And trickier still is a more philosophical question of whether the purpose of faith is to make you happy. “That’s a Western, modern aberration of religion – what sociologist, Christian Smith calls ‘moralistic, therapeutic deism,’” says Phil Reinders, pastor at River Park Christian Reformed Church in Calgary, Alta. “I advise people, ‘Don’t come for happiness. Yes, you’ll find the deepest existential joy you can know, but as a by-product of something bigger, a worldview that makes sense of injustice and evil, that makes joy plausible within the onslaught of irritations, struggles and wrongs of today.’”
from "Happiness and the God spot" by Sarah Hampton
Globe and Mail, Dec 12, 2010
