The Enduring Questions

I have on my bookshelves an old philosophy book titled The Enduring Questions. It contains over 800 pages of the thoughts of men (no women, interestingly) from Socrates to the 20th Century behaviorists who have grappled with the issue of man-- who he is, why he is here on this Earth, and what he should be doing with his time. In short, they are trying to get a handle on the meaning of life so we can live with meaning.

I suspect we all have given these enduring questions some thought. Or at least we should. They are of deep concern to every thoughtful individual. We should not just leave it to the philosophers and poets to worry about these things; metaphysics is that branch of philosophy that attempts to do that and true religion absolutely should do that. I testify that the answers are ‘out there.’

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Well, I disagree; it is worth living but it doesn’t amount to much until it is examined and measured against the standard of conscience and revealed truth and then set on a direction that satisfies that conscience with which we were programmed from our beginnings. Disregarding our conscience (that ‘ought to’ or ‘ought not to’ feeling) and not trying to educate it beyond what we came with by simply ‘going with the flow’ or even just sticking with cultural norms is not good enough. Doing so is an abdication of the highest in us that needs to be tapped and the highest outside us that needs to be explored.  

I feel that each of us should periodically take some time to stand alone without distraction under the stars and contemplate the enduring questions and the answers we have come up with. If we don’t “stand all amazed” we are avoiding the issues that make up the very purpose for which we were born. Or maybe we have not looked hard enough for answers and direction. You can tell if you are on the right track by having a reverence for all life and a deep feeling of gratitude for your own life—regardless of its circumstances.

I end with a statement from Blaise Pascal: “Know then, proud man, what a paradox you are to yourself. Humble yourself, weak reason; be silent, foolish nature; learn that man infinitely transcends man, and learn from your Master your true condition, of which you are ignorant. Hear God.”