On human purpose.
This chapter could have been titled C. S Lewis and nothing would have been lost.
It starts by the story of a woman, Jennifer Fulwiler, who had grown up atheist and when she had her first baby, she, in her own words,
I looked down and thought: What is this baby? And I thought, well, from a pure atheist, materialist perspective he is a randomly evolved collection of chemical reactions. And I realized if that’s true then all the love that I feel for him is nothing more than chemical reactions in our brain. And I looked down at him and I thought: that’s not true. It’s not the truth.
It is possible that there are people who look at life this way. They see a beautiful painting and say what is this but random brush strokes on a fabric on and on, which would be one correct way of looking at the painting or the baby in this case. But the baby or even painting, can be looked at as a labour of love.
I said the alternate title of this chapter is C.S Lewis because Justin can’t help himself from referring to him in almost every page. Lewis’ conversion to Christianity and his works in defense of that faith such mere Christianity are quoted as evidence that without god, our lives have no purpose, no meaning no value.
Justin tells us life only has meaning if you believe in Jesus. We will get to the question of Jesus later. For our purposes, I will just say it seems there are billions in the world whose lives have no meaning because they are not Christians.
Random thoughts 
The C. S. Lewis comparison immediately brings to mind another fantastic fantasy tale: Dorothy when she is transported to the Emerald Land in “The Wizard of Oz!” Have a great remainder of the weekend, O holy one! ๐ Naked hugs!
LikeLike
I want to believe, therefore I believe. It has nothing to do with truth and reality.
Love is an emergent quality that arises from chemical reactions in the brain, as do all emotions. They emerge and are truly felt….not always based on reason, but nonetheless there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I believe so it is true is the maxim.
No, Mary, love comes from god don’t ya know?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t need a reason to believe in my own self, in the people I trust or learn to trust. I don’t need a spurious god to tell me I have to be good or he’ll get all pissy about it and send me to hell. I am good, in the context of the society I live, in the context of the life I lead, and the care I take not to hurt anything wilfully, whether it walks, flies, or swims, or just puts down a root and grows.
Everything we feel comes from inside us, as Mary said; chemicals in the brain, but it’s what happens to those chemicals is the magic part.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The christian is not satisfied with that and want to give some god the credit for how we feel and what we feel
LikeLike
I have heard/read so many Christians reference C.S. Lewis that I often think the bible should be updated so his name could be added in as one of the gospel writers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually you have a valid point. The Bible was written for another time and another culture, and the significance of much of the metaphors and analogies are completely lost in today’s world. It often does take a scholar to be able to understand that many metaphors exist at all. Hence the fundamentalists and evangelicals read it literally.
Why the Bible should have been frozen for all time is beyond me. My own faith tradition recognises that values and what matters is in constant evolution, so we revise our spiritual texts approximately every generation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
To someone who believes the bible is inerrant and true word of god, to have it revised and amended would i think be seen as a sin of momentous proportions
LikeLike
My favorites are the churches that vehemently claim that only one (politically conscious) translation of the Bible can even be considered. King James Bible Only people are a strange, strange breed. The language is sonorous and rich, but few scholars think this was the best translation.
LikeLike
People are strange my friend, really strange
LikeLike
Hahaha Nan.
I think the book of Job should be amended to include the book of CS Lewis. It would fit there very nicely
LikeLiked by 2 people
I never have figured out why so many Christians find Lewis valid in anyway. His arguments always came off as the “pale galilean” type.
LikeLike
He is Justin’s favourite.
His book would have been titled why I like Lewis and nothing would be lost
LikeLike
That story about a mother converting from childbirth just doesn’t ring true for me. On giving birth to my first child, I was struck with how thoroughly biological the whole thing was. Blood and hormones and pain and instincts all wrapped up in one hugely messy event. After years of watching nature documentaries of animals giving birth, and then doing it myself? I felt more of a kinship with the natural world then than at most other times in my life. (Followed up with months of nursing, where my most frequent comment about it was “moo”.)
I’m not buying that she “grew up an atheist” because the comments attributed to her sound like the platitudes preached from pulpits. Claiming to have once been an “atheist” is really trendy among evangelicals right now, much the way they used to claim to have been a “satanist”. It sounds like a “testimony” not like someone’s real life experience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think saying they were atheist gives them street cred
LikeLike
Except with the actual atheists, who can see right through it.
LikeLike
I think atheists are not usually their audience. If I say I was brought up hating god, I can be used as a shining example that atheists usually get to see the light. It’s good for the market, you know. Not to say atheists don’t convert, I am certain they do but I expect at least to have a sound argument from one who has converted to say Hindooism or Islam. Not some mumbo jumbo.
LikeLiked by 1 person