Happiness, Joy, and Fulfillment With and Without Religion

Many people recognize that others can be happy without any sort of recognizable religion. To deny this may prove comforting to those want to persuade others of the virtues of religion in general or Christianity in particular, but such denial flies in the face of reality. People without religion can be happy, experience joy, and feel fulfilled.

Some people, who live their lives devoid of religion, manage to skate through life without noteworthy loss, hardship, pain, or emotional misery. Although everyone suffers occasionally, for example from a toothache, good health, fulfilling marriages, relationships with children, and supportive friendships may insulate even the most profane and irreligious person from unhappiness. But their happiness may eventually crumble on the altar of despair and a sense of meaninglessness. Does it always? No. Is it possible and even likely as they approach death? Yes.

Research, much of it centered on Christianity, has demonstrated that people with an active religious life are generally happier and live longer than those without one. The opening of the first Psalm in the Old Testament is sometimes translated as, “Happy is the one who . . .” But as theologian Leon Morris pointed out, a better translation would be, “Blessed is the one who . . .” Many Christians acknowledge that someone can be happy without God, but they question whether that person can be blessed, especially as the curtain of life begins to come down.

To feel secure, people need air, water, and food. They also need clothing to keep them warm and shelter from the elements, particularly if they live in parts of the world that are especially cold or hot. Being free from pain and not having to worry about a chronic disease also enhances one’s sense of security, as does feeling safe from potential harm. And, as social creatures, many people need companionship, intimacy, and the periodic release of sexual tension within the context of a sound relationship.

For many people, whatever sense of security they enjoy is temporary. Nearing death, those who have been happy throughout life may become frightened about the future and worry about what happens when they die. This can lead them to begin to feel massively insecure. Death ends all human conversation. It terminates relationships and cuts off the possibility of ever again giving or receiving human love, all of which can be terrifying.

A lot of people assume that money brings happiness, but there is actually no relationship between wealth and happiness, which seems counterintuitive. Research has consistently shown, however, that once people get very far above the poverty line, there is little or no correlation between net worth or income, on one hand, and happiness on the other. People in modest circumstances may be just as happy, and sometimes more so, than those who live in opulence. We quickly adjust our expectations. Someone who wins the lottery may soon become used to a higher standard of living, which now becomes their new level of expectation.

Wealth can provide pleasures beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, but it cannot stop the rich from dying. Because of superior medical care and the avoidance of occupational risks and the physical prices one pays for working hard, wealthy people sometimes live longer. Although their financial resources may put death off for a while, however, it cannot not do so indefinitely. Like everyone else, they die. Death has been called a solo sport. Naked came I into the world, and naked will I depart from it. Christians believe that, regardless of how much they dread or fear death, dying in Christ is their only true and lasting security.

In addition to security, people also need significance. Even if we enjoy relative security, the absence of a sense of personal significance can leave us feeling empty and without purpose. We may become despondent, rejected, and dejected, as we ask ourselves, “Is that all there is?”

I once heard someone report that he had been sitting on a plane, in the row directly behind a prominent and influential person, and couldn’t help but hear the conversation between the man and his wife. The husband had been an advisor to United States presidents and was complaining that he no longer felt relevant, that his views were important and his advice still sought. Even the famous can become depressed when they no longer feel their lives are significant.

Like security, the sense that one’s life is important can be fleeting. It isn’t always, but this is a common enough malady to raise the question of where and how significance can be found.

The Christian answer is, by actively participating to further the kingdom of God. This kingdom, according to theologians, is both “already and not yet.” Christ inaugurated it and it is the Christian’s job to continue to build it. That and only that will provide the lasting significance we instinctively crave.