The two core elements in human existence are mysteries to the rational world, not open to scientific examination. Those elements are, and always will be, mysteries. Those elements are LIFE and DEATH.
Questions about the meaning of human existence, the origins and the purpose and the guidelines and the value and the responsibilities of human existence are beyond the reach of our rational inquiry. We can examine life and death endlessly, but our reasoning does not lead us to facts.
Our effort to understand the human condition has led us to explore our being. We call this effort RELIGION. And the cornerstones of every religion are the issues of LIFE and DEATH.
The Judeo-Christian tradition has neatly divided the inquiry into two searches. The Old Testament deals with the issues of LIFE. The New Testament focuses on issues of DEATH. The writers bravely dealt with these issues, wresting meaning out of their perceptions of reality.
Old Testament writers, asking how it all began, fashioned stories about the original human beings and their successors. That led to stories about discovering the values of life, its directives and its limits. The steps in this odyssey all originate in God, the ultimate mystery. God can be imagined and His actions described, but there is notational proof of His existence.
New Testament writers were Jews who felt that the end of life had not been adequately considered in the 39 scrolls of the Old Testament. They found in the life and death of Jesus a message about death that completed the human story. The New Testament is preoccupied with death. Death is depicted as a new beginning of life, a graduation into union with God, the Creator of life.
What began in the human consciousness as a search for purpose, meaning and value in our being is sophisticated into religion. It is on one hand an escape from futility; on the other hand a shaping of our humanity into a satisfying mold. We adopt that mold by making a commitment to it.
Every human being craves some pattern of life that gives meaning to his existence. Christians are people who commit themselves openly to their understanding of the Judeo-Christian story.
This is an interesting and thoughtful explanation of one of religion's underlying goals. Today as I was sitting down with my family for Christmas dinner my grandfather told a similar story about life and death in order to remind us of how lucky we all were to be gathered together. He referred to the dates on a gravestone, their is always clearly marked a start date and an end date separated by a dash. However, it is the dash that stands in place for our time here on earth. A blank space that is meant to be filled in by those who will remember us. The memories that we create with our family and friends will live far past those dates engraved on the stone. It is our soul that is eternal not our physical presence on earth. So while at times we are all in a mad dash to the finish line we need to cherish those who we are with for they are the ones who will truly makes us live on forever. Merry Christmas to you and your family!
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