the pursuit of happiness by Kevin Rogers
February 13, 2025
Date/Time
Date(s) - 13/02/2025
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Location
Online
Categories
Our first Reasonable Faith Adelaide (RFA) meeting for 2025 will be on “The pursuit of happiness” by Kevin Rogers. This meeting will start at 7 pm, on Thursday, the 13th February. You can participate in RFA meetings via ZOOM. Please click on the following link to join the meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/78515108298?pwd=ma6A3gTzF6FbREsgtLSyojNgRedn5P.1
If prompted, the Meeting ID is 785 1510 8298 and the Passcode is 372621.
If you would like to notified of our meetings, please subscribe to our meeting announcements at https://reasonablefaithadelaide.org.au/ or send me a request via kevin@reasonablefaithadelaide.org.au.
Just after the start of the war of independence between America and Britain, 13 states within America published the Declaration of Independence, which contained the following historic statement:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. “
This defined what the 13 states were fighting for and was a noble aim. So, one of their aims was to grant their citizens the right to pursue happiness, whatever that might be. Most people want to be happy.
Most people aim to maximize happiness in this life, which could include things like
- Good health,
- Freedom from pain,
- A long life,
- A loving marriage and family life,
- A lot of friends,
- Interesting and secure employment,
- Wealth, or
- Holidays, etc.
However, we all frequently encounter events that muck up our happiness and our path heads towards degradation, aging and death, which spells the end of our happiness.
Regarding wealth, it is often stated that “You can’t take it with you.”. That is true and so a common wisdom now is that we should go on SKI trips spending our kids’ inheritance. The irony is that you can’t take your holidays with you neither. All of that too becomes meaningless.
Genuine Christianity is counter-cultural and turns the whole process of happiness (or joy) on its head. It answers the problem of death and provides joy and meaning in the face of suffering. That kind of happiness is worth pursuing.
Dr Kevin Rogers
Dr Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. After a 40-year engineering career, he was a Research Fellow and lecturer with the University of South Australia but is now mainly retired, but still with plenty to do.
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