The world has often been described as a vale of tears, a place of profound and often pointless suffering. Many of the psalms are drenched in those tears, and even the usually hopeful Saint Paul describes creation as “groaning as in the pains of childbirth.” (Romans 8:22 NIV) The Buddha concurred, saying that life is essentially suffering, and philosophers throughout the ages have tended to agree, some even going so far as to suggest that it would be better to have never been born.
