Making Sense Of God - Timothy KellerSample

“What Should We Do To Be Happy?”

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book The Happiness Hypothesis provides a historical survey of thinking about happiness. He begins his chapter with a book of the Bible we have just looked at, Ecclesiastes. The author writes: “A person can do nothing better than to... find satisfaction in their own toil” (Ecclesiastes 2:24), but that is exactly what eludes him. He describes a life of accomplishment that very few achieve.

"I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards... I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. . . . I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure." (Ecclesiastes 2:4,8,10)

Nevertheless, he says, “I hated life... My heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:17,20) Haidt summarizes, “The author of Ecclesiastes wasn’t just battling the fear of meaninglessness; he was battling the disappointment of success... Nothing brought satisfaction.”
This is an abiding human problem, and there is plenty of modern empirical research that backs it up. Studies find a very weak correlation between wealth and contentment, and the more prosperous a society grows, the more common is depression. The things that human beings think will bring fulfillment and contentment don’t. What should we do, then, to be happy?

Haidt takes a very modern attitude toward our ancestors. He says we can agree with any wisdom from the past that is backed by empirical research. The ancients warn us about the disappointment of over-acquisitiveness, and the social science confirms that, he says.

But what Haidt describes as modern culture’s operational “happiness hypothesis” is only a slightly chastened version of what the author of Ecclesiastes was trying to do. While warning against overdoing it, modern culture encourages its members to find satisfaction through active efforts to change our lives, not to just accept life as it is.

Excerpt from Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical by Timothy Keller

Reprinted by arrangement with Viking Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright © 2016 by Timothy Keller