Science, Religion, Politics and in the pursuit of truth – HappyPsychotic

If you are born rich, you aren’t content because you want to get out to “the real world” and be a regular person. If you are born poor, you constantly strive to be rich thinking that will bring contentment. If you are a genius you think that you over-analyze everything and are unable to simply be content like people with average intelligence. If you aren’t very bright, you believe that the cause of your discontent is because you just aren’t smart enough to do the right things. If you are destined to inherit your parents’ business (whatever it is), you don’t want it because it’s too boring (and probably too easy), while if your parents have nothing for you to inherit, that is also bothersome.

I just finished reading the book “The Book of Calamities: Five Questions About Suffering and Its Meaning” by Peter Trachtenberg and I have come up with 3 main categories to describe suffering.

I was taught from an early age that it’s a great thing to be thankful. Whether I was thanking God or thanking a person, this was a “good thing” to do. By reminding myself of all the good stuff in my life (including things we often take for granted like health, clean water, shelter etc.) I would often feel happy and content.

Who has a better life: a typical, middle-class Canadian (like you or me), or a homeless drug addict that is able to get high most of the time?

“Do you believe God is omnipotent and that people
have free will?” he asked.
“That’s standard stuff for God. So, yeah.”
“If God is omnipotent, wouldn’t he know the future?”
“Sure.”
“If God knows what the future holds, then all our choices
are already made, aren’t they? Free will must be an illusion.”
He was clever, but I wasn’t going to fall for that trap.
“God lets us determine the future ourselves, using our free
will,” I explained.
“Then you believe God doesn’t know the future?”