Why "maybe" and why "some mode"?
Are you actually being serious here?
I'm being serious, but also consider to whom my post (#12) was addressed, DH.
Why wouldn't an atheist be just happy, full stop? Why must it be "maybe" and "some mode" - as if the happiness experienced by an atheist is somehow different from the happiness experienced by a theist.
When a loved one dies, don't we all cry?
When something funny happens, don't we all laugh?
When fortune crosses our path, don't we all rejoice?
When we are happy with how our lives progress, aren't we all happy?
Do these words mean something different if you are a theist or an atheist?
I'm sure that atheists, like other human beings, find aspects of life that make them "happy," whatever that is for each person as an individual.
I'm sorry man, but you simply aren't going to convince me that "jesus christ" is your source of happiness.
Well, I wasn't writing to convince others that Jesus can be
a source of happiness. I was writing to disagree with the OP. But since you've brought it up and we're on the topic, I'll just say that my view on happiness is that it is more of a mood that comes and goes depending upon one's situation on a day by day basis, and from a Christian perspective, happiness is distinct from the concept of "joy" as affirmed by the New Testament writers. So, in a certain sense, you're right: Atheists can have happiness in various ways just like Christians have happiness in various ways. But, to have the hope of tasting some "joy" which is forward looking even, that does take Jesus.
When your family perishes in some accident, are you going to be "happy" cause "jesus", or are you going to be sad because your family just got killed?
Of course, I'd be sad, maybe even traumatized for some period. But the Christian has an inner hope that transcends the calamities of life and which can still allow for joy, if not today, then in the future, and this can be the case even though the emotions must be crushing in circumstances surrounding a fatal accident.
If your wife gives birth to a lovely child, are you happy cause "jesus", or are you rather happy because... well, your wife just gave birth to a lovely healthy child?
Sure. But as a Christian, one sees most things in life within a metaphysical, theological context. So while both you and I will say that we were both feeling ecstatically happy when our children were born, especially if they were healthy, there is still a qualifiable expectation that is built into my happiness if I think that God has something to do with the birth of my child as well as with the possibility that I'll actually get to be with him forever and not just for however long in this lifetime.
Jesus doesn't matter in such things. You'ld be happy with your child, regardless of your religious beliefs. Case in point: I cried from happiness when my son was born. I didn't require any gods to be so moved by that experience. Neither do you.
True, no one needs a 'god' to be emotionally moved, but one does need Jesus--in all that entails in a biblical context--to see the experiences of life on a grander scale of value, beyond just the usual daily levels of experienced happiness that come as expressions of the values that most of us have.
