The Biblical Narrative Part 4 of 10
In the Socrates in the City interview noted above…John Lennox makes another critical point by saying that information is not a physical entity. Information is correctly defined to be an abstract thing…that has a non-materialistic essence…quite apart from the material explanation of how ink bonds to paper.
This means that the complex, specified, and coherently integrated systems of information discovered in the natural world by scientific investigation…cannot be the product of naturalistic materialism…but instead come from an intelligent mind…because information correctly defined is not materialistic…but abstract.
The fundamental questions about human life: “How did I get here, Why am I here, and Where am I going?”…are in essence non- materialistic questions…and therefore require non-materialistic answers.
These questions cannot be answered through the mathematics, physics, and chemistry of science…because their defining character…like the abstract information in a newspaper headline or in a Chopin Etude…is not materialistically amenable to measurement, quantification, and testing in a laboratory.
The universal standard by which worldly conventional normalcy and thinking judges our worth, value, and dignity…measured by the acquisition and expansion of material wealth…is a false and misleading worldview narrative.
Living in a mansion in Beverly Hills or in a penthouse apartment in New York City…and driving a Rolls Royce or Bentley convertible automobile…is a false measure of our worth… because it defines human value and dignity through the materialistic standard of financial prosperity…a narrowly exclusive, universally unattainable, and inaccurate measure of the truly successful human life.
The best and most inspirational fourth-grade elementary school teacher in America will never have a salary large enough to generate great financial wealth.
Moderate financial wealth is simply a part of the otherwise commendable and satisfying reality of being a school teacher.
Jesus is recorded in Luke 12:15 as saying: “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
In my own walk of faith following Jesus Christ…and I would assume in the lives of many Christians around the globe…and what I see in the biblical narrative stories of faith…that is one of the lessons that identifies the true purpose of human life…is that God’s provision of needed resources, solutions to problems, and the deliverance from a crisis…often comes at the risk-filled end-point of time at the last minute…at the last hour…rather than at the more preferable safe and secure moment in time…at the beginning of the particular situation (Gen. 22:10-12; Ex. 14:21-22; Mt. 28:5-8).
If the purpose of human life is to “get ahead” through the acquiring of financial wealth, material things, fame, and power…this is definitely not the message put forward in the biblical narrative…first introduced into the marketplace of ideas…starting around 1,450 B.C.
So which of the two main competing narratives is the true narrative: the one from worldly conventional normalcy and thinking that says that we can operate successfully as autonomous individuals apart form God...or the biblical narrative that says that there is a God-composed journey of faith life-script written for every human being...but which contains a message that many people do not want to hear...that God is so smart He eill displace our ways with His higher ways and thoughts...if we will allow Him to?
What are your thoughts on this?
This means that the complex, specified, and coherently integrated systems of information discovered in the natural world by scientific investigation…cannot be the product of naturalistic materialism…but instead come from an intelligent mind…because information correctly defined is not materialistic…but abstract.
The fundamental questions about human life: “How did I get here, Why am I here, and Where am I going?”…are in essence non- materialistic questions…and therefore require non-materialistic answers.
These questions cannot be answered through the mathematics, physics, and chemistry of science…because their defining character…like the abstract information in a newspaper headline or in a Chopin Etude…is not materialistically amenable to measurement, quantification, and testing in a laboratory.
The universal standard by which worldly conventional normalcy and thinking judges our worth, value, and dignity…measured by the acquisition and expansion of material wealth…is a false and misleading worldview narrative.
Living in a mansion in Beverly Hills or in a penthouse apartment in New York City…and driving a Rolls Royce or Bentley convertible automobile…is a false measure of our worth… because it defines human value and dignity through the materialistic standard of financial prosperity…a narrowly exclusive, universally unattainable, and inaccurate measure of the truly successful human life.
The best and most inspirational fourth-grade elementary school teacher in America will never have a salary large enough to generate great financial wealth.
Moderate financial wealth is simply a part of the otherwise commendable and satisfying reality of being a school teacher.
Jesus is recorded in Luke 12:15 as saying: “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
In my own walk of faith following Jesus Christ…and I would assume in the lives of many Christians around the globe…and what I see in the biblical narrative stories of faith…that is one of the lessons that identifies the true purpose of human life…is that God’s provision of needed resources, solutions to problems, and the deliverance from a crisis…often comes at the risk-filled end-point of time at the last minute…at the last hour…rather than at the more preferable safe and secure moment in time…at the beginning of the particular situation (Gen. 22:10-12; Ex. 14:21-22; Mt. 28:5-8).
If the purpose of human life is to “get ahead” through the acquiring of financial wealth, material things, fame, and power…this is definitely not the message put forward in the biblical narrative…first introduced into the marketplace of ideas…starting around 1,450 B.C.
So which of the two main competing narratives is the true narrative: the one from worldly conventional normalcy and thinking that says that we can operate successfully as autonomous individuals apart form God...or the biblical narrative that says that there is a God-composed journey of faith life-script written for every human being...but which contains a message that many people do not want to hear...that God is so smart He eill displace our ways with His higher ways and thoughts...if we will allow Him to?
What are your thoughts on this?
No comments have been added yet.
