(Originally written September 18, 2005 in Book 1)
Can Man Live Without God?
Ravi Zacharias
1994
Chapter Seven - The science of knowing and the art of living
The what and why of life are bound together. Is the meaning of life the same for all or, "are we condemned to wallow in culturally relative quotients, ever changing the point of reference and relegating meaning to the sense of happiness or to how one feels at a given moment?" (Zacharias, 67). The world has reduced the meaning of life to this quotation.
Michael Polanyi states that science gives us normative knowledge, while poetry, art and religion give us meaning. Polanyi continues to say that society gives meaning to science and if it is reversed, science is in danger of destroying life. (Read Michael Polanyi's book Meaning)
By reducing the world to its atomic level, science has made the search for meaning a meaningless pursuit. The search for meaning however, is not a meaningless pursuit. It is the essence of our very beings. Science may answer the 'hows' of life, but it leaves us empty because it cannot answer the 'whys'.
People look for meaning in their four stages of life, regardless towards their faith in any religion, god or science. They search in childhood, adolescence, young adulthood and maturity alike.
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