Meaning vs Meaninglessness - Full Opening Statement - Dr William Lane Craig

Summary

The script explores the profound connection between the existence of God and the meaning of life. It argues that without God, life and the universe are ultimately doomed to meaninglessness, lacking purpose, value, or significance. Atheist philosophers like Nietzsche and Sartre are cited to illustrate the nihilism that arises from a godless worldview. The speaker contrasts this with Christian theism, which offers hope, eternal significance, and moral foundations. Ultimately, it suggests that belief in God allows for a consistent and fulfilling life, urging a rational choice for theism.

Takeaways

• 🌍 The question of life's meaning is closely tied to the existence of God. Without God, life and the universe face inevitable destruction.
• 🌀 The universe is expanding and will eventually reach a state of darkness and cold, leading to the death of stars and life.
• 🕰️ Human life and the universe are destined for destruction, creating a sense of hopelessness without the belief in a transcendent reality.
• 📚 Many atheist thinkers argue that if God doesn't exist, life has no ultimate purpose, value, or significance.
• 🎯 Without God, there is no ultimate goal or purpose for life or the universe, as everything will end in oblivion.
• ⚖️ Moral values, according to atheists like Richard Dawkins, are subjective, meaning concepts of good and evil have no objective basis in a godless universe.
• 🚫 Without God, there is no ultimate significance to life, as every achievement will ultimately be lost to destruction.
• 📖 Bertrand Russell and other philosophers suggest that atheism implies unyielding despair, as all human accomplishments are doomed to extinction.
• ❌ Atheism leads to a worldview of absurdity and meaninglessness, while theism offers hope and purpose in life.
• 🙏 Theism, particularly Christian belief, provides meaning, value, and purpose by affirming God's existence and the hope of immortality.

Q & A

What connection does the speaker make between the meaning of life and the existence of God?

The speaker argues that the meaning of life is closely connected to the existence of God. If God does not exist, then there is no transcendent reality, and life, along with the universe, is doomed to death, rendering human life ultimately without purpose, value, or significance.

How does the speaker describe the scientific view of the universe's end?

The speaker describes a scientific view in which the universe is expanding, growing colder, and eventually, all stars will burn out. The universe will become a place of darkness and death, with only the corpses of dead stars and black holes left, expanding endlessly into cold space.

What do atheist philosophers like Nietzsche, Russell, and Sartre argue about life without God?

Atheist philosophers such as Nietzsche, Russell, and Sartre argue that without God, life becomes absurd, lacking ultimate purpose, value, or significance. They believe that without a divine being, human life is without any greater meaning or objective moral standards.

What does the speaker say about the concept of purpose if God does not exist?

If God does not exist, the speaker argues that there is no ultimate purpose for life. Without a divine plan or goal, life and the universe become pointless, with no reason for existence. Human life simply ends in death, and the universe is destined for a cold, meaningless end.

How does the speaker explain the concept of value in a godless universe?

In a godless universe, the speaker argues there can be no objective moral values. Moral values would be reduced to sociobiological byproducts or personal preferences, without any transcendent foundation. Without God, moral right and wrong become subjective and culturally relative.

What is the consequence of life without significance, according to the speaker?

The speaker claims that without God, life has no ultimate significance. Even if a person impacts the world during their life, it ultimately makes no difference because everything, including human achievements, will be destroyed when the universe ends. All contributions and sacrifices come to nothing.

How does the speaker use Bertrand Russell’s view to illustrate life's futility without God?

The speaker cites Bertrand Russell’s view that human life is the product of blind, indifferent causes and that all human achievements will eventually be buried in the ruins of a dead universe. Russell believed that no matter how heroic or inspirational human efforts are, they are destined for extinction, leading to a philosophy of despair.

What analogy does the speaker use from Nietzsche’s 'madman' story to illustrate the consequences of atheism?

The speaker refers to Nietzsche’s story of the 'madman' who declares that 'God is dead.' The madman laments that people do not yet understand the full consequences of killing God, which would lead to the destruction of all meaning, value, and purpose in life—a future of nihilism.

What does the speaker claim is the fundamental problem with living under an atheistic worldview?

The speaker argues that the fundamental problem with an atheistic worldview is that it is impossible to live both consistently and happily. If someone lives consistently with the belief that life has no purpose or value, they will be profoundly unhappy. On the other hand, if they manage to live happily, it is only because they are not living consistently with atheism.

How does Christian theism provide a solution to the problems posed by atheism, according to the speaker?

Christian theism, according to the speaker, offers a solution by asserting that God exists and life does not end at death. God gives life ultimate purpose, value, and significance. Through God, moral values are objective, and human actions have eternal importance, allowing people to live consistently and happily within a meaningful framework.

