Balance?

[James_Lai]

Hello.
So for many millennia people all over the world have strived for Happiness - absence of any kind of suffering. I can relate, as who likes to suffer?

My questions is philosophical I guess: haven’t we made a fatal mistake as a species to seek Happiness as the highest goal? Even in faith, a paradise on earth, a Utopian society of universal bliss and prosperity. In politics as well, keep everyone happy and content.

Shouldn’t we strive for Balance, as everywhere we look in God’s Creation we see that as the golden rule of operation? Wolves and hares, winter and summer, weeds and wheat… It’s never “all you can eat to your heart’s content”. It’s “you hunger today, but you eat tomorrow, so that someone else can eat today and hunger tomorrow”…

Being out of balance and believing in endless consumption for comfort and health is a delusion that brings us to the brink of extinction.

Should humanity realize they have been wrong all along? Better late than never.

What do you think??

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

I think balance is required for happiness.

 

[James_Lai]

I think balance is required for happiness.

True happiness. Which includes quite a bit of suffering.

 

[Trusting in Him]

The bible tell us that "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Perhaps expecting anything else is just wishful thinking, but what do I know? I'm almost 70 years old and I have survived many serious problems with my health, I never asked for any of them, but I have managed to be content with my lot.

What else am I supposed to be expected to do? If I am to believe that God is in control, then I guess it must be intended for a purpose and for my ultimate good. Why should I complain? Sorry, but I'm not much good at the deeply philosophical stuff!

 

[Bradskii]

Hello.
So for many millennia people all over the world have strived for Happiness - absence of any kind of suffering. I can relate, as who likes to suffer?

My questions is philosophical I guess: haven’t we made a fatal mistake as a species to seek Happiness as the highest goal? Even in faith, a paradise on earth, a Utopian society of universal bliss and prosperity. In politics as well, keep everyone happy and content.

Shouldn’t we strive for Balance, as everywhere we look in God’s Creation we see that as the golden rule of operation? Wolves and hares, winter and summer, weeds and wheat… It’s never all you can eat to your hearts content. It’s you hinger today, but you eat tomorrow, so that someone else can eat today and hunger tomorrow…

Being out of balance and believing in endless consumption for comfort and health is a delusion that brings us to the brink of extinction.

Should humanity realize they have been wrong all along? Better late than never.

What so you think??

Look at it this way. You could snap your fingers and a magnificent meal would appear to feed you and your friends. Or...you could spend all afternoon preparing food you had grown yourself, most of the evening cooking it and then sitting down with your friends to eat it.

Which would give you more satisfaction? Which would make you more content? Which would make you happier?

The things that make us happy and content are the things we strive to produce ourselves. Things that take practice. Take experience. That can sometimes be a struggle.

 

[James_Lai]

Just to add. If we lived in a world of endless and easily accessible resources and all people having equal characteristics, then maybe yes we could maybe try to pursue such goal. But in our world where everything is scarcely limited and unequal, and every living thing is interdependent on every other living thing such goal is pure suicide.

 

[expos4ever]

Shouldn’t we strive for Balance, as everywhere we look in God’s Creation we see that as the golden rule of operation? Wolves and hares, winter and summer, weeds and wheat… It’s never “all you can eat to your heart’s content”. It’s “you hunger today, but you eat tomorrow, so that someone else can eat today and hunger tomorrow”…

Scripturally, the world you describe is the fallen world - the world tainted by Adamic sin. And I believe Scripture also teaches that God is in process of redeeming the fallen world, essentially seeking to get us "back to the Garden", as it were.

I see no imperative to try to "mimic" what we see in a fallen world.

 

[expos4ever]

Look at it this way. You could snap your fingers and a magnificent meal would appear to feed you and your friends. Or...

I completely agree. However, I suggest that things like sickness, violence, pain etc could be expunged from the world without losing all the good things you refer to.

 

[Bradskii]

I completely agree. However, I suggest that things like sickness, violence, pain etc could be expunged from the world without losing all the good things you refer to.

It was either Aristotle or Plato (or both) that suggested that first one requires health. Then food and shelter. And then one should develop a virtuous life. A good life. Which required work, knowledge, a broadening of one's horizons. Which would lead to happiness. Better described as contentedness.

 

[James_Lai]

Look at it this way. You could snap your fingers and a magnificent meal would appear to feed you and your friends. Or...you could spend all afternoon preparing food you had grown yourself, most of the evening cooking it and then sitting down with your friends to eat it.

Which would give you more satisfaction? Which would make you more content? Which would make you happier?

The things that make us happy and content are the things we strive to produce ourselves. Things that take practice. Take experience. That can sometimes be a struggle.

I absolutely agree. Easy comes - easy goes. Super great point.

I’m trying to think about something else. Not considering the process, but the result. The whole idea of full-time and universal happiness for all regardless of how it’s achieved. It’s unattainable and unsustainable, moreover it’s suicidal

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

True happiness. Which includes quite a bit of suffering.

Here is another thought: "Suffering" is our response to facts of life. Perhaps we can modulate our response to these facts and diminish our suffering. Like Jesus said, "I have overcome the world."

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Hello.
So for many millennia people all over the world have strived for Happiness - absence of any kind of suffering. I can relate, as who likes to suffer?

