Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000114S
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00:01 - Today, we're gonna take a bit of a look
00:02 at one of America's greatest thinkers. 00:04 And because the guy was so prolific, 00:06 I'm gonna pick and choose from thousands of pages 00:08 because I think he was getting really, really close 00:12 to solving one of the biggest questions 00:14 human beings have ever asked. 00:17 [gentle country music] 00:38 The biggest problem in the universe 00:40 is the question of who we are. 00:42 Now, admittedly, there seemed to be more urgent problems, 00:46 like solving world hunger or achieving world peace. 00:49 And if you happen to be starving or living in a war zone, 00:53 well, obviously, those kinds of problems 00:55 would become your priority. 00:57 But let's take a page from Abraham Maslow for just a moment, 01:00 and assume that your basic physiological needs 01:03 are already being met. 01:04 You're properly nourished 01:06 and your physical safety is guaranteed. 01:09 What becomes your next priority? 01:11 Well, according to Maslow, 01:13 you need to be loved and feel like you belong, 01:16 and then you need a degree of self-esteem, 01:18 and then you need something called self-actualization. 01:21 You need to find meaning and purpose for your existence, 01:25 but you're not gonna find that 01:26 unless you answer the one big question 01:29 that everybody has to deal with sooner or later, 01:32 and that's, who am I? 01:34 I mean here you are, a self-aware, contemplative person, 01:38 an individual who has a sense of personal identity 01:41 that somehow stays constant 01:42 all the way through your entire life. 01:46 But how does that happen? 01:47 Back in the 19th century, 01:49 the practice of science and philosophy 01:51 suddenly threw up a little bit of a roadblock. 01:54 Up to that time, we managed to convince ourselves 01:56 that human beings can understand 01:58 the essential nature of the universe 02:00 simply by using our capacity for reason. 02:04 We used to think that our reasoning had to be informed 02:07 by some kind of reliable external checkpoint. 02:10 And once upon a time, that was God. 02:14 But then sometime after Thomas Aquinas, 02:16 who tried to use raw logic to prove God's existence, 02:19 we started to think that our reason was perfectly good 02:23 without God's help. 02:24 We could just apply it completely unaided. 02:28 So, what we did was start to think of the universe 02:31 as a machine, and it was a model that worked pretty well 02:34 because there does appear to be a logic and order 02:37 behind the cosmos. 02:38 Mathematical equations can make reliable predictions, 02:42 like when the orbit of a planet will be complete 02:44 or when the next eclipse is gonna take place. 02:48 We started to think of the universe as a clock. 02:52 And in our scientific thinking, 02:53 we kind of left out some very human phenomena, 02:55 things like love or passion or personality 02:58 because the universe was now just a matter 03:01 of mechanical cause and effect. 03:03 And, of course, cause and effect is a very useful concept. 03:08 If you wanna understand why something happened, 03:10 go back and study what came before that 03:12 and then look at what came before that and so on. 03:15 If you go back far enough, 03:16 the thinking goes you can pretty much explain anything 03:19 as long as you can get to the very beginning, 03:22 but where that suddenly fell apart 03:24 was when it came to the existence of human beings. 03:27 Trying to explain who or what we are 03:29 in terms of mere physical cause and effect 03:32 let us to some pretty empty conclusions. 03:35 If you and I really are just the product of time and chance, 03:38 then our lives don't mean anything. 03:40 And if there's one thing all of us crave as human beings, 03:44 it's meaning. 03:45 Then, we got Charles Darwin, 03:46 bolstered by people like Thomas Huxley, 03:49 who popularized this notion of survival of the fittest. 03:53 The wonder of life was now explained 03:57 as just another science. 03:58 They said organisms mutate, they change. 04:01 And if they happen to develop a new trait 04:03 that makes survival easier, 04:04 then that trait begins to dominate. 