Harvard professor Stephen Jay Gould has said the following regarding the quest for meaning:
The pathways that have led to our evolution are quirky,
improbable, unrepeatable and utterly unpredictable. Human
evolution is not random; it makes sense and can be explained
after the fact. But wind back life’s tape to the dawn of time
and let it play again – and you will never get humans a second
time … We cannot read the meaning of life passively in the
facts of nature. We must construct these answers ourselves –
from our own wisdom and ethical sense. There is no other way. [1]
Compare that conclusion from a prominent scientist to the thoughts of a cab driver, as recorded in Life magazine:
We’re here to die, just live and die. I live driving a cab.
I do some fishing, take my girl out, pay taxes, do a little
reading, and then get ready to drop dead. You’ve got to be
strong about it. Life is a big fake … You’re rich or you’re
poor. You’re here; you’re gone. You’re like the wind. After
you’re gone, other people will come. It’s too late to make it
better … The only cure for the world’s illness is nuclear war
– wipe everything out and start over. We’ve become like a
cornered animal, fighting for survival. Life is nothing.
One man declares that the arrival of humanity is “quirky, improbable, and unrepeatable.” The other believes that life is, essentially, a mere animalistic fight for survival.
It may be easy to dismiss one view as academic and the other as the catharsis of a hardened cynic. Yet if we take a closer look, there is a striking similarity between them. For both, ultimate reality is impersonal and material. That is, there is nothing beyond us to give meaning to our lives. And with that starting point, whether a professor or a cab driver, the conclusion will be the same: We are left to our own devices to manufacture meaning. This is the inevitable conclusion if all of life is reduced to the chemical and molecular.
Is this really the nature of reality? Are we really nothing more than time plus matter plus chance?
In the following series I would like to present to you a counter-perspective – that there is something beyond us that gives us a framework for meaning. Because unlike the professor and the cab driver, I think we can root our meaning in more than the quirks of neurochemistry. We can find that meaning in the very being of a personal God.
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1. Stephen Jay Gould, quoted in David Friend and editors of Life magazine, The Meaning of Life, page 33.
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Copyright © 2002 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. “A Slice of Infinity” is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
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