Do we deserve to be happy?

Question:Do you think it is a given right from like God that people should be happy? Or do you feel that happiness is something earned. I'm looking for a little bit of a debate here.

I feel that our entire reason for living is to once and for all be happy and content with our lives.

Please respond i would love to hear how you feel

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Do you think it is a given right from like God that people should be happy? Or do you feel that happiness is something earned. I'm looking for a little bit of a debate here.

I feel that our entire reason for living is to once and for all be happy and content with our lives.

Please respond i would love to hear how you feel

We deserve to pursue happiness.
The pursuit of happiness, liberty and equality.

Yes happiness should be universal

Baby's are born with the sin of adam and eve, we are born unhappy

Hell yes,
all people have to look forward to is dying at some point...
Be effin happy as much as you can so your life doesn't suck.

EDIT:
I think suicidal people don't look for the happy in their lives. They only see the worst parts of it. They have nothing to look forward to, like llamas and lollipops.

It's really sad because i force myself be happy on my worst days. It helps. Puppies always help.

yes, otherwise what's the point. don't worry, be happy...in the end, death is just a great equalizer, so life is what you make it...enjoy it

of course! everybody does
"noone can make you feel inferior without your consent"
--eleanor roosevelt

of course

I just see happiness as a emotion, I view all emotions as sign posts in the water. If your seeing the bad signs row your boat the other way.

yes you should be grateful and stop being depressed life is a gift given to you to see what you will do with it

God gave us free will and a mind to chage things to build I think we are ment to be happy. We have emitons and share them we are sad and we are happy. If god didnt want us to be happy he wouldnt have given us emitons.

We have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness

innocent until proven guilty

i belive everyone has a right to be happy until they do something really bad and dont make up for it

Happiness is something to be earned in a world that has fallen to sin. And as it says in the Constitution, we are entitled to the pursuit of happiness.

God gave us happiness to strengthen his greatest creation: Love.

i think god wants us to be happy and
have the time of our lives soo we can have a graet experience living because you only live once soo try to be the happyiest you can be

i dont think we have to earn it u can be happy for no reason too

i think we should start content the grow and earn our way in the world and then we should be very happy

“Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

yes everybody deserve to be happy....but the key is within yourself my friend..

Yes
No reason about it

i think everyone should be happy in there own way what makes me happy might not make you happy so define the word happy..

Its up to us to make ourselves happy and satisfied with our lives. Not god's. I do feel happiness should be earned. I really haven't understood what the meaning of life is.. alot of ppl have killed themselves due to be unhappy with their life b/c they couldn't resort to changing it. Life is filled with alot of unhappiness itself. People just need to find their happiness.

Yes, of course we deserve to be happy, but this is something that is not given to us from God or earned.

But, happiness is also all perspective. I'm very happy and content in life, but others would look at my life and question what do I have to be happy about. What I'm saying is, we have the choice to believe we are happy or not and define it for ourselves.

Long story short, I have a wonderful and caring girlfriend, a great job right out of college, a car that runs, and a great place. I'm not rich, but life is just great!

i think happiness is something you earn in life cause some people take the hard roads in life and are all down on their luck but they can be happy if they choose to. To live life being miserable is a choice!!

I think that not everyone deserves to be happy, and if God was real then he wouldn't make people with Depression genes and etc. I think it is almost like a 100ft giant asking you ( a 5 ft person) to take the ring off his finger!! It is almost impossible to achieve a realistic happiness..And plus you have to consider the different kids of hapiness...some adults are happy from just having a cup of coffee but you gotta think will this happiness define you. I think this will be a good debate!! LOL

I think that God knows what we need to do to be happy, and its up to us to make that happen, because alot of people live their life unhappy and are in sitiuations that they arent happy with at all, and some people are just to scared to change their live to be happy.. So I think that everybody knows in their heart if theyre truely happy or not and only you can make the decsions and choices or changes to make yourself happy... And people will see how much life is when youre truely happy and not just settiling in life....

The way you worded you question means someone DECIDES our happiness. I think we decide wether to be happy or not but there are constantly so many negative vibes we have to endure on a daily basis, so much that happiness only comes in little quantities. It's temporary. Contentment or satisfication is more realistic. So do we deserve to be content? Sure. It's up to you.

well some relgious philosophies are based on suffering as penence so it's a little bit different depending on your spiritual viewpoint.

here is an exeprt from the tao of pooh which helps explain my viewpoint.

