The late British philosopher C.S. Lewis declared that he
believed in Christianity for the same reason he believed in the sun. It was not
merely because he could see the sun, but, by the sun, he could see everything else.
Does the Bible enable us to see and understand everything
else? I will confine myself to one instance of this principle. The Bible
enables us to understand and embrace suffering and to live meaningfully with its
unavoidable embrace. In contrast to this, secularism regards suffering as a
useless encumbrance. Consequently, when the secularist suffers, he experiences
a double whammy – a virtual knockout punch:
- The suffering itself and…
- …the debilitating understanding that suffering is a negative, meaningless and costly burden, lacking any redemptive value.
Secularism deprives suffering of its meaning. This doesn’t
mean that secularists don’t talk about meaning. The philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche did:
·
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost
any how.”
Although this is very true, it is not adequate to simply create our own “why.” We have to know
that meaning is intrinsic to reality
itself and connects us to something higher than merely our changing feelings.
The late American novelist Norman Mailer was cognizant of
this problem:
·
“We are healthier if we think there is some
importance in what we’re doing…When it seems like my life is meaningless, I
feel closer to despair.”
It seems that Mailer realized that he could not merely create his own meaning. Instead, it has
to be discovered within the fabric of
objective reality.
Even worse, secularism slams the door on meaning, according
to sociologist David Karp:
·
“Cosmopolitan medicine banishes that knowledge
[of the necessary purpose for suffering] by insisting that suffering is without
meaning and unnecessary… [Suffering is] secularized as mechanical mishaps, and
so stripped of their stories, the spiritual ramifications and missing pieces of
history that make meaning." (Speaking
of Sadness, pg. 191)
Without meaning, we shrivel and die in the face of
suffering. The late psychiatrist Victor Frankl observed, during his internment
in a National Socialist death camp, that:
·
“The prisoner who had lost faith in the
future…was doomed.”
Faith in the meaning of suffering and of life itself is
essential. It is precisely this meaning that the Bible enables us to see (and
have)!
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