Happiness Is
March 25th, 2005
Dear Friends
The Science of Happiness!
Jeremy Bentham’s “cadaver, as per his instructions, was dissected,
embalmed, dressed, and placed in a chair, and to this day resides in
a cabinet in a corridor of the main building of University College
London”. His glass eye became a fun trophy for bounty hunting
students and is now stored in a vault!
Bentham a jurist and moral philosopher is regarded as the spiritual founder of the University of London. Folklore has it that his cabinet is wheeled into every Senate Committee where he continues to hold the casting vote. He is mostly known for ‘Utilitarianism’, an approach to economics which venerates as a guiding principle the maximum happiness for the maximum number of people. This humanitarian relativist view is prevalent in British political thinking and will no doubt have an impact on current electioneering.
Curiously, although our wealth has doubled over the last fifty years, measures of national ‘happiness’ remain constant! Research indicates that wealth beyond subsistence levels does not add to absolute happiness. Extra wealth is only significant to happiness when it enables us to upstage our peers! The significance of the tenth commandment is clearly much underrated by most people including those who run out of steam after the fourth! Indeed the commandments in the Old Testament and beatitudes in the New Testament are prescriptions for happiness which correlate well with the new ‘Science of Happiness’
Social scientists have established a body of research into happiness and determined that there are six factors for which there is a positive correlation to the nation’s perception of happiness. These according to Richard Layard include: i) the proportion of people who believe that others can be trusted, ii) the proportion who belong to social organizations (including churches), iii) the national divorce rate, iv) the unemployment rate, v) the quality of government and vi) believe it or not, religious belief.
Happily we have identified as our core business ‘building communities of trust, in Christ’, people who are stewards beyond the banality of economic indulgence. During this coming month the ADRA Annual Appeal to relieve poverty will make a difference to suffering millions. The way that we spend these resources will contribute to building civil societies in which happiness has the chance to become endemic.
Your faithfulness is appreciated. May God continue to bless you as you bring joy, happiness and contentment to your community.
Yours truly,
Victor Pilmoor
Treasurer