Saturday, March 11, 2006

Finished a Book!

For the first time in a very long while, I finished a single book without being distracted by a litany of others. I'm much better at starting than finishing. Prompted by Paule over at Sophia, I'm examining the Moral Argument for the Existence of God. My first step was to read a few of his articles, which prompted me to read a few other authors prior to posting a response. The first author I read was Ravi Zacharias, whose Can Man Live Without God? I have outlined it here:

Can Man Live without God?

By Ravi Zacharias

Outline/Summary by Zeteo Eurisko

Outline Written March 11, 2006


This is a tossed together page of notes. Most of this is a summary of RZ's thoughts, not my own. I wrote this only for a short record of what I have read. I do have a few personal interjections throughout. Also, this is meant to be an outline of the book, not an exposition of RZ's argument – read the book to clarify any points.


My original intent of reading Can Man Live Without God? was to find a coherent, modern rendering of the moral argument for the existence of God. While this book provides this, it reaches beyond the simple postulates of argumentation. It begins by describing the principles of atheistic, postmodern thinking and empirically testing them through the experience of history. The major thesis of the book is that atheistic philosophy has proved completely unworkable when tested historically in its purest forms, while theism provides both rationally and empirically fulfilling precepts. It is only through theism that an intellectually satisfying, non-self-stultifying philosophical framework can be made for morality, and, thus, society and law. Similarly, meaning and hope can only be defined rationally with God as their basis.


The book is fascinating in its breadth while being comprehensible in its focus – a difficult task for any author to accomplish. I readily admit that Zacharias' intellectual faculties and familiarity with philosophy dwarf my own capabilities. In his prose, he can, seemingly on a whim, bring forth a pertinent example or quote from any of an army of philosophers to illustrate his points. While each chapter is tightly argued around a sub-thesis in support of his major hypothesis, the content is engaging enough to transfer the reader through each argument without giving the impression of suffering through an outline of postulates.


It must be noted that morality in the Christian world view is a central principle of how man relates to God. It is an imperative Christian belief that men are born innately evil and require Christ's sacrifice to bridge the gap between God's perfection and man's sin. This being the case, the argument from morality can be considered a necessary (though not sufficient) postulate that must be thoroughly proven prior to one's acceptance of Christianity as a world view. Zacharias makes the case from history that any godless philosophy that does not include this belief is fatally flawed. He then proceeds to build a defense of Christianity from this perspective.


An outline of the book follows. The bold text are chapter and section headings. Quotes are from the text. All other text comprises my notes.


Part 1: Antitheism is Alive – and Deadly

This section “analyzes the antitheistic world-view, demonstrating both its built-in logical contradictions and its existential inadequacies that ultimately make it philosophically unlivable.... A philosophy of meaninglessness is an unavoidable consequence of the antitheistic starting point.”

  1. Anguish in Affluence

      In the midst of our developed world, we still struggle with the despair of meaninglessness in our daily living. There are three levels at which we approach philosophical topics: logic, the level of philosophers; the arts, the level at which most people deal with higher concepts; and the kitchen table, where most of us deal with morality through casual conversation.

  2. Straying through an Infinite Nothing

      Through an examination of Nietzsche's The Madman, Zacharias makes the case that modern philosophy has left societies and governments without a moral foundation.

  3. The Madman Arrives

      A discussion of Nietzsche's character Zarathustra, and a comparison of how the offspring of these philosophies include both Nazism and Stalinist communism. Also includes quotes from Aldus Huxley and Stephen Jay Gould. “One may angrily argue that I am misrepresenting antithesim and that not all antitheists are immoral or despondent. The anger I can understand, but the argument is illogical. It is true that not all antitheists are immoral, but the larger point has been completely missed. Antitheism provides every reason to be immoral and is bereft of any objective point of reference with which to condemn any choice.”

  4. The Homeless Mind

      The “first point of breakdown when attempting to live without God” is that “there remains no moral point of reference that is both coherent and logically prescriptive.” There is no law outside of God. A look at Kantian ethics and several philosophers that built on Kant's system.

  5. Where Is Antitheism When It Hurts?

      “By raising the question of pain and death in a moral context, an antitheist betrays a glaring contradiction in his understanding of reality if at the same time he denies God's existence. If this is not a moral universe, why position the question morally?” Given the pain and death that surrounds us, the second consequence of living without God is a lack of “future hope, either personal or cosmic.” A multitude of philosophers and religions are referenced.

  6. In Search of Lower Meaning

      The third consequence is that we can have no higher meaning outside ourselves if there is no God to provide it. “When one attempts to live without God, the answers to morality and meaning send one back into his or her own world to fashion an individualized answer.”


My question from this section, however, is this: Who says we are even to be looking for law, hope, and meaning? Why do we even think we are owed these things? Is the answer simply that not looking for these things makes life unlivable?


Part 2: What Gives Life Meaning?

Is meaninglessness really liberating, as philosophers espouse? Why do we continue, generation after generation, to search for meaning, and what best explains that search? It is an error to assume “this hunger to be merely a belief and not a certainty.” This section “defends the certainty of the longing for meaning and provides some cogent answers in that search.”

  1. The Science of Knowing and the Art of Living

      RZ draws from Shakespeare and other authors to divide life into four stages: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and maturity. This is the framework through which he will, in the following chapters, “demonstrate and explore how, at each stage, meaning is pursued, attained, and sometimes lost.”

