Today’s reading starts off by talking about the meaning of life...and this is really one of those readings that can make your head hurt if you really think about it hard enough!  Then Brooks turns to evolution, which is where I am going to start, and then I will spend the majority of the time commenting on the meaning of life stuff...Brooks comes back there in his writing as well.

Here is the bottom line on the evolution thing - there are a lot of similarities between various species of animals, including man and ape, but there are still some very different elements and, from what Brooks is saying, and credible scientists will admit that there is a genetic leap to get from one species to the other. It LOOKS like evolution might explain the difference, but there are a few pieces of the puzzle that just haven’t been found and can’t be explained.  He explores several of them, and this is one of those chapters that I would categorize as GREAT to read and to have ready - you won’t remember everything, but you will remember that you were thoroughly convinced that evolutionary science is a long way from being explanatory about human life.  And I have to say, sometimes that is the key with this apologetics stuff...finding a place where you can find truth, and being able to simply return to it later when you have questions.  It is like building a library for your faith.  Great stuff.

Now, turning to the topic of “meaning”...he makes a good point, is there any coincidence that the great selling book of all time, apart from the Bible itself, is Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life”.  Just think about this for a second...why is that?  There is a cynical answer - that there are enough Christians in the world who have, as a population, purchased the book in large enough numbers to make that happen, and that is surely part of the explanation.  But I know several people who are not practicing Christians, even atheists, who have read the book...it is an easily-approachable book, and it has a lot of great principles that are fairly easy to take and run with in life, and it makes for a great surface level exploration of the Christian faith.  I am positive this book has impacted the world as a first step for people to test the waters on the Christian faith.  But again, the question, “Why?”.  It is clear, people live life in a quest for meaning.  And, there is no way around the fact that my two COVID-kittens aren’t doing the same thing, neither are yours, and neither are any other animals.  Love, beauty, emotion, religion, meaning, purpose - these are either all human fabrications or we have had these placed into us by a creator.