There are essentially two ways to look at life. One might be styled progressive; the other, tragic. The progressive view of life has been popular especially in the Western world in modern times. It may be described as positive and pragmatic. It is based on the idea that man is his own master and maker. The progressive view is that man, if not precisely perfectible, can progress to a point of practical perfection. As such it follows the philosophy of Hegel and others like him who believed that the end of history would be a kind of utopian world.
The tragic view is quite different. It takes into account that man is improvable but not perfectible. In the tragic view man is flawed by his own sins. In the tragic view we do not live, nor shall we ever live, in a lovely harmless world. Our real world has beauty and pleasure in it but it also has in it fear and trouble. The tragic view is consistent with the picture of man and life we find in the Bible. Not only that, it is consistent with the reality all around us. As such, though it is known by other names, it is the philosophy of people who believe the Bible and have respect for the traditions developed from it that help us live in and understand the real world.
As proof from real life that the tragic view is in play I would cite recent events in Japan. Those proud people are suffering because they live in a world that will never be a utopia. It will always have loss. It will always have tragedy. It will always require grit to get through.
It is not just things like the horrible earthquake and tsunami that afflicts Japan or Katrina or terrorism or dictatorship that make us know the tragic view is true. We accept the deaths of thousands so we can drive, fly and float from one place to another. We all know that too often the good die young. Bad people do well while the best suffer. It goes on and on.
Yet there is a point to it, this tragic view of life. What can we learn from living in this world? Yes, we are being taught if only we would learn. We are being taught that this world cannot be our permanent home. The tragic view of life takes into account the reality that life can be cruel and short. The lesson is clear that this life is not all there is. It cannot be for if that were so life would be only a sad, bitter and most devastating joke.
But life is not joke. Life is a wonderful gift meant for us to enjoy. It is more though, it is a series of lessons. These lessons are designed to drive the truth that God is and that He rewards them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). If life was some perfectly pleasurable stroll we would not look for the kind of answers God would have us find in Him.
Those of a philosophically progressive mind have great trouble with this but it is nonetheless true that this world, this life, is a transitory phase in our existence. It is meant with its joys and travails to teach us to look for something better, something not physical at all, but spiritual. This tragic life teaches us that what passes for reality will fade away and only the spiritual will remain.

Contemplate this Biblical expression of this philosophy of life: Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though the outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NKJV).