Answers to Life's 3 Big Questions

For as long as human beings have inhabited the planet Earth, we have been searching for answers to the same three big questions: (1) Where did we come from? (2) Is there life after death? (3) What is the meaning of life?

Given the length of time humans have sought answers to these questions, one might think we would have arrived at some sort of consensus by now, but we haven't. About a third of us believe we were created by a higher being. Another third of us believe humans are the product of evolution. Surprisingly, about a third of us are not able to provide an answer. But if you were born before April 23, 1992, you can tell your children and perhaps your grandchildren that it was during your lifetime that human beings finally accumulated sufficient scientific evidence to determine with great certainty how and approximately when the universe first came into existence. If you stop to think about it, that is an extraordinary claim. To be members of the first generation of humans to make such a discovery is truly amazing.

Sooner or later almost all of us begin to inquire about what happens to us after we die. Perhaps this curiosity is triggered by the loss of a close relative or friend. Under such circumstances, most of us want to believe our separation from a loved one is only temporary and that at some point in the future we will be reunited. This yearning has led most humans to believe in some kind of an afterlife.

Discovering an answer to the first question, which inquires about our origin, was not easy. The journey would take scientists hundreds of years before they could finally propose the theories that describe in great detail not only how the universe began but how life within that universe could evolve. Attempting to answer the second question, which inquires about our destiny, has always presented researchers with a different kind of challenge, because science simply does not have the ability to prove that something does not exist.

But as difficult as it may be to answer the first two questions, it is the search for an answer to the question that inquires about the meaning of life that for many of us may prove to be the most daunting. There will of course always be those among us who will claim to have already discovered what gives life meaning. Some of those same persons will try to convince us that all we need do to make our own lives meaningful is to blindly follow their decrees. But for those who may be more independently minded, the search for meaning will require a much more intimate effort.

In his new book, author Steven Knapp provides some possible answers to the questions "Where did we come from?" and "Is there life after death?" He also offers a few suggestions that may help motivate some to begin their own personal search for meaning, while encouraging those who may have already begun their journey to press on with what might prove to be the most exciting quest of their lives.

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Answers to Life's 3 Big Questions

For as long as human beings have inhabited the planet Earth, we have been searching for answers to the same three big questions: (1) Where did we come from? (2) Is there life after death? (3) What is the meaning of life?

Given the length of time humans have sought answers to these questions, one might think we would have arrived at some sort of consensus by now, but we haven't. About a third of us believe we were created by a higher being. Another third of us believe humans are the product of evolution. Surprisingly, about a third of us are not able to provide an answer. But if you were born before April 23, 1992, you can tell your children and perhaps your grandchildren that it was during your lifetime that human beings finally accumulated sufficient scientific evidence to determine with great certainty how and approximately when the universe first came into existence. If you stop to think about it, that is an extraordinary claim. To be members of the first generation of humans to make such a discovery is truly amazing.

Sooner or later almost all of us begin to inquire about what happens to us after we die. Perhaps this curiosity is triggered by the loss of a close relative or friend. Under such circumstances, most of us want to believe our separation from a loved one is only temporary and that at some point in the future we will be reunited. This yearning has led most humans to believe in some kind of an afterlife.

Discovering an answer to the first question, which inquires about our origin, was not easy. The journey would take scientists hundreds of years before they could finally propose the theories that describe in great detail not only how the universe began but how life within that universe could evolve. Attempting to answer the second question, which inquires about our destiny, has always presented researchers with a different kind of challenge, because science simply does not have the ability to prove that something does not exist.

But as difficult as it may be to answer the first two questions, it is the search for an answer to the question that inquires about the meaning of life that for many of us may prove to be the most daunting. There will of course always be those among us who will claim to have already discovered what gives life meaning. Some of those same persons will try to convince us that all we need do to make our own lives meaningful is to blindly follow their decrees. But for those who may be more independently minded, the search for meaning will require a much more intimate effort.

In his new book, author Steven Knapp provides some possible answers to the questions "Where did we come from?" and "Is there life after death?" He also offers a few suggestions that may help motivate some to begin their own personal search for meaning, while encouraging those who may have already begun their journey to press on with what might prove to be the most exciting quest of their lives.

