Bertrand Russell was one of modernity's most influential philosophers and thought leaders. One of the key existential quests he applied his phenomenal intellectual prowess towards was the pursuit of happiness.

His findings fail to satisfy. Sure he has a lot of good - some excellent - advice to offer. It is the advice of a man who has gone down a path and has some useful tips to give to those who would follow him. However it is the advice of a man who never did overcome the sense of the ultimate, essential futility of human life. It is the advice of a man who would help you try and make the best of a bad deal that you can't get yourself out of.

His 'fatal' error of judgment was simply this: he decided God was not part of the equation. You can build a whole philosophical system based upon the foundational assumption of the non-existence of God - that is an exercise that has fascinated many. But when you decide to build a life upon the very same assumption of the non-existence of God - that is a tragic, a 'fatal' mistake.

The pursuit of happiness - Bertrand Russell actually titled his book on the subject, The Conquest of Happiness - is ultimately self-defeating. The psalmist in the Bible quote below recognizes that the pursuit of God, not happiness, is primary, and that happy is the person who is seeking and enjoying the presence of God.

Nothing else can satisfy - in the presence of God is fullness of life, the mystical abandonment that only the presence of divine beauty can call forth, and the satisfaction of 'inquiry' into all truth about the Creator and his creation.