Friday, February 12, 2016

If there is a G-d, why is there unhappiness?

This world is not utopia, it is not perfect, and the people in it are not perfect, and it was never meant to be that way. The only way it could be that way is if all people were mindless robots. Since we aren't, and since we have at least some freedom of choice, we have choices as to how to live our lives.

Some of those choices will work out, and some won't - again, life isn't perfect. People also have the choice whether to be kind or cruel to others. Those choices will affect both themselves and the others. Even many of the wealthiest people are unhappy, because money cannot prevent unhappiness.

In a Buddhist sense, we are attached to life, and as such are filled with desire. That desire is the source of our pain. Why should anyone expect that the existence of a deity, if indeed there is one, would result in the end to unhappiness? I don't pretend to have ultimate knowledge. I suspect there may be some sort of higher power or higher state of existence, but there is no way to prove that, and it is ultimately irrelevant.

I live the best life I can, showing the greatest amount of humaneness that I can both towards myself and towards others. I do so, not out of fear of a deity, nor out of desire for a heaven, but because that is to me the greatest way to live.

I have no problems with what anyone else chooses to believe or disbelieve, so long as they do not try to impose their beliefs on me. I will not denigrate the beliefs of others, so long as those are not hurtful towards other people.

If others choose to denigrate my beliefs, as so many anti-theists seem to do, then my opinion of them and their beliefs is lowered. I also feel no need to justify or defend my beliefs from others.

No comments:

Post a Comment