Professor and debater William Lane Craig had struggled with
the inevitably and terror of death. For him, death had put the kibosh on the
possibility of any real meaning to life. However, he met others who seemed to
be untroubled by death’s finality. Why:
·
Years later, I think I found my answer in
reading Sartre. Sartre observed that death is not threatening so long as we
view it as the death of the other, from a third-person standpoint, so to speak.
It is only when we internalize it and look at it from the first-person
perspective—"my death: I am going to die"—that the threat of
non-being becomes real. As Sartre points out, many people never assume this
first-person perspective in the midst of life; one can even look at one's own
death from the third-person standpoint, as if it were the death of another or
even of an animal, as did my friend. But the true existential significance of
my death can only be appreciated from the first-person perspective, as I
realize that I am going to die and forever cease to exist.
If getting through life requires blinding ourselves, we are
paying a great price – a dislocation from reality. Atheists even admit they blind themselves in
numerous ways by making-believe that:
·
Life has meaning,
·
Objective moral laws exist,
·
We have freewill,
·
Love is more than just a series of biochemical
reactions.
Does life require us to play make-believe? Instead, can we engage
it honestly? If we know God and His promise of a blessed eternal life, then our
present life is infused with meaning and purpose to serve the One who loves us
and has died for our sins.
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