04:07 Not to make it seem too simplistic, 04:09 but if your fins mutate and they become wings, you can fly. 04:13 And now your flightless cousins 04:15 are more likely to get eaten by the predator, 04:18 which means it's far more likely that you are going to live 04:21 and produce a bunch of offspring 04:23 who have the same advantage as you. 04:25 They've got wings. 04:26 Now, in reality, it's more complicated than that, 04:29 but that's the basic idea. 04:32 The rise of Darwin meant that life could be understood 04:35 without the need for a creator, 04:37 but it also created a big problem 04:39 because the ideas that bolster Darwinism 04:41 actually seem to run contrary 04:44 to the way that human beings function. 04:46 For centuries, we convinced ourselves 04:48 that human beings have agency. 04:50 We have the ability to make meaningful choices. 04:53 And by making choices, 04:55 you can alter the course of your life. 04:57 But if everything is really just a case of cause and effect 05:00 and you and I are the product of a mindless, 05:03 mechanistic universe, 05:04 then everything we do is just the mindless product 05:07 of something that happened in the past. 05:10 Do you think you actually decided to go to the beach today? 05:14 No, no, you didn't. 05:15 Everything that happened in the distant past 05:17 brought the whole world to this moment 05:19 and predetermined your actions, 05:21 and it just conspired to make you think 05:24 you actually made a decision. 05:27 This is a philosophy that some people call determinism, 05:29 or even fatalism, 05:31 and it's basically the idea 05:33 that nobody has a choice about absolutely anything. 05:37 All of us are just being carried along 05:39 by the mindless universe 05:40 and the physical principles that drive it. 05:42 Your emotions, those are nothing but chemical reactions. 05:46 Your sense of pleasure or pain, more chemicals. 05:49 Your sense of identity, well, that's an illusion 05:52 because in a fatalistic universe, 05:54 there's no such thing as free will. 05:57 And I know it seems like only philosophical eggheads 06:01 living in ivory towers would think this way, 06:04 but you can actually see this kind of belief system 06:06 starting to play out in the world of 21st century morality. 06:10 Let's consider what happens 06:12 when somebody does something really, really awful. 06:15 Most of us are convinced there must be some kind 06:18 of underlying reason for that behavior. 06:20 And, of course, some sometimes there is. 06:22 I mean, sometimes antisocial criminals 06:25 develop their evil personalities 06:27 because of the way they were raised. 06:30 But if you follow that train of thought 06:31 all the way to its logical conclusion, 06:33 you suddenly end up in a place 06:34 where nobody is actually responsible 06:37 for just about anything. 06:39 Everybody's just performing a mindless role in the universe, 06:42 like every other meaningless object. 06:44 The whole concept of morality and moral choice, 06:48 that becomes meaningless. 06:51 This was a thought that drove 06:52 a lot of later existential philosophers completely nuts. 06:55 People like Nietzsche or Camus. 06:58 If you look at their writings, 06:59 you'll find an awful lot of despair, tortured questions, 07:03 asking, what's the purpose of living 07:05 if I don't have any choice? 07:07 If I'm just being involuntarily carried along 07:09 by this mindless stream of cause and effect, 07:12 then what's the point of even trying 07:15 to exist in a meaningful way? 07:18 I mean, there's nothing you could do 07:20 to make your life any better than is there. 07:22 There's nothing you can do to improve your character 07:24 or change who you are. 07:26 There's absolutely no point 07:27 to being either pessimistic or optimistic 07:29 because nothing you do is going to change anything. 07:34 The script has already been written by the universe 07:37 with no edits allowed. 07:40 This is the reason that some of these famous thinkers 07:43 actually toyed with the concept of suicide. 07:46 I mean, what's the point of living 07:48 if you can't actually make choices and live? 07:51 It's a philosophy that most people find, well, depressing, 07:54 and with good reason. 07:55 It feels like it runs completely contrary 07:58 to essential human nature. 08:01 If these determinists, these fatalists are correct, 08:04 then why do we seem to be wired 08:05 to believe in something better? 08:08 Why do we have passions and hopes and desires and goals 08:11 and relationships? 08:13 What would be the point to those things? 