The other day I came across two stories in the newspaper, one was about this mother who had to called the police because she couldn't get her son to stop playing video games. The police men came to the residence and persuaded the boy to stop playing and go to bed. The boy was playing Grand Theft Auto. So many things are amazing about this story, one, that the boy was addicted to this game, two, that the mother had no control over her child, and three, that the police men actually responded to the call.
The second story is about these paramedics who were sitting in a restaurant on break. While they were there, a pregnant woman collapsed on to the ground. When asked to help the paramedics said they were on break and that the people should call 911. They then left the restaurant without doing anything. I think it's obvious what's incredible about this story, the complete lack of compassion on the paramedics part even to the point where they would not call 911. Oh and you should know that the women died later at the hospital.
I wish I had more details on these stories because that would be nice, one could easily say that police officers should respond to more calls like the one from the mother because we all know that they would just be sitting in their car otherwise. But that's not the point of this post. In addition, one could say that the pregnant women would have died anyways and that if the paramedics didn't take their break at that time then later in the day they wouldn't have been able to respond to another emergency. Yet again, that is not the point of this post. The point is that human being can have little to no dignity or purpose in life if we let ourselves fall to that level. Many of use are consumed by video games just like the boy in the first story, we gauge our happiness on what level our wizard is and whether or not he has the magic needed to defeat the undead legions attacking the city. I don't think much more has to be said to realize that that is a sad existence.
Now the paramedics show another characteristic that blankets all of mankind, that being selfishness. They decided that their coffee break was of more value than the woman's life. It's sickening to see how much we can only think of ourselves at the cost of others. Again I need not explain this more, but if you need more examples just go to your nearest coffee shop and act as you usually do and you will be your own example, whether it be by cutting someone off on your way there, or not holding the door open for the person with a coffee in each hand, or by sitting at a table meant for four people.
So somehow these two stories made me think of how in the great debate of whether God exists or not we really need Him to exist. Why? Because if God exists as the Bible says He does than we all have purpose. We are called to be more than video game players and heartless paramedics. If we all knew without a doubt that we were created in the likeness of God wouldn't we live a life more exciting than the mundane routine we call life now?
Atheists and evolutionists sometimes argue that why can't the purpose of existence simply be to exist? Why does meaning and worth have to come into it? Well this seems to be a valid argument except for that they just made their own statement meaningless by saying their lives are meaningless and that if we lived solely to exist wouldn't human history be marked more by apathy than ambition? What I mean is if we are alive to simple live then why would people strive to be great? Why attempt great things? Why push the envelope? Why risk death? Why sacrifice for others? Instead of just doing everything in life so that you just get by. After all, being alive is easy, it is truly having life at is hard. The reason we see this drive to be great is because we all are hardwired to do this. Whether we believe in God or not we are still made to pursue greatness. Why would we have childhood dreams if we are not completely capable of pursuing them? I'm not saying you will be an astronaut if you dreamed of being one but you are fully capable of chasing after that dream and you have the determination to do it. If we simply existed for the sake of existence what would serve as the heart felt determination to chase your dreams? The answer is nothing, you can't live for nothing but want to be something. It is because we all know deep down inside that we are meant to do great things that we actually do great things. And that innate feeling is from God. Even the most extreme atheists live by this, their life long determination to disprove the existence of God is fueled by the heart God put in them. And why is this from God? How can I make that jump from determination to be something great to mean that God exists? This can be said because if we actually live for a purpose then something had to give us that purpose, even evolution cannot explain why we work in jobs that pay next to nothing yet we do them because we love them. Evolution cannot explain why people sacrifice themselves for others. So if survival of the fittest cannot give us this purpose then faith or religion does. And the God of the Bible calls us to pursue a life of purpose. We still have the ability to be aim low and be video game players and self centered paramedics but God has given us the ability to be even more, to follow our dreams, to live in joy instead of complacency.
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