frustration. But if man acknowledges his God and serves Him, life has
meaning and eternal significance.

Solomon closes Ecclesiastes with these words. "The conclusion, when
all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because
this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to
judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil"
(12:13-14).

Man's search for satisfaction and meaning in life is futile if he only
looks "under the sun." Life without God is useless and absurd. Despair
is inevitable for all who recognize the futility found in the
temporary pleasures of life. True satisfaction can only be found in
God. Once man acknowledges God's existence, the works of man are no
longer meaningless. What we do on earth takes on eternal significance.
For we must all give an account to God for our actions. And God alone
gives genuine meaning to life.

Many modern thinkers have rejected the existence of God. But they also
recognize that life is without meaning if there is no God. Still, they
live lives of despair (or escape this despair through an existential
leap) rather than submit to God who can give meaning to life. Solomon
calls upon these modern thinkers to make a choice. Blind leaps into
the irrational realm to find meaning are not open to honest thinkers.
Man must choose God or despair. There is no other choice.

BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662)

The Christian thinker Blaise Pascal revolted against the idea that
reason alone should settle religious truth questions. Pascal realized
that there is more to the decision-making processes of man than mere
thought. Man's choices are also influenced by his emotions and will.
"We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our
heart." 2 Therefore, Pascal set out to develop a defense of the
Christian Faith that appealed to these aspects in man.

Pascal stated, "Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and
ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about
such things." 3 Men "have a secret instinct driving them to seek
external diversion and occupation, and this is the result of their
constant sense of wretchedness." 4 ". . . it makes a man happy to be
diverted from contemplating his private miseries by making him care
about nothing else but dancing well . . ." 5 Pascal saw in man a
tendency to focus his attentions on temporary pleasures rather than on
his own wretched state and certain death. If a man could amuse himself
with these temporary pleasures, he could ignore and deny the more
important issues of life that cause him fear. But Pascal warns man
that there is no genuine satisfaction in this world. He says, "in this
life there is no true and solid satisfaction" and that "all our
pleasures are mere vanity." 6 Pascal concludes "that the only good
thing in this life is the hope of another life." 7

According to Pascal, "there are only two classes of persons who can be
called reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because
they know him and those who seek him with all their heart because they
do not know him." 8 Pascal considered the possibility of life after
death to be of such great importance that he considered those who were
not concerned about investigating this issue to be without feeling. 9
Pascal graphically describes the human situation apart from God:

Imagine a number of men in chains, all under the sentence of death,
some of whom are each day butchered in the sight of others; those
remaining see their own condition in that of their fellows, and
looking at each other with grief and despair await their turn. This is
an image of the human condition. 10

All men face their own inevitable death. As they go through life, they
seek to hide this dreadful fact from themselves through temporary
pleasures. But, as far as Pascal is concerned, this is a meaningless
existence. Man can only find genuine meaning in life if he finds the
God of the Bible. Apart from God, life is absurd.

Pascal calls his readers to make a choice. It is foolish for them to
go on deceiving themselves. They must admit that without God and
eternal life, human existence is without hope. Man must choose between
despair and God. If a person wagers on God and loses, the person loses
nothing. But if a person wagers on God and wins, the person wins
everything. If, however, one wagers against God there is no hope of
winning. If that person wins, he wins nothing. But if one bets against
God and loses, one loses everything. Pascal concludes that the wise
man will therefore wager on God. 11 Pascal, contrary to popular
belief, is not attempting to prove God's existence with his wager
argument. Instead, he is attempting to persuade others to desire and
seek God with all their hearts. Pascal believed that if a person seeks
God with all his heart, he will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13).

FRANCIS SCHAEFFER (1912-1984)

Christian thinker Francis Schaeffer effectively argued that life is
absurd without the existence of the God of the Bible. He believed that
modern man had thrust himself into a state of despair. Schaeffer saw
three key philosophers as leading man away from reason and into this
feeling of meaningless existence.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the first of these key thinkers, brought
secular philosophy to a halt. His thought concluded that man could
only know reality as it appeared to him (phenomena) and not reality as
it is (noumena). Man's mind could not bridge the gap between the two.
When one begins with unaided human reason, the phenomena and noumena
never meet.12 At this point, secular philosophers gave up their
attempt to find "a unified rationalistic circle that would contain all
thought, and in which they could live." 13

The next thinker emphasized by Schaeffer was Hegel (1770-1831). Before
him, philosophers for thousands of years had attempted to find truth
based on antithesis. This meant that they held to the idea of absolute
truth. Something could not be both true and not true at the same time
and in the same sense. But Kant had shown that unaided human reason
within the boundaries of antithesis led to skepticism about the real
world. Hegel therefore concluded that man must try a new method. He
recommended abandoning absolutes. His dialectical approach allowed for
the synthesizing of contradictory statements. 14 This shift in the
concept of truth from antithesis (absolute truth) to synthesis (truth
is relative) resulted in modern man's new way of viewing reality. 15
At this point, modern man faces great despair. For there is no longer
any hope of man finding true meaning to life. There are no absolutes.
Truth is relative.

