Mind-numbing boredom and some Bible verses

Probably everybody feels boredom from time to time. But after a successful spiritual reconnection to my own emotions the intensity of boredom reached new highs.

The painfully empty, slow minutes disappear without a trace, nothing changes. In this state, it seems that no measure of time and no events can ever change my unbearably useless and boring existence.

Every time I plunge into the depths of boredom I wonder how other people bear the realisation of the futility and insignificance of every minute hour and week of their lives.

I wonder how many people would remain in this world if communication with the world beyond was established.

For example, if the theory of immortality through rebirth was scientifically proven.

Who would actually like to stay here in this world if the afterlife was a certainty?

From the other side if were actually KNEW what awaits us afterwards, maybe we wouldn’t have a sense of purposelessness in our lives?

Now, when I finally got those thoughts out, they seem too morbid to me.

But then I encountered following passages while reading the Old Testament (Ecclesiastes 1:2-5, NLT translation)

 ² “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

³ What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? ⁴ Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. ⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.

My thoughts exactly! Actually I was very surprised to find such openly nihilistic views in the Bible. Guess there’s some “correct” way to interpret them to show that the life has meaning after all. Even after all the claims of King Solomon (if we trust Bible) to the contrary in Ecclesiastes.

From the other side I found a different translation KJV of this verse where “Everything” is replaced with “Vanity” meaning that everything transitory is devoid of meaning. Vanity if quite different from “Everything” and changes the meaning of the verse entirely!

Hm, with all of these different translations and original meaning of Bible being hidden in subtleties of ancient Greek and Hebrew, understanding Bible does seem further away then ever. Now I start to really doubt the ability of an average believer today to actually grasp the meaning of the original verses. So maybe reading Bible just by yourself, without knowledge of ancient languages and theology and history degrees is not such a good idea.

Anyway, that’s a topic for another, hopefully a bit more meaningful day…