Is it OK to be truly happy living in a world where more than 9,500 innocent children starve to death each and every day?

[Gricken]

Is there something in that image that you find bothersome?

I think it is your use of it he is objecting to. All you’ve done is post images and yell “starvation” It isn’t a discussion, it’s just talking points to make us feel a certain way.

 

[snootycat]

Help where you can. Love those around you. Stewardship to help the oppressed in your area,
and pray everyday for changes you can make for the good. I pray for clarity of mind, and for the strength to help whenever I can. To take on the guilt of the world is enormous and it does your spiritual health harm.

 

[pnewton]

I think it is your use of it he is objecting to. All you’ve done is post images and yell “starvation” It isn’t a discussion, it’s just talking points to make us feel a certain way.

I object to childish games, but fixed that issue. I will be happy to discuss this interesting topic with those capable of intelligent discussion.

 

[dlong241950]

There is, indeed, a kind of happiness which is possible in this world of sorrow. But it is a difficult happiness to achieve. To put is simply, the secret to being happy is not to desire to be happy. “Whoever hates his life in this world will inherit eternal Life.”

Our parish priest recently explained to everyone there at a Sunday Mass the meaning of “hate” as part of a homily. I had some questions about it and he answered it beautifully.

The word “hate” from those times, as used by Jesus to describe relationships with mother, father, brother, sister and self, simply meant to love less or place a lesser priority to those relationships. That is, if you love those relationships more than with God, it is impossible to inherit, and be placed in, the kingdom. Hope that I remembered the essence of the words of Scripture. The quote from Quoleth is good in saying that one is not to desire to be happy.

I agree with some of the other contributors. It’s really horrible to read the daily headlines and feel helpless do do much, but we should strive to reach out to others where we can and make their lives a bit less hurtful. There are endless things we can do to make big differences in small ways.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

If so, how do you reason?

Don’t forget the millions killed by abortion.

ArchBishop Fulton J. Sheen said that all people strive for happiness. Was he wrong?

 

[Robertanthony]

Starvation!

Being only concerned with one’s own welfare and that of one’s immediate loved ones (wife and children) is a sort of selfishness. The life of 1 American is worth infinitely more than the life of someone who lives in an economically insignificant country. Your worth is measured by your affluence, by the affluence of the society you live in. If 3000 people in Bangladesh died today, you’d hear about it for 3 days on CNN, same scenario over here (in North America, especially the USA) and you’ll hear about it every year on the date that it happened. This indifference is a rehearsal for Heaven when we’ll be so immersed in our own bliss that those who are left outside, gnashing their teeth won’t bother us one bit.

 

[Robertanthony]

There is, indeed, a kind of happiness which is possible in this world of sorrow. But it is a difficult happiness to achieve. To put is simply, the secret to being happy is not to desire to be happy. “Whoever hates his life in this world will inherit eternal Life.”

I make no disguise of the fact that I am an extreme pessimist. I see mortal life as a bitter exile, a continual war, a shadow, etc. I see all our knowledge as ungrounded, and all human endeavours as futile vanities. Yet, I am also more or less completely happy.

**Every human being has exactly the same amount of pain in their life/**B]- for the child who starves to death, it is a short but intense pain. For the person who lives to 90 it is a slow dull ache of boredom, failure and decline. But, on the bright side, it will all be forgotten, once Charon guides us across the Styx, and we drink of the river of Lethe, inebriated with the blessed nectar of oblivion, before entering into the Celestial Paradise with Christ, the Blessed Virgin, St. Francis, the Seraphim, the Houris and the Absolute Form of the Good, for companians. This is the real Life. Either that, or its universal peaceful non-being. Which would also be OK…

So, while it is bad the people die of starvation- pain in life are inevitable. They just vary their forms. There is no sense in being upset about the inevitable. At least, it doesn’t last forever. “Rather than the living, I salute the dead. Happier yet is he who has never been born.” And, if we don’t fear death, why fear suffering (apart from the temporary unpleasantness)?

If we recognise life for what it is- a three day conjuror’s show, or a sojourn of the soul’s in the tomb of the body, a cup of bitter medicine to drink- then death becomes a tremendous boon, and existence becomes a ‘piece of cake’.

(About the bolded part) You’re frigging kidding, right? I’ll agree with you, though, that it’s best not to be born. But some people are massively happier than others, the sums of their happiness are vastly different.

 

[Robertanthony]

Don’t forget the millions killed by abortion.

ArchBishop Fulton J. Sheen said that all people strive for happiness. Was he wrong?

Jeremiah 20: 14-18 Not getting a chance to live is no great loss. Life is so overrated. Jeremiah is right. Although abortion is brutal, it’s still best not to be born. You want to keep people from going to a bad place (this “awesome” life), you don’t want to do everything in your power to get them to taste the bitterness and misery of life. Tangentially, I’ve never understood why a prescient God insists on bringing into this world people who don’t want to be around. It’s one of life’s life great mysteries: God allows a child who loves life and wants nothing but to live to get a fatal cancer, and keeps someone who curses the day he was born alive well into his 70’s. An awesome God, I tell ya.

