Comments on: Happiness

Comment by: Lincoln Cannon

2008-09-20T09:52:54Z

Happiness (not past gardens or future heavens) is the object and design of our existence.

Comment by: Jonathan Blake

2008-09-20T10:27:56Z

I suppose that begs the question of a designer.

Also, if we were made to be happy, it seems awfully hard to achieve it.

Comment by: Cybr

2008-09-30T10:44:35Z

Is anything worthwhile, easy? OK maybe a couple of things are, but most require effort.

Comment by: Jonathan Blake

2008-09-30T10:51:29Z

My question is why it is so hard to be happy. Why is this necessarily so?

If I were an omnipotent god (which I’m not—sorry to dispel the myth), I would make everyone perfectly happy.

Comment by: Cybr

2008-10-01T02:02:09Z

Well, I think the misery part does help us to better appreciate the happiness we do feel. Depending on what I had planned for the creations of a god, I cannot necessarily say that I would make everybody perfectly happy. Would I like my kids (yes the ones I have right now) be perfect? Yes. Do I believe that they will acquire the proper skill set needed for an adult life ahead if I made them perfectly happy? That’s debatable since there involves a progressive existence. If my creation was simply a pet mouse, then I might make it perfectly happy just because that would be the extent of its existence. There are more variables involved that I don’t have the time for at the moment, for this conversation would get much deeper.

But, I’m just a lowly loser human and have no understanding of the dealings of mice and gods.

Comment by: Jonathan Blake

2008-10-01T04:55:02Z

Well, what you’re saying assumes that God isn’t omnipotent. A truly all-powerful god would be able to make us perfectly happy, perfectly capable of appreciating our happiness, and perfectly ready for our adult responsibilities. There would be no need to resort to learning-by-misery with an omnipotent god.

Comment by: Cybr

2008-10-01T11:35:04Z

That’s an assumption. I don’t think it would be a learning process for an omnipotent god, but a learning process for the temporal creatures involved.

Just cause I know the how the play is going to end, doesn’t mean I won’t want to watch the actors work through there parts and better their skills, and yes even occasionally mess up (because that does make a good play).

Comment by: Jonathan Blake

2008-10-01T11:46:24Z

Well, a perfectly powerful God would be capable of creating us from the beginning of our existence with all the knowledge/skill/gratitude/whatever necessary to be perfectly happy without any need on our part to learn through suffering.

If there is an omnipotent God who chooses to watch us learn as a form of entertainment (i.e. like watching a play), that doesn’t speak well for his concern for our happiness. On the other hand, if he wants us to be happy but can’t do it without making us pass through a sea of troubles, then he isn’t really all that powerful.