Actually JonJ

Design has given us :Planes, cars, trains, computers, the Internet, printing, hospitals oh or was it the big bang?

Pseudo science has given us man/ape, abortion, racism, man made climate change and Richard Dawkins.

We must be careful not to misinterpret the author here, when he says "reason is ultimately useless".

The entire article is about the meaning of life, and the scientism of the New Atheists vs other ways of understanding the big questions. So he's saying that reason will leave us agnostic about the questions that children repetitively ask: Why am I here? Why is there something rather than nothing? and the like. Dawkins is on record as saying that questions of purpose are meaningless questions. Christensen is saying that they aren't meaningless, it's just that reason won't help us answer them.

There's no need to engage in strawmen and talk about technological advances, planes, cars and the like. That's clearly not what the author was referring to.

"The entire article is about the meaning of life…" No.

The entire article is about making these two claims:

"…the best secular answer on offer, is a rather lame alternative to the hope and glory of Jesus Christ." And
"Then admit reason is at its best when we acknowledge it's ultimately useless."

Not that I'm complaining on that score – the hint was in the title, after all.

But for those who think an argument was built here, simply substitute the helpfully supplied Xenu reference into the article instead of Jesus and see how much you still agree.

WM Trevor, yes of course Christensen believes Jesus is the answer to those pesky questions of purpose- you're right if you're saying he makes that much clear. But articulating that view is by no means the main point of the article. The main point is about how we get there! ie: The epistemology of the questions of meaning.

To simplify the issue: Do we rely on allegedly dispassionate reason, or do we listen to our hearts and/or rely on personal experiences? I would say a combination of both, whereas Christensen would say purely the latter. That's what the article's about.

>>while arguments regarding the non-existence of God are straw men designed to distract from the unsettling realization that 42, the best secular answer on offer, is a rather lame alternative to the hope and glory of Jesus Christ.<<

How can you justify that conclusion? 42 might be a lame answer: so might Jesus Christ. There is no way of knowing how lame or not lame any answer might be when you don't know the question. We don't: the Vogons destroyed the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass before it could complete its program.

It seems the point has eluded Mark. The problem is not with the answer: it is with the question. When Deep Thought gives 42 as the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything it seems nonsensical and meaningless to the mice - but it is only nonsensical because the mice didn't know what they were asking. It is asking for the Ultimate Answer that is meaningless rather than the answer: and until you actually figure out what the Ultimate Question is Jesus is just as meaningless an answer.

If you've read Life, the Universe and Everything you'll know that Prak's testimony includes the revelation that it is impossible to know both the Question and the Answer:

>>``I'm afraid,'' he said at last, ``that the Question and the Answer are mutually exclusive. Knowledge of one logically precludes knowledge of the other. It is impossible that both can ever be known about the same universe.''

He paused again. Disappointment crept into Arthur's face and snuggled down into its accustomed place.

``Except,'' said Prak, struggling to sort a thought out, ``if it happened, it seems that the Question and the Answer would just cancel each other out and take the Universe with them, which would then be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable. It is possible that this has already happened<<

Cheers,

Tony

Whatever the question, the answer is not Jesus.
Oh, hang on, unless the question is...
I'll take Mythical Figures for $1000 Alex
"Came 2000 years ago pretending to be God, promising so much and yet, to this day, delivering nothing"
Bzzzt, Who is Jesus?