Subject: Jesus Christ = God’s Answer to Abundant Meaning in Life

John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”

So much for my $1Billion Dollar NCAA Bracket! Harvard University beat Cincinnati, and my dreams for early retirement were over. I thought Harvard was limited to intellectual excellence, not basketball. After watching them play, I see now how much my image of Harvard has changed. But sports aren’t the only area where Harvard, and most other Ivy League universities, have themselves changed.

This April, Harvard University will celebrate its 37th year since replacing Christianity with secular humanism it’s official religion, going so far as to establish secular humanist chaplains on campus. Interesting thing though, its shield, the original school motto of 1692, still hangs over many campus buildings, and it says was “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae” which translated from Latin means “Truth for Christ and the Church.”

What happened to cause so radical a change? In two words, methodological naturalism happened. In the study of science, methodological naturalism dictates that scientists must explain all natural phenomenon through empirical observation based on the laws of nature. Students in the science and humanities classrooms are taught either there is no supernatural explanation behind the functioning of the universe or, if there is a God, trying to explain natural phenomenon as originating from a supernatural cause is impossible to study systematically and therefore a waste of time.

In their book ‘The Sacred and the Secular University’, authors Jon Roberts and James Turner explain how, between the period of the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War I, America’s Christian-based universities were transformed into a secular humanistic worldview. They contend that this transformation was solidified as Darwinian Evolution became the foundation for the scientific explanation behind life.

This elimination of God in our universities as a possible explanation for the origin and functioning of the universe has devastating consequences on our children. Consider Cornell Professor William Provine’s proclamation to students who have sat in his classroom: “If Darwinism is true, then there are five inescapable conclusions: 1) there’s no evidence for God, 2) there’s no life after death, 3) there’s no absolute foundation for right and wrong, 4) there’s no ultimate meaning for life, 5) people don’t really have free will.” This is the essence of Harvard’s chaplaincy as they minister to their students today.

Cambridge Biology professor Richard Dawkins goes so far as to teach us that evil itself is not a moral concept but merely an outcome in this naturalistic world. In his book “Out of Eden”, Dawkins writes: “In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky; and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.”

But there is hope for a ‘revival’ in our universities. Kelly Monroe Kullberg, author of ‘Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians’, is the founder and director of The Veritas Forum, which she launched in 1992 at Harvard and has been sweeping college campuses across America. Its focus is student-lead events on the relevance of Jesus Christ in all areas of life, often showcasing debates between world-renown scholars in the sciences and humanities who present their case to university students from both Christian and secular worldviews, allowing students to think for themselves.

The Christian worldview stands in stark contrast to philosophical naturalism. In the words of Jesus Christ Himself, taken from the Gospel of John (chapter 10, verse 10): “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”. As each of us thinks through life’s questions and how we have shaped our worldviews to answer these questions of meaning (“who am I?”), origins (“where did I come from?”) and morality (“why am I here?”), weigh the opposing worldviews of Jesus Christ and naturalism. Where do have you decided to make your allegiance? Your choice has eternal consequences.