Three Possibilities

Consider the following scenarios.

Materialism is true. There is no God, no spiritual world, no purpose in existence, no meaning, no love, everything dies and that's it. Life is a momentary flicker in the depths of nothingness. Why care about anything since nothing means anything or has any value? Only matter is real.

Behind the world of appearance there is a spiritual world of pure consciousness. By detaching ourselves from worldly association we can come to know this and rest in an eternity of bliss, though this reduces any reality in this world, including that of human individuality and relationships, to fundamental illusion. Only spirit is real.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him would not die but have everlasting life. God descended to this world in the form of his son to redeem it from sin and give it the opportunity to live life more abundantly. He got his hands dirty out of love for his creation. Spirit is real but so is creation. Neither one can be denied and together they make for something more. 

Which scenario makes the most sense? More to the point, which satisfies one's deepest longings and completes every aspect of our being? 

Clearly it is the third one but does that mean it is true? Actually, yes it does because our being, as a product of reality, echoes reality. It speaks of reality and responds to reality. Only the third scenario answers every question posed by our humanity. The two others both leave important aspects out, whether it be the absence of meaning and transcendence of the first or the obliteration of the individual, and therefore love, of the second. The first two are both cases of either/or and neither includes all of what we are. But the third completes the puzzle of how to reconcile all parts of our nature and brings everything to a glorious and triumphant conclusion. We wouldn't feel the need for this unless it was real. And we do feel the need for it. If you don't, it is because you are suppressing parts of your being as the materialist does and as, in a similar but opposite way, the creation-rejecting spiritualist does. Both of them are abandoning the reality of their humanity for an idea. Both are life-deniers in one way or another.