Only Unhappy People Need Religion?

[Clara Tea]

One could be happy standing on a freeway. Until, of course, the next car comes along.

 

[Scott C.]

Or can you be happy without religion?

If not your happiness, then how is your religious belief benefiting you?

I'm most happy when I know the truth.

 

[Spirit of Light]

@Rival @Conscious thoughts @LightofTruth @The Hammer ,

If all of your material needs were met. Nice house, nice car, nice spouse, freedom to choose whatever you wanted to work on or to not work, could we get rid of religion?
Or do you think people would still need religion?

I have very little materalistic needs, and i always choose religious belief before materalistic needs

 

[Geoff-Allen]

What is spiritual happiness? Is it more than peace of mind?

Not sure if this will appeal or answer your question ...

But here is an entire book on the subject - and it is free too

SECRETS OF SPIRITUAL HAPPINESS: Read the book online - Sharon Kumuda Janis

Enjoy your day!

 

[nPeace]

I would say yes.
I would also say, that's all people, because no one is truly happy lacking spirituality.
Yes, people drown their sorrows, pain, emptiness... in all sorts of things, but all they are really doing is going from one thing to another, trying to find happiness.

Even the most wealthy person is not truly happy, but why not live the remaining of one's miserable live fat.

Or can you be happy without religion?

Everyone has a religion. Some just take a different form to the one recognized as official.

If not your happiness, then how is your religious belief benefiting you?

To me, it's like this... A person may be lacking food, but they get by on what they have, or what they can get, especially if they can do no better.
If someone offers to give them three well prepared, and appetizing meals a day, that would greatly reduce that person's burden, anxieties, and struggles.
That person will still get sick and die, but their changed circumstances for the better brings them satisfaction.

Jesus said, 'Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need. He also said', 'Happy are those hungering and thirsting for righteousness, since they will be filled'.

When one experiences the satisfaction of being spiritually full, it brings happiness, greater than any physical satisfaction.

What causes a celebrity with a lucrative career ahead of them, vacations in luxury, and many avenues for pleasure, to give that up for a dedicated service in religion?
Why would one who is an Atheist, turn to religion, and face mockery, ridicule, and even extreme hatred and persecution?

They find true happiness - the happiness they were searching for, which was eluding them.

The reality of this life is that the 'happy guy', will appear to be going through life 'without a care', but in just one moment, a snap of the fingers, his life is affected by something. No one escapes unhappiness.
How we choose to deal with is, is another story.
Some feel that's all there is to life, so they make up their mind to live with it - accept it.
Others question the apparent 'oneway dead-end path', and to their delight, find another path - a better one.

That's how I see it.

 

[nPeace]

I don't believe that religion was ever meant to exist in the beginning. From the Bible's perspective, God created man in his image in order to take care of his creation.....meaning the earth and all its inhabitants. We were meant to be one people, with one God, and a very satisfying job to do. Had the humans not abused their free will, that is the life we would have lived.....forever.

Think back to the start that God gave humanity as it is stated in the Bible.....paradise was their home, kitted out with everything that they would need to start a wonderful life here. It was never supposed to end.....they were to fill the world with their children and extend the boundaries of their paradise home until the whole world looked like Eden. There would have been no dramas, no aging, no sickness....and no death.

There was no "religion" or a long list of rules to follow. There was no sin in the world and everyone would have learned to follow God's instructions as a matter of course....seeing the good results of always doing so.....it all came undone when the humans decided that following the promptings of a lying rebel would make their already perfect lives, better. But it would all ultimately lead them to ruin by assuming that doing things their own way was the best way.....has that proven to be true?

I don't think most people realize exactly what we lost back then, and why Jesus came to get it back for us.

I believe it will happen as Revelation 21:3-4 says....
"With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”

Sounds like a happy ending to me....

Good point Deeje. Happy without religion.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I think it depends on the person whether they are happy with or without religion

+1

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

True in what I've seen. Unhappy people turn to religion. For happy people, other than a cultural obligation, does religion have something to offer them?

This is the usual fun exercise in the definition of words. Depending on how anyone understands the words true, happy, religion and cultural obligation the answer will change. So it is in a sense an exercise in cognitive relativism.

So the answer to your question is that it is true to you, because of what you take for granted. But false to me, because I understand it differently. Now do you want to play objectively true?

 

[Mock Turtle]

Whatever religion provides for others doesn't concern me (neither does happiness), and I wish them well if they find such to be of benefit in their lives and so long as anything obtained from this doesn't harm others - too often it does though. I have never felt a need for anything that I might seemingly get from a religious belief, and mostly it appears I can get all that I need by what I observe, what information I can process, and how I think. If there was a need to interact in some way with any perceived God (which I don't really have a proper concept of apart from as given by the various faiths) then I just don't feel such. I think that what religions seemingly offer is perhaps why so many feel a need to believe, even if one often has to swallow some ridiculous stuff along with some of the good - like attitudes to sexuality and such. Some of us perhaps are less daunted by not knowing the answers to our many questions than others, especially when the option to have wrong answers is very real. One only has to be reminded of this by the numerous individuals here on RF or having passed through. Anyway, happiness is overrated, contentment is better in my view.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Whatever religion provides for others doesn't concern me (neither does happiness), and I wish them well if they find such to be of benefit in their lives and so long as anything obtained from this doesn't harm others - too often it does though. I have never felt a need for anything that I might seemingly get from a religious belief, and mostly it appears I can get all that I need by what I observe, what information I can process, and how I think.

