Happiness and Sin: A Two-Sided Coin The American dream is based on one thing, happiness, but what is happiness? Happiness is usually characterized as, something that makes you feel, fulfillment, joy, and pleasure. However I think happiness is different for everyone, and ever changing depending on where you are in life, and my life is a perfect example of this. A years ago if you asked me what happiness was, I would have told you, I was experiencing pure happiness. I had a job that paid well, a nice car, my first street bike, and an amazing girlfriend of three years and was a pretty good Christian. One day she left, and my happiness fell apart, I went into depression, and stopped caring about life and God. I turned to drugs like weed to make me happy instead of working on my self. I still struggle with depression some days, but I try to focus on my new goals in life. Graduating college with my Bachelors in Nursing, becoming closer to God once again, getting back in shape, meeting a girl in college, and getting married. For Augustine Pure happiness is only possible by living in God. In Augustine’s mind God is the greatest happiness man can obtain. He says “You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you (Augustine, 1,1).” I need to start applying Augustine’s teachings to my personal happiness. If I can focus more of myself on God and trust him, everything will work itself out in the end. Unfortunately sometimes we sin in order to achieve false happiness. Sin