Materialism is the predominant religion of the west. Our technologically advanced society now looks to science for the big questions. Scientists are our new priests. Until it can be proved by scientific method and rationally explained, we will not trust or believe. We have become obsessed with the question of ‘how’ (’How does it work?’, ‘How did that come about?’, ‘How was that made?’). Science was my favourite subject at school precisely for that reason - it explained how. Even now, if given the choice between going to a fun park with one of the world’s fastest roller-coasters or The Henry Ford museum with a factory tour, I would pick the second option any day of the week.
The Henry Ford museum on the outskirts of Detroit is impressive. It’s the birth place of the production automobile and the subsequent transport revolution that changed the world. I was captivated. I learned how raw materials (iron ore for steel, silicon dioxide for glass etc.) were shipped in and 41 hours later a T-model Ford was driven out. I saw hundreds of their trademark F-150 pickups being assembled. I took in as much information as I could. But as I look at the photos now the only reason I enjoyed finding out how cars were made was because I knew why cars were made. ‘Why’ was blatantly obvious. It was a car that got me to the museum in the first place!
Unless we know ‘why’, ‘how’ is meaningless. Imagine we find a tribe somewhere who had never seen a car. While they were sleeping one night we sneaked a brand new F-150 4-wheel-drive pickup into the middle of the village. In the morning the whole tribe gathers around the shiny mysterious object and, through an interpreter, we carefully explain how it was made. Finding out ‘how’ will benefit them nothing. If we leave without telling them why it was created they will most likely use it as a place to keep their chickens and pigs. When we don’t know why something exists, misuse and abuse are inevitable.
Science can tell us more about how our world works than ever before. But until we start addressing the question of ‘why’, meaning and purpose will continue to elude us. Even if science could explain how the universe came into existence, without knowing why it’s all pointless. Science is out of its depth when it comes to what is really important in life. If the metaphysical question of why trumps the physics question of how, then the biggest question facing humanity is this: why do we exist?
The existence of a limit to science is, however, made clear by its inability to answer childlike elementary questions having to do with first and last things - questions such as ‘How did everything begin?’; ‘What are we all here for?’; ‘What is the point of living?’ — Sir Peter Medawar, Nobel Prize winner for medicine
Unless we know why we exist, everything we do, everything we know, everything we achieve, indeed, everything about life is ultimately meaningless. To avoid abuse and meaninglessness we must know ‘why’. And a clue to helping us find the answer is death. People on their deathbed, are usually quite honest. Time is of the essence (it is for everyone), so what is truly important quickly comes to the surface. I have never heard of a dying man asking for his possessions, money or awards to be close by. People who are dying usually want their family and friends around them. That’s it! The most important things in life are relationships. That seems to be all that really matters in the end.
The importance of personal relationships to the meaning of life is obvious, but human relationships still don’t answer the question of why we exist. To understand that we must look at the unique connection between something that exists and what created it. The T-model Ford has a special connection to Henry Ford because he was the creator; he brought the model T into existence. The same exclusive relationship exists between an artist and his art. If we wanted to find out the story behind a certain piece of art and why it was made, the only person qualified to tell us is the artist who created it. Who cares what anyone else thinks! Only the creator can tell us why something was made.
Because we are created beings the same principle applies to us as to anything else that is made: our Creator holds the exclusive rights to ‘why’. So who is our Creator? The evidence, His image, is in us. Our ability to have conscious awareness, to understand good and evil, to appreciate beauty, to love and communicate, all point toward a supernatural being who must also have these attributes. The created cannot surpass its creator. The artist always exceeds his art. The only Creator that fits the evidence is the God of the Bible.
We cannot afford to dismiss this as ‘religious talk’. Reality has spoken. And we will damn ourselves to meaninglessness if we ignore ‘the truth’ of where the evidence points. The reason relationships are most important to us is because they are to our Creator. The Bible is clear about it. From Adam and Eve in Genesis to Jesus’ parable about the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32; from God’s triune nature to the centre piece of Christianity, the Cross - it’s all about relationship. If we are relationship-orientated and our Creator is relationship-orientated then the answer to why we exist is simply this: to have a relationship with God. Only by knowing Jesus Christ can we find the answer to the biggest question facing humanity.