We are told that man is the highest being in the universe—but we appeared here by a cosmic accident, rising slowly from the slime of nothingness to the city-building, technology-wielding age of today. Evolution is the god who made us.
We are also told that each person has inherent worth, that it is wrong to steal from, rape, or kill another person. Why? Because that’s another person, we are told, and they have value.
How can these things be true at the same time? How can man’s beginning be the meaningless chain of evolution, man’s end be the meaningless darkness of nothing, while man’s present life holds inherent value and meaning?
Where did man suddenly obtain value? Who gives man his value?
You say, “No one gives man his value—he just has it.”
But nothing has value apart from someone placing value upon it. A bar of gold does not have inherent value. Men recognize its scarcity and value it for being rare and beautiful. A child does not have inherent value, other than the value others place upon him—and parents usually place a much higher value on the child’s life than anyone else does.
Why do you have value? Why do you matter?
When you value someone else, did you suddenly make that person’s life worthwhile simply by valuing her? Or did her life matter before you valued her? If her life mattered before, why did it matter?
Did your parents bestow value upon you at birth? Did your spouse or kids suddenly give your life meaning? If they gave your life meaning, can they take it away again?
In a short philosophical article[1], Livni sums up what he believes is a simple answer to life’s meaning: “because we live, life matters.” It’s a circular argument which starts nowhere, goes nowhere, and leaves the thinker empty. It fails to provide any sense of purpose. He ends with, “Life matters because we exist within and among living things, as part of an enduring and incomprehensible chain of existence.” My kids would see right through that one.
But I think many subconsciously have decided to believe that. Their friends tell them they are worth something. Their parents tell them to make something of their lives, and they are so proud! Their teachers cast visions of changing the world—”be the change!” Their world says save the environment, stop global climate change, end racism, support a cause, believe in yourself. And our young people are accepting these answers without thinking about them too deeply because they are all superficial, attempts to cover a raging fire with a paper-thin napkin.
The raging fire is the question, “Why am I here? What am I worth? Does my life matter?” No one seems to know. Everyone has a different answer.
Hearts burn. Minds whirl. Confusion overwhelms. After the latest march, protest, and demonstration dies down and fizzles out, we are left with that same hole in our heart, wondering what it’s all for? Are we just spinning our wheels? Is this a dead-end road? Is there not more to this life? What are we missing?
We are missing the key to life! Life has purpose and meaning because we did not appear on this planet through a mindless evolutionary process. The human race had a meaningful beginning. And we are headed for a meaningful future.
I was just reading an article on CNN[2] which explains some of the language of the trans movement. The author writes, “Sex describes the biological sex a person was assigned at birth…Trans women are people who were assigned male at birth but identify as women. Trans men are people who were assigned female at birth but identify as men.” She uses the language of assignment. My question was immediately, “Who assigned them that sex?” Did the doctor who delivered the baby assign the sex? Was it the parent who wrote it on the birth certificate? Or was the sex assigned by Someone who created the baby either male or female, and the adults in the delivery room merely took note of the fact that the baby had been assigned his or her sex?
People cannot escape the language of design. The staunchest atheists write of the design of the universe, of a flower, of the human body, because they are so obviously designed! Of course, they attribute the design to the mindless, purposeless process of evolution, but how can that be “design” in the way we understand it?
The first chapter of the Bible contains this:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
Genesis 1.26-27
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Later, after Noah and his family had safely exited the ark, God gave further instructions:
“And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
Genesis 9.5-6
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.”
In this lies the value of every human being—we are each made in God’s image! Even in our sin, we retain something of God’s image in us. There is a sense that all human beings are children of God (Acts 17.28-29), so every human life is sacred.
You have value because your Creator places value upon you! Is that not awesome? You are created for a purpose. To live that purpose, you must thank God for your life and live the way He designed you to live. This way you will find transcendent peace, living hope, and eternal joy.
Why do lives matter? Because we are made in the image of God.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecclesiastes 12.13
[1] Ephrat Livni. “The Secret to a Meaningful Life Is Simpler Than You Think.” June 24, 2018. https://qz.com/1310792/the-secret-to-a-meaningful-life-is-simpler-than-you-think/, Accessed June 10, 2020.
[2] Kristen Rogers. “Gender identity: The difference between gender, sex and other need-to-knows.” June 10, 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/health/gender-identity-explainer-wellness/index.html