As a Man Thinketh

As a man thinketh, so is he.

I think, therefore I am.

Two very identical thoughts; they're both self-centred. The first is saying, if I think I'm an animal, then I will act as one. This suggests that man has no certainty of what reality is and man is just an accident because this whole universe works by mere chance. Therefore, giving man no certainties nor purpose nor meaning, and the choice to make up in his mind what reality really is. The second says, I am, so the universe revolves around me. That then places man as autonomous with no absolutes since man is king of his domain and makes up his own rules.

On the Christian base man is made in the image of God, and on this basis, there are certainties of human values and moral values and categories to distinguish between illusion and fantasy. And there is a reason why man is man. Because the world was created by a reasonable God, man can find out about the universe by reason.

Ecclesiastes 1:2
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

Ecclesiastes contains reflections of King Solomon, the "Preacher," as he considered the question of meaning in life. He looked back and saw the futility (vanity) of chasing after even the good things this life can offer, including wisdom, work, pleasure, and wealth.

Ecclesiastes 2:17
So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after the wind.

He saw that even as he toiled away for all his wealth, it was all meaningless. As he was self-indulged with his work and pleasing himself, replacing eternity with a limited frame of systems, he was left in despair.

Ecclesiastes 3:20-22
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of a man hoes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after?

He was explaining that all is lost and meaningless without the fear of God. Solomon seems to express that men might perceive that by choosing this world as their portion, they brought themselves to a level with the beasts, without being free, as beasts are. Man then questions eternity.

Without the Christian base, neither artists nor philosophers nor scientists had a base which would bear the needed weight in the area of how we can be sure we can know. The whole matter of God's foreknowledge is one of the ultimate questions. We must heed the warning of Solomon; there really is nothing new under the sun.

In both science and day-by-day knowing, there is a correspondence between the external world and ourselves, for God indeed made the subject and object to be in a proper relationship, just as our lungs fit this atmosphere on the earth. Thus, men can go on learning about the universe.

Ecclesiastes 7:15
In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.

With a weakened certainty about objectivity, people find it easier to come to whatever conclusions they desire for the sociological ends they with to see attained. In the area of non-reason man is left without categories. He has no way to distinguish between right and wrong, or even between what is objectively true as opposed to illusion or fantasy.

Ecclesiastes 7:25
I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.

He sought after God's wisdom to direct his heart to the truth. With God there is meaning and purpose in life.

If people begin only from themselves and really live in a universe in which there is no personal God to speak, they have no way to be sure of the difference between reality and fantasy or illusion. And not only are there no categories upon which to distinguish between reality and illusion, but there are no certainties concerning moral values, and no human categories either.

This Humanism influenced pop-culture; in the music, art and films, and over time this way of thinking has shifted its way into the churches. People today function on the basis of their world view. Therefore, society has changed radically. This is the reason that it is unsafe to walk at night through the streets of many of today's cities. As a man thinketh, so is he.


Resources: How Should We Then Live by Francis A. Schaeffer, The English Standard Version of the Holy Bible.