Six and a Half Billion Human Minds at Play?

[Robban]

Could one definition be, if joy is at the giving end then happiness is at the recieving end.

 

[Glass*Soul]

I agree with Marks definition of happiness, and would suggest that joy is the more transient experience, though no less real.

There used to be an in-house christian joke in the UK about people who claimed to have the "joy of the Lord" but seemed on the surface quite miserable. It was something along the lines of "his/her joy is so deep it's invisible". I know people like that, and it is kind of sad. They will say that there is a spiritual christian joy which is beyond the comprehension of other mortals whilst finding it impossible to see anything good about the world we live in.

Personally I believe that joy exists and that everybody can experience it regardless of religious or non-religious beliefs. Joy I would define as an ecstatic sense of aliveness that, as implied in CS Lewis's book title "Surprised By Joy" can emerge out of nowhere when we are in the habit of looking in anticipation at the world around us. I've not had that sense very often at all, and never, unlike CS Lewis, when I was a christian.

When I see (and have in the past experienced) the tendency of some evangelical worship services to be emotion-triggering rah-rah events I have to question the claim of any deep-seated joy amongst the practitioners. It seems to me that a deep-seated joy would require at most an occasional quiet reminder.

But then, as an introvert, I don't need much to pique my emotions. Maybe more extroverted people need their surroundings churned into an emotional froth before they feel anything significant. I just know that I will be staying away in future.

 

[bling]

An alienation from their existence as human beings. A wishing they were somewhere else or something else, which is counter-flourishing and, not coincidentally, counter-happiness.



One can and should have both, not make a tradeoff. It's like shooting oneself in one foot, and then saying: "Oh, but my other foot works great!"


eudaimonia,

Mark

The reason we are not “happy” in this world or with this world is because we feel other’s pain of the innocent suffering. This is not our home or our rest. To be “happy” we have to be where there are no innocent suffering.
Joy on the other hand has to do with purpose, serving others, allowing the indwelling Holy Spirit to be our partner. Feeling the presence of Christ, learning more about God, and spiritually growing.