Outlines

00:00

🌌 The Absurdity of Life without God

This paragraph explores the profound connection between the existence of God and the meaning of life. Without God, there is no transcendent reality, and thus both humanity and the universe are ultimately doomed to destruction. The universe is expanding and will eventually face a cold, dark death, with no light, heat, or life. The inevitability of death leads some atheist thinkers to conclude that life has no ultimate purpose, value, or significance. Without a goal or reason, life becomes absurd, and the universe's destiny is a pointless oblivion.

05:04

🌍 No Hope, No Value in a Godless Universe

The second paragraph reflects on the lack of ultimate value in life if God does not exist. Without a transcendent source of moral values, standards of good and evil become subjective, merely the byproducts of evolutionary biology or personal preference. The absence of objective morality means that concepts like good and evil, right and wrong, lose meaning. In a world without God, actions like war or oppression cannot be condemned as evil, nor can virtues like love and tolerance be praised as good. Ultimately, nothing holds inherent value in such a universe.

10:04

⭐ The Ultimate Meaninglessness of Life

This section examines how, without God, life lacks ultimate significance. If death leads to nonexistence, the importance of any individual's life fades. While one's actions may matter in a relative sense, in the grand scheme of a doomed universe, everything becomes insignificant. The contributions of science, medicine, diplomacy, or personal sacrifices will eventually be rendered meaningless. Bertrand Russell’s grim reflection on the eventual extinction of humanity and the universe encapsulates the despair inherent in a life without ultimate meaning, purpose, or significance.

15:07

🕯️ The Rise of Nihilism and the Consequences of Atheism

This paragraph discusses Friedrich Nietzsche’s prediction that the death of God would lead to nihilism, the destruction of all meaning and value in life. Nietzsche foresaw that people would gradually realize the consequences of atheism, which would plunge humanity into an age of despair. Although many modern atheists do not fully confront this nihilism, the implications of a world without God are dire. A Toronto-based free-thought group’s bus ad, claiming there is no God so people should stop worrying and enjoy life, is seen as an optimistic yet shallow response to this existential crisis.

20:08

🏢 The Inescapable Tension in Atheism’s Absurdity

This final paragraph explains how atheists are trapped between living in a lower story of a godless, absurd world and a desire for an upper story of meaning, value, and purpose. Despite rejecting God, many atheists continue to live as though life has significance, justice matters, and their actions are important. This inconsistency leads to a profound tension within the atheistic worldview. The author argues that atheism is insufficient for a fulfilling life and that biblical theism, which posits an eternal purpose given by God, allows for both a consistent and happy existence.

Keywords

💡God

In the context of this video, 'God' refers to a transcendent being whose existence provides ultimate meaning, purpose, and value to life. The speaker argues that without God, life becomes absurd, purposeless, and devoid of intrinsic morality. The existence or non-existence of God is presented as central to whether human life has meaning.

💡Purpose

Purpose is defined as the reason or goal behind life and the universe. The video asserts that without God, life and the universe have no ultimate purpose—everything, including human existence, becomes an aimless journey towards inevitable destruction. If God exists, then life has an ultimate goal of knowing and enjoying Him forever.

💡Value

Value in this script refers to the intrinsic moral worth of human life and actions. The speaker argues that if God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist either, making concepts of 'good' and 'evil' subjective or biologically determined. Only with God's existence can moral standards have a transcendent and objective foundation.

💡Significance

Significance refers to the importance or impact of a person's life and actions. The script suggests that without God, individual lives are ultimately insignificant in the grand scheme of a universe destined for destruction. With God, life and actions have eternal significance beyond death.

💡Atheism

Atheism, or the belief that God does not exist, is central to the video's exploration of life's absurdity. Atheistic thinkers like Nietzsche and Sartre are cited to demonstrate that without God, life is left without purpose, value, or significance, leading to a nihilistic worldview.

💡Nihilism

Nihilism is the philosophical belief that life is meaningless, with no inherent value or purpose. The video highlights this as the inevitable consequence of atheism, where the absence of God leads to a rejection of all meaning, purpose, and moral values.

💡Immortality

Immortality in the video refers to the belief that human life continues beyond physical death. This concept is tied to the existence of God, as immortality is presented as a necessary condition for life to have eternal meaning, purpose, and significance. Without immortality, the speaker argues, life would end in oblivion, stripping it of any ultimate significance.

💡Absurdity

Absurdity in this context refers to the existential idea that life has no inherent meaning, especially in a universe without God. The video argues that if there is no ultimate purpose, value, or significance, then human existence is absurd—leading to a life that, despite our efforts to find meaning, is ultimately futile.