 

[tonyrey]

Help where you can. Love those around you. Stewardship to help the oppressed in your area,
and pray everyday for changes you can make for the good. I pray for clarity of mind, and for the strength to help whenever I can. To take on the guilt of the world is enormous and it does your spiritual health harm.

“Help where you can” are the key words.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[inocente]

Starvation!

You exploit those children by posting their images. They need our help, and you use them to make a tawdry philosophical point. Cite any aid agency which can use your sad philosophizing to feed the hungry.

Christ gives crystal clear instructions on filling bellies, instructions which say nothing of self indulgent theorizing but only of action:

‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

 

[Robert_Sock]

You exploit those children by posting their images. They need our help, and you use them to make a tawdry philosophical point. Cite any aid agency which can use your sad philosophizing to feed the hungry.

Christ gives crystal clear instructions on filling bellies, instructions which say nothing of self indulgent theorizing but only of action:

‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

I do not know what you’re talking about. I used these images to enhance the dark reality of the problem. Too often all we see are statistics on paper which dehumanize these poor souls.

 

[Robert_Sock]

I personally feel LOVE, which is far above the experience of happiness. The ‘yes’ sayers can have all my happiness just as long as I get all their LOVE.

Think about Christ for a moment: Christ’s message is anything but about happiness, but about LOVE.

 

[ephesians4]

If we could not legitimately be happy when there was tragedy in the world, legitimate happiness would be impossible for all time.

Therefore, if you can find any suggestion in the bible or the teachings of the church that say you should be glad, or be happy at any time at all, the answer must logically be yes, it is OK.

Which is not to detract from the idea you can feel compassion for others, or help them - human beings are complex creatures after all, these things are possible all in the same person.

Just my personal thought on it, nothing more.

 

[Robert_Sock]

If we could not legitimately be happy when there was tragedy in the world, legitimate happiness would be impossible for all time.

Therefore, if you can find any suggestion in the bible or the teachings of the church that say you should be glad, or be happy at any time at all, the answer must logically be yes, it is OK.

My idea of not being happy is dependent upon a controllable and preventable event (starvation), and not all tragedies per se.

 

[Qoeleth]

(About the bolded part) You’re frigging kidding, right? I’ll agree with you, though, that it’s best not to be born. But some people are massively happier than others, the sums of their happiness are vastly different.

To be honest, I am not sure if I am kidding or not. I tend to use philosophy as a kind of drug, to escape the pain of life, and to stop my heart breaking at the world around me. I generally work on trying to achieve a kind of abstracted indifference. Sometimes it kind of works, but I make no truth claims.

It helps to promote Stoic or Buddhist calmness, by asserting that every one has the some share of pain- that we all get the same cup to drink, since we are all guilty of the same Original Sin. Perhaps it’s true. It’s a nice line, anyway. How the hell should I know?

 

[ephesians4]

My idea of not being happy is dependent upon a controllable and preventable event (starvation), and not all tragedies per se.

It does not change anything as regards the point, however, as tragedy due to controllable and preventable events will itself be ongoing in a world filled with millions of other human beings who have free will.

This is certainly not a reason to stand by and let it all happen, by any means, but if we were forbidden from being truly happy while controllable, preventable bad things happen, we would be effectively forbidden from being truly happy forever.

 

[ffg]

I have not seen, nor do I see how you can connect a sad state for one (or many) human’s being the cause for fault in another, due to the other human’s not-as-sad state.

From the little back and forth, I’m not hopeful to see the support.

 

[tonyrey]

Jeremiah 20: 14-18 Not getting a chance to live is no great loss. Life is so overrated. Jeremiah is right. Although abortion is brutal, it’s still best not to be born. You want to keep people from going to a bad place (this “awesome” life), you don’t want to do everything in your power to get them to taste the bitterness and misery of life. Tangentially, I’ve never understood why a prescient God insists on bringing into this world people who don’t want to be around. It’s one of life’s life great mysteries: God allows a child who loves life and wants nothing but to live to get a fatal cancer, and keeps someone who curses the day he was born alive well into his 70’s. An awesome God, I tell ya.

Our notion of God reveals our values - or lack of them…

 

[tonyrey]

It does not change anything as regards the point, however, as tragedy due to controllable and preventable events will itself be ongoing in a world filled with millions of other human beings who have free will.

This is certainly not a reason to stand by and let it all happen, by any means, but if we were forbidden from being truly happy while controllable, preventable bad things happen, we would be effectively forbidden from being truly happy forever.

Good point!

 

[tonyrey]

To be honest, I am not sure if I am kidding or not. I tend to use philosophy as a kind of drug, to escape the pain of life, and to stop my heart breaking at the world around me. I generally work on trying to achieve a kind of abstracted indifference. Sometimes it kind of works, but I make no truth claims.

It helps to promote Stoic or Buddhist calmness, by asserting that every one has the some share of pain- that we all get the same cup to drink, since we are all guilty of the same Original Sin. Perhaps it’s true. It’s a nice line, anyway. How the hell should I know?

NB:

**CCC **405 Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants.