From: Brian Holtz [brian@holtz.org]
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 10:40 AM
To: 'psantana@executiveprinting.ca'
Subject: RE: Christianity Debate

I don't understand how you can equivicate that "material wealth" = Happiness

I don't understand how you can write the above sentence in response to an email in which I explicitly said to you that "Freedom and prosperity don't guarantee happiness".

Really what does it mean to be Happy anyway?

I think the key word in the definitions you quote is 'satisfaction'. In my book  I define happiness as the tendency of a being to have its appetites satisfied and intentions fulfilled.
Did you know that Thomas Jefferson's first draft didn't include the word "Happiness" -he had something like "the pursuit of possesions"
The change was from "property" to "the pursuit of happiness". It's a long story, and it doesn't mean that material prosperity isn't related to happiness.
I guess the point  I am trying to make is, a lot of people think that pursuing and achieving material
wealth  will make them happier. The truth is, It doesn't.
As I said, material prosperity doesn't guarantee happiness, but you're simply mistaken to imply that material prosperity is not conducive to happiness.
I am interested to know what kind of man you are Brian.
I am interested to know why you're interested in this. I could be one of any number of kinds of men -- would that change the validity of any of my writings about the alleged divinity of your secretive danger-avoiding family-resenting faith-healing slavery-tolerating unpublished carpenter from the rural outback of a peripheral province of a pre-scientific pre-industrial regional empire?
 
What interests me about believers and non-believers is evidence that they arrived at their position by a rational process. The most interesting cases are those who established a record of rationally defending one side and then switched to the other. There are quite a few such cases of people leaving Christianity for atheism, but I've never heard of an atheist who converted to Christianity even though while still an atheist he had been well-versed in the arguments against Christianity.
Are you happy? what makes you happy? Is it your possesions?, your family?
I've never known a person to be happier than I am by the criteria that matter to me. My wealth is indeed one component of my happiness. My family is a far larger component of it. But as I mentioned in my essay about the death of my son Blake, the most important thing to me is having a have a coherent worldview built on strong values and rational principles. This is something that no gods or demons or circumstances could ever take away from me.  By contrast, you believe in a deity whose own alleged text documents his willingness to abandon humankind because of its imperfections.
The most valuable thing in this world is Time.
That's an odd thing to say for someone who allegedly believes in eternal life. I would think that a sincere belief in one's eternal life in heaven would make one indifferent to the mere blink that constitutes one's mortal lifetime, and yet also horrified at the prospect of infinite boredom/stupor in the afterlife. The traditional conception of heaven seems nonsensical if you dare to ask these questions about it.
Lastly, years ago I would never have imagined that I would be seeing the world through new eyes. But that is what the Lord did for me. Now I am truly happier than I have ever been.
Religion has been fairly described as an opiate, and I don't doubt that it can make many people feel happier than they had felt before. I just think that a more durable and authentic happiness is available through the alternative worldview of humanism.