Solving life's big mysteries

I think that sometimes in life, when we are looking for evidence to prove or make sense of something, we expect more than what our situation affords us. Some things just cant be proven in the truly objective sense, in the way that we might conduct a scientific experiment where x + y = z. I find that all the truly meaningful puzzles that life presents me with are like that.

Take for example a loving relationship with a special somebody. Can we prove that they love us? Is there a scientific experiment that I can conduct to conclusively prove, at an anatomical level, that my special lady loves me?

I am not suggesting that we give up the cause and settle for ignorance, what I am suggesting is that for some of the important questions in life we need a different approach in order to find answers which truly satisfy. I think that we need to approach some of our more complex questions more like a detective trying to solve a murder mystery than a scientist attempting to prove a hypothesis using quantitative data.

If I go back to the question I posed earlier, 'Does my wife love me?', I suppose I could (hypothetically) do a chemical test on her body to assess whether or not her body has produced that strange cocktail of drugs which are pumped into our bloodstream when we are 'in love' to get an answer for my question. Somehow I don't think that would give me much reassurance though. It may be scientifically verifiable but it wouldn't speak to my soul.

What if I tried the approach of a detective and asked these questions: Why does she like spending so much time with me (so much so that she agreed to spend the rest of her life with me)? Why does she choose to be with me rather than with other guys despite the fact that being with me has caused her more trouble, it has meant less money and definitely a more sociable lifestyle (which is not a plus if you have introverted tendencies!) Why does she serve me without complaint even when that means no benefit to herself? The most satisfactory explanation which accounts for all these details is that she loves me :-) That may not be conclusive enough for some people, but like I said, sometimes I can't expect more than what my situation allows for.

When life presents us with puzzles like these, puzzles that are just too important to leave alone, what I need is an explanation which best accounts for all the evidence. The answer which has the most comprehensive explanatory power, without contradicting itself, is likely to be the answer that I am be looking for.

And now for a more complex (but no less meaningful) riddle -
Why is it that when I look at the world around me I see a world that is in one moment so breathtakingly beautiful that it looks like a work of art exquisitely crafted by a master craftsman, but in the very next moment I see a child that is born with horrible deformities? Why does the world seem like a cracked and broken creation, something which must once have been a kind of heaven but is now too often a cruel mother?

Why is it that humans are such an enigma in the way that they treat each other? Why do they seem to have all the capabilities to make a heaven for each other here, but instead we create a hell? Why do they know how to love but seldom seem to do so?

Why is it that everyone seems to want peace and appreciate love but yet consistently seem to fail to create such a place?

How is it that the wealthiest among us that have everything that the rest of us aspire to are still left wondering at the emptiness in their souls? Why do even they ask the question, "Isn't there more to life than this?"

Why is it that despite all the developments in the sciences, they still can't seem to string together a logical explanation for how we came to be here in the first place?

Now there are many competing worldviews ["The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe"] which seek to try and deal with all these glaring challenges in our world, but this is where I believe the gospel message of Christ really comes into its own. More than any other "proof", I have come to realize that this is the reason that I cherish and trust the message of the Bible and am completely breath taken at the wisdom of it.

The picture that the Bible paints of this world makes sense of all of the quirks that we observe in it. And I mean ALL of our planets idiosyncrasies. The Bible tells the story of our origin, that the world was created by a God who cared and still does care about everything that goes on in it.

The Bible describes how idyllic our world was in the beginning, how humans lived at peace with God, with each other and with nature. Society was the peaceful and loving place that we wish it were today.

Humans were a special creation. We were created with a nature and likeness after God himself. The Bible explains how Satan, who is a force for evil, tempted mankind to reject their subservience to God and that, because they were created with the ability to choose, they did reject God.

The consequence of this distrust and rebellion against the benevolent reign of God over his creation was the introduction of death into our world. Thereafter the idyllic paradise slowly devolved into the violent, corrupted and painful place that we know it to be today. Mankind never lost the ability to love and to show kindness but their rebellion against God introduced a force into the world which influences us toward a very destructive kind of self-love which wars against our better nature.

We have all inherited a divided heart. We are at war within. The fading beauty of what we once were occasionally shines through. There is still a trace of the morality, the love and the desire for God that we once knew but there is also another force at work in us. Unfortunately the dark force of rebellion against God, self-love and self-worship more often than not overcomes the good in us.

In the place of the overthrown reign of God over our societies we have placed ourselves as kings. What a disappointment that has been! The result has been unjust and morally depraved societies in which people suffer from empty souls, craving the friendship we once had with God and with each other. The Bible says that as long as we remain the kings of God's creation, it will never be restored to the peaceful loving place that it once was.

What we have here is a narrative which explains all the mysteries in one cohesive whole. What is more, my experience has been that every hard question that I have from looking at my daily reality fits into the Bible narrative somewhere. This is why I am convinced that the Word of God is true. Not  because of one scientific discovery or "proof" (although there have been many of those too) but because of its explanatory power. I have grown to love the Word of God because it rescues me from the confusion and the despondency that once used to rise up inside of me whenever I considered the world around me. The first chapter of the Gospel of John puts it succinctly,

"The true light [Jesus] that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

Knowing Jesus has brought "enlightenment" to me. It is because of this "light" that I believe that the Gospel of Christ is true and it inspires me to dive even deeper into all the truth that has been revealed to us because in it I find healing, peace and love.