Do I Need to Believe in God to be Happy?
My father was a Christian minister, so I grew up around people who were convinced of God’s existence. Most of them were so convinced of His existence that they even worshipped this God that they believed created, protected, and loved them.1
My formative years were spent deeply immersed in the Protestant faith. My parents were committed to Christ and dedicated their lives to sharing the Gospel with others. Though I don’t recall ever doubting the existence of God, I also didn’t share the depth of my parents’ faith.
After I graduated from college, my career took me away from my small town home and my world was suddenly expanded. Among other things, I began meeting people who did not believe in God.
I learned that people who called themselves “atheist” don’t believe that God exists and they feel quite certain about that. Many of them described their belief in God’s non-existence with as much fervor as my Christian family and friends described their faith that He does.
To confuse the subject in my mind even more, it turned out there was another group of folks called “agnostics” whose take was that they didn’t know whether God existed or not. This group was further split into two camps: those who didn’t care enough to explore the subject further and those who were actively searching for the answer.
Do you believe in God?
Of course, we are individuals and we don’t always fall neatly into these categories, but I suspect that most of us know at any given time which group we most closely identify with. And, yes, I did mean to imply that we can change our mind about whether God exists or not — and also about whether we care.
It doesn’t matter which group you find yourself in at the moment.
Also, I’m not going to preach to you nor try to convince you of why you need to believe in God. There are plenty of folks who could do that better than I and I’m sure you can find them if you are so inclined.
What I want to explore is the idea of whether from a happiness standpoint we will be happier believing in God or not. I’m sorry to spoil the ending on this one, but the truth is, I don’t know the answer. But that’s OK, because YOU already know the answer for yourself.
If you’re not yet aware of the answer, you can find the answer.
How do you do that? There are many ways to explore the existence of God. You can ask others for their opinion, read books on the subject, and even pray and meditate to find the answer. But I’ll suggest something that you may not have considered when seeking for your answer.
What if you “tried on” different beliefs to see how they feel? Imagine that you are an atheist for a time. Wear that belief the way you might wear a sweater or a jacket. How does “being” an atheist make you feel?
Do the same for agnostic beliefs. How does it make you feel to live your daily life with the “belief” that you don’t know whether God exists or not?
Finally, try on a belief in the existence God. If, like me, you grew up around people who believe in God, you don’t have to choose to imagine God as the deity you are most familiar with. Remember, you are trying on beliefs for size, so try on as many variations as you need to help you find the answer.
If you sincerely do this exercise (realizing it could take weeks, months, or years to actually complete), you will notice that certain beliefs make you feel better and others make you feel worse. Explore not only the feelings you have while “holding” each belief, but also ask yourself why you might have those particular feelings.
Our belief in God can change over time, so don’t feel that once you choose a belief you are stuck with it forever. In my opinion, the best journey to find God (or not), includes twists and turns, trusts and doubts.
Though I have fairly solidly settled (for now) on believing that God exists and that He has my back, I came to this conclusion amidst my own twists and turns. I’m not recommending any particular belief to you, only that you find the belief that works best for you right now.
Do you need to believe in God to be happy?
Maybe.
Or maybe not.
The only person who has the answer to that question (for you) is YOU.
For simplicity, I am going to stick with the word “God” throughout this post, but you can substitute another word or phrase (e.g., “Higher Power”) if that makes this subject more accessible to you.
I will also use the term “He” because that is how we referred to God in the Christian faith in which I was raised. Don’t allow the words I use to prevent you from seeing the bigger context and exploring this subject fully, even if the words you prefer are different from the ones I use.