08:16 It's a materialistic view of the universe, 08:18 and it's one that atheists kinda like. 08:20 But what they've discovered 08:21 is that what they're trying to sell to us 08:24 isn't selling well. 08:25 They insist that there's no God. 08:27 I mean, they're with Nietzsche, 08:28 who said, "God is dead, 08:30 and there's only this cold uncaring universe out there 08:32 for us to live in." 08:34 That's a pretty tough sell 08:35 because there's something in our makeup 08:37 that fights against that idea. 08:40 Which brings me to the famous American philosopher, 08:43 William James, who really struggled 08:44 with what these fatalists were saying. 08:47 He realized that a purely material universe 08:49 does not line up with human experience. 08:52 And, of course, it probably didn't help 08:53 that in his early childhood, 08:54 his father was a strict Calvinist, 08:56 which is kind of a Christian determinism, 08:59 at least when it comes to salvation. 09:01 I was raised among Calvinists, 09:02 and one of their key ideas 09:04 is that God has already determined your fate 09:06 before you're born. 09:07 Some of us are going to heaven, 09:09 some of us are going to hell. 09:11 There's nothing you can do about it. 09:12 Of course, you don't really know which group you're in, 09:15 which can lead to a little bit of anxiety 09:17 if you're prone to overthinking. 09:19 So, eventually, William James' father rejected the ideas 09:23 that human beings don't have free will, 09:25 and he dropped his commitment to Calvinism 09:27 in favor of a rather obscure, esoteric Christian sect. 09:31 He actually turned to the teachings 09:32 of the mystic Swedenborg, 09:34 which made him feel a lot better 09:36 about his ability to make meaningful decisions. 09:39 But right now, I've gotta make a meaningful decision 09:41 about the way I'm gonna use my time. 09:43 So, I'm gonna take a quick break 09:45 and I'll be right back after this. 09:47 [gentle music] 09:50 - [Narrator 1] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 09:52 we're committed to creating top-quality programming 09:55 for the whole family, 09:56 like our audio adventure series, "Discovery Mountain." 09:59 "Discovery Mountain" is a bible-based program 10:02 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 10:04 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 10:07 from this small mountain summer camp and town. 10:10 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 10:12 and fresh content every week, 10:14 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 10:20 - The American philosopher William James 10:23 became really discouraged with the idea 10:25 that you and I don't have the ability 10:26 to make actual choices. 10:28 The idea that the universe is just a machine 10:31 and we're just part of that. 10:32 He originally trained to be a medical doctor, 10:34 which eventually led him 10:36 into the field of psychology at Harvard. 10:38 From there, 10:40 he became obsessed with the study of metaphysics, 10:42 that branch of philosophy 10:43 that deals with the nature of existence. 10:46 It's basically the study of why is there something out there 10:49 instead of nothing. 10:51 So, James decided that maybe the existentialist philosophers 10:55 in Europe were wrong. 10:56 Instead of getting lost in the dismal swamp 10:59 of trying to prove your own existence, 11:00 or the problematic question of how you can know for sure 11:03 that your mind can be trusted, 11:05 "Maybe," he said, 11:06 "we should take a far more pragmatic approach." 11:09 Maybe we should look at the consequences of our ideas 11:11 when we act on them to see if they match reality. 11:15 It's a little like the scientific method. 11:17 He said, "You should go and try your ideas in the real world 11:20 to see if they still make sense." 11:23 That makes sense to me. 11:25 You see, at this point, 11:27 most philosophers had been operating 11:29 under the assumption that we're just machines 11:31 and that the human psyche could be understood 11:33 through scientific experiment. 11:35 David Hume had suggested, 11:36 "There's actually no such thing as cause and effect." 11:39 And what looks like human consciousness 11:42 is really just the product of your senses 11:43 picking up data, 11:45 like a slideshow being projected on the back of your brain. 11:48 But William James started talking about something 11:51 I promise you've heard before, stream of consciousness. 