A.W. Tozer addresses the philosophical plight of humanity, emphasizing that despite the intellectual efforts of many, mankind remains hopelessly lost in understanding fundamental questions of existence. He argues that the inability to find answers stems from a deeper moral and spiritual loss, as the light of God has dimmed in the souls of men. Tozer highlights that the search for meaning has been exhaustive, yet the answers remain elusive, underscoring the indictment of humanity found in the early chapters of Romans. Ultimately, he calls attention to the need for divine illumination to navigate the complexities of life.

Philosophically man has lost his way. Could he think himself out of his age-old predicament he would long ago have done it, for the world has had more than enough serious-minded men of superior intellectual endowments to examine every rabbit path in all the meadows of human thought and to explore every forest and wilderness in search of the way. Since the first fallen man got still long enough to think, fallen men have been asking these questions, Whence came I? What am I? Why am I here? and Where am I going? The noblest minds of the race have struggled with these questions to no avail. Did the answer lie somewhere hidden like a jewel it would surely have been uncovered, for the most penetrating minds of the race have searched for it. Not a foot of ground but has been spaded up, neither is there crevice or cave anywhere in the region of human experience but has been spied into thoroughly and often as the centuries passed. Yet the answers remain as securely hidden as if they did not exist. Why is man lost philosophically? Because he is lost morally and spiritually. He cannot answer the questions life presents to his intellect because the light of God has gone out in his soul. The fearful indictment the Holy Ghost brings against mankind is summed up count by count in the opening chapters of Romans and the conduct of every man from earliest recorded history to the present moment is evidence enough to sustain the indictment.