Do your beliefs make you happy?

[Trailblazer]

What I am asking is whether you think that your religious or non-religious beliefs about God or gods are the ‘reason’ you are happy. I highly doubt that is the reason people are happy, although they might tell themselves that. If that is the reason they were happy they would not need enjoyable foods, alcohol, sex, traveling, etc., in order to be happy, but I think most people do need those things to be happy.

I think love is important for happiness, but it does not have to be love for God or romantic love. It can be love for friends and family. In my case, it is love for my cats and other animals, since I only have online friends and I have no family or romantic interests. Would I be happier if I had a boyfriend or a husband? I don’t know, but that is a moot point, since men do not date women like me who won’t have sex out of wedlock.

I think certain religious people believe we ‘should be happy’ just because we have our religious beliefs. This pertains mostly to Baha’is, but I think it also pertains to Christians. I don’t know what the other religions teach about happiness. I am sick to death of the expectation of Baha’is that I ‘should be happy’ just because I am a Baha’i. These people are clueless about my life situation and they do not care about it. They are like robots, fully indoctrinated by their religious teachings that tell them that we ‘should be happy' because we have God, no matter what life throws our way.

As for Christians, are you happy because you believe you are saved and forgiven by the blood of Jesus, and because you believe that Jesus/God loves you? That might be one reason you are happy but I doubt you would still be happy if you had a very difficult life situation or if you had clinical depression or debilitating anxiety.

 

[JustGeorge]

No.

Sorry for the wordy response. (Spirit borrowed from @SalixIncendium and @ChristineM )

 

[Trailblazer]

I want to add to what I said in the OP. I am not questioning people who say that they are happy because they have their religious beliefs and God.
Maybe they ARE happy because for those reasons, but I question how happy they would be if their life situation was different. Maybe they would still be happy, I don't know.

 

[Trailblazer]

Yes.

Do you mind elaborating on that? What is it about tour beliefs that make you happy?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Which ones?

 

[Kathryn]

What I am asking is whether you think that your religious or non-religious beliefs about God or gods are the ‘reason’ you are happy. I highly doubt that is the reason people are happy, although they might tell themselves that. If that is the reason they were happy they would not need enjoyable foods, alcohol, sex, traveling, etc., in order to be happy, but I think most people do need those things to be happy.

I think love is important for happiness, but it does not have to be love for God or romantic love. It can be love for friends and family. In my case, it is love for my cats and other animals, since I only have online friends and I have no family or romantic interests. Would I be happier if I had a boyfriend or a husband? I don’t know, but that is a moot point, since men do not date women like me who won’t have sex out of wedlock.

I think certain religious people believe we ‘should be happy’ just because we have our religious beliefs. This pertains mostly to Baha’is, but I think it also pertains to Christians. I don’t know what the other religions teach about happiness. I am sick to death of the expectation of Baha’is that I ‘should be happy’ just because I am a Baha’i. These people are clueless about my life situation and they do not care about it. They are like robots, fully indoctrinated by their religious teachings that tell them that we ‘should be happy' because we have God, no matter what life throws our way.

As for Christians, are you happy because you believe you are saved and forgiven by the blood of Jesus, and because you believe that Jesus/God loves you? That might be one reason you are happy but I doubt you would still be happy if you had a very difficult life situation or if you had clinical depression or debilitating anxiety.

I can speak from experience on this one. I went through a time in my life when I was definitely not happy, but I was a Christian. Even now, I am not particularly happy but I am content.

 

[Trailblazer]

Which ones?

Your beliefs about God or gods.

 

[Eddi]

Yes, my beliefs make me happy

The way I think the world is is OK for me

 

[Kathryn]

I don't personally believe that my beliefs make me particularly happy or sad. They are simply my beliefs. I am sure that they will bring me great joy one day but right now I am pleased to just be content.

 

[Trailblazer]

I can speak from experience on this one. I went through a time in my life when I was definitely not happy, but I was a Christian. Even now, I am not particularly happy but I am content.

I can only remember a short period of time during my life when I was happy, but that was over 20 years ago, when I was first married and had hopes for a new career.

In a certain sense I am happier now than I have been over the last 20 years even though my husband has passed on, but I would not say I am happy,.
Although I am grateful for what I have and sometimes I am content, given my depression and anxiety life is always a struggle.

 

[Kathryn]

I can only remember a short period of time during my life when I was happy, but that was over 20 years ago, when I was first married and had hopes for a new career.

In a certain sense I am happier now than I have been over the last 20 years even though my husband has passed on, but I would not say I am happy,.
Although I am grateful for what I have and sometimes I am content, given my depression and anxiety life is always a struggle.

I can totally relate to what you're saying.

 

[Trailblazer]

I don't personally believe that my beliefs make me particularly happy or sad. They are simply my beliefs. I am sure that they will bring me great joy one day but right now I am pleased to just be content.

