Luke 2:15

Say you were going for a walk, and someone ran up to you and said, “Your house is on fire!” How would you react? The rational thing to do would be to treat this as a real emergency, right? You would call 911, run back to see, and so on.

Of course, it always possible that the person could be lying. Maybe it is a practical joke, or maybe the person is mistaken, or maybe they are really malicious and are trying to distract you so they can pick your wallet. Nevertheless, taking reasonable precautions to protect yourself, you would still do best to treat this as an emergency, running to prove to yourself that there really is a fire and taking all possible precautions.

But what if the scene happened something like this:

NEIGHBOR: Your house is on fire!

YOU: I choose not to believe it. I still have an hour of my break left and I’m going to use it to finish my walk. Have a good day!

Clearly, in this case you are being irrational. A good neighbor would keep pressing, I think:

NEIGHBOR: I’m not kidding! The fire department is on its way but in the meantime come help me with this hose!

YOU: That’s your truth, not mine. I don’t appreciate you trying to force your beliefs on me.

NEIGHBOR: Are you okay? Maybe you’re in shock … Here, why don’t you sit down and put your head between your legs.

YOU: Don’t tell me what to do! It’s my free choice if I want to continue my walk!

I suppose by now the neighbor would do best to assume you’ve temporarily lost your mind and get more help. Someone to help with the fire and someone to help with the homeowner who appears to be losing it.

The point of these examples are not to show how people behave when in shock. On the contrary, they are meant to show how Relativists behave about certain kinds of news. Anyone who says, “This is my truth, and that is your truth,” or “We all have the freedom of conscience to choose our own religion,” or “You shouldn’t force your beliefs on others” is expressing forms of Relativism. The doctrine of Relativism is a modern belief which holds that no beliefs are absolutely true, but that we all have the right or privilege to choose what is true to us.

But the correct attitude about the question of whether your house is burning down is to treat it as a matter fact that is independent of your perspective. You can doubt if a person is lying or not, but you should look at the evidence before deciding for yourself.

The same goes about this question:

What is the meaning of life?

It is wrong to say, “Well, you choose your own meaning.” That is relativistic. It’s an insane answer, just the like the homeowner who “chooses” not to believe in the fire. Life does, in fact, have a meaning independent of what you want to believe.

To make this clear, let’s look at some more examples.

Say you get hired on as a junior software developer at some large corporation. There was an agent who helped you put together a stellar resume, and it all went so fast that you’re hired on the next day with only a minimal interview. You sit down at your desk, log on to your computer, and stare at your screen for a minute before realizing that you had applied to a job whose title you didn’t understand. “What is a junior software developer?” you ask yourself.

Now, there is a rational and an irrational approach to this sort of question. The irrational approach would be to tell yourself, “Since meaning is a subjective notion, ‘software developer’ means whatever I want it to mean. Great! I get to choose my own job duties!” and proceed to surf the web and play computer games all day. This sort of behavior will get you quickly fired.

The more rational approach would be to use a dictionary. Look at the job posting again and read all the fine print. Go and talk to your new boss and ask him what his expectations are.

The same thing goes for whatever situation you are placed in. Many kindergartners have no idea why they are sitting in a classroom on the first day, and I’m sure many never really figure it out. And that’s to be expected. Kindergarten is about learning what it means to be a student. A good kindergartner quickly realizes that his teacher is the authority and needs to be listened to. He realizes that he himself doesn’t get to decide what to do with his time, nor does he get to invent his own way of doing math problems. He must rely on his teacher for all of this. He must rely on his teacher to teach him what is means to be a student.

So what does it mean to have a life? Why are we here in this world, and what are we supposed to do? Aren’t these questions still more important than the question of what a student is or an employee? Doesn’t the question of the meaning of life encompass these and everything else: being a husband, being a wife, being a son or daughter, being a leader, being a follower, being successful and happy, and so on?

If you were to be hired on as a software developer and your boss did absolutely nothing to tell you your duties, and simply left you at your desk with a computer, without any manuals or instructions or these least idea what to do with your time, would he be a good boss?

So where is the instruction manual for life! How much more do we need one, than for anything else!

And if your boss came over to your desk and said, “Hey there Jim, welcome to the company! I know if you’ve been wondering what exactly you’re supposed to be doing here. Sorry I’ve been stuck in meetings so long. Well, here’s the employee handbook. Read it. And every day at 9 am there will be a training session for new hires. Be there. There will be donuts.”

What should you say? “Nah! That’s a bunch of superstition. I don’t think this company was created by some magical ‘CEO’ who has appointed ‘bosses’ over us to tell us what to do all day. That sounds too hard to me. I’ve heard it’s possible to be fired, but how do I know that’s real? Would a merciful boss really fire people? Anyway, donuts are the opiate of the masses. I think I’ll just stay here and play computer games all day. That’s worked out for me so far.”

* * *

One day angels came and told some shepherds, “For, this day, is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.” And how did they respond?

“Let us go over to Bethlehem, and let us see this word that is come to pass, which the Lord hast shewed to us.”