💡Morality

Morality is the concept of right and wrong behavior. The video claims that without God, morality is not objective but rather a product of sociobiological evolution or subjective human opinion. With God, however, morality has a transcendent, objective foundation, giving true meaning to moral values and duties.

💡Despair

Despair is the emotional response to realizing the futility and meaninglessness of life without God. The speaker suggests that without a transcendent purpose or hope of immortality, humans are left with despair in the face of their inevitable death and the ultimate destruction of the universe.

Highlights

The question of whether life has meaning is closely tied to the existence of God. Without God, life lacks transcendent reality, purpose, and ultimate value.

If God does not exist, both humanity and the universe are inevitably doomed to destruction, and all life is ultimately pointless.

The universe will one day face a 'heat death,' leaving only the remains of dead stars and galaxies in a cold, dark, and empty space.

Atheist philosophers like Nietzsche, Russell, and Sartre argue that life becomes absurd without God, lacking ultimate purpose, value, or significance.

Purpose refers to having a goal or reason for something, value refers to moral worth, and significance refers to the importance of existence—all of which are absent without God.

Without God, life’s ultimate goal is non-existent, and humanity’s fate is oblivion in an indifferent universe.

Moral values without God are subjective and culturally relative, meaning there is no objective right or wrong.

The contributions of science, medicine, diplomacy, and other human efforts ultimately amount to nothing in the absence of God, as everything is destined to perish.

Bertrand Russell lamented that human achievements are doomed to extinction and that the universe itself will eventually become a ruin.

Without God, life becomes ultimately meaningless, as reflected in Archibald MacLeish’s poem, where the end of the world is portrayed as empty and devoid of meaning.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s story of the 'madman' illustrates the existential consequences of a world without God, leading to nihilism and the loss of meaning and value.

Most people continue living as though nothing has changed, despite the implications of atheism and the loss of ultimate meaning.

Atheism cannot offer a consistent and happy life, as living with the absurdity of life without God leads either to despair or to contradictions in worldview.

Christian theism, by contrast, offers a worldview where life has meaning, value, and purpose because of God's existence and the promise of immortality.

The speaker argues that if the evidence for theism and atheism were equal, it would be rational to choose theism, as it provides the hope of meaningfulness and happiness.

