Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, a well-noted German philosopher, once said, "to live is to suffer." He then went on to say that "...to survive is to find meaning in suffering." Nietzsche was a strong advocate of nihilism, the belief that life is meaningless. Sadly, this is a very popular belief in our world today and has been since the fall of man. In Oedipus, the King, the chorus makes the statement, "Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last." These statements cohesively drive home this nihilistic belief that life is altogether painful or unhappy. Although I believe that those who do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior will never know true happiness or joy, I disagree with this position of nihilism. I believe there is inherent value and means of happiness in life, specifically embodied in creation, relationships, and life itself.
First, creation has inherent value and is capable of producing happiness for us. Creation has value and brings us happiness. Commodities are mere 'things' (creation) that we believe to have inherent value. We trade goods for gold, silver, or other precious metals because those metals have value as well as the goods being traded for them. We are trading one valued item for another item that we value more highly than that which we are trading it for. This also brings us happiness. We are happy with the result of our trade for a short period of time. We do not get joy out of material objects, for joy is eternal whereas happiness is temporary (like the object we are happy about), but nonetheless exists. This is the basic point of economics, and economics rises and falls on the basis that there is value in this life and that these valuable objects of creation bring us happiness.
Second, relationships have value. Any relationship, whether it be marriage, dating, friendship, family, etc... has particular value and brings happiness into our lives. The word particular is important because that word is the underlying reason that relationships bring us happiness through their value. Obviously, most people would not rejoice in the death of a person, but how many people mourn the death of a stranger as much as they would that of a close friend or family member? Not many! That is because the value of the close friend or family member has particular importance to you that the stranger does not. The friend or family member had particularity that brought about a happiness to us that we valued, thus the loss of such particularity would not match the amount of pain brought about by that of a complete stranger. So, relationships do hold particular value and bring about happiness in our lives.
Finally, life itself has inherent value and meaning which brings about happiness, even joy. The famous Irish writer, apologist, theologian, Clive Staples Lewis once said, "we do not have a soul, we have a body." He was saying that the physical world is merely a microcosm of all that exists in the spiritual realm. Also, that our bodies are mere avatars of who we really are inside. So the question then becomes if there is more to life than that which meets the eye, is there more to the meaning of life than that which is carnal or physical? The answer is yes. An unborn baby, still in the womb, has inherent value. This baby has value, not on a merit of works, for he/she has done nothing right nor wrong, but because this unborn child bears the very image of it's creator. Creation has value but the most valuable piece of creation is that of human life. Human life bears value because human life bears the image of God.
Therefore, despite the nihilism of the Chorus in Oedipus, the King, or philosophers like Nietzsche, tightly clinging to this belief of life void of meaning, I believe there is inherent value and means of happiness in life, specifically embodied in creation, relationships, and life itself.
