Why Are You Here?

All who think seriously about life’s meaning must face up to the question posed by this book’s title. The author covers a lot of ground along the way, dealing with topics such as, Darwin’s theory of evolution, the origin of life, human evolution and people’s restless quest for life’s meaning without God. What of the evidences for design, in living things, the human body, our self-consciousness, human dignity and our ability to think rationally? What of our moral dimension? Why do bad things happen, what of the existence of evil, and what about ethics generally? Atheism and humanism don’t provide satisfying answers for they fail to explain man’s spiritual dimension.

A fast-paced, engaging read, aimed primarily at non-Christians. However, there is much here for Christians to enjoy too and to use in conversations with friends. We agree with Prof Sinclair Ferguson’s estimate of this book:

“You can trust John Blanchard. In addition to the sheer clarity of what he writes, he is honest and he is gracious. … Nothing here is dull, merely ordinary or interesting. He has that special gift if being insatiably curious about things, and—this is his genius—he always seems to be asking if and how and why things happen. Why are you here? will help you to connect the dots so that the big picture, although composed of seemingly endless millions of facts, really does begin to make sense.”