Musings on the Tough Life Questions

The Meaning of Life Part 4 - Musing From Ecclesiastes Isn't the Meaning of Life is to Find Happiness and To Do What Brings You Pleasure? Is doing what makes you happy the secret to the meaning of life?   Is the ultimate goal in life to be happy? In America the mantra is the pursuit of happiness.  Bhutan, a very small nation was named the happiest place on earth (or at least in Asia).  It measures a Gross National Happiness Index as a productive output rather than the normal national economic index of a GDP.  Its previous king espouses that the ultimate goal in life is to be happy ( See "The Happiest Place on Earth" ). Interestingly he constructed happiness as a key performance indicator of his government’s reforms. Solomon also wanted to know if happiness and engaging in every sort of pleasure brings meaning to life.  He experienced wisdom, so now he was determine to experience every pleasure he can. After all he is philosopher who appreciates th...

The Meaning of Life Part 2 - Does Life Really have a meaning? We Must Be Real. There are certain realities that prevent Life from Having a Meaning “ What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?”  We are trying to ascertain the point to life, but we observe certain maddeningly realities called “vanities” that makes this task tough and defeat having a long term purpose. They cause a circular existence that makes life pointless. Any nominee for meaning of life is it must be viable must defeat these foes to any long term purpose.  These are Life's vanities. These are the things that suck all meaning out of life, and makes it meaningless.  The Meaning of Life must defeat the reality and pointlessness of Death as a certainty – Generations come and generations go but the earth remains forever.  New generations can spoil all your work  [Eccl. 1:4] Time as a cycle of endless repetition – [ Eccl. 1:5] The sun rises and the s...

The Meaning of Life Part 1 - Musing from Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes may be the greatest philosophy book of all time. It answers the great question? Does my life have any meaning at all? It cuts straight to the point with the premise and reality of the meaninglessness of human life under the sun. Everyone assumes life has a meaning. Only Ecclesiastes dare ask the question: Suppose it has none at all?. The preacher starts [Eccl 1:2-3] “2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"says the Teacher."Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." 3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? The King James says vanity of vanities. What does vanity mean? It means that there is no purpose (no end - telios) just a finish (an end) which is death. So we are just chasing win d, on a treadmill, on the hamster wheel with no point to it at all. Paul calls it “dung.” You can imagine for yourself the more commonly used euphemistic word starting with “s” How can he ev...