11:54 It's a phrase we still use 11:56 when we're writing or talking about 11:58 whatever pops into our head at the moment. 12:00 But for Mr. James, thoughts were very personal. 12:04 Take everything else away from me, 12:06 I still have my thoughts and they define who I am. 12:10 You can never get inside my head and share all my thoughts, 12:14 and I can't do that with you either. 12:16 Here's how he put it. 12:18 "Each mind keeps its own thoughts to itself. 12:21 There is no giving or bartering between them. 12:23 No thought ever comes into direct sight of a thought 12:26 in another personal consciousness than its own. 12:29 Absolute insulation, irreducible pluralism, is the law." 12:33 Essentially, he's saying that you are your thoughts, 12:36 and the moment you stop having thoughts, 12:38 that probably means you're dead. 12:40 And in that regard, 12:41 he kind of agrees with something the Bible says. 12:43 "Put not your trust in princes," the Bible says, 12:46 "in a son of man in whom there is no salvation. 12:49 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth, 12:52 on that day his very plans perish." 12:55 In other words, the moment you stop thinking 12:58 is the moment your conscious existence 13:00 actually comes to an end. 13:02 "And that conscious existence, 13:04 that conscious mind," Mr. James said, 13:06 "is allowed to make choices." 13:08 The world around you is very real, 13:09 and you can ignore all the nonsense 13:12 coming from those French existentialists. 13:14 You have the ability to make real choices 13:17 about how you interact with the world. 13:19 The way he put it, he said, "You have the will to believe." 13:24 And I know that sounds like common sense, 13:25 and it's hard to believe 13:27 that somebody made a name for himself 13:28 by teaching people you get to choose, 13:31 because for most of us, doesn't that seem kind of obvious. 13:34 For William James though, 13:36 who was one of the founding fathers of modern psychology, 13:39 that idea was kinda liberating. 13:41 The course of his life he discovered was not predetermined. 13:44 I mean, of course, 13:45 there's always something we can't control, 13:47 and there are circumstances that happen against our will, 13:50 but even then, 13:51 inside the confines of what you can't control, 13:55 you can still control yourself. 13:57 And this is where it gets interesting. 13:59 William James was convinced 14:00 there's got to be something more to our existence 14:02 than just a cold, empty universe. 14:05 He looked at the work of some European psychologists, 14:08 and he said that they were, I quote, 14:10 "Bent on studying the elements of mental life, 14:13 dissecting them out from the gross results 14:15 from which they are embedded, 14:16 as far as possible reducing them to quantitative scales." 14:21 What's he saying? 14:22 Well, they were trying to be strictly scientific. 14:24 about human nature. 14:25 "And that," said James, "is ridiculous." 14:27 You can't reduce what it means to be human 14:30 so that it fits in a spreadsheet full of facts and figures. 14:34 I mean, yes, the brain has chemistry, 14:36 and, yes, we are kind of prisoners of our biology, 14:40 but to say that human existence is just a machine, 14:43 it runs completely contrary 14:45 to the way we actually experience this world. 14:47 It ignores our subjective sense of being conscious. 14:51 Again, here's how James described it. 14:53 "The continuous flow of the mental stream is sacrificed 14:57 and in its place an atomism, 14:59 a brickbat plan of construction is preached 15:02 for the existence of which no good introspective grounds 15:04 can be brought forward, 15:06 and out of which presently grow 15:07 all sorts of paradoxes and contradictions, 15:10 the heritage of woe of students of the mind." 15:14 Okay, to put that simply, 15:15 a purely material universe doesn't match reality. 15:18 It doesn't account for our existence. 15:21 I mean, we really still don't know what consciousness is. 15:24 I've seen attempts by atheists 15:26 to explain it in purely rational physical terms, 15:29 but I promise you, not one of these so-called explanations 15:33 actually matches human experience. 15:35 Some things cannot be explained in a lab. 15:39 To this day, 15:40 consciousness remains one of the biggest problems 15:42 that skeptics face. 15:44 They have to explain this split 15:46 between the mind and the body. 15:48 In fact, some people actually call that 15:49 the mind-body problem. 