On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision

by William Lane Craig

CHAPTER OUTLINE I. If God does not exist, then all human life as well as every individual life will eventually be destroyed. II. If there is no God and no life beyond the grave, then life itself has no objective meaning, value, or purpose. A. Meaning 1. Without immortality your life has no ultimate significance and makes no difference to the world’s outcome. 2. Without God there is no broader framework within which man’s life can be seen to matter. B. Value 1. Without immortality there is no moral accountability, and your moral choices become inconsequential. 2. Without God moral values are just delusions ingrained into us by evolution and social conditioning. C. Purpose 1. Without immortality your only destination is extinction in death. 2. Without God there is no purpose for which you came into this world. III. It is impossible to live consistently and happily with an atheistic worldview. A. If we live happily as atheists, it is only by inconsistently affirming meaning, value, and purpose for our lives, despite the lack of foundation for them. B. If we live consistently as atheists, we shall be profoundly unhappy and even in despair because we know our lives are really meaningless, worthless, and purposeless. IV. Biblical Christianity challenges the worldview of modern man. A. According to biblical Christianity God exists and life does not end at the grave. B. Biblical Christianity thereby affirms the two conditions sufficient for a meaningful, valuable, and purposeful l...