… we will still meet as planned, to watch and discuss the video of a talk by N. T. Wright, “Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense”.
The planned talk was…
Forgiveness in a Meaningless Universe: clue or distraction?
Serious materialist thinkers, when looking at the big picture, conclude that human life finally has no meaning. One says, ‘The energies of our [solar] system will decay, the glory of the sun will be dimmed, and the earth, tideless and inert, will no longer tolerate the race which has for a moment disturbed its solitude. … The uneasy consciousness, which … has for a brief space broken the contented silence of the universe will be forever at rest. Matter will know itself no longer. [Everything to do with humankind] will be as if they had not been. Nor will anything that is, be better or worse for all [that we] have striven through countless ages to effect.’ Another comments ‘the lonely planet will cool, all life will die, all mind will cease, and it will be as if it had never happened. … All life is no more than a match struck in the dark and blown out again. The final result … is to deprive it completely of meaning.’
Are there aspects of human experience that point toward a larger reality than materialist philosophy is willing to acknowledge? If so, are they significant clues or merely distractions from facing the truth?
Joe Martin studied in Harvard and Princeton before travelling eastward to L’Abri, Switzerland and then finally to Oxford, where he now works with Christian postgraduate students. Click here for more details about Joe Martin.