15:52 How in the world did self-aware contemplative beings 15:55 like you and me 15:56 just emerge from a purely mechanical universe? 16:00 It doesn't seem possible. 16:03 Back in James' day, people were convinced 16:04 there's got to be a mechanistic explanation 16:07 for just about everything. 16:09 But if you think about it, 16:11 if you're gonna lean on reason to figure out the universe, 16:13 that actually puts our brains 16:15 at the very apex of the universe, 16:17 and that left William James unconvinced. 16:19 In fact, in 1910, he wrote, 16:22 "I firmly disbelieve myself that our human experience 16:25 is the highest form of experience extant in the universe. 16:28 I believe rather that we stand in much the same relation 16:31 to the whole of the universe 16:33 as our canine and feline pets do to the whole of human life. 16:37 They inhabit our drawing rooms and libraries. 16:39 They take part in scenes of whose significance 16:42 they have no inkling. 16:43 They are merely tangent to the curves of history, 16:46 the beginnings and ends and forms 16:48 of which pass wholly beyond their kin. 16:50 So we are tangents to the wider life of things." 16:54 He's saying, "We just aren't capable of knowing everything," 16:57 which of course brings us to the subject of God. 17:00 And I think one of the reasons 17:01 I'm attracted to the philosophy of William James, 17:04 at least in part, 17:05 is because he kind of threw the brakes 17:06 on the raw atheism that was taking over Europe at the time. 17:10 "Hang on," he said. 17:11 "There has got to be a God. 17:13 There's got to be something 17:14 that explains why we're wired the way we are." 17:17 So, of course, I resonate with that. 17:20 But the nature of God 17:21 is where I part company with William James, 17:23 even though I think he was onto something. 17:26 Let me see if I can explain. 17:27 Philosophers in James' time 17:29 were addicted to something called monism. 17:32 They were looking for an idea 17:33 that would harmonize everything in the observable universe. 17:36 Since the very beginning of classical philosophy, 17:40 people have been trying to boil the universe 17:41 down to just one easy-to-understand concept, 17:44 what explains everything. 17:47 Well, James didn't like, 17:49 and I'll be right back after this to tell you why. 17:52 [gentle music] 17:55 - [Narrator 2] Life can throw a lot at us. 17:58 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 18:01 but that's where the Bible comes in. 18:04 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 18:07 Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 18:08 we've created the Discover Bible guides 18:11 to be your guide to the Bible. 18:12 They're designed to be simple, easy-to-use, 18:15 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 18:18 and they're absolutely free. 18:20 So, jump online now, or give us a call, 18:22 and start your journey of discovery. 18:25 - William James mentioned 18:26 that philosophers are addicted to the idea of absolutes. 18:29 The idea that there must be an absolute hole, 18:32 a singularity that explains 18:34 absolutely everything in the universe. 18:37 But then he asked this question, 18:39 why are we so addicted to the number one? 18:41 Why do we think everything has to harmonize? 18:44 And this is really where Mr. James 18:46 leaves behind a biblical understanding of God. 18:49 He taught that if God is absolute, 18:52 if he's all powerful and all knowing, 18:53 that would mean that none of us has the power of choice. 18:57 So, instead, William James said 18:58 that God must be rather limited 19:00 because while he can clearly see evidence 19:02 for God's existence in this universe, 19:05 he can't possibly be in charge of everything, right? 19:08 Otherwise, why would we have pain and chaos. 19:11 Instead of a universe, why can't there be a multiverse, 19:14 where part of the universe is run by God, 19:16 but another part is dominated by chaos? 19:19 James said that maybe the universe is not just one thing. 19:24 And to be honest, Mr. James was skating really, really close 19:27 to the edge of biblical theology. 19:29 He got it wrong, but he was close. 19:32 He missed the truth by a millimeter. 19:34 One of the biggest issues 19:35 the writers of the Bible deal with is the problem of evil. 19:38 How can God be loving in all powerful 19:40 but we still have a world that looks like this? 19:43 It's the number one objection raised by skeptics 19:46 who love to poke fun at believers. 