Author: David Ellis

We have followed the Preacher’s search for meaning through wisdom, knowledge, pleasure, accomplishment, work, and the passage of time; and consistently find that they are just not enough. Society is simply too unjust to explain.  “I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment, wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness,…

We’ve noted that the Preacher seems to doubt that wisdom and knowledge are enough to give life meaning. He said: “For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:18) We then turned to the famous poem of Ecclesiastes 3: “To every thing there is a season, and a…

Before we begin, let me briefly remind you where we left off last week. We saw that Ecclesiastes is unlike any other book in the Bible. Rather than beginning with certainty, it begins with a question. The Preacher conducts what we called “the Great Experiment.” He examines every obvious source of meaning—achievement, wealth, pleasure, work,…

In asking me to lead a discussion on Ecclesiastes, Dr. Weaver probably knew he was taking a risk. He probably knew I would not be able to resist approaching it from my perspective as a futurist.  The book’s author and narrator is commonly thought to be King Solomon (though some dispute that), and he tends…

We began this series of talks by questioning the common assumption that religion exists mainly to explain things we don’t understand. If that were true, then as knowledge increases, the need for religion should decrease. But globally, today’s polls don’t support that logic. We then looked at how religious scriptures work, and concluded that they…

Last week I arrived at the unsettling conclusion that religion developed not primarily as a result of knowledge or belief, but out of a real need (not just a psychological desire) to align with reality. In biblical terms, it’s like accepting the wedding invitation rather than gate-crashing and pretending to be a guest. I further…

Last week I continued to argue that Scripture was not intended to function primarily as a repository of answers, although it’s often treated as if it was. Rather, like Jesus himself, scripture operates as a formative, gentle, and non-coercive force that helps to shape perception—how people see the world, preserve tension—between the truths we are…

Last week, I challenged the belief by many that religion developed in order to explain the unknown. I countered that religion addresses the deeper and more persistent problem of living, when even intelligent human beings cannot seem to live together without eventually collapsing into conflict. Across traditions, cultures, and history, we saw that cooperation, restraint,…

This is the first of a series of five talks about Making Sense of Religion, in which I finally “come out” and declare “I got religion!” —which is a bit of a double entendre and I’ll leave it to you to figure out what I mean. This introductory talk is a bit long, and also…