  2. The Romance of Enchantment

      Childhood. “For a child meaning is procured by his recognition of the awe-inspiring reality that surrounds his life. That reality is fused with wonder and design, engendering purpose. The world is not seen as mindless or capricious.” When this wonder is lost, there are three consequences: (1) all life is reduced to becoming chemical or molecular, (2) there is a loss of gratitude, since we are “just here”, and (3) there is a slide into emptiness. He argues that Christ can be a sustainer of wonder, since his claims of providing purpose are rooted in historical truth.

  3. Truth – an Endangered Species

      Adolescence. “Aristotle was right when he opined that all philosophy begins with wonder; but the journey, I suggest, can only progress through truth.” Provides a multitude of examples of how the truth is no longer valued in many facets of societies throughout the world. “Truthfulness in the heart, said Jesus, precedes truth in the objective realm. Intent is prior to content.” He then argues that Jesus is the personality of truth, a personality we can know, because he claimed to be the Truth.

  4. Love's Labor Won

      Young adulthood. “The commitment of love is essential to meaning; the absence of love contributes to the absence of meaning.” In the “young adulthood” stage of one's life search for meaning, love must be accounted for. “The love of God is indispensable to meaning – that love is revealed in Christ and may be experienced personally.”

  5. Crossing the Bar

      Maturity. As mortality becomes evident, security is required to solidify meaning in life. Jesus provides this security by giving hope for a resurrection from the dead and eternal life. “Wonder, truth, love, and security. When one claims to have found meaning, that meaning must coalesce these four elements. And all four are found in the person of Jesus Christ, who alone brings life meaning by meeting the test at every age of life.... God alone is the perpetual novelty—providing wonder, truth, love and security.”


Part 3: Who Is Jesus (and Why Does it Matter?)

“It is to the gnawing question of the tenability of the Christian message that the third section of this book addresses itself.... [Jesus'] answers to life's deepest questions are presented, not only as relevant for our time, but as compellingly unique, both in detail and in extent.”

  1. Getting to the Truth

      “There are three tests to which any system or statement that makes a claim to truth must be subjected as a preliminary requirement if that statement is to be considered meaningful for debate... (1) logical consistency, (2) empirical adequacy, and (3) experiential relevance.” It must also pass the logical truth test of undeniability and the falsehood test of unaffirmability. He references Norman Geisler's work in this area, and claims that Christianity passes these tests. (I think he does this to stick closely to his argument based on morality so as not to lose the reader in philosophy.) He then makes the case that the prejudice against Christianity due to its exclusive truth claims are not a justification for claiming its falsehood.

  2. Humanity's Dilemma

      Where antitheistic philosophies have failed, Christianity correctly describes mankind's moral problem: separation from God as the result of our innately sinful nature. “Conviction of sin comes when we measure ourselves before God. A consciousness of one's own need is the beginning of purpose and the beginning of character. Jesus' description of our hearts [as sinful and in need of forgiveness from God] is in clear correspondence with our universal experience; a denial of this description flies in the face of reality and breeds contempt one for another.”

  3. The Philosopher's Quest

      Christianity correctly describes the solution to the historical philosophical dilemma of unifying the diverse experiences and realities of life into a cohesive whole. This unity is modeled by the Trinity: “a community of love and essential dignity without mitigating personality, individuality, and diversity.” He concludes the chapter by describing worship as the embodiment of the unity in diversity that philosophers seek; thus, again, theism generally and Christianity specifically can be the only fulfilling philosophy. (Read the chapter to really understand his argument).

  4. The Historian's Centerpiece

      This chapter contends not only that Christ is important due to his life that served as an historical turning point in the history of man but also that Christianity's claims to be historically accurate – a verifiable account of God intervening in the lives of men – makes it unique among religions.

  5. The Believer's Treasure

      This concluding chapter ties together the various arguments of the book, he makes the strong claim – once again quoting both philosophers and scripture – that Christianity is the only self-consistent system of dealing with the question of suffering and death. “When man lives apart from God, chaos is the norm. When man lives with God, as revealed in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the hungers of the mind and heart find their fulfillment. For in Christ we find coherence and consolation as He reveals to us, in the most verifiable terms of truth and experience, the nature of man, the nature of reality, the nature of history, the nature of our destiny, and the nature of suffering.”


Appendix A: Questions and Answers on Atheism and Theism

A compelling section of Q&A from the Veritas Lectures Zacharias gave at Harvard University.


Appendix B: Mentors to the Skeptic

Brief biographies of the philosophers most quoted in the text: Rene Descartes, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, and Jean-Paul Sartre.


From the Notes: Authors/Books Zeteo Wants to Read Further

Some of these I've read in their entirety, some in part, others I heard of for the first time by reading this book:

at 4:08 PM Labels: , ,

2 comments:

Nathan Zamprogno said...

If you're searching for your next book, I can't recommend Ken Miller's "Finding Darwin's God" highly enough. Have you read it?

6:07 PM
Zeteo Eurisko said...

Nathan - I have not read it, but I will put it on my list. I have listened to your "Evolution of Creationism" radio bit - brilliantly stated - and I will soon return to your site to read the rest of your commentary. I think I'll top-post it soon. For now, I'm looking again at the Moral Argument for the existence of God. I think I'll have to revisit teleology again soon.

8:55 PM

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