Is happiness enough, or do we seek purpose and fulfilment?

The existence of suffering in the world has been a tremendous challenge to the idea of God’s existence. It would seem that if suffering exists, then we have a God who doesn’t care about suffering, who actual desires people to suffer, or is unable to prevent it. Can suffering be somehow reconciled with the idea of God?

The assumption here is that physical or emotional pain is somehow wrong, evil, or suboptimal. The implication is that comfort and pleasure are right, good, and optimal. However, we can easily think of ways in which we could both suffer and yet find fulfilment. In contrast, we can also think of ways that it is possible to have the best of all comforts and advantages and be distinctly unfulfilled and find no purpose or meaning.

People who work as doctors or psychologists or social workers live lives of stress where the work they do is rarely met with appreciation or gratitude. Many of them struggle to balance family and any form of social life against their highly demanding jobs. Such people could easily find less stressful work and yet something drives them to pursue these career choices.

Why? Perhaps one reason is because these same people can go to bed at night with the knowledge that they are making an impact in the world, and that what they are doing is good and worthwhile. What they fail to receive from the potentially thankless people they help, they receive existentially by the knowledge that their work has some kind of purpose. These people may rarely be in a happy mood, but they are sometimes deeply fulfilled.

Pain and fulfilment

When philosophers talk about “Existential Fulfilment” they mean that a person has found purpose and meaning in their life, such that their very existence is justified. It can reasonably be assumed that someone who experiences suffering and is living a fulfilled life is far better off than a person who is comfortable, who has access to pleasures of every sort, yet is living a restless and meaningless life.

Imagine that you could take a pill and would instantly feel happy no matter what. Pain or pleasure, success or failure, fed or starving, regardless of the circumstances, you would feel nothing but happiness. There is a certain pity to be had toward a person who is mindlessly happy without any connection to the happiness. The feeling of happiness divorced from any purpose or meaning is not desirable.

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It is worth noting at this point, that there are no stories, real or fictional, that boast an achievement or accomplishment that was not reached through a process of struggle and pain. It could be argued that triumph can only be achieved as a result of struggle. This is not merely true of fictional characters. One can think of individuals such as Helen Keller whose blindness and deafness caused her to struggle so much of her childhood, but ultimately led to her being an international celebrity, speaker, author, and activist for the disabled community – which she almost certainly wouldn’t have been had she not undergone that struggle. In fact, it would be difficult to find a great character anywhere in history that experienced no struggle which contributed to their achievements.

Perhaps an apt example of this would be the biblical story of Joseph. In this story, Joseph was born to his father’s favourite wife after her many years of heartbreak over her infertility. Because of the privileged treatment he received from his father, Joseph was verbally abused regularly, and ultimately beaten and sold into slavery by his own brothers. While in slavery, Joseph was falsely accused of rape and placed in prison. After successfully prophesying the fate of two inmates, he was not thanked, but rather forgotten for years. Finally, that act of prophecy paid off, and he became the King’s confidant and eventually second in command. As such, he administrated the land during a famine, saving millions of lives, including his family.

His rise to power and fulfilment involved a path of humiliation and suffering, but was all the sweeter by virtue of the struggle.

In the popular mind, comfort, pleasure and enjoyment might be termed “good” whilst struggle, pain and tragedy might be termed “evil,” but if these things lend purpose and existential satisfaction, then they are, in fact, beneficial in a way that comfort is not.

Why are we dissatisfied?

Human beings, no matter what kind of life they have, tend to be a restless, unhappy, and discontented lot.

Take, for instance, the story of the Siddhartha, better known as the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. According to legend, he grew up in a wealthy home where all his needs were tended to, but found himself unhappy. Casting about the world, he quickly discovered that everyone he met was unhappy. It was partially this realisation which caused him to found his new religion. When he founded Buddhism, it was in part designed to answer the question of how to satisfy the deep sense of dissatisfaction in all people. In the end, he concluded that it couldn’t be satisfied, only eliminated. Thusly, one of the central tenets of Buddhism is to force oneself to desire nothing at all.

