Agony! Misery! Woe!

According to Thomas C. Reeves, atheists are unhappy:

Thirdly, a life without divine inspiration, consolation, and hope often leads to rage and despair rather than happiness. I have experienced this myself and know that many others have also.

This reminded me that, in my vocational reading, Christians are sure that Jews are unhappy:

"I can scarcely write for weeping: often I spend the night-watches restless, and watering my couch with my tears.  I am in a strait of bitter darkness--darkness which may be felt.  I know not the way of salvation.  In the Talmud I have no faith--I can have no faith.  The more I read the lovely Scripture, the more clearly do I perceive that that book is altogether a fabrication of man.  I can believe nothing else; nay, more, I feel that for worlds I could not insult God by imputing it to him, or supposing that he had anything to do with its being written.  And the Mosaic law I cannot fulfil; it is impossible to me and all my nation.  Lord, help me and save me! O that thou wouldst take compassion on my woeful state, and teach me what to do.["]*

Of course, being Christian isn't always conducive to peace of mind.  Catholics are always unhappy:

He was very weary of the life he lived, and had lived, these many years; he was tired and heart-sick, thinking of all his labour in vain.  He was hopeless, too, of a better time to come; his sun had set, he told himself; his star had sunk below the horizon never more to reappear; he had eaten, and his soul was not satisfied, for the Dead Sea fruits of his own gathering were as dust and ashes to his lips.  He was so weary that for a moment he envied the still repose of the newly-departed, lying there so peacefully, so perfectly at rest. But only for a moment, for Fabian knew well enough that death--as we mortals call the wonderful transition--is only a change of worlds! And he dreaded, he scarcely knew why, to approach that dark portal which leads into the unknown lands beyond the grave...**

Then again, being an Anglo-Catholic doesn't bring much in the way of improvement:

...Could this be he who was once so joyous, delighting in the happiness of others--so generously sympathising with the sorrow of the old and young, of rich and poor?...Could it be the same, who now, exhausted by the wrestling we have described, sat leaning back against the chair, his burning brow resting on his cold hand; his face so pale, his figure bent, and thin almost to emaciation?...He had bound himself over to a servitude which fettered him, body, soul, and spirit.  His body was enchained by a discipline which weakened its energies; his soul by ordinances which darkened his understanding; and his spirit by traditions as false as they were fatal; so that its faith was no longer free, for it was entangled in the "yoke of bondage." [...]***

But don't worry--Roman Catholics also play the unhappiness card:

We have conversed often with Protestant friends, cultivated, intelligent people, who were well informed on every subject, except that of the Catholic religion, and we have listened to their discussions, so full of doubt and uncertainty, until our heart has yearned over them with an unspeakable pity, and we have never failed to hear the oft-repeated, concluding refrain: "We cannot understand it altogether, there are many contradictions; there seems to be something wanting, whatever it may, and we do not feel altogether satisfied, but we have been taught to believe so and so; and, as we have the Bible for our rule of faith, the fault is probably in ourselves, for you know that what the Bible teaches must be true." [...]****

I once read an interview with Graham Greene--one of the interviews in The Portable Graham Greene--in which the interviewer asks Greene if he's "happy."  His response, as I recall: "Not really.  Who is?" 

*--Osborn W. Trenery Heighway, Leila Ada, the Jewish Convert.  An Authentic Memoir (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, [1853]), 41.  Originally published in Britain. 

**--Emma Jane Worboise, Father Fabian.  The Monk of Malham Tower, 20th ed. (London: James Clarke & Co., [1876]), 391.  Fabian will semi-deconvert a few paragraphs later.

***--Charlotte Anley, Earlswood: A Tale for the Times, and All Time (London: Thomas Hatchard, 1853), 173-74. 

****--Anna H. Dorsey, The Flemmings: A True Story (1869; New York: Arno Press, 1978), v.

Comments

[Ahistoricality]

Fantastic! "Manufactured discontent" is nothing new, of course, but the circularity of it is lovely.

[F. John Perry]

It is odd that these interesting excerpts were presented to us due to the prompting of Mr.Reeves article; upon viewing, it is found to be appallingly shallow. But some good generally flows from even the worst of works.

[Bourgeois Nerd]

I love how just because HE was unhappy, ALL atheists are unhappy. Even if you were a completely uneducated and unreflective boob, wouldn't that strike you as a bit of a leap? I wonder how happy he REALLY is, now.

[Bob]

Well, in a real sense, it's true that atheists *are* more unhappy than Christians. Life stinks a lot of the time. I don't have enough time or money to live in a decently human way. The U.S. is being taken over by fascists, more or less, and global warming may destroy us. And personally, as I get older and my defenses wither, I have lot more anxiety than I used to. If I were a Christian, my illusions would make me a lot more confident that all will turn out well. But such is realism: in fact, there is a good deal to be unhappy about.