Single: It's worth thinking through what life's all about
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Hey, John Dixon here. Many of you know that in June 2021, my best mate of 40 plus years, Ben Shaw, died in our home in Sydney, surrounded by his loved ones.

but not before he finished his wonderful book, Seven Reasons to Reconsider Christianity. It's a unique blend of humor and thoughtfulness designed to explain the heart of the Christian faith for those who aren't sure what to make of it. His publisher invited me to do the voice record for the audiobook, which was a lot of

And they've given us permission to offer Undeceptions listeners a taste of the book over the next few weeks in the lead up to season 10. So here's a bit of Ben Shaw's seven reasons to reconsider Christianity. Several years ago, Bolton Wanderers were playing Tottenham Hotspur in a Football Association Cup quarterfinal in London.

During the first half of the match, one of the Bolton players, Fabrice Muamba, suddenly collapsed in the middle of the pitch. At first, no one knew why the 23-year-old had suddenly crumpled to the ground. He was nowhere near the ball at the time, but pretty soon every player around him could see he was in deep trouble. The players motioned to the medics, who promptly ran onto the field.

It became apparent that Mwamba was having a heart attack. A deafening silence came over the whole stadium. Thankfully, one of the spectators in the crowd was Andrew Deener, a consultant cardiologist at the London Chest Hospital. He immediately sensed what was happening and instinctively ran onto the field to help. More than 30,000 spectators watched these dedicated doctors pump on this young man's heart as he lay in the middle of a stadium on the brink of death.

It was incredibly moving to hear two sets of fans within the stadium become one, going from long spells of silence to applauding together as they tried to encourage the medics and will Fabrice on. His heart was still being worked on as he was stretched from the ground into a waiting ambulance. Understandably, the game was immediately abandoned.

This, by the way, was all happening while his wife and three-year-old son were watching the game at home on TV. The story has a happy ending, though. Fabrice Mwamba survived and, after a suspenseful few days in hospital, made a full recovery, despite his heart stopping for an incredible 78 minutes. Yet everyone watching in that stadium and reading the headlines subsequently was left with a sobering reminder.

None of us are immune to death. It can strike any one of us at any time, even in the prime of our lives. It's often only when we're fully confronted by death that we really think about the meaning of life. Death or near-death experiences often lead us to ask ourselves big questions like, what if that was me? What happens when we die?

What's life really all about? Is there a God? I once came across a grave that had these words inscribed on the tombstone. Passerby, stop and think. I'm in eternity, you are on the brink. If we're all on the edge of eternity, in the words of that tombstone, we ought to stop and think. Don't you think? That is, we should all consider what life is all about, not just when we're confronted by death, but far more frequently.

However, it often seems that thinking about the meaning of life is a dying art these days. Those who stop to think about the meaning of life are an endangered species in our culture.

That is perhaps because we have so many different things crying out for our attention and consuming our valuable time, be it our phones, Netflix, emails, shopping, cooking, kids, music, social media, exercising, holidays, cleaning, renovations, finances, jobs, and so on. So pause here and ask yourself these questions. What do you think the meaning or purpose of life is?

Why are we all here? Are we all here by chance, the result of some freak cosmic accident that happened billions of years ago? Are we just a collection of random atoms that have simply evolved over time? Or is there a purpose behind it all, a grand plan to the universe? Is there a god or something like that which suggests there's more to life than meets the eye? And what happens when we die?

Are we just food for worms, or is there another dimension beyond the grave? Whatever your answers might be, these are questions that are at least worth thinking about. Humankind has always searched for meaning and purpose.

You see this in the writings of ancient Greek philosophers and in the sacred texts of all the major religions. You can detect it in the greatest novels and essays ever penned. Even many of our scientific endeavours, both ancient and modern, have their origins in trying to understand our significance in the universe or control our destiny in life. We're trying to find out what's over there, up there, under there, around there,

or just out there. I'm totally captivated by space exploration. My inner geek comes out whenever the next NASA or SpaceX rocket takes off. Space exploration is not just driven by the desire to boldly go where no one has gone before, but by the desire to find answers to our biggest and deepest questions.

Bruce Joukowsky is a planetary scientist and the director of a team within the NASA Astrobiology Institute. To date, he's been involved in every one of NASA's missions to Mars. When it comes to justifying NASA's motives for space exploration, he has said this.

We're interested in the search for extrasolar planets because it tells us is our solar system unique or common. We are interested in the possibility of life on Mars because it provides context for understanding the value of life on Earth. By learning about the worlds around us, we are learning about ourselves. I totally relate to that burning desire for answers.

Sometimes I wonder whether, for me, it stems from the death of my mother when I was seven years old. Or does it come from camping trips with my friends when we slept under the stars, stared into space and talked about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe? Maybe in part. But actually, I don't think the desire for answers is unique to me. It lies deep within every human heart.

Alongside the questions and ambitions of our philosophers and rocket scientists, perhaps the quest for meaning and purpose is no more evident than within the lyrics and poems of our musicians and poets. I'm showing my age now, but I was and still am a fan of the singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. You might know him from songs like Jack and Diane, Pink Houses or Hurts So Good.

