Tag Archives: happiness

What Is the Purpose of Life? Part 1

What is the meaning or purpose of life? Some say that the purpose of every single person’s life is to attain happiness. It’s hard to argue that point since I don’t know anyone who would say that they don’t want to be happy. You always hear parents say, “I just want little Suzie to be happy” or “I don’t care what Johnny does, as long as he is happy.” Even the person who says they want to be unhappy is really saying that to be unhappy would make them happy. It seems undeniable that everyone wants to be happy, but what do we mean by happiness?

Here are some quotes from people about what happiness is:

“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness didn’t know where to shop.”

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”

“Happiness is good health and a bad memory.”

“It isn’t necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It’s only necessary to be rich.”

“Money can’t buy happiness; it can, however, rent it.”

“All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.”

“In Hollywood, if you don’t have happiness you send out for it.”

“Happiness is a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.”

“A man doesn’t know what happiness is until he’s married. By then it’s too late.”

“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.”

Joking aside, a common definition of happiness is “a sense of pleasurable satisfaction.” It’s a pleasant feeling that is largely dependent upon your circumstances. We feel happy when we watch a good movie, play a sport well, or receive a compliment. This kind of happiness is transitory. It doesn’t last; it comes and goes and is heavily dependent on your circumstances.

But this definition of happiness, “a sense of pleasurable satisfaction,” is recent and quite different from the meaning of happiness that dominated western civilization until about 100 years ago. When our ancestors spoke of happiness, they typically meant something like the following: “a life of virtue characterized by wisdom, love, and goodness.”

It is a state of reaching the perfect good of man. Happiness was the ultimate goal for every person because it was thought to be the perfect good for a person, and what person doesn’t want the perfect good? This contrasts sharply with the modern version of happiness.

In the history of the Christian church, one of the greatest philosophers and theologians was Thomas Aquinas, who lived in the 13th century. Using the traditional definition of happiness, “the state of the perfect good of man,” Aquinas tried to figure out what things make us ultimately happy. What are the good things that constitute the perfect good of man?

Aquinas considered 8 candidates for what makes us happy. He ranked the 8 candidates in a countdown from what he considered to be the most foolish to the most wise, so as we proceed, we will move from the worst candidates for happiness to the best candidates. In part 2 of this series, the countdown begins!

Is There More to Life than Technology?

Post Author: Bill Pratt

I own an iPhone 5. My family owns an iPad, two iPhone 4s, and multiple iPods. Oh, and we bought a Google Nexus 7 tablet for Christmas. We also have DirecTV with whole home DVR capability. This list could go on for a while – believe me.

I love technology, and, in fact, I work in the semiconductor industry. Semiconductor technology, in particular, has revolutionized our modern lifestyle, enabling all that is electronic in the world.

But what is the purpose of it all? Sometimes we forget that all of these gadgets are means to an end. The gadgets are not ends in themselves. The technology that produces these gadgets is also not ultimately an end in itself. The science that produces the technology that produces the gadgets is also not an end in itself.

With all of the gadgets surrounding us today, we sometimes forget what the purpose of all of it is. Our ancient ancestors, however, saw things a lot more clearly than we do today. They weren’t nearly as distracted as we are.

Thomas Aquinas, who lived in the thirteenth century, considered the answers that people of his day gave to the question: “What brings ultimate happiness to a person’s life?” Here are the answers:

  1. wealth
  2. honor
  3. fame
  4. power
  5. bodily health
  6. pleasure
  7. wisdom and virtue (goods of the soul)
  8. God

Notice the order. After studying each of these 8 answers, Aquinas listed them in order of least important to most important. Where are you spending your time?

Are you obsessed with building wealth? Aquinas would say that you are way off the mark – not even close to what brings ultimate happiness.

What about bodily health? We are clearly a culture obsessed with health. We want to postpone death as long as possible. But bodily health is not the ultimate good.

Of the earthly goods, wisdom and virtue are the highest, and the world would certainly be a profoundly better place if everyone used their technology to pursue them, but Aquinas argued that even wisdom and virtue miss the mark.

The only thing that our soul yearns for more than anything else is to know and experience the Perfect Good. According to Aquinas, the Perfect Good of man, the thing that will give him ultimate happiness, cannot be something which was created:

It is impossible for any created good to constitute man’s happiness. For happiness is the perfect good, which lulls the appetite altogether; else it would not be the last end, if something yet remained to be desired. Now the object . . . of man’s appetite is the universal good. . . . Hence it is evident that naught can lull man’s will, save the universal good. This is to be found, not in any creature, but in God alone.

Consider what Jesus said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:33)

Speaking to God, St. Augustine said “Thou has made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”

C. S. Lewis advised, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

Put your technology in its place. You can certainly use it to gain a modicum of wealth, honor and perhaps fame. Use it to gain power over your life. Use it to keep yourself healthy and provide recreation. Use it to gain wisdom and virtue.

But ultimately, all of that is less than nothing, a positive impediment, if you aren’t pursuing God.

Strongly Religious Folks Have More Self-Control

This according to research published by Michael McCullough and Brian Willoughby.  Thanks to Wes Milam for bringing this article to my attention in the NY Times.

The researchers found that those who are intrinsically and strongly religious just have more self-control than those who don’t.  They are better able to withstand temptation and are less impulsive.  The non-religious, including extrinsic believers (those just going through the motions of religion) and outright non-believers, are, by comparison, more impulsive and exhibit less self-control.

There is also bad news for those devotees of a vague New Age concept of God as a spiritual force, much like the concept of God that Oprah Winfrey consistently promotes.  Their self-control was also worse than the strongly religious.   

Another interesting sidebar in the article is worth mentioning:

Researchers around the world have repeatedly found that devoutly religious people tend to do better in school, live longer, have more satisfying marriages and be generally happier.

Even though researchers have repeatedly found these things to be true, the media rarely report on such research, and so most of us aren’t aware of these findings, but thanks to the NY Times, now we are!

So religious people do better in school, live longer, have better marriages, are happier, are better able to withstand temptation, are less impulsive, and exhibit better self-control.  So what?  Does this prove any religion true?

Of course not, but it does show one important thing.  Any worldview worth following should work for its adherents.  It should genuinely improve their lives because they are believing in something that more closely conforms to reality. 

Over the long run, a worldview that sees reality more accurately is going to benefit its followers more than one that gets reality wrong.  This study shows that strongly religious worldviews really work for the adherent.  Believing in God, and taking that belief seriously, is a worldview that is good for people in their everyday lives. 

Some critics might claim that the religious are just self-deluded, but they have to explain why this self-delusion persists across all places, times, and peoples.  We find religion in the most primitive to the most advanced societies on earth, all over the earth, and all throughout history.  Where did this powerful delusion originate and why does it persist?  I’ve heard the evolutionary accounts of religious belief, but they are nothing more than bedtime stories without any shred of empirical evidence.  Scientific accounts without any evidence are not persuasive, but this doesn’t stop some scientists from telling these stories anyway.

Those of us who believe in God notice that it seems to be built into us, as if  God Himself placed it there.  When we believe, we are responding to a natural desire to know God that seems to be present in all mankind.  Some of us respond positively to this desire, and some of us negatively.  The research seems to show that those of us who respond positively are better at living life.