The Mystery of Life by Alice Enevoldson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 30, 1930

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 38.

The Mystery of Life

By Alice Enevoldson

Many have attempted to reach a solution by the evolution method, but the answer “just won’t come out right.”

ALICE ENEVOLDSON

With so many proofs to the contrary, on all sides, it seems extremely insensible to try to solve the “mystery of life” from an evolutionary standpoint.

A TOUSLED little head bends intently over a page of scrawly figures, mind and pencil busy. Finally the figuring is done, but soon the look of triumph is clouded with a puzzled expression, and tumbled curls shake slowly. “It doesn’t come out right.”

From these early efforts on through life we are all busy solving problems, many of them more important than those figured with pencil and paper. The big thing in all these problems is the result,—that it come out right. One of the problems that the human race has been trying to solve since time immemorial is the problem of life,—the mystery of its origin and the outcome of it all.

GOD HAS GIVEN SOLUTION

God has already solved the problem for humanity, and left each member of the race to accept or reject the result as his own solution of life. But there have always been those who have been anxious to figure out the problem for themselves. The schemes they have invented may have seemed very possible, the method of figuring may have looked logical to them; but, somehow, the results haven’t come out right.

Men to-day are still busy with the same age-old problem. They believe, however, that facilities for solving the problem are increasing. Thinking is becoming more scientific. There is a feeling that the human mind is expanding so that nothing need any longer remain a mystery. The parts of the Bible that can be understood only by faith are being discarded. In their place men are substituting theories of their own. The Bible tells us that God created man; these thinkers try to explain how he evolved.

THINKING HAS ADVANCED

From the materialistic viewpoint of the evolutionist, these methods mark an advanced step in the thinking of to-day. Man is no longer satisfied with blindly accepting religious dogma. He must seek out for himself a rational explanation of the world about him. Only with an unbiased mind is real progress made possible. Man must be unhampered by religious scruples, so these thinkers say, in order to find real freedom of thought and action. With no feeling of accountability to a personal God, man will need to depend more on his own resources, and thereby gain a larger conception of his own importance. Thus will he advance toward the superman.

The theory sounds good; the reasoning seems quite logical; but, after all,—and this is the really important question,—does this method of solving life come out right? Is the result satisfactory? I remember having a chemistry teacher who used to tell us, when we had difficulty with chemistry problems, to check our work by first noting whether the result was reasonable. Sometimes our answers might be obviously out of proportion, indicating a misplaced decimal point or something else wrong in the figuring somewhere,—wrong because the result was plainly wrong. Perhaps many have never stopped to think just how the evolutionary theory of life really works out. To these it may be merely a convenient hypothesis of the origin of life that has little bearing on the present. What difference does it make now what we believe about how man got here? But it does make a difference, a vital difference.

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE CHANGED

The theory of evolution changes the whole philosophy of life. Assuming that man has evolved from the lower forms of life, what is the explanation of this unsatisfactory condition in which we find our world,—full of suffering, sickness, and death? The Bible explains it as the result of man’s fall from his original perfect state; but in the evolutionary theory there is no place for a fall. All the disagreeable factors of our environment only constitute necessary elements of the whole scheme of things. Sin is not a phenomenon; it simply belongs to the natural order for which man can in no sense be held responsible. Man’s tendencies to evil are merely the left-overs of his crude animal origin, which he must live and struggle with the best way he can. What can be our conception of the author of such a state of affairs? Unless we conceive of a god that was hampered by the nature of the material with which he had to work, the evil in creation must be an expression of the character of the creator.

