Ecclesiastes part four

We are now in chapter three. Verses 1-8 are pretty famous and have been celebrated in song by multiple artists. Here is the one I heard most when I was young: Judy Collins "Turn, Turn, Turn."

This is in the form of a poem whose theme is expressed in the opening lines. "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." There are multiple activities and life events mentioned. I will not go through each one. The author seems to be subscribing to a belief in an inherent orderliness and pattern to life, with designated times for each event. Then one would ask, who designated that these things happen in their time? Must be god! (Which one?)

Everything that affects us does happen in time, but is the time it happens actually designated by a being outside of time? Can all the times of every event be anticipated by us? Obviously not, at this time. (See what I did?)If events could be determined, they would most likely be determined by the events that proceeded them and so forth, like a chain of dominoes. Ah, the deist might say, someone set up the dominoes and pushed over the first domino. Where did this pusher of dominoes come from, the skeptic might say. What good is a god who does nothing but watch his creation come tumbling down? Did he do it just for fun? What happens when the last domino falls? Couldn't there be a kind of eternal mobius strip of dominoes in a never ending chain? I digress.

Seriously, yes we see cycles in nature and in human lives. We live in a cyclical universe. If this was a universe without natural cycles , we wouldn't know about it, because this just happens to be the kind of universe that  had the properties necessary to bring about us. We currently have no way to know if any other kind of universe exists. However, there are cycles that people themselves have created because of the nature of the world we live in.

Humans invented farming. They decided when are the best times for planting and harvesting. Humans around the globe invented seasonal rituals of all kinds, they are not actually dictated by nature or gods. Humans invented social customs based on age, gender, and status. Each group decided how different people would relate to each other at different times. Humans have always decided for themselves when they thought it was time go to war. There is never a time for war or peace that is dictated by nature or a god. Also, nature often ignores the timetable of humanity.

Now that I've spent time being critical of the poem's literal meaning, I must admit: Even if it does not make practical sense when taken literally as dogma, it is beautiful as a piece of poetry reflecting on the nature of life. If that's all it was, I would have no issue with it.