Let's imagine that we have walked down a narrow street in a large Chinese city and have found a small shop that sells scrolls painted in the classic manner. We go inside and ask to be shown something allegorical - something humorous, perhaps, but with some sort of Timeless Meaning. The shopkeeper smiles. "I have just the thing,", he tells us. "A copy of The Vinegar Tasters!" He leads us to a large table and unrolls the scroll, placing it down for us to examine. "Excuse me - I must attend to something for a moment," he says, and goes into the back of the shop, leaving us alone with the painting.

Although we can see that this is a fairly recent version, we know that the original was painted long ago; just when is uncertain. But by now, the theme of the painting is well known.

We see three men standing around a vat of vinegar. Each has dipped his finger into the vinegar and has tasted it. The expression on each man's face shows his individual reaction. Since the painting is allegorical, we are to understand that these are no ordinary vinegar tasters, but are instead representatives of the "Three Teachings" of China, and that the vinegar they are sampling represents the Essence of Life. The three masters are K'ung Fu-tse (Confucius), Buddha, and Lao-tse, author of the oldest existing book of Taoism. The first has a sour look on his face, the second wears a bitter expression, but the third man is smiling.

To Kung Fu-tse (kung FOOdsuh), life seemed rather sour. He believed that the present was out step with the past, and that the government of man on earth was out of harmony with the Way of Heaven, the government of, the universe. Therefore, he emphasized reverence for the Ancestors, as well as for the ancient rituals and ceremonies in which the emperor, as the Son of Heaven, acted as intermediary between limitless heaven and limited earth. Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time. A saying was recorded about K'ung Fu-tse: "If the mat was not straight, the Master would not sit." This ought to give an indication of the extent to which things were carried out under Confucianism.

To Buddha, the second figure in the painting, life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering. The world was seen as a setter of traps, a generator of illusions, a revolving wheel of pain for all creatures. In order to find peace, the Buddhist considered it necessary to transcend "the world of dust" and reach Nirvana, literally a state of "no wind." Although the essentially optimistic attitude of the Chinese altered Buddhism considerably after it was brought in from its native India, the devout Buddhist often saw the way to Nirvana interrupted all the same by the bitter wind of everyday existence.

To Lao-tse (LAOdsuh), the harmony that naturally existed between heaven and earth from the very beginning could be found by anyone at any time, but not by following the rules of the Confucianists. As he stated in his Tao To Ching (DAO DEH JEENG), the "Tao Virtue Book," earth was in essence a reflection of heaven, run by the same laws - not by the laws of men. These laws affected not only the spinning of distant planets, but the activities of the birds in the forest and the fish in the sea. According to Lao-tse, the more man interfered with the natural balance produced and governed by the universal laws, the further away the harmony retreated into the distance. The more forcing, the more trouble. Whether heavy or fight, wet or dry, fast or slow, everything had its own nature already within it, which could not be violated without causing difficulties. When abstract and arbitrary rules were imposed from the outside, struggle was inevitable. Only then did life become sour.

To Lao-tse, the world was not a setter of traps but a teacher of valuable lessons. Its lessons needed to be learned, just as its laws needed to be followed; then all would go well. Rather than turn away from "the world of dust," Lao-tse advised others to "join the dust of the world." What he saw operating behind everything in heaven and earth he called Tao (DAO), "the Way."

A basic principle of Lao-tse's teaching was that this Way of the Universe could not be adequately described in words, and that it would be insulting both to its unlimited power and to the intelligent human mind to attempt to do so. Still, its nature could be understood, and those who cared the most about it, and the life from which it was inseparable, understood it best.

It is not a given right from God.
If God does not exist, how does a non-existent item give?

What you deserve is what you strive for. Some people spend all of their time ruining the lives of themselves and others, and end up miserable. Do they deserve to be happy? Probably not.

Most people, however, pursue happiness: earn a living, enjoy friends, and find a mate to share their lives and intimate moments. Even for them, happiness is usually momentary and fleeting; the lucky or smart ones know and appreciate it for what it is, while it lasts. Expecting to be happy all or most of the time is, for most, unrealistic.

we get what we deserve based on how we act

I believe yes, we have the right to be happy. But I also understand that happiness when it was first discussed this way, or in the constitution and so on, isn't a hedonistic modern view of: I want to eat myself happy/take drugs/get my quick fix. Happiness is the right to go through life without being abused or ripped off. Happiness is freedom to explore life, expand our minds and pursue our religions without molestation (verbal, emotional, physical, mental). So, no we don't have to earn that - but yes it can be pursued (even if that means war in some way) because, yes we do deserve it.

When the student grin is ready, the master smile will come. And there will be happiness.