MORAL RESPONSIBILITY SHIFTED

Do we want a god like that,—one who will punish his creatures with even the laws of cause and effect for following a course that was deliberately a part of his plan when he started life evolving? Yet such a god is the conclusion to which the theory of evolution inevitably leads. What effect must it have on man’s efforts to overcome evil thus to shift the moral responsibility from man and put it back on god (whoever the god of the evolutionist may be)? Why should man strive to subdue wrong tendencies for which he is not responsible when the scheme of evolution will gradually and automatically eliminate them through the advancement of successive generations? What is there to look forward to?—the advancement of the race? Yes, but no hope is held out to the individual. There is nothing in the evolutionary theory that can help me with my individual life problem. The Bible presents a personal Saviour who will help me out of my difficulty though I can give no excuse for the wrong I have done. But, since there is no place in the theory of evolution for a fall, there can be no place for a Saviour. While men may feel quite elated over their success in solving the problem of life for themselves, when one stops to carry out the solution to its logical conclusions, it just won’t come out right. The answer is out of proportion. (Continued on page 15)

The Mystery of Life

(Continued from page 11)

What kind of exchange has man made in substituting his own solution for God’s solution of his life? Has he, after all, acquired more of the self-confidence and freedom necessary to real progress. He may have thrown off the unwelcome restraints of his former Christian faith, but, instead, he has tied himself with the cords of his inherited animal crudities for which he is not responsible, and with which he must struggle all alone in a hopelessly losing battle. He may have rid his mind of what he would term the bias of religious dogma, but, instead, he has circumscribed his thinking with theories that bar from all consideration anything outside of his own limited understanding. Instead of a personal God with a loving, restraining influence over His children, he has a vague, impersonal, and, to say the least, unsympathizing god of natural energy. Instead of the Christian hope of a perfect life beyond, he has a vague notion of the slow, painful, and uncertain advance of the race. Is this a wise exchange? Some one has observed in this connection that we are accustomed to calling people heathen who have a form of religion without the God of the Bible and a knowledge of the plan of salvation. Are not these modern theories a form of heathenism,—“Occidental heathenism”? Does not men’s solution of life appear quite unsatisfactory?

And since the problem does not come out right, where is the difficulty? Undoubtedly, there have been many mistakes and false assumptions in the figuring process all along the way. But is the method right in the first place? A child has just learned how to work problems in long division. He is quite conscious of his new ability. With every suggestion of figures that comes to his attention, he inquires in an understanding sort of way, “Wouldn’t you figure that out by long division?” But if he tries long division on problems of multiplication, he is sure to meet with the disappointing result, “It doesn’t come out right.”

Men to-day have made so many discoveries in studying the laws of nature, and have become so conscious of their ability in solving scientific and intellectual problems, that many have forgotten that all problems cannot be solved by the same method. The big problem of life—its whence? where? and whither?—belongs to a different field, and the chief difficulty in dealing with it has been the attempt to solve, by a long process of reasoning, a problem that can be understood only by a simple process of faith. Many have failed to appreciate the fact that discovering mysteries does not mean understanding them. When men have gone their limit in scientific investigations, there still remains the unsolved problem of origins, and that problem is not solved by pushing it back into the dim past and obscuring it with a multitude of details. It is by faith, not speculation, that we understand that “the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Hebrews 11:3. There are problems of life that are only “spiritually discerned,” and that reasoning cannot solve. If we try it, it is sure to come out wrong. In order fully to appreciate his possibilities man must realize his limitations.

GOD’S SOLUTION INFALLIBLE

Man’s attempts at solving life have failed; they do not come out right. Why not accept God’s solution of our lives when our own is unsatisfactory and His meets our need? Why not stop reasoning about that which reasoning cannot solve. Man needs God, and that need is the greatest evidence of His existence. Man needs a Saviour to help him out of the difficulty of sin. There is a void in every life that does not recognize Him. There is an “unknown” left unsolved in every great problem that does not take Him into account. There is a great gap in all human reasoning with God left out. Some try to span the gap with a bridge of words that, after all, does not explain anything. Why continue to grope in the dark when the God of the Bible, the Creator, meets the need, supplies the unknown, and solves all the great problems of life? Why not accept by faith what the Bible tells us of Him and His unlimited power? Reason can take us no further; and as we step out on faith, we are not treading on ground any less sure. Men would find all their needs supplied, all their life problems solved, “if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.” Acts 17:27.