Should we just be concerned with day to day issues in our lives?

Questions about what the world is, what we are, why we are here, what it all means, are questions we surely are all interested in. But most of us react angrily when people ask such questions. It's something most of us don't want to think about. Most people want to concentrate on the "real world" -- the practicalities of existence, the transient issues of the moment.


I have been told that people are not interested in such ultimate questions because they are concerned about the next meal and being able to make a living. Yes, but questions about what we are, what the world is, are nevertheless questions which some of us will entertain no matter what our circumstances. They are perennial questions. Struggling for a living will perhaps necessitate that we cannot find time to pen such thoughts or even think about them too deeply, but they are there underneath the surface of existence nevertheless.

What's it all about eh? We find ourselves on the surface of a huge ball floating in the midst of an infinite sea of nothingness. And yet . . and yet . . people just live out their lives thinking exclusively about the mundane, being concerned about wearing the right clothes, condemning those who think beyond everyday concerns...

Do we really want an endless hedonistic lifestyle?

I just read this article this morning.  In it he says:

I once saw a ‘Twilight Zone’ half-hour
which I thought was very insightful. A gangster, un-principled even by
the standards of his colleagues, was shot to death during a crime.
Crossing to the other side, he found himself in a posh apartment
accompanied by a butler dressed in all-white street clothes. The place
could not have been more to his liking. Beautiful women abounded, his
liquor cabinet never wanting; turn on the TV? One of his favorite shows
24 hours a day. He also gambled: ponies, poker and pool; and he never
lost, not once.

Then a strange thing happened: he grew
bored with everything that had once amused him. In desperation, he
turned to his butler and said, “I’m sick of this place! I want to the
other place!”

“You mean Hell?”

“Damned right!”

The butler smiled and began to glow. “Why, sir, you’re already there!”

So it turns out, for this individual at
least, the punishment of his eternal damnation would consist of being
bored forever. A subtle extraction that.

A thorough grounding in Human nature, it
seems to me, would lead us to suppose equally boring, equally punishing
would be multiple virgins, and singing praises all the day long. It
would be the painful equivalent of grape jelly and peanut butter
sandwiches three times a day… forever [although for this thought I lack
scriptural advocacy]; we need challenge, growth, set-backs, learning,
and the like.

I'm not sure what we need, but I am sure that although a non-stop hedonistic lifestyle might be great for weeks, months, or even years --
or in my case decades --  ultimately one would become bored, and
worse still deeply unsatisfied. Whether in this life, or an afterlife, an
important element of happiness is feeling fulfilled from within. The
feeling that your life and all things have an ultimate purpose and
you're a very important part of that purpose. That we are striving
towards some goal -- some ultimate purpose. That gaining knowledge and
understanding about the world and our place in it is part of this quest.
And especially the development of an empathic identification with all
other beings and realising we're all in it together.



Oops that very last part sounds like a David Cameron soundbite . . but anyway. 



I would imagine that if there is an afterlife we will not be engaged in endless pleasures or any other endless behaviour which goes nowhere.  Rather I would hope that we will grow and develop as spiritual beings.   Perhaps the afterlife realm consists of different levels that we will ascend as our souls develop.   This is not to deny there might be many pleasures  to be experienced, but endless non-varying pleasures will become ultimately tedious.