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Answers to Life's 3 Big Questions

Answers to Life's 3 Big Questions

by Steven Knapp
Answers to Life's 3 Big Questions

Answers to Life's 3 Big Questions

by Steven Knapp

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Overview

For as long as human beings have inhabited the planet Earth, we have been searching for answers to the same three big questions: (1) Where did we come from? (2) Is there life after death? (3) What is the meaning of life?

Given the length of time humans have sought answers to these questions, one might think we would have arrived at some sort of consensus by now, but we haven't. About a third of us believe we were created by a higher being. Another third of us believe humans are the product of evolution. Surprisingly, about a third of us are not able to provide an answer. But if you were born before April 23, 1992, you can tell your children and perhaps your grandchildren that it was during your lifetime that human beings finally accumulated sufficient scientific evidence to determine with great certainty how and approximately when the universe first came into existence. If you stop to think about it, that is an extraordinary claim. To be members of the first generation of humans to make such a discovery is truly amazing.

Sooner or later almost all of us begin to inquire about what happens to us after we die. Perhaps this curiosity is triggered by the loss of a close relative or friend. Under such circumstances, most of us want to believe our separation from a loved one is only temporary and that at some point in the future we will be reunited. This yearning has led most humans to believe in some kind of an afterlife.

Discovering an answer to the first question, which inquires about our origin, was not easy. The journey would take scientists hundreds of years before they could finally propose the theories that describe in great detail not only how the universe began but how life within that universe could evolve. Attempting to answer the second question, which inquires about our destiny, has always presented researchers with a different kind of challenge, because science simply does not have the ability to prove that something does not exist.

But as difficult as it may be to answer the first two questions, it is the search for an answer to the question that inquires about the meaning of life that for many of us may prove to be the most daunting. There will of course always be those among us who will claim to have already discovered what gives life meaning. Some of those same persons will try to convince us that all we need do to make our own lives meaningful is to blindly follow their decrees. But for those who may be more independently minded, the search for meaning will require a much more intimate effort.

In his new book, author Steven Knapp provides some possible answers to the questions "Where did we come from?" and "Is there life after death?" He also offers a few suggestions that may help motivate some to begin their own personal search for meaning, while encouraging those who may have already begun their journey to press on with what might prove to be the most exciting quest of their lives.


Product Details

BN ID: 2940044750289
Publisher: Steven Knapp
Publication date: 07/29/2012
Sold by: Smashwords
Format: eBook
File size: 328 KB

About the Author

Steven Knapp was born on April 1, 1951 in East St Louis, Illinois. He grew up in nearby Belleville, Illinois with his two brothers and one sister. Belleville is located about ten miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. In 1963 Steve's father decided to become a Methodist Minister. Over the next several years Steve and his family would live in Evanston, Illinois, a small town near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in Quincy, Illinois where he graduated from high school in 1969.

Steve attended college at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. Although he graduated in the spring of 1973, Steve remained in Bloomington where he spent the next year working as a community organizer. In early 1974 he moved to his family's farm. The farm was located in Southern Illinois about one hundred miles east of St. Louis. Over the next few years he would purchase some of his own farm land. On one of those parcels of land there was an old two story farmhouse that Steve and one of his brothers would spend the next two years renovating.

Steve first met Colleen Bentley on a blind date in January of 1976. Colleen had recently graduated from MacMurry College in Jacksonville, Illinois with a degree in Special Education. Although Colleen was from California, she would get her first teaching job at a small rural school near Steve's farm. About ten months after their first date, Steve and Colleen would be married in November of 1976. They are the parents of two children, a son named Mark and a daughter named Beth.

Although Steve loved being a farmer, he loved politics even more. In the spring of 1978, at the tender age of only 26, he ran in a primary for an open seat in the Illinois House of Representatives. Although he lost the primary by less than 130 votes, he would run again for the same seat two years later in 1980. This time he would win the primary by a little more than 10,000 votes. He would later lose the general election in the fall of 1980 by less than 1% of the vote. During his three attempts to be elected to public office, Steve not only learned how to run a political campaign, but at an early age he was able to observe from the perspective of an insider just how our political process really works.

In 1981, as a consequence of a prolong drought, a national recession, and high interest rates, Steve and Colleen decided to sell their farm and move to Carbondale, Illinois where Steve planned to enroll in law school. About a yea...

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