Ran across this while perusing C.B. Moss' book, "The Christian Faith". Scientism cannot answer these questions.
3. God is the Best Answer to Four Questions
He is therefore aware of four questions, to each of which God is the true answer.
a) The Problem of Nature – The first is the question, Why was the universe made, and
what is its purpose? The universe shows, as we shall see, many signs of having been
made by design and with very great skill, which seems to show that it was made by
If the universe was designed by God, both the solar decay and death and the Andromeda/Milky Way collision were also designed by God. Given that any of these will render life on Earth and the Milky Way impossible, would you say God is a malicious deity then?
b) The Problem of Mind – The second is the question, What is the conscious self? We
know of no other self-conscious beings in the whole vast universe of which natural
science tells us. Are we to believe that the human race is a mere accident in a material
universe, or that the universe itself has behind it a Person like, but infinitely greater than,
human beings?
What's your estimation, how much of the universe have humans explored thus far?
0.000000000000000000000000000000000000001%, maybe?
c) The Problem of Conscience – The third is the question, What is the meaning of the
difference, which we all feel, between right and wrong? Every human being possesses
this power to distinguish between right and wrong, which we call the conscience; and it
does not correspond to anything else in nature. Do the words "I ought" belong to
something universal, or are they merely an accidental result of the development of life in
this planet?
As of now all we know is that conscience is an emergent property of a human brain. Furthermore, mankind has behave consistently in opposite ways throughout the millennia, suggesting that, contrary to what you assert but cannot prove, that is not one common view on what is right and wrong. Kublai Khan definitely did not share the contemporary views on morality. Yet he thought he was doing the right thing.
d) The Problem of Beauty – The fourth is the question, What is meant by beauty? Is
beauty merely something that gives pleasure to a particular person, or is it a permanent
principle corresponding to something in the nature of the universe?
The right answer to these questions is:
a) God made the universe, for His own glory.
So God is vain beyond belief?
Right.
b) God has made us self-conscious beings after His own likeness; man is the crown of
creation.
c) God has made us capable of knowing His will by means of our conscience, or sense of
duty.
What if I don't want to follow through on His will? What happens to me?
d) God is eternal and perfect beauty, and whatever is beautiful is a means by which He
displays His beauty.
God is eternal?
What an interesting thing to say.
The quality of being eternal is dependant upon on the concomitant existence of time. Yet I am told that God created time. Ergo, God cannot, by definition , be eternal. AT the most, God ios outside time.
Yes, I have heard many alleged "explanations" for nature, consciousness, conscience, and fewer for beauty, but none of them are definitive, no more definitive than the religious explanations. For example, many believe that the universe has always been here or if it did appear suddenly it was purely coincidence, with no cause or purpose. In that universe elements came together accidentally and formed living things, some of which are capable of consciousness and some are not. (It's funny that some would call human beings "animals" leaving out the part that even the most savage among us recognize that there is such a thing as right and wrong, while animals do not have this capacity.)
Your inability to understand explanations is not a testament to the invalidity of said explanations.
The question of beauty is the one that really struck me - who has not seen the milky way in a sky not polluted by city light and marveled at the beauty of it?