Article September 12, 1983 Issue

Being and purpose

ROWLAND D. GEORGE

The awe occasioned by the sudden contemplation of the vastness of star-strewn skies or the seemingly boundless vista from a mountaintop has made people echo the Psalmist's words "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"^{Ps. 8:4.} Is man only a speck in this immensity?

When uninstructed by the truth the Bible teaches, the human mind belittles the abilities of man. It sees his life as corporeal—beginning in helpless infancy, then buffeted by the vagaries of materiality until it succumbs to deterioration and death. What distress such ignorance engenders! No wonder the question "What is man?" bursts out.

May it not be that the question is prompted also by an inner feeling that the beauty and order of nature must point toward some supreme intelligence, the understanding of which would solve the mystery of man's being? At any rate, when the answer to the question is longed for and prayerfully sought, God leads the seeker to His truth, revealed in the Bible.

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