God is the best explanation for our innate desires
We all have our own unique desires. I desire to see the Cleveland Indians win the World Series, I desire a snowstorm, and I desire to read a good book. Most people I know do not happen to share those desires!
Yet there are some desires that are common to everyone. In fact, it might not even be correct to call them desires, because they go beyond that. They’re more like innate yearnings, constant and continuous and universal things that we all by nature pursue. We’re talking about the desire for food, water, sleep, shelter. Of course, these are basic survival desires, common to every living creature.
But our innate human desires go beyond what helps us survive. Many of them are emotional, mental, and spiritual. We have a desire for personal relationships. We have a desire for justice and for what is right to be done. We have a desire to be valued and remembered. And we have a desire for existence beyond the material world. I could go on with more, but I think the point is clear: none of these desires are mere animal desires. They are uniquely human, spiritual desires. And we are not really ever satisfied even when these desires are met. We always cry out for more. They’re desires that cry out for an explanation.
This is the basis for what’s sometimes known as the argument from innate desire. CS Lewis, the famed scholar and author of the Narnia books, wrote about it in Mere Christianity. The Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft has also been a prominent defender of the argument. I think Kreeft breaks it down very well, so this post will mostly interact with his formation of the argument.
#1. Every natural, innate desire in us corresponds to some real object that can satisfy that desire.
For all of these innate desires in us, there is something in this world capable of fulfilling them. Our desire for hunger can be satisfied by food. Our desire for shelter can be satisfied by a house. Our desire for love and companionship can be satisfied by friends and family. Our desire for justice can be satisfied by justice being carried out. All of our innate desires correspond to some real object or thing.
This is not true for all of our specific desires. If I desire to pet a polka-dotted elephant-zebra hybrid, that doesn’t mean there is such a thing. But this is not a natural, innate desire. There are plenty of people who don’t desire to pet such an elephant. We have words like dehydration, starvation, and injustice to describe fundamental states of our innate desires being unmet or controverted. There is no corresponding term for lacking-an-elephant that carries the weight of the other terms. All of those desires that we’re born with, that we instinctively as human beings pursue, are all connected to some reality.
#2. But there exists in us a desire which nothing in time, nothing on earth, no creature can satisfy.
Over thousands of years of human history and intense study of the human spirit through philosophy and the human mind through psychology, we have become very good at identifying our desires and finding ways to meet them. And we have found ways to meet our desires, through technology and innovation, that people just 50 years ago would have envied. Yet in spite of all that, we are never completely satisfied.
No matter how many of our innate desires are met, we have never been able to fully satisfy those desires. That’s easy to see in our own selves. Despite all the great things we have, we can all easily point out things we lack which, if we had them, would make us happier and supposedly satisfy some of our innate desires that are unfulfilled. And we tend to think that if we just had this thing or that thing–a better marriage, a better job, more friends, freedom from disease–that maybe we could find that key to fulfillment, that “happily ever after.”
Sometimes we may even like to portray ourselves to others as having found that sort of satisfaction. We may like to sweep our problems and dissatisfactions under the rug and portray ourselves as outwardly completely satisfied. But we all know that’s not true. We all know that, even if we are content much of the time, there are moments we experience profound lack, and there are times where we do feel very unsatisfied.
No amount of worldly wealth, popularity, or fitness, no quality of relationships with family and friends, no love of career or vocation, has solved the problem for anyone else. You only have to look at the world of those who have it all. How many celebrities–most of whom are wealthy, many of whom have good friends and great relationships with their families, and who know they will be remembered fondly for decades to come–find themselves depressed and empty? I don’t want to use anyone’s specific struggle as an example, but it’s easy to find stories like this in the headlines.
And that’s because nothing in this world can fulfill our desire. The things (and people) in this world can temporarily satiate it, but ultimately the desire, and the feeling of lack, returns. We become hungry again, thirsty again, lonely again. None of those things satisfy us because they are not what we truly desire. They give us temporary satisfaction, but soon it becomes clear that our real desire is not met.
So what do we desire? It’s quite simple: We desire perfection. We desire the perfect life that never ends, with no pain, loss, or limitations. We desire the perfect relationship, one with perfect love and understanding and perpetual peace and harmony. We desire a perfect world, with perfect justice, peace, and beauty. We desire perfect versions of these things that both completely satisfy our needs and never leave us unsatisfied again.
That’s why we constantly strive to make our lives better. We constantly work to improve our marriages and friendships. We try to make the world a better place–if not the world at large, then we try to make our world, such as the state of our homes, families, hobbies, careers, and/or friendships better. We never stop doing this. And if we do–if we stop trying to improve a relationship or career or the world around us–it’s usually because we’ve given up any hope of ever getting better (at least not without a trade-off that’s not worth it), not because we never desire it. We try to get closer and closer to perfection, but never get there, and never will–not in this world.
Wait, do we really desire perfection?
Some people might object to this. They might say, “I don’t desire any of those things. I don’t want perfection. Perfection is boring.”
And the answer I would give is: Yes, you do. If you’re imagination of a perfect existence is boring, then you’re not imagining a perfect existence! By definition, a perfect existence wouldn’t be boring.
Evolution is not a good explanation for innate desire
Some might object that the innate desire for perfection can be easily explained by the theory of evolution. Evolution, as we have discussed, favors traits that confer a survival advantage on a creature. Well, this desire for perfection has driven humanity to constantly strive to better our state of being. Because of our desire for perfection, we’ve devised all sorts of creative means to better our condition. This, in turn, helps us survive longer and reproduce more.
If materialistic evolution is true, then perfection is a delusion (or at least the idea that we would ever attain or understand it). “Good” or “bad,” “perfect” and “imperfect” are immaterial concepts and make no sense from a purely material point of view. Perfection can’t be measured or evaluated by material science. And so if evolution is the explanation for our innate desire for perfection, it would mean that evolution has adapted us to desire a delusion, and believe that that delusion is attainable. In fact, since materialism would also imply there is no such thing as objective justice or morality–things we also desire–that would mean our desires are just a mixture of delusions and realities, with no objective way to differentiate between them other than their survival value.
So this just leads back to (and lends support to) the evolutionary argument against naturalism discussed in the last post. If our evolutionary adaptations have inclined us to believe in delusions, we have no good reason to believe naturalism is not one of those delusions.
#3. Therefore there must exist something more than time, Earth, and creatures, which can satisfy this desire.
All of our other innate desires–food, water, sleep, etc.–have real objects that can satisfy them. Otherwise, those desires wouldn’t make any sense. Why should we assume that this desire for perfection is the exception? It seems quite justified for us to believe that this desire for perfection can be fulfilled as well.
But the only thing capable of fulfilling such a desire would be a perfect being. Only a truly perfect being is capable of creating a perfect world. Only a perfect being is capable of providing the perfect relationship of perfect love. No imperfect being can create a perfect world. In fact, only a perfect being is capable of having a perfect knowledge of what perfection is! That perfect being would, by definition, be God.
As CS Lewis put it: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
