The Best Things in Life

According to Solomon (Ecclesiastes) the best things to be had in life are a good day’s work, to enjoy life with the woman you love, to eat, drink and to recognize life as a gift from God.
Now these are things that can be had by all people. Slave and king are on the same playing field. What an amazing and puzzling concept.

This is a very interesting apologetic.

In Ecclesiastes Solomon introduces us to the inherent problems with the usual suspects wherewith we seek satisfaction in life.

• With riches its "mo money mo problems" just as the great philosophical mind of Puff Daddy put it.


• With accomplishments the problem is that they all will turn to dust and the list never ends - there is always something else.


• The problem with accumulation is that it all may go to a fool.


• The problem with pleasures is that they never last - laughter, for example, lasts no longer than dry twigs on a fire.


• The problem with wisdom is that while there are obvious advantages, there are yet great pitfalls when you trust it - the most troublesome is that with the increase of wisdom there is a superseding rise in grief.


• And the problem with people is that they are fleeting, fickle, rarely wise, abusive and clearly oppressive.


• Not only this but, when one takes on the task to examine life in great detail you will discover many problematic paradoxes - as the painful history of philosophy reveals.

In the end, this idea that the best things in life are universal to humanity, is a surprisingly powerful notion. And I would add that it must be a pesky paradox to atheistic, evolutionary constructs.

How is it possible that a non-feeling, random force (if I can call it that for the sake of discussion) like natural selection would even find such a thing as this let alone choose it? That is, for the most fulfilling things in life to be those things that can be felt by the king in his palace no better than the slave in his squalor. Consider what I am saying, the powerful, wealthy man has no greater access to the simple joys of life over the pauper! The brilliant scholar has no more ability to experience the best things in life over the relative fool! Of course the various comparisons and contrasts can continue indefinitely: the skilled tradesman vs the grunt, the elite warrior vs the feeble man, the thrill seeker vs the simple man, and so on.

What a marvelous and puzzling characteristic to be found within the makeup of humanity. What could have built this into the fabric of the universe? Or better put, who could have devised such a plan?

None of this supports an unfeeling, random force nebulously directing the universe. Rather this all points to an infinitely brilliant and yet personally connected creator who cares about the most basic elements of life for those whom He created.