Is the universe random or purposeful?

This hugely important question begs several other vital questions that boggle our finite brains. These are questions that consume many people’s lives, questions that many philosophers and theologians ask but do not believe will ever be answered. Often we slap an unexamined answer up on the blackboard without thorough examination. Here are a few of those questions for you to carefully examine….

1. Is there a higher power/Creator/First Cause/God who guides the forces that affect our lives?
2. If so, is that power greater than ourselves, knowable?
3. And if knowable, does this power reveal itself to it’s creations?
4. Then finally, if it reveals itself is it kind, disinterested, or malevolent?

It is my personal belief that 1) there is a Higher Power and that it, He, or She is knowable. When I say this, I think we absolutely must express this belief with incredibly humble hearts. I have met believers who speak of the Infinite as if he fits in a neat little box that it is carried around in. That it exists to service their self interest – a God made in our own image instead of the other way around. We must, I believe “bend the knee” and acknowledge that we the finite can not comprehend the Infinite in total. The best that we can hope for is understanding aspects of him, while humbly seeking more understanding as it is granted us.

I also believe that this higher power does choose to reveal itself to us; to us creatures living in the gloriously human condition. It ALWAYS initiates this process of revelation. We do not set out on a quest to find it, because IT has been seeking us since the beginning of time. And, I also believe that this higher power is good, tender, and even vulnerable to us potentially dangerous creations (hence the life of sacrifice and love that Christ lived and the cross his ultimate fate and precious gift to His children.)

And now this leads me back to the very first question I asked. Is the universe (perhaps just one of billions of universes created by this great Infinite heart)… is it random or purposeful? I believe that it – perhaps they, are purposeful. This fragmented life that we live often seems random and purposeless – filled with school shootings that seem to come out of nowhere, totally unexpected terminal cancer diagnosis’s, or thousands of life altering events that derail OUR plan for US leaving us feeling powerless over our lives themselves.

Purposeful….implying some form of order in a disordered world. An order flowing from the Infinite to finite children living the gloriously human condition. I’d like to leave it there and ask you to give some thought to where are you come down on all of this. The answers to these questions have huge implications on how we live this life and how we interpret it for those around us. I’d love to hear your thoughts!!