19:48 If God is real, then why did so and so get cancer? 19:51 If God is real, then why is there war in the Middle East? 19:54 William James was attempting to deal 19:57 with a very real question when he said, 19:59 "God must be limited." 20:00 It was his way of answering the problem of evil. 20:03 And, of course, according to the Bible, God is not limited, 20:07 but there does appear to be more than one force at work 20:09 in this universe. 20:11 Look at what you find in Revelation 12, 20:14 where it says, "Now war arose in heaven. 20:17 Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, 20:19 and the dragon and his angels fought back, 20:21 but he was defeated 20:23 and there was no longer any place for them in heaven." 20:26 Oh, wait, wait, wait a minute. 20:27 I thought heaven was a place 20:29 completely free of pain and suffering? 20:31 Well, actually not yet, according to the Bible. 20:34 The Bible says there was war in the kingdom of God. 20:38 So, how can that be? 20:40 Well, it's for the same reason 20:41 that William James was obsessed with, 20:44 and that's the concept of free will. 20:46 The God of the Bible does not predetermine your life 20:49 because he values liberty. 20:51 He values the ability to choose. 20:54 And why would God allow that? 20:55 It's because His nature is defined as love. 20:58 Remember what the Apostle John said in 1 John 4:8, 21:02 "Anyone who does not love does not know God 21:06 because God is love." 21:09 You see, if you aren't free to choose against God, 21:12 then loving God is kind of meaningless. 21:15 You're nothing but a puppet in a deterministic universe. 21:18 But because God prizes meaningful relationships, 21:21 he also prizes freedom of conscience. 21:25 What we did was exercise the wrong option. 21:28 We became evil, 21:29 which means that God was now faced with a choice of His own. 21:32 He could either destroy us instantly 21:34 or he could allow our choices to run their full course 21:37 and offer to redeem us. 21:39 It's a brilliant solution, really. 21:41 I mean, once you've lived in this painful world 21:43 and you get redeemed from it, 21:45 are you ever gonna choose this place again? 21:48 No. 21:49 William James was convinced 21:51 that you and I have freedom of choice, freedom of the will, 21:54 and the Bible agrees with him on that. 21:57 This is the reason that chaos sometimes appears 21:59 to reign over our existence. 22:01 It's not because God is limited, it's because He's love, 22:04 and He's letting us experience exactly what we asked for. 22:08 And, of course, the next question we've got to ask 22:09 is how in the world a God of love 22:11 could let us live in this condition forever? 22:14 And this is the part that William James missed. 22:17 God doesn't do that. 22:19 Just listen to the words of Jesus. 22:21 And I want you to notice how realistic the Bible is 22:23 about the painful nature of living in this world. 22:27 "Truly, truly, I say to you," Jesus said, 22:29 "you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice." 22:32 So, He's addressing this idea 22:34 that the world we live in seems to reward evil. 22:37 Good people suffer, bad people get away with everything. 22:40 Now, here comes the rest of the story from Jesus Himself. 22:44 "You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. 22:48 When a woman is giving birth, 22:49 she has sorrow because her hour has come. 22:51 But when she has delivered the baby, 22:53 she no longer remembers the anguish, 22:54 for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22:58 So, also, you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, 23:02 and your hearts will rejoice 23:03 and no one will take your joy from you." 23:06 All right, time for another quick break, 23:09 but I'll be right back after this. 23:11 [gentle music] 23:14 - [Narrator 3] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues, 23:20 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 23:24 If you've ever read Daniel a Revelation 23:26 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 23:29 Our free Focus On Prophecy guides 23:31 are designed to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 23:34 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 23:37 for you and our world. 