When Aristotle thought about what the greatest good was, he determined that it was for humans to achieve eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is basically the ancient Greek way of saying human flourishing, or living well or to put it simply, the good life. Now, Aristotle was not the first or the only philosopher to advocate for eudaimonia being the greatest good of human life. Many philosophers and philosophies, in fact, almost all of philosophy, advocates some system that will allow people to achieve eudaimonia. Aristotle thought it had something to do with virtue, but not entirely. The Stoics from which we get the word stoic thought that achieving eudaimonia came when you stopped striving against the universe and accepted life with all its ups and downs as it comes essentially narcotizing emotion and trying to live above the fray. The Epicureans and Hedonists thought you could get eudaimonia through pleasure. And there have been infinite variations of this, coming down to the day in which we live.

Why? Why are philosophers and thinkers so concerned with how to not only live, but experience the good life? Well, pretty obviously, because people want to live a good life. People, being fundamentally self-centered and self-interested, want to flourish. And the thing is that most of the great philosophies kinda get it right well, they get parts right.

But the thing that they get most right, the thing that all philosophies rightly recognize is that people want to flourish they want the good life. Aye, theres the rub: How to get it?

Well, lets look at SCIENCE and DATA and FACTS! I know that those are things that people talk about with hushed and holy voices when they arent shouting them at their political opponents. Well, a recent poll from Gallup demonstrates that in the year 2020, all classes of Americans had fewer members who rated their mental well-being as excellent. In fact, Americans self-diagnosis of mental health took significant hits. All groups are doing worse.

Well, not ALL groups. Some groups are actually doing better. Well, one group. One group is doing better. People who go to religious services EVERY WEEK are actually doing better. While other groups are losing 8-10% of their population from the excellent category seriously religious people are actually UP 4%!

Does this mean that becoming religious will make you happy? No. Does this prove the claims of Christianity? No. But it does seem to demonstrate what Christians have said for a long time since always we were made to worship God. We can only achieve our telos our purpose by worshipping the one true God. Real fulfillment in life comes from a life of worship, a life dedicated to Christ.

If you really want the good life, if you really want eudaimonia, then fulfill the purpose for which you were created: Live for Christ! Nothing else is worth dying for; nothing else is worth living for nothing else is really worth anything.

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How to be happy | | bryantimes.com - The Bryan Times