Can we create a heaven on earth? Here’s some thoughts I had on this issue that seemed a bit too “academic sounding” to include in The Myth of Happiness, but I thought I’d post here as a sort of “deleted scene” from my book:

I am struck that, ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, people have always been trying to create heaven on earth. A utopia in which every individual is happy and content. Philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz argued, “The most perfect society is that whose purpose is the universal and supreme happiness.”

Karl Marx’s socialism promised satisfaction for the masses through social and economic equality. But, looking back on the carnage of communist regimes, socialism was only able to produce unhappy, drab societies.

So too, the age of science proposed a perfect world through technological progress. But, scientific advancements have done little more than complicate our lives and let us anesthetize the problems that science can’t solve.

What’s more, the “free love” movement of the 1960s claimed newfound sexual freedom, but only produced joyless, unfulfilled Baby Boomers instead.

It’s not just non-believers either. The church historically tended to focus on earthly happiness at the expense of God’s plans. Even back in the early 19th century, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville observed this tendency. He wrote in his classic work Democracy in America, “Preachers in America are continually coming down to earth. Indeed they find it difficult to take their eyes off it…It is often difficult to be sure when listening to them whether the main object of religion is to [obtain joy] in the next world or prosperity in this.”

Sadly, I see the same thing cropping up today. In order to be relevant to the postmodern world, many church movements focus on happiness, earthly satisfaction, and personal fulfillment. I am reminded of driving down I-25 in Englewood, Colorado years ago. Right beside the highway was a sign for “The Happy Church”, complete with a big yellow smiley face painted on the side of the building. Not to be outdone, some Christians go further and proclaim the so-called “health and wealth gospel”; they believe that God will always reward his faithful with good health and riches. The truth is that any teaching preoccupied with the here and now will replace joy with happiness as a central tenant of the faith.

But, when I leave out God of my utopian plans or pack too much earth into my theology, the result is a dead-end street. “All [happiness] begins pleasantly,” Thomas a Kempis once said, “But at the end it gnaws and kills.” Joy is the missing link to these heaven-wannabes.

Originally posted on Digitalwalk.net