My questions is philosophical I guess: haven’t we made a fatal mistake as a species to seek Happiness as the highest goal? Even in faith, a paradise on earth, a Utopian society of universal bliss and prosperity. In politics as well, keep everyone happy and content.

Shouldn’t we strive for Balance, as everywhere we look in God’s Creation we see that as the golden rule of operation? Wolves and hares, winter and summer, weeds and wheat… It’s never “all you can eat to your heart’s content”. It’s “you hunger today, but you eat tomorrow, so that someone else can eat today and hunger tomorrow”…

Being out of balance and believing in endless consumption for comfort and health is a delusion that brings us to the brink of extinction.

Should humanity realize they have been wrong all along? Better late than never.

What do you think??

Balance in nature is the golden rule for everything except humans. Jesus Christ of Nazareth clearly displayed suffering for others and for Himself. Are you thinking this is wrong ? Or maybe there is an even higher goal beyond the gratification of the flesh. Consider the spirit and its importance to our Father as our highest goal.
Blessings

 

[James_Lai]

Balance in nature is the golden rule for everything except humans. Jesus Christ of Nazareth clearly displayed suffering for others and for Himself. Are you thinking this is wrong ? Or maybe there is an even higher goal beyond the gratification of the flesh. Consider the spirit and its importance to our Father as our highest goal.
Blessings

The solution of Jesus of Bethlehem and Nazareth to the problem of endless consumption and inequality vs Balance was extreme form or communism and asceticism. Small population and warm subtropical climate, regionally it might have worked. Not so much here in Canada with -40C in the long winter. He also didn’t think the society would last longer than a generation (25 years) from His day until the Kingdom, so it really didn’t matter. We’re 2000 years in and counting, so we have to come up with another solution

 

[Unqualified]

The rapture.
Jesus said there would be tribulation. It’s not going to go away. I know you feel helpless with the world headed for destruction and you want to do something. What do we do to do the works of God? Believe in Him who was sent. Jesus and the apostles. You want change that only God can do.

But He has a different plan. Have faith in God, and go to heaven in the rapture. It’s only going to get worse. Biden can’t change it Trump can’t change it. But God can change you. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved from it all.

 

[CMDRExorcist]

Hello.
So for many millennia people all over the world have strived for Happiness - absence of any kind of suffering. I can relate, as who likes to suffer?

My questions is philosophical I guess: haven’t we made a fatal mistake as a species to seek Happiness as the highest goal? Even in faith, a paradise on earth, a Utopian society of universal bliss and prosperity. In politics as well, keep everyone happy and content.

Shouldn’t we strive for Balance, as everywhere we look in God’s Creation we see that as the golden rule of operation? Wolves and hares, winter and summer, weeds and wheat… It’s never “all you can eat to your heart’s content”. It’s “you hunger today, but you eat tomorrow, so that someone else can eat today and hunger tomorrow”…

Being out of balance and believing in endless consumption for comfort and health is a delusion that brings us to the brink of extinction.

Should humanity realize they have been wrong all along? Better late than never.

What do you think??

I think you make some excellent points! Anything can be bad for us if it becomes the central focus of our lives and consumes us. Even "healthy" food can become unhealthy if its consumed in excessive quantities. In much the same way, the human obsession with building happy lives and reaching the mythological "utopia" state has truly deluded many in our society. There are countless millions who believe that if we just did A, B, and C then we would all live in perpetual happiness. This line of thinking ignores the fact that suffering is a reality and is necessary because without suffering, we would not recognize the opposing side of the spectrum.

I'd love to see more recognition of the realities of the world and that we can strive to be happy but with an understanding that its impossible to be happy all the time. Pain, suffering, loss, and misery is the nature of a broken world and when we learn to exist within that understanding and lean on God to carry us, we can start to find true happiness even in the darkest times of our lives.

 

[James_Lai]

The rapture.
Jesus said there would be tribulation. It’s not going to go away. I know you feel helpless with the world headed for destruction and you want to do something. What do we do to do the works of God? Believe in Him who was sent. Jesus and the apostles. You want change that only God can do.

But He has a different plan. Have faith in God, and go to heaven in the rapture. It’s only going to get worse. Biden can’t change it Trump can’t change it. But God can change you. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved from it all.

I don’t think Rapture is a biblical teaching. Even if it were, nobody knows the day or the hour, but the Father. So it could very well be millions of years in the future.

 

[Unqualified]

See the signs of the times and the prophecies. Israel is a nation again, climate change, moving toward a world government and religion, earthquakes, war. When all these thing happen at the same time know that it is near.

 

[jayem]

Some food for thought from the most prominent religious skeptic (most would say atheist) of the 19th century:

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

Robert G. Ingersoll

 

[James_Lai]

See the signs of the times and the prophecies. Israel is a nation again, climate change, moving toward a world government and religion, earthquakes, war. When all these thing happen at the same time know that it is near.

Every century church groups declared the signs only to be proven wrong

 

[James_Lai]

Some food for thought from the most prominent religious skeptic (most would say atheist) of the 19th century:

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

Robert G. Ingersoll

Idealization of happiness is the suicidal path for humanity I think