Well, no, you apparently can't do that as there is no objective rationalism and empiricism, which can do subjective feelings.

If there was a need to interact in some way with any perceived God (which I don't really have a proper concept of apart from as given by the various faiths) then I just don't feel such. I think that what religions seemingly offer is perhaps why so many feel a need to believe, even if one often has to swallow some ridiculous stuff along with some of the good - like attitudes to sexuality and such. Some of us perhaps are less daunted by not knowing the answers to our many questions than others, especially when the option to have wrong answers is very real. One only has to be reminded of this by the numerous individuals here on RF or having passed through. Anyway, happiness is overrated, contentment is better in my view.

That I can agree with.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Well, no, you apparently can't do that as there is no objective rationalism and empiricism, which can do subjective feelings.

Who claims any such - just that I don't feel religious beliefs are any better for me, given that they all appear to come from other humans rather than from where they state (divine inspiration or from prophets). I think I am just as likely to work out solutions as having them imposed on me by some belief - which often is the case if one accepts the tenets of some particular religious belief. I just don't see any benefits, for me, in accepting any religious beliefs.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Who claims any such - just that I don't feel religious beliefs are any better for me, given that they all appear to come from other humans rather than from where they state (divine inspiration or from prophets). I think I am just as likely to work out solutions as having them imposed on me by some belief - which often is the case if one accepts the tenets of some particular religious belief. I just don't see any benefits, for me, in accepting any religious beliefs.

Yes, I agree. Now the question then becomes can you do it without any beliefs not rooted in strong reason, logic and evidence? Or all your beliefs are with justified reason based on logic and/or evidence?

As an atheist and non-religious I have been unable to do so, so I have beliefs that are functional no different than religious beliefs, in that they are not based on strong reason, logic and evidence.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Yes, I agree. Now the question then becomes can you do it without any beliefs not rooted in strong reason, logic and evidence? Or all your beliefs are with justified reason based on logic and/or evidence?

As an atheist and non-religious I have been unable to do so, so I have beliefs that are functional no different than religious beliefs, in that they are not based on strong reason, logic and evidence.

Well I am sure I use some reason and logic, with the evidence being rather open, but overall I suspect I am more the gambler type, that is, using the basis of probability for what to believe or not to believe, and as such it seems to me that one is better off without firm beliefs than with any, even if some are more obvious - if as a hopefully good citizen I have some common ones, like the usual moral codes and hopes for humans. So many religious beliefs often seem more like a ball and chain than anything else.

 

[firedragon]

Or can you be happy without religion?

If not your happiness, then how is your religious belief benefiting you?

Do you really believe that the majority of human beings in this world all developed religious beliefs in order to find a center of happiness?

 

[Colt]

Or can you be happy without religion?

If not your happiness, then how is your religious belief benefiting you?

Sure, you can deny God and be emotionally happy, even moral. But your meaningless life will come to a dead end.

 

[osgart]

I think sincerely religious people are looking for love beyond the everyday human experience. The loves of the everyday world are not satisfying enough to the soul for them.

Other religious people just like the community aspect of it.

The deeper need for that love and the possibility of attaining it drives them. It's a conviction that such love exists. Perhaps it's born in the imagination. Maybe certain scriptures and their promises fuel that desire.

So they put their happiness in those hopes and promises.

It certainly is the tougher road then being satisfied with the loves of the world.

I think many people want to be loved for who they are, and not what they are. And some people see that virtue and a life of goodness is the way to get there and be worthy of it.

It starts with the conviction that such realities exist. And the world perhaps isn't giving them that deeper need.

 

[Nakosis]

Sure, you can deny God and be emotionally happy, even moral. But your meaningless life will come to a dead end.

So you don't believe there is an afterlife?

 

[Nakosis]

Do you really believe that the majority of human beings in this world all developed religious beliefs in order to find a center of happiness?

I'm asking the question. Karl Marx said religion was the opiate of the masses. Myself being non-religious, I find myself having a sympathetic ear. However, I'm questioning if there is another side to that view.

 

[firedragon]

I'm asking the question. Karl Marx said religion was the opiate of the masses. Myself being non-religious, I find myself having a sympathetic ear. However, I'm questioning if there is another side to that view.

Of course Karl Marx said that. Everyone knows that, and most atheists worship him because of this statement. It was evident in your OP that your sentiments source was this statement.

You cannot just give some view like a fish out of water and expect others to give another side. First you should substantiate that view.

Do you really believe that the majority of this earth have bade up their religious beliefs just as a center of happiness? Seriously?

Please think about it.

 

[Nakosis]

This is the usual fun exercise in the definition of words. Depending on how anyone understands the words true, happy, religion and cultural obligation the answer will change. So it is in a sense an exercise in cognitive relativism.

So the answer to your question is that it is true to you, because of what you take for granted. But false to me, because I understand it differently. Now do you want to play objectively true?

That's why I'm asking others, what is true for them. Personally, I've heard from many, in times of need, in times of stress, they turned to God and their burden was lifted. What then if there was no need, no stress? Is ti reasonable to think the need to turn to God would be absent as well?

I understand there is a cultural aspect to religion but then is it more a sense of obligation than need? IOW, "I am happy but my faith is a duty to my tribe/culture".