Transcripts

the question is there meaning to life is

closely connected to another equally

profound question namely does God exist

for if God does not exist there is no

transcendent reality and so both mankind

and the universe as a result are

inevitably doomed to death like all

biological organisms each of us must die

and the universe too faces the death of

its own scientists tell us that the

universe is expanding and everything in

it is growing further and further apart

as it does sell it grows colder and

colder and its energy is used up

eventually all the stars will burn out

and all matter will collapse into dead

stars and black holes

there will be no light there will be no

heat there will be no life only the

corpses of dead stars and galaxies ever

expanding into the endless darkness and

the cold recesses of space a universe in

ruins this is not science fiction as

unimaginable as it may seem this will

happen so not only is the life of each

individual person doomed the entire

human race is destined to destruction

there is no escape there is no hope

these plain scientific facts seem nearly

incontestable the question then becomes

what is the consequence of this many

atheist thinkers have argued that it

implies that human life itself becomes

absurd it means that the life we do have

is without ultimate purpose value or

significance these three notions

purpose value significance though

closely related are conceptually

distinct purpose has to do with a goal a

reason for something value has to do

with something's moral worth it's been

good or evil right or wrong significance

has to do with something's importance

why it matters many atheist philosophers

from Nietzsche to Russell to Sartre have

argued that if God does not exist then

life is ultimately absurd it is without

ultimate purpose value or significance

let me say a word about each one of

these first if God does not exist there

is no ultimate purpose of life

if death stands with open arms at the

end of life's trail then what is the

goal of life is it all for nothing is

there no reason for life and what of the

universe is it utterly pointless if its

destiny is a cold grave in the recesses

of outer space the answer must be yes it

is pointless there is no goal no purpose

for the universe the litter of a dead

universe will just go on expanding and

expanding forever and what of mankind is

there no purpose at all for the human

race or will it simply peter out some

day lost in the oblivion of an

indifferent universe the English writer

HG Wells foresaw such a prospect in his

novel the time machine wells time

traveler journeys far into the future to

discover the destiny of man all he finds

is a dead earth except for a few lichens

and moss orbiting a gigantic red Sun the

only sounds are the rush of

wind and the gentle ripple of the sea

beyond these lifeless sounds right

swells the world was silent silent it

would be hard to convey the stillness of

it all the sounds of man the bleating of

sheep the cries of birds the hum of

insects the stir that makes the

background of our lives

all that was over and so wells time

traveller returned but to what to merely

an earlier point on the purposeless rush

toward oblivion when is a non-christian

I first read Wells book I thought no no

it can't end that way but this is

reality in a universe without God if

there is no God it will end that way

like it or not there is no hope there is

no purpose second if God does not exist

there is no ultimate value in life if

there is no God then there are no

objective standards of good and evil

right and wrong by objective standards I

mean moral standards which are valid and

binding independently of human opinion

if God does not exist then there is no

transcendent source of moral values

rather moral values are either just the

byproducts of sociobiological evolution

and conditioning or else expressions of

personal taste as the philosopher of

science Michael ruse explains the

position of the modern evolutionist is

that humans have an awareness of

morality because such an awareness is of

biological worth morality is a

biological adaptation no less than our

hands and feet and teeth considered as a

rationally justifiable set of claims

about an objective something F

is illusory I appreciate that when

somebody says love thy neighbor as

thyself they think they are referring

above and beyond themselves nevertheless

such reference is truly without

foundation morality is just an aid to

survival and reproduction and any deeper

meaning is illusory Richard Dawkins puts

it succinctly there is at bottom no

design no purpose no evil no good

nothing but pitiless indifference we are

machines for propagating DNA in a world

without God there can be no objective

right and wrong only our culturally and

personally relative subjective judgments

so who's to say whose values are right

and whose are wrong who's to judge that

one person's values are inferior to

those of another the concept of

objective morality loses all meaning in

a universe without God all we are

confronted with is in jean-paul sartre

words the bare valueless fact of

existence that means that it is

impossible to condemn war oppression or

bigotry as evil nor can you praise

tolerance equality and love as good for

in a universe without God good and evil

do not exist there is only the bare

valueless fact of existence and there is

no one to say that you are right and I

am wrong third if there is no God then

there is no ultimate significance to

life if each individual person passes

out of existence when he dies then what

ultimate importance can be given to us

life does it really matter whether he

ever existed at all certainly his life

may be important relative to certain

other events but what is the ultimate

significance of any of those events if

everything is doomed to destruction then

what does it matter that you influenced

anything ultimately it makes no

difference the contributions of the

scientists to the advance of human

knowledge the researchers of the doctor

to alleviate pain and suffering the

efforts of the diplomat to secure peace

in the world the sacrifices of good

people everywhere to better the lot of

the human race in the end they don't

make one bit of difference they all come

to nothing in a famous passage the

atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell

lamented that man is the product of

causes which had no provision of the end

they were achieving but no fire no

heroism no intensity of thought and

feeling can preserve an individual life

beyond the grave that all the labors of

the ages all the devotion all the

inspiration all the noonday brightness

of human genius are destined to

extinction in the vast death of the

solar system and that the whole temple

of man's achievement must inevitably be

buried beneath the debris of a universe

in ruins all these things if quite not

beyond dispute are yet so nearly certain

that no philosophy which rejects them

can hope to stand only within the

scaffolding of these truths only on the

firm foundation of unyielding despair

can the soul's habitation henceforth be

safely built thus on atheism life itself

becomes ultimately meaningless

if God does not exist then life is

without ultimate purpose value or

significance in his poem the end of the

world the American poet Archibald

MacLeish portrays life as an idiotic

circus until one day the show is over

