Happiness

I quote John Galt... "Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy - a joy without penalty of guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction..." This is my definition of a moral happiness. It means that whims are thrown out the door, this is not a motto of "do whatever makes you happy" for in that case you may be into murdering, plundering, raping, drugs etc. as your means to happiness. It it worth noting here that "human good does not require human sacrifices and cannot be achieved by the sacrifice of anyone to anyone." The values a rational person upholds are reason, purpose, and self-esteem and the virtues used to maintain these are rationality, productiveness and pride. We must learn to value ourselves before we can value anyone or anything else, this is because the achievement of our own happiness is our highest moral purpose.

An obvious altruistic response to these statements goes something like... "but selfishness will only lead to evil and mindless whims!" In reality selfishness merely means 'concern with ones own interests'. The evil connotation attached to it has been produced by those whose moral agenda requires human sacrifice to achieve greater good. What this idea of happiness suggests is to not make sacrifices, and a sacrifice is merely giving up something greater for something lesser, not the way we probably typically think of sacrifice. This does not imply that there will be no giving, for instance I would not normally give up a 5 dollar bill for a 1 dollar bill as it does not make any sense to do so, however, if someone asked for 5 dollars to buy dinner for himself and I valued this man's health more than that 5 dollars than it would not be considered a sacrifice. A father willing to risk his life to save his daughter would not be a sacrifice if he valued her life more than his own. On the news they would surely say that he sacrificed himself, but that would merely be a slap in the face as he was really only fulfilling his own moral purpose.

So what does this mean when it comes to religion? It means that we look to ourselves for our own moral code, a rational code that cannot contradict anyone else who holds the same rational code, for rational men do not hold contradictory values. It means that we do not look to a 2000 year old story or the eye in the sky for direction on how to treat our fellow humans. This moral code allows for change and flux in the world such as science and environment and doesn't insist that people be stoned for things such as heresy or adultery or not being a virgin on your wedding night (all things the bible calls for). It means that we can once again value ourselves fully and that we are given a purpose "the achievement of his own happiness is man's highest moral purpose." This indeed sounds nothing like a Christian view of "purpose" but it will be this life that will be lived to the fullest and in doing so we shall make others lives better as well. I end with Galt again, "You have been using fear as your weapon and have been bringing death to man as his punishment for rejecting your morality. We offer him life as his reward for accepting ours."