Happiness

Learning about the different philosophies of thought that have existed in the past, I have become more aware of my own philosophies of human nature. The three philosophies we focused on this week were Epicurean, Stoic and Skeptic. These were all philosophies that put the spotlight on "me". They all had very different perspectives on life, but one common factor: they were all about what you had to do to make yourself happy. I was disgusted when I heard that people knowingly and openly lived their lives like this. For many of us now, we say that we live for things, but we end up just worrying about ourselves. I guess these philosophies are a very honest approach to how they will live their lives, but the followers of these beliefs lack disgust that should come along with their lifestyle. This does not surprise me because they do not believe in anything but themselves and Skeptics don't believe in anything at all. How can you not believe in anything at all if you believe in not believing? The Stoics believe that a lack of emotions will make them happy. What? Isn't happiness an emotion? How can you be emotionless and be happy at the same time? Epicureans believe that there is nothing to fear of God and death because we are just a clump of atoms that will eventually brake apart. Why would you ever want to believe this? What would be the point of life? These philosophies are awful outlooks on life. I choose to believe in God even if it is a more difficult path to follow. He is the ultimate Happiness in my life. To those who ask why God gives me hardships and why he allows me to be sad I will say that my hardships are just temporary trials and my pain is the distance that I have put between myself and God. My lack of happiness does depend what I do to make myself happy. It is this that distances me from my God and destroys my happiness.