MEANING BY MIND TWISTING

 

 

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.