Every human being goes through the same life cycle: we are born, we live, and we die. Down through the centuries all of mankind has pondered the three big questions that correspond with these time periods of the human life cycle: How did we get here, what is the purpose of life, and where do we go when we die.
Biologically speaking the answers to these three big questions are pretty straightforward. The coming together of a male sperm cell with a female egg cell, called conception, which precedes the date of our birth by nine months, is biologically when we first came on the scene. And all of us made our way into this world through this unique starting point – the fertilized egg cell. As far as what is the purpose of life, biology basically tells us it is to live as long as we can before we die. And when we do die biology tells us we just cease to function as a life form, decay, and go back to nonliving matter.
Sadly, in our American public schools, millions of our young people are being taught that Darwinian evolution is the driving force behind the biology we just spoke about. Terms such as natural selection, cellular mutations, and survival of the fittest, are linked to the theory of evolution that is taught as scientific fact, and is not opened to question by the students. As a result of this indoctrination, is it any wonder that finding real meaning in life, under this paradigm, is as illusive as the theory of evolution is flimsy.
Pastor John Piper said it well when he commented: “I simply find it impossible to believe that the human drama of the centuries, with its quest for meaning and beauty and truth, has no deeper root than molecular mutations.”1 As I have shared in many of my past devotions on evolution, if this is the way we came into existence, then a belief in this false theory has truly catastrophic consequences. For evolution leaves us with the following conclusion: We came from nothing, when we die we go back to nothing, and in between these two states of nothingness we hopelessly try to find meaning for the few years we are here on planet earth.
For those who believe in evolution they spend their entire life searching every pathway, overturning every stone, examining every philosophy, and experiencing every feeling, in their quest for meaning, and sadly, as they come to the end of their journey, the answer they find is that none exists!
But thankfully evolution, despite what many scientists tell us, is not the only game in town. As Christians we have exciting answers to the three big questions I posed at the beginning of this devotion.
First, while biologically we came into this world as I described above, it was no chance accident as evolution posits, but we were created in the image of God. Thus, when we were born we became masterpieces of God’s creative genius ready to find our purpose in life.
Second, unfortunately, we were all born with a sin nature because of what happened in the Garden of Eden. But praise God, because of His incredible love for us, the Lord made a way back into His presence through the death of His precious son – Jesus. As a result, our search for meaning is a two-step process. We first have to realize that we are sinners that need a Savior. Thus, our quest for meaning finds its purpose when we come to Jesus by faith in His finished work on the cross. And that my friends is our ultimate purpose to know God. But it gets even more exciting for our purpose in life, once we come to Christ. For we now spend the rest of our lives getting to know Him better through worshipping Him, spending time in His presence, and doing His will. This lifetime pursuit brings incredible joy, peace, and meaning!
And third, unlike this dismal scenario of evolution, where we go back to dust when we die, for the Christian death is just another phase of living where our dead bodies now take on immortality and a glorified body. And in this eternal state we will inhabit the new earth and reign with Christ forever!
In conclusion, Apologist Greg Koukl states why belief in evolution carries such a morbid outlook to life when he says: “If Darwinism is true, then there is no purpose or meaning to life, there is no morality, there’s no qualitative difference between humans and animals, there’s no life after death, and there’s no purpose to human history. Now, are you trying to tell me that it doesn’t really matter if people believe we evolved or not?”2
1 John Piper – I simply find it impossible to believe that the… (bibleportal.com)
2 TOP 25 QUOTES BY GREG KOUKL (of 53) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)