One would think that if humans formed in, evolved through, and constantly adapt to their environment, that contentment would be the status quo. How is it that human beings are not

satisfied with this world if they have known no other world? How do humans recognise that something about the world is wrong when they know of no right?

From whence does this sense of longing come, and more importantly, what in the world could satisfy it? The answer is clearly nothing in the world can. No matter how hard they look, people cannot find the missing thing that would once and for all satisfy them.

Human beings recognize that they have needs and longings which no material thing seems to satisfy. The complaint of the problem of suffering might be stated as “why do bad things happen?” Perhaps an even deeper question would be, “why don’t good things satisfy?”

What do humans really need?

In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow wrote a paper entitled “A theory of human motivation.” In this paper he proposed his now-famous “Hierarchy of needs.” What Maslow said is that human beings begin with a very basic set of needs that they pursue in order to live. These include such things as hunger, thirst, and physical comfort. Once these immediate needs are met, they pursue more long-term needs such as safety and security. The third tier of needs Maslow suggests includes love and belonging. Fourthly, an individual would pursue respect and accomplishment. Finally they would seek out things such as philosophy, knowledge, and wisdom.

In all likelihood, Maslow would have considered things like religion and spirituality to belong to this final tier of human needs, making them the most expendable of all the needs a person might have.

The Bible appears to have the opposite view. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses instructs the new generation of Israelites with these words:

“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna… that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3, ESV)

Later, Jesus quotes this same passage when responding to Satan’s temptation to break his fasting by turning the stones to bread.

In fact, the practice of fasting itself, recommended throughout the Bible, is a blatant denial of the Maslow Hierarchy. What the Bible seems to suggest is that spiritual needs are superior to physical needs so that physical needs must be placed in subjection to them.

While this may seem topsy-turvy, it makes a great deal more sense when one considers that, no matter how effective a person is in meeting their physical needs, they will still inevitably die. There is no amount of food, water, comfort or safety that can eliminate the possibility of death; these things can only delay it. However, if Jesus’ teachings are correct, then the meeting of spiritual needs affords a person eternal life beyond death.

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Additionally, it is questionable that, even if a person were to rise to the top of Maslow’s hierarchy, they would ever truly be satisfied. The author of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes walks the reader through his pursuit of existential satisfaction. He tried physical pleasure - living a life of

hedonism; he tried vocational pleasure - gaining wealth and accomplishing great building projects that brought him fame; and he tried mental and spiritual satisfaction - studying and becoming renowned for his wisdom. After accomplishing every stage of Maslow’s Hierarchy, he found it all to be meaningless and unfulfilling.

The search to meet these physical needs may, in fact, be a catalyst that brings people in search of God in the first place. As an example of this, consider this passage from the book of Matthew:

“And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.” (Matthew 9:2-8 ESV)

Presumably the purpose for which the people brought the paralytic to Christ was not to have his sins forgiven, but rather for him to be healed. Jesus, instead, put the priorities in their proper perspective by forgiving the sin for the eternal net benefit of the paralytic, rather than healing his paralysis, which was a temporary benefit at best. It was only when they questioned his authority to forgive sins that Jesus healed the man, doing so to prove his authority, and, as is fitting, the people who saw it “glorified God, which had given such authority to men.” Thus, the man’s suffering served the ultimate purpose of glorifying God.

In fact, a strong argument could be made that people are brought to knowledge of God most frequently through suffering. The case of the paralytic is a good example. This man came to Jesus because of his suffering, an act that resulted in eternal rewards: a net gain for his suffering. The Gospels and the book of Acts are packed with such examples of people in suffering who, by seeking relief, came to saving knowledge in Jesus.

But one need not turn to the Gospels to see examples of this. Ask any Christian to give you their testimony and, in many cases, they will cite an example of suffering that brought them into union – or a closer relationship – with God.

Joel Furches is an apologist, journalist and researcher on conversion and deconversion, based in the USA.