Truth and Desire

I recently watched the panel discussion that took place in Mexico debating the topic "Does the Universe have a Purpose?" It was three atheists against three theists. The most well known of the panelists were biologist Richard Dawkins and philosopher William Lane Craig. Hopefully someday those two will do a full-fledged one-on-one debate. This isn't the topic of my post though. One of the things that Dawkins said kinda struck me (actually a ton of things struck me, but I'll talk about this one thing in this post). I'm not going to be quoting the panelists word-for-word so please bear with me. Rabbi Wolpe had ended his segment saying that believing in meaning, purpose, the afterlife, etc., aren't irrational. When it was Dawkins turn again he said it is, of course, nice to believe that you're going to a better place when you die; of course it's nice to believe there's some purpose for you; but that doesn't make it true.

Dawkins makes a good point. The very act of believing something doesn't make that something true. However, I don't think this was Wolpe's point. He wasn't saying it must be true because he and so many people believe it, he was just saying it isn't irrational. Second, the argument is a double-edged sword that works just as much against atheism as it does towards theism. Some people want atheism to be true. They believe there isn't a God, but the fact that they believe it doesn't make it true.

Let's look at this a different way though. Why is it that so many people believe there's purpose and meaning and desire to have it? Why is it that so many people desire God in some way or in life after death? When I say this I don't mean that people just desire to make up their own subjective purpose, but that's part of it. However, many people also ask why they're here and what the meaning in life is. They're asking if there is an objective purpose to their existence; one that they wish to find. Could it possibly be because these things are true? Humans typically have desires that can be fulfilled in some way. We desire sustenance, so there's such a thing as food to fill that need. We desire love, so there's friends and family to fill that need. The fact that we desire these things doesn't guarantee we'll get them, but it points to the reality that there are such things that can satisfy us; otherwise why would we have those desires? Maybe the reason we desire purpose, life after death, and God is because there's a satisfaction for those desires; they're real.

C.S. Lewis put it well in his book Mere Christianity:

"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (1)

(1)Lewis, Clive S. Mere Christianity. New York: Harper One, 1952. 136-37. Print.