You Really Do Want to Know

There is a natural curiosity that young children possess. They look upon scenic environs with wonderment, awed by the beauty and the variety of plant and animal life they encounter. What a child sees is unfiltered and not yet fully processed and categorized—making what they see new and captivating.

Perhaps a vague and all-too-brief thought occasionally crosses the child’s mind. What does all this mean? Why does all this exist? No matter; another item of interest soon distracts them and draws their attention away.

As a person becomes preoccupied with the requirements of growing up, learning about self and society, they often gradually spend less and less time and energy asking the question “why?” For what purpose does this or that thing exist? Is there some overriding cosmic explanation that can give them what they once instinctively wanted to know—but had not the means to find out?

Victor Frankl in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, famously stated that “man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.”

The many speculations from numerous authorities merely create confusion. Many are drawn to ideas from oriental philosophies, meditation arts, charismatic emotionalism, mind science, and spiritualism—such as talking to the dead, psychics, astrology, tarot cards, palm reading, and the like.

Man’s search for meaning has been futile. Reliance on philosophical dead ends provides no satisfying, objective answer to the question: Why do we exist?

One of the wisest men who ever lived, King Solomon, wrote, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Cut to the chase—it is obvious that things exist. They did not just come into existence out of nothing! They had to be created. What or who caused them to come into being?

The Apostle Paul gives the answer—the Creator reveals Himself: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18–20).

God speaks through His prophet, Isaiah: “Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and no one is like Me. I declare the end from the beginning and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: My plan will take place, and I will do all My will” (Isaiah 46:9–10 HCSB). God has a plan and a purpose—though He has only given some the means to fully understand it, while many have become willfully blind.

Mankind—and all of creation—exists for a purpose, but that purpose was determined by a Creator! Some scientists examine the material world and conclude that Paul’s words—God’s words—are fact. Yet, sadly, many more dispute or ignore them.

For example, Francis Crick—molecular biologist, biophysicist and neuroscientist, and co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953 with James Watson—stated in his book, The Astonishing Hypothesis: “The Astonishing Hypothesis is that you—your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.” Carl Sagan once said: “The cosmos is all there is, or was, or ever will be.”

Such experts cannot provide real answers. There is only one source that explains why you and I draw breath. The answers that mankind searches for are found revealed in the pages of the Holy Bible. Find out if God is calling you to understand them.