The introduction to this essay was pretty confusing and I did not completely follow his thinking of defining our happiness as solely sexual. However, I still think I got the gist of Lewis' message. On this very controversial topic, I would argue like the majority of our class that we do not have any right to happiness in life, whether that be sexual happiness or just enjoying the sunshine.
First off, let me say that I think that we have the right to the pursuit of happiness, but not to happiness itself. To say that we have that right places an obligation on everyone else around you to give you that happiness, which is neither fair or realistic. How would you like it if you had to, at all times, make every effort without failiing to do everything in your power to make EVERYONE else happpy. Something tells me that there is no living person who wants any part of that. Although we are supposed to love our enemies, I do not think anyone wants to makes those said efforts to please the people in our lives that really grind our gears.
To take that one step further, I would argue that we do not have the right to ANYTHING, including happiness and life itself. Life is a gift from God. If God wanted to, he could end it all at any moment; we have no say in the matter. I believe that God created us with the right to happiness, and being in the Garden of Eden it would be pretty hard not to. However, from the moment sin entered the world I believe we lost all rights. God said that it is by grace that we have been saved. Everything we have has been given to us, and not because we deserve it. Like Will said in class, God wants us to be happy in Him, but I do not that means we deserve it. What have we done for God that would make us deserve anything at all from him.
In the Bible it says that we find our joy in the Lord. Nobody is stopping us from being happy (or joyful). The question I would like to consider is what is real happiness? Knowing that true happiness, like other things, comes from God, I would argue that what we believe to be "happiness," is not happiness at all but something comepletely different. So, if what I've sated is true and that happiness is only found in the Lord, and everything is a gift from God, I am confident in stating that we have no right to happiness.
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As a human being, created by God, I have a right to pursue happiness, though I may not find it in this messed up world. And yes,anyone who performs an action that directly affects my happiness is violating that right. You are free to beat me up, that is your right, but when you do, you are infringing on my right to pursue happiness, not to mention my right to live, if you kill me. You are free to take my property, but you would again be infringing on my right to pursue happiness. That is called stealing, and God has laws against that. Why? Because it would cause the person you stole from to be unhappy. Why else? God created us to live, to be free, and to enjoy life. Certainly, these things are all a gift from the creator, but it is the way he intended it to be, and therefore every single one of us should view these gifts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as a basic right of all people, given to us by God. To infringe upon any of these inalienable rights is to break God's primary command - Love your God with your whole soul, and love your nieghbor as yourself.
ReplyDeleteHow can we truly be free and how we can truly be alive, if we are not happy? It is unhappiness that has led to entire revolutions, wars, suicides, and many other terrible things. Every man woman and child has the right to pursue happiness, and by God, hopefully they will attain it. No one should question that basic human right.