"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." by Abraham Lincoln

"I have known some quite good people who were unhappy, but never an interested person who was unhappy." by A. C. Benson

This privilege, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS proclaimed in the American Declaration of Independence as a right, is often accepted without question as the primary goal in life. We tend to measure the success of our lives by the way we feel inside about our affairs. We are happy when we are promoted in our work, when we get a new car or house, when our baseball team wins, when we fall in love and it is reciprocated, when we graduate from school, and when we win prizes in music or sports. Happiness results too when we are free from worries and fears. The absence of sickness, hunger or danger give us feelings of joy, especially when we are suddenly relieved of such threats or anxieties. Good music, theater, and natural beauty often produce exhilarating cerebral sensations. The emotional reward of happiness tends to motivate us to greater achievements and to engage in activities that elicit praise from our family and peers. Happiness is a spiritual thing invading the mysterious realm of our mental cortex. It is beneficial to our health. Happiness is contagious and makes us pleasant to be around. The pleasure of the inner mental glow termed happiness, and the usual benefits, personal and societal, that follow the Pursuit of Happiness can not be denied.

But as with all good things we must post some warnings and caveats. A state of happiness and even euphoria can be induced by alcohol and by drugs such as crack and heroin. These chemical paths to happiness are extremely dangerous to health and do not lead to achievements in work and in approval by society. History tells us that drugs are a deadly disease that destroy nations. We see from these examples that some emotional criteria for guiding our lives or for judging right from wrong are treacherous and unreliable. Often times too our pursuits of happiness are selfish and destructive. Remember that the joy we feel in winning a game in sports or chess is often equal to the remorse felt by the losing team or player. Too often our pursuit of money or high position is harmful to companions and at their expense. We display our wealth ostentatiously and destain the poorer people around us. We may compete ruthlessly and unethically for power and money. Recreation gives us pleasure so we use our time in casinos and movie theaters rather than in constructive work or self-improvements in education. Sex is without doubt a pleasant experience but, if we are unfaithful to our spouses and use other humans as sex objects, this pleasure seeking is disastrous. We find American culture bent on hedonism with gigantic entertainment industries thrilling our children and adults with violence and sex. How do we reconcile the advantages and pitfalls of "happiness"?

It is worth examining the mental state or emotion called happiness. It is an inviting inner beacon that can lead us biologically to enjoy food and drink, to exercise our bodies, to seek sexual satisfactions, to play and socialize with others, and find satisfactions in our work and in our physical and social environment. In fact, very hard physical work or exercise can give one a feeling of euphoria. Such feelings of intense happiness are reported also to be associated with drugs, sexual acts, winning contests or Nobel prizes, and other human experiences. Lesser degrees of happiness may be associated with eating good foods, reading good books, visiting with friends, working hard all day, playing with children, and most of our daily activities. Often we must deliberately perform disagreeable tasks which too can give us satisfaction and a kind of happiness. Then there is sickness and other bad luck. There can be joy in overcoming these misfortunes or in even accepting them. The thermometer that measures our inner happiness responds to many stimuli. We need other criteria besides happiness to guide our lives toward fulfillment and worth--and to avoid catastrophes.

The central consideration in steering our lives is to remember we are social creatures, and we must interact with other people. As children we are fed and cared for by parents or nannies and teachers. We are dependent on other people for all the material and intellectual things we have or use. Society can not survive without the cooperation of its members and their constructive work. To contribute our share to communal wealth we must do something besides watch TV. Maximizing pleasure and doing only what "feels good" does not necessarily make us good citizens in this world commonwealth.

Religious people have internal guides that makes them sensitive to the needs and wishes of other people. A mother's love for her baby may be instinctive, but harmony and productivity in community depend on respecting established laws and customs. These rules and regulations regarding property rights, marriage, truth telling, employer-employee relations, and the entire legal systems are enforced in all states by police and courts. But unless people have built in consciences that impel them to conform to the spirit and purpose of the laws, enforcement by criminal and civil procedures fails. We witness the violence, corruption, and rampant lawlessness prevailing in our society.

Like happiness, this religion thing is mainly mental and emotional. It is not so much a faith in God based on intellectual arguments or formulas promulgated by clergy, but rather a feeling of the presence of God in our lives. Does someone care how we act? Are greed, lying, anger, stealing, adultery, and cheating our neighbors repugnant to us because of an inner feeling that such acts violate the trust of our spiritual (cerebral) companion? Are the teachings of our faith functioning as caveats controlling our behavior? Do our prayers and conscience inform us about right and wrong attitudes and actions? Does our companion help us cope with the outrageous events of capricious fortune? We have a choice of walking with or without religion, but most humans elect to comprehend and apprehend this emotional and mental element in their lives. It is a more trustworthy guide than pleasure because it more often leads to unselfish love of our fellow men and women. Generosity in our social relations also bring happiness. Many people acting together on religious inner motives cause the flourishing of societies that produce material, intellectual, and spiritual cultures where abundant happiness prevails.

Where do these arguments lead us? Are religious people happier people?--generally they are not. The main argument is that one should be careful in choosing the things that make us happy. If our motives are selfish and we seek happiness by putting other people down, then the social effects of our pleasures may be negative. Some happy experiences are very harmful to our health and costly to society.

Often times peer pressures aid us in making good choices in daily living. This guidance to adhere to cultural standards of right and wrong is only effective when there are open networks of social contacts. In the United States today there fewer clubs and people attending PTAs (for example) than formerly, (to quote Professor Robert Putnam* of Harvard University in a lecture of March 19, 1994). But if we read Sharing the Journey, Support Groups and America's New Quest for Community, by Robert Wuthnow** in The Free Press, NY, NY, we see that church groups including prayer groups and Bible study are a major source of social interaction in America today. Religious people have resources that teach absolutes in moral behavior. They fraternize in societies that share these values. They understand that pleasure is not the primary objective in living.