let me read it to you now quite

unexpectedly as Vassar oh the armless

ambidextrous was lighting a match

between his great and second toe and

Ralph the lion was engaged in biting the

neck of Madame Sussman while the drum

pointed and teenie was about to coffin

waltz time swinging Jocko by the thumb

quite unexpectedly the top blew off and

there there overhead there there hung

over those thousands of white faces

those gazed eyes there in the starless

dark the poise the hover there with vast

wings across the canceled skies there in

the sudden blackness the black Paul of

nothing nothing nothing nothing at all

this is the horror of modern man because

he ends in nothing he is nothing do you

understand the gravity of the

alternatives before us if God exists

then there is hope for man if God does

not exist then all we are left with is

despair as Francis Schaeffer has aptly

put it if God is dead then man is dead

too

unfortunately most people do not realize

this fact they continue on as though

nothing had changed I'm reminded of

Friedrich Nietzsche's story of the

madman who in the early morning hours

burst into the marketplace lantern in

hand crying i seek god i seek god since

many of those standing about did not

believe in God he provoked much laughter

did God get lost they taunted him or is

he hiding or maybe he's gone on a voyage

or emigrated and thus they yelled and

laughed then the Wrights Nietzsche the

madman turned in their midst and pierced

them with his eyes whither is God he

cried

I shall tell you we have killed him you

and I all of us are his murderers but

how have we done this how are we able to

drink up the sea who gave us the sponge

to wipe away the entire horizon what did

we do when we Unchained this earth from

its Sun whither is it moving now away

from all suns are we not plunging

continually backward sigh word for word

in all directions

is there any up or down left are we not

straying as through an infinite nothing

do we not feel the breath of empty space

has it not become colder it's not night

and more night coming on all the while

must not lanterns be lit in the morning

do we not hear anything yet of the noise

of the gravediggers who are burying God

God is dead and we have killed him how

shall we the murderers of all murderers

comfort ourselves the crowd stared at

the madman in silence and astonishment

at last he dashed his lantern to the

ground I have come too early he said

this tremendous event is still on its

way it has not yet reached the ears of

men people did not yet truly comprehend

the consequences of what they had done

in killing God but Nietzsche predicted

that someday people would realize the

implications of their atheism

and this realization would usher in an

age of nihilism that is the destruction

of all meaning and value in life I find

that most people still do not reflect

upon the consequences of atheism and so

like the crowd in the marketplace go

unknowingly on their way a few years ago

a toronto-based free thought

organization bought bus ads that

proclaimed there probably is no God now

stop worrying and enjoy your life

according to a spokesman for the group

they wanted something happy something

bright

I wonder what's really neat you would

have thought of those ads few

contemporary atheists have Nietzsche's

courage to look a theism squarely in the

face without blinking but when we

realize as did Nietzsche the niall ISM

that atheism implies then his question

presses hard upon us

how shall we the murderers of all

murderers comfort ourselves confronted

with the human predicament about the

only solution the Atheist can offer is

that we simply face the absurdity of

life and live bravely the fundamental

problem with the solution however is

that it's impossible to live

consistently and happily within the

framework of such a worldview if you

live consistently you will not be happy

if you live happily it is only because

you are not consistent Francis Schaeffer

has explained this point well modern man

says Schafer lives in a two-storey

universe in the lower story is the

finite world without God here life is

absurd as we have seen in the upper

story our meaning value and purpose now

modern man lives in the lower story

because he believed

there is no god but he cannot live

happily in such an absurd world

therefore he continually makes leaps of

faith into the upper story to affirm

meaning value and purpose even though he

has no right to since he does not

believe in God

while giving lip service to atheism the

atheist lives as though life were

important as though it really mattered

what he does and thinks as though

certain things were really right and

wrong and so is outraged at the

injustice 'as of this world and acts as

though his petty projects and plans

really were significant the human

predicament is thus truly terrible the

atheistic worldview is insufficient to

maintain a happy and consistent life man

cannot live consistently and happily as

though life were ultimately without

purpose value or significance if we try

to live consistently within the

framework of the atheistic worldview we

shall find ourselves profoundly unhappy

if instead we manage to live happily it

is only by giving the lie to our

worldview atheism therefore cannot

support a happy and consistent life but

if atheism fails in this regard what

about Christian theism according to the

biblical worldview God does exist and

life does not end at the grave God has

created us for a purpose to know him and

enjoy him forever God Himself who

transcends socially relative mores is

the objective standard of moral

principles and goodness and his

commandments are the source of our

objective moral duties because we shall

live forever the decisions and actions

we take in this life are imbued with an

eternal significance the

lasts beyond the grave biblical theism

therefore provides the two conditions

necessary for a purposeful valuable and

meaningful life God and immortality

because of this we can live consistently

and happily within the framework of such

a worldview

thus biblical theism succeeds precisely

where atheism breaks down now I would be

the first to say that none of this

proves that God exists even if atheism

is unlivable it may still be true but in

tonight's dialogue we've not been asked

to discuss whether God exists or not

I've written extensively on that

question elsewhere tonight we've been

asked to discuss is there meaning to

life on this score there need be no

dispute between the theist and the

atheist indeed it has been the atheists

themselves as we have seen who have

given the most poignant analyses of the

human predicament let them speak for

themselves without God they tell us life

becomes absurd for it is without

ultimate purpose value or significance I

agree but I would add one thing we've

seen that if God does not exist then

life is futile

if God does exist then life is

meaningful only the second of these two

alternatives enables us to live

consistently and happily therefore it

seems to me that even if the evidence

for these two options were absolutely

equal a rational person ought to choose

theism that is to say if the evidence is

equal it seems to me positively

irrational to prefer death futility and

fare to life meaningfulness and

Happiness therefore my advice is go with

God as Pascal said we have nothing to

lose and everything to gain

[Applause]

[Music]