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by T. M. Moore
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Nothing New Under the Sun (2)
I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 1:14
 The starting and ending point of secular thinking is that there is no God, no spiritual realm, nothing beyond what we can see, feel, hear, taste, and touch. "The cosmos is all there is or was or ever will be," as the late Carl Sagan expressed the secularist's basic presupposition. But when you start with only yourself and the world, you still have to address the basic questions of life: Who am I? Where did I come from? What kind of being am I? Why am I here? And so forth. Human beings live a perpetual quest to understand themselves and their world and to make sense and meaning out of their experience. Secularism may deny the Biblical teaching about the image of God in men, but it cannot escape the reality of it or the quest for understanding that basic reality engenders.
Solomon's decline into a form of secular thinking was a gradual process, as, indeed, it was in the Western world. Having achieved the pinnacle of wealth and success, he began to think too highly of himself and his achievements (Eccl. 2:1-9), which led him to speculations about the world and his place in it that rejected the revelation of God and sought to rely on the strength of observation and reason alone. Nagging questions drove him to examine the patterns of nature - rain, sun, the winds, and the cycle of waters - and the lessons to be gained from history (Eccl. 1:1-11). But no solid meaning presented itself. He meditated on politics and the ways of rulers and nations; explored the realm of madness and folly; and milked his work and his relationships in a futile attempt to forge meaning out of experience. In the end, he could not; his contemplations and studies apart from God led him to the conclusion that one cannot make sense of life without submitting to God and His Law (Eccl. 12:13). In his quest for understanding from an "under the sun" perspective, Solomon ended up disappointed, disillusioned, and despairing - much the way our secular generation has come up against the box canyon of its own worldview. The secularist trumpets with confidence his conclusion that life makes no sense, has no purpose, and is devoid of absolute meaning or value, but he says it with such conviction and passion that he seems almost to be pleading with someone - anyone - to talk him out of his absurdist views.
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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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