23:38 Study online, or request them by mail, 23:41 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 23:44 - On more than one occasion, 23:46 the Bible compares the difficulty of living in this world 23:49 to labor pain. 23:51 In Matthew 24, 23:52 the Greek word used to describe things like war, famine, 23:55 and pestilence is odin. 23:58 Most English Bibles render that word as sorrow, 24:01 which is a pretty good translation, 24:03 but odin literally means contractions or birth pangs. 24:08 It's reminding us that our current existence is painful. 24:12 And right before the break, 24:13 we looked at that promise from Jesus in John 16, 24:16 which told us that, yes, 24:18 we have a lot of reasons to be distressed, 24:21 a lot of reasons to shed tears and feel anxiety. 24:24 But eventually, that's going to end. 24:27 And the joy that God promises to give us 24:30 will make that pain just a distant memory. 24:33 It's like that moment at the end of a painful delivery 24:36 when the baby gets placed in mom's arms 24:38 and suddenly it's, "What pain? 24:41 What are you talking about? 24:42 Look at this beautiful child." 24:45 Look, there's a reason we find it deeply unsatisfying 24:48 when atheists tell us there's nothing more to our existence 24:51 than a cold, empty, mechanical universe. 24:55 The reason it bothers us is because it's not true. 24:59 If it was true, it would leave us with no choices, 25:02 no meaning, no hope. 25:04 And there's something in the heart of every human being 25:07 that really pushes back against that kind of existence. 25:10 It's why William James tried so hard 25:12 to push back on the nihilism and fatalism 25:15 that were pouring out of the classrooms of Europe 25:17 and starting to show up here in America. 25:20 One famous historian pictured James like a doctor, 25:23 quarantining the dangerous ideas from Europe 25:26 so they wouldn't infect the United States. 25:29 And, of course, for the moment, it looks like he failed 25:33 because the levels of anxiety here in the West 25:37 are rising steadily. 25:39 People are dealing with things like depression 25:41 and suicidal thoughts in record numbers. 25:44 And we are now suffering the consequences 25:47 of choosing to believe that human existence 25:49 doesn't actually mean anything. 25:51 It's just the blind result 25:53 of cause and effect over billions of years. 25:57 This is why the question of who you are 26:00 is the most important question in the world. 26:03 Over the centuries, we tried to reduce ourselves 26:06 to numbers and measurements, 26:07 but now it's killing our mental health. 26:10 It's robbing us of something essential. 26:12 It's robbing us of what it actually means 26:14 to live an authentic human life. 26:17 We feel like we're trapped, that the course of our lives 26:20 has already been written in advance 26:21 and we're powerless to make any meaningful choices 26:25 about who we are and how we choose to live. 26:28 And as a result of that, a lot of people are just giving up. 26:34 But the Bible says that, first of all, 26:37 your suffering is real. 26:39 God has seen it and he's promised to solve it. 26:42 In fact, Psalm 56 suggests that God has been keeping track 26:46 of every single tear you have ever shed. 26:49 And then secondly, it tells me that you are also very real. 26:53 Your life is not meaningless. 26:56 "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?" Jesus taught. 26:59 "And not one of them will fall to the ground 27:01 apart from your Father, 27:03 but even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 27:06 Fear not therefore, 27:07 you are of more value than many sparrows." 27:11 The moment we tried to decouple our gift 27:14 for rational thought 27:16 from the God who gave us that gift in the first place 27:18 is the moment when everything started to go off the rails. 27:22 And today, I fear we're reaping a very bitter harvest. 27:26 I know, again, some of you think 27:28 this is just a book of fairy tales. 27:29 Some mythology written by ignorant and superstitious people 27:33 who just didn't know any better and didn't have science. 27:37 But maybe it's time to give this book another look. 27:41 Because what if you found exactly what you're looking for? 27:44 What if you found exactly what was missing in these pages? 27:48 What if this really is a communication 27:50 from the one who made you? 27:52 I'm Shawn Boonstra. Thanks for joining me. 27:54 This has been another episode of "Authentic." 27:57 [gentle country music] 28:19 [gentle country music continues] |
Revised 2024-10-22