I feel almost exactly the same way. A good day is a day I am content with the way things are, regardless of all the things I have to be worried about, legitimate worries.

 

[ChristineM]

Atheist and happy, I don't often think religion unless a believer is putting forward their view that contradicts facts and repeatable, valid evidence.
What makes me happy is love for family and friends, love for animals and nature, love for life, having a roof over my head, a comfortable bed, fast cars...

 

[Kathryn]

Prior to my husband passing away, I would have said I was filled with joy, but now I am just usually content, which is pleasant. And it's a well earned break from grief.

Ironically, within two weeks of his passing, I was back in the Catholic church, and I found great solace there. So I don't consider myself a happy person but I do consider myself a healing person. For me, it's been about 3.5 years since my husband passed away unexpectedly.

 

[Trailblazer]

Atheist and happy, I don't often think religion unless a believer is putting forward their view that contradicts facts and repeatable, valid evidence.

I try not to think about religion either, even though I have a religion. People think that is rather odd, but that's how I feel.

What makes me happy is love for family and friends, love for animals and nature, love for life, having a roof over my head, a comfortable bed, fast cars...

I do not have any family and I don't have any friends aside from those I communicate with online....
What makes me happy is my love for animals and nature.
I am grateful for the roof over my head, food to eat, and a comfortable bed to sleep in...
I don't have any fast cars. All I have are two old cars, a 1999 that I drive and a 1986 that is presently inoperable.

 

[Jainarayan]

whether you think that your religious or non-religious beliefs about God or gods are the ‘reason’ you are happy.

No. I am happy with my beliefs but not happy because of my beliefs. They give me a certain measure of comfort. But in my life I am unhappy, even to the point of deep depression (which comes along with my bipolar 2 anyway) and despair. I like to believe my faith is steadfast despite what we've been enduring in these past years. However, my faith does not change my mental state. Though ironically I cling to the belief that īśvaraḥ sarvaṃ samādhāyati, "God fixes everything". In due time I believe things will resolve and I will be happy again.

 

[Banach-Tarski Paradox]

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Math

The equations that work for mysteries reasons, the primes with hidden patterns, and the logical statements that cannot be true or false

www.discovermagazine.com

1. The great 19th-century mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss called his field “the queen of sciences.”
2. If math is a queen, she’s the White Queen from Alice in Wonderland, who bragged that she believed “as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” (No surprise that Lewis Carroll also wrote about plane algebraic geometry.)

My beliefs make me very happy, even if they do change from time to time.

 

[ChristineM]

I try not to think about religion either, even though I have a religion. People think that is rather odd, but that's how I feel.

I do not have any family and I don't have any friends aside from those I I communicate with online....
What makes me happy is my love for animals and nature.
I am grateful for the roof over my head, food to eat, and a comfortable bed to sleep in...
I don't have any fast cars. All I have are two old cars, a 1999 that I drive and a 1986 that is presently inoperable.

It's not actually the cars that make me happy, its driving to their limit on a track.

Hit that accelerator just before the apex, the power is orgasmic

 

[Kathryn]

No. I am happy with my beliefs but not happy because of my beliefs. They give me a certain measure of comfort. But in my life I am unhappy, even to the point of deep depression (which comes along with my bipolar 2 anyway) and despair. I like to believe my faith is steadfast despite what we've been enduring in these past years. However, my faith does not change my mental state. Though ironically I cling to the belief that īśvaraḥ sarvaṃ samādhāyati, "God fixes everything". In due time I believe things will resolve and I will be happy again.

Hey, my mom had bipolar 1 and my brother is schizophrenic. Of my mom's four sisters, one other one is seriously mentally ill. That side of the family jokes around a lot and calls it 'the Hawkins blood' but I personally believe that it's hereditary.

I do believe I dodged that bullet though.

 

[Spice]

I have been depressed to some degree most of my life, but I didn't know it. I was just "me" and fortunately, generally accepted as "just me." My religious (of my youth) influences oftentimes made things worse. I could not live up to the "goodness" expected, or so I thought. I wasn't even sure what that goodness was! And I asked, only to get incomplete answers or references to scripture.

I learned a whole new way of having "goodness" when I began testing the waters of true, and complete integrity.
It took a lot of trial and error and some really rough roads to travel, but I learned to listen to my gut.

Does my faith make me happy? YES, because my faith is only mine, and fully mine, and free to bend to my needs of any moment without worry of breaking. It's not based on anyone else's understanding. My faith is not a part of me -- it is me. It's who I am and how I live because it's what's right for me.

Using a cliche phrase that meant so much to me once upon a time, I learned to "Let go, and let God" -- by listening to my innate instincts.

My faith is about as simple as it can get. In a nutshell, thanks to Ralph Waldo Emerson, it can be summed up with:
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
Living this way brings me happiness. Do I still have any depression? Sure. But giving someone else a reason to smile always gives me one back.