The third philosopher Schaeffer discusses is Soren Kierkegaard
(1813-1855). With the rejection of absolutes, modern man was left
without meaning in life. Despair seemed to be the only alternative.
But this is where Kierkegaard enters the scene. Schaeffer states that
Kierkegaard realized that "Man has no meaning, no purpose, no
significance" in the rational realm. "There is only pessimism
concerning man as man." But if man takes a leap of blind faith into
the nonrational realm, says Kierkegaard, this nonreasonable faith
gives man optimism. 16

Schaeffer sees modern man as facing a choice between despair and a
false, nonrational hope. Schaeffer's method of evangelizing the modern
man is to show him that he must reason with absolutes. For the only
way to deny absolutes is to assume there are absolutes. 17 The
Kierkegaardian leap into the nonrational realm is therefore not an
option. If the modern man refuses to turn to the God of the Bible, he
is damned to a meaningless life of despair (that is, if he has enough
courage to refrain from a nonrational leap). Only when a person
accepts the existence of the God of the Bible can life have true
meaning. Without God, life is absurd. Without God, the reasonable man
will wallow in despair.

GORDON LEWIS

In his work entitled Testing Christianity's Truth Claims, Gordon Lewis
approvingly discusses the psychological apologetics utilized by Edward
John Carnell and Vernon C. Grounds. Lewis recognizes the fact that
Christianity alone is able to relieve man's deepest anxieties. Science
and Philosophy can offer no substitute for God's unconditional love.
18 All people long for loving acceptance, peace, and significance.
Only in Jesus can these needs be met. Jesus loves each person
unconditionally. He will never stop loving any individual (though each
person has the freedom to reject His love and suffer the
consequences). Trusting in His promises gives man peace in the midst
of trials. One can find true significance in human existence only if
he recognizes that all people were created by God for the purpose of
eternal fellowship with Him.

Man desperately needs forgiveness to remove his guilt and hope to
obliterate his despair. But without Christ's atoning death on Calvary,
there is no forgiveness. And without Christ's resurrection from the
dead, there can be no genuine hope for man. Only in Christianity can
man's deepest psychological needs be met. 19

The stresses of modern life inflict multitudes with anxiety and
despair. Modern man is crying out for help. Psychologists often
correctly diagnose the problems, but seldom provide any real
solutions. The source of man's anxiety stems from his alienation from
God, and only the gospel of Jesus Christ can remedy this. The world
desperately seeks joy and peace. However, joy and peace can only be
found in Christ, and the church must make this known.

LAWRENCE J. CRABB JR.

Christian psychologist Lawrence Crabb states that modern psychology
has rightly concluded that one of man's most basic needs is personal
worth. 20 Crabb states that there are two required inputs to make a
person feel worthy. The two inputs are significance and security. 21

To feel significant, each person must have a sense of purpose and a
feeling of importance. One's life must be meaningful. One must have a
definite impact on his world. To feel secure, a person must know he is
loved unconditionally and eternally. If he does not feel eternally
accepted, he will not feel secure. 22 Man longs for everlasting
acceptance; temporary acceptance will not satisfy him.

Crabb argues that Adam and Eve had significance and security before
the Fall, but once they alienated themselves from God through sin,
they no longer felt significant and secure. 23 Since the Fall,
significance and security have alluded man. Man has lost his sense of
personal worth. Because of this, each person pretends to be someone he
or she is not. Man also seeks significance and security in other
people and in temporary pleasures, but inevitably true personal worth
always evades man.

However, Crabb finds the solution to this dilemma of man in the
gospel. Once a person is saved, his needs for personal worth are met
in Christ. Man is significant because God has given each person an
eternal mission. The King of the universe has given every person a job
to perform. He has called each individual to minister to others in His
power and love. 24

Man can also be secure for God loved man enough to send His Son to die
for him. God loves all people unconditionally. He loves all people
just as they are, and He will never stop loving them. 25 Only in Jesus
Christ can man find true personal worth.

CONCLUSION

Modern man seems more concerned with feelings than he does with
reason. Because of this, psychological apologetics can be a very
effective method of defending the faith in the present cultural
climate.

If the God of the Bible does not exist, there is no hope for mankind.
Man cannot experience true peace and joy knowing that he will someday
cease to exist. There can be no genuine meaning to life, if God does
not exist.

If God does not exist, objective moral values are nonexistent. Right
is wrong and wrong is right. If there is no moral Lawgiver above man,
there can be no moral law above man. Without life after death and a
final judgment, it does not matter if one lives like Hitler or Mother
Theresa. A million years from now, it will make no difference.

All men acknowledge the existence of evil (at least in their practice
if not in their beliefs). But nothing less than the God of the Bible
can guarantee the ultimate defeat of evil.

In short, if the God of the Bible does not exist, man is damned to a
life of meaningless existence. To hide from this fact, a person can
focus his attention on Pascalian diversions, or maybe a Kierkegaardian
leap into the nonrational realm will be one's choice. But for those
with the courage to deal with reality head on, a choice must be made
between despair and the God of the Bible. As Pascal has said, the wise
man will wager on God.



ENDNOTES
1 Gordon H. Clark, Thales to Dewey, 3.

2 Blaise Pascal, Pensees trans. A. J. Krailsheimer (New York:
Penguin Books, 1966), 58.

3 Ibid., 66.

4 Ibid., 69.

5 Ibid., 71.

6 Ibid., 157.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid., 160.

9 Ibid., 156.

10 Ibid., 165.

11 Ibid., 149-155.

12 Schaeffer, Complete Works, vol. 5, 178.

13 Ibid., vol. 1, 10.

14 Ibid., 232-233.

15 Ibid., 10.

16 Ibid., 238.

17 Ibid., 229.

18 Gordon R. Lewis, 231-236.

19 Ibid., 253.

20 Lawrence J. Crabb Jr., Effective Biblical Counseling (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977), 61.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid., 70.

25 Ibid.