Life was created and meaning comes from knowing the Creator

Celebrity physicist Professor Brian Cox has this week admitted that humans might be the only intelligent beings in our galaxy.

At the launch of his new BBC Two series he said, “humans and sentient life on Earth might be a remarkable, naturally-occurring phenomenon… our planet’s location in relation to the Sun and the unique events over billions of years that created Earth made it ‘just right’ for meaningful life to bloom and evolve… The more I learn about biology… the more astonished I am we exist at all.”

Cox went on to say that should a natural or man-made disaster destroy human life completely it could wipe out meaning because “meaning exists in our minds”:

“If you accept that meaning is something that emerges from sufficiently complex biological machines, then the only place those machines might exist is here; then it’s correct to say that if this planet weren’t here, we’d live in a meaningless galaxy.”

As Christians, we agree how absurdly unlikely it is for human life – in fact any life at all – to exist, in the Milky Way or indeed in the whole universe. All the evidence points to a purposeful God who designed this planet for life and placed men and women at the centre of his plans.

Cox’s comments about meaning are intriguing but logically and spiritual bankrupt. What does give meaning to life? Is it just the fact that we can think? Surely it must require more than just us being thinking machines?

Meaning comes from the Creator who placed us in this unique, unlikely habitat and gave us our ultimate purpose – to know God and enjoy him forever.

We find significance from becoming part of something bigger than the universe, from being in a meaningful relationship with God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, giving us purpose significance and great joy.

Tell your friends.

And pray that someone would launch a new BBC series to explain, with the enthusiasm and wit of Brian Cox, the mind-blowing concept of God’s love that takes us far beyond the wonder of the stars and planets.

Graham Nicholls is Director of Affinity