200308 Sermon on Romans 5:1-5 (Lent 2) March 8, 2020 Whenever you start discussing what life is all about you run the risk of immediately turning off a large segment of the population. Discussing what life is all about is what Philosophy majors do. “Normal” people don’t. Then, instead of discussing what life is all about, you end up talking about whether we should all be like the philosophy majors. Understandably, most people do not want to be one of those. They tend to get wrapped up in all kinds of silly questions and mental gymnastics. If that’s how they like to spend their time, then fine, but other people would rather spend their time watching football or NASCAR.I don’t want you all to be philosophy majors. I don’t care what you enjoy spending your time doing. But I am going to press you on this question of what life is all about. Where did you come from? Why do you exist? What is going to happen to you when you die?Before we get into your own answers, let’s talk about those around us. There is a very powerful force in our society that says these questions have already been answered for you. Over the course of time some very smart people have sorted this all out. For the question of where you’ve come from, they’ve discovered that you are the product of random chance. The universe has existed for billions of years.  This immense amount of time, that is impossible to understand, has allowed enough time for you and all other things to randomly develop. This creation story is extremely powerful. It is powerful enough to satisfy people’s religious urgings.As far as what will happen to you when you die, this is something that doesn’t really get talked about much by our society’s teachers. Some say that you simply cease to exist. Your body breaks down to feed the circle of life. This is not popular with the common folk, though. The common folk like to believe that the deceased live on in those who remember them. Sometimes they look down from heaven. Sometimes they are busy in heaven doing their favorite hobbies.As for why you exist now? The common response is that you exist to make the world a better place. By our advancements in all areas we now seem to have the power to fix whatever problem might come our way. This is linked up with that creation story I’ve already spoken about. Some really smart people have figured out that we do not need to think about any questions other than how we can make more and more progress. We should only think about how we can make more food, have more entertainment, have more money, and then we will all be blessed, that is to say, happy. In the meantime, don’t ask any big questions—that’s for philosophy majors to waste their time on. Instead, figure out a way to make lots and lots of money. Then you’ll have a good life. Otherwise, you will most certainly have a terrible life, because you won’t be able to buy all the entertainments you want to fill your time until you die.In answer to this, I’d like you to notice how the keystone to this whole structure is faith. Our society would have you believe that some really smart people have somehow discovered that God does not exist, that we had to have been created by chance, that there is no sense in asking big questions about life, and that we should all just continue on making as much money as we possibly can. Our teachers would have you believe that smart people have discovered this and that there can be no doubt about it. This is the message that goes all the way up into the most prestigious universities and graduate schools in the world. However, this is a lie. No such things have ever been discovered. There is no conclusive proof for our society’s creation story. But the only way that you can know that it is a lie is by studying the history of these things for yourself. The history of science shows that the way we think things are is by no means proven and certain. These so-called smart people of the past are not worthy of blind, unquestioning