Many years ago, he penned a very honest song entitled Void in My Heart. It's definitely worth a listen. Here was a rock star at the height of his career in bare honesty, revealing his deepest longings and how his life of fame and fortune just wasn't doing it for him.

Maybe you know how that feels. Like John Mellencamp, we can reach the pinnacle of our profession and amass great wealth, yet still have an overwhelming sense of emptiness and longing. We go to work, we socialise with our friends, we sometimes reach our ambitions, we have our holidays, and most of us in the West have all the toys we could ever need, yet so many of us are still unsatisfied and looking for more.

Sure, we may be fairly happy and content and have a reasonable sense of fulfilment. I wouldn't claim otherwise. Most of my friends who aren't religious, including members of my own family, would say they're reasonably happy and content. But most of us still feel that there's something more to life than just what meets the eye. That there's more to our existence than just living for 80 years or so and then dying.

there seems to be a timeless and universal sense that there's something else going on. In the first century, around 2000 years ago, Jesus made some astonishing claims and gave the world some mind-bending answers to our deepest questions about life and why we're all here. He effectively gave the greatest series of TED talks of all time, holding audiences captivated for hours on end.

Jesus gave answers to many of the questions that we humans have been asking ourselves since the beginning of time. You may not have given Christianity any serious thought as an adult or even as a child, but here are two reasons why Jesus and his teaching about life are worth considering. First, while there have been many people who have given their answers to life's biggest questions, none have had a world impact as much as Jesus.

He is arguably the most influential person that has ever lived. He has inspired art and architecture for centuries. More songs and books have been written about him than about any other figure in history. Apparently, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. is regarded as the largest library on the planet.

A librarian with a little too much time on their hands has calculated that this library has more than 800 miles of shelving, containing more than 24 million catalogued books in over 400 languages. But out of all those millions of volumes, there are by far more books on Jesus than on any other person that's ever lived, over 17,000 of them.

What Jesus has said seems to have struck a chord with many of us. And even if you disagree with what he had to say, his answers are at least worth taking an honest and open-minded look at from a cultural and educational point of view. Second, Jesus backed up his words with incredible actions. He wasn't just an amazing orator or wordsmith with some fancy answers to our deepest questions.

When he talked about life and life to the full, he backed it up by raising people from the dead. When he talked about seeing what the world was really all about, he then healed people from blindness. And when he preached about love and servant-heartedness being the keys to living a fulfilled life, he then went on to serve others and give up his own life to a grisly death on a Roman cross.

If you're skeptical about whether that is really possible, consider that if these actions of Jesus were even half true and he really was who he claimed to be, then what he had to say about life deserves our attention.

Christianity offers some profound and honest answers about our deepest questions and longings, backed up by the incredible life of the person at its centre, Jesus Christ. Through his words, parables and teachings, he gave powerful and thought-provoking answers to the very questions so many of us innately have. And those answers have actually shaped our world. Surely they are at least worth considering.

aren't they? I once heard a story about two men who were walking along a beach in the Florida Keys, USA. The two were happily soaking up the tranquility of the seaside as they meandered for a mile or so along the shore when one of them spotted a bottle washed up onto the sand. On closer inspection they saw that the bottle contained documents wrapped neatly in an official looking ribbon.

They opened the bottle and pulled out a legal will for a personal estate. In disbelief, they read the contents of the opening letter on the first page. "Whoever finds this bottle and the contents within is entitled to inherit my whole estate." The bottle contained more official documents and the contact details of a solicitor who would verify that the whole thing was authentic.

The two men had vastly different opinions as to what to do next. One of them said, ah, what a crock. It's surely a hoax. It's too good to be true. Throw it back into the sea for someone more gullible. Let's go. And promptly walked off. The other guy called after him. Yeah, but what if it's true? What if this is real?

Isn't it at least worth investigating? Maybe it is a hoax. Maybe it's not. But as the stakes are so high and we have little to lose, shouldn't we at least consider it? At which he folded up the papers and put them in his pocket and ran after his friend. A few days later, the man with the documents rang the phone number given in the letter.

It turns out that the whole thing was true. And after several weeks of investigations and legal work, he eventually ended up inheriting over $5 million worth of cash and real estate. I'm asking you to reconsider Christianity on the basis of the same question. What if it's all true? What if Jesus really was who he claimed to be? And he did have the answers to our biggest questions.

I know it's hard to believe, and there aren't many reasons we have for not investigating. But what if this Jesus fella really does have the answers to what we're all ultimately looking for? What if there really is a God, and there is such a thing as eternal life beyond the grave? That would be worth far more than $5 million. Imagine how much purpose, peace, and joy that would infuse into your life. That would be priceless.

As I see it, Christianity is at least worth thinking about because it is offering us some incredible thought-provoking answers to our biggest and deepest questions from the most influential person in history. You may find that you do not agree with what Jesus taught, but isn't the meaning of your existence at least worth thinking about? Even if you come to a different conclusion, at least consider what Christianity is all about.

Don't throw the bottle back in the water. Open it and see. I hope you liked this taste of Ben Shaw's Seven Reasons to Reconsider Christianity, published by The Good Book Company, available everywhere. We'll give you some more of these over the next few weeks, and before you know it, we'll be back with Undeceptions Season 10. See ya!

An Undeceptions Podcast.