Religion, Human Suffering, and Happiness
I posted here earlier today about how 20% of Californians think they need mental therapy. The conversation that ensued took an interesting turn toward religion, suffering, and human happiness. So, per Ursula's recommendation, I'm starting a new post that opens the issue up to the wider Ricochet community and asking ...
Does religion, God, and/or morality help us overcome depression/anxiety/sadness/suffering and make us happier people?
That question came up thanks to a comment made by Ricochet member G.A. Dean:
Humans inevitably face sadness, anxiety and nervousness, and other dark emotional states, and cultures cycle between beliefs on the best cure. Some turn to God, or to the bottle, others prescribe hard work and others just uproot and run off to a fresh start. These things are like fashion. The ancients sought the advice of the oracles; we go to shrinks, or to yoga class.
I'm curious about what Ricochet readers, commenters, and contributers think: do we lose something by finding therapeutic cures in secular sources, like therapists or yoga--or prescription drugs--rather than religious or transcendent ones?
Does religion ultimately help us cope with suffering, leading us to find deeper meaning in life? What are its limits?
Other questions to think about, via Ursula, are: What are the salves provided by religion/God? How does life get better if one "practices" a religion?
I personally think that religion teaches us how to adapt and react to difficult circumstances in a deep and meaningful way. Throughout the history of Western moral thought--until modern times, that is--the question of what makes us happy was bound to the question of leading The Good Life, the morally virtuous life. Our morally good choices, especially in the face of trying times, enriched our lives--and therefore made us happier in any circumstance.
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Re: Religion, Human Suffering, and Happiness
Aaron--your distinction between seeking pleasure v fulfillment I think addresses the issue perfectly. And Cas, you're right, there is no substitute for living The Good Life, regardless of your religious or agnostic beliefs. I still wonder, though, if atheists, who as Aaron says likely place a premium on pleasure rather than fulfillment, see the world as a more *aesthetically* beautiful place than religious people do.
It's interesting to me that love has yet to be mentioned in this discussion. In the heart of the religious person (or at least the Christian person), isn't love of God--not necessarily love of the Good Life--the prime cause of morally virtuous behavior? And doesn't that love of God emanate into the love of all things--which, I think, is the idea behind Christian charity.
On another note, this article might be of interest to readers here. It's about two Muslim women who are trying to work through the contradictions of their own religion.
Jul '10
Re: Religion, Human Suffering, and Happiness
In a sense we do, but id tend to belief the loss is only temporary. That the universe is of divine origins and, as such, is filled with divinity, someone who pursues a purely materialistically guided introspection will eventually run smack into the divine presence. Maybe a generation or two can try to ignore the presence of God, but ultimately the basic truths of our existence will naturally re-emerge.
Now, they can reemerge in many contexts. One can reconnect with God through yoga or Zen meditation or through devout Christianity. The trick will be in discovering how to reorient their "self" so that the truth is made clear to them. A monk meditating on a mountain in Tibet will be in touch with God just as a Catholic priest delivering mass. The difference between them is in the upbringing which made one able to "get" God in one context over another. This is what leads me to believe that Westerners will be generally less able to find God through Eastern methods.
Jun '10
Re: Religion, Human Suffering, and Happiness
Emily: I too have found great solace in my religion. Last year, my Dad and my only sibling died (the latter much too early from mesothelioma). My Mom now has dementia. All in all, 2009 was a horrible year. Yet I found great relief in two things: (1) my belief that God loves me and (2) that this life is not all (we're not, as Nabokov said, swinging over the abyss).
My hero, the great British conservative, Roger Scruton said it better than I can: “Religion enables us to bear our losses, not primarily because it promises to offset them with some compensating gain, but because it sees them from a transcendental perspective. Judged from that perspective they appear not as meaningless afflictions, but as sacrifices. Loss, conceived as sacrifice, becomes consecrated to something higher that itself.” Roger Scruton, Gentle Regrets: Thoughts on a Life, (Continuum 2005) at 228.
I love the last line: "Loss, conceived as sacrifice, becomes consecrated to something higher that itself.”
May '10
Re: Religion, Human Suffering, and Happiness
Excellent point, tabula rasa.
Catholics believe that through suffering we can come to know God's suffering. God created beings whom He loves dearly but do not love Him so. This is a source of pain (note that, through Christ, vulnerability is a part of God's love as well). One can love someone while only understanding their happiness, but one can love another even better by understanding their unhappiness as well. Hence, our suffering brings us closer to God, whom has chosen to not be immune from pain.
Emily, the religious and atheists have equal opportunity to appreciate the material world.
Atheists love the natural world, but are often (not always) reductionist to the point of depriving themselves of a thing's full beauty. They see the beauty of order, but not of design... of utility, but not of affection... of facts, but not of meaning.
Religious people often focus on the afterlife to the exclusion of worldly appreciation. My dad used to say, "Religion answers why. Science answers how." Many Christians don't well appreciate the how, like mathematics (the language of Creation).
Catholics believe the afterlife is both material and spiritual, so appreciation of both is encouraged.
May '10
Re: Religion, Human Suffering, and Happiness
Life is worthwhile when it is in important ways, other-directed. Seelking happiness as its own objective is the most shallow and hopeless venture one could attempt. The joy is the "side effect" of the right journey, not the end in itself.
People who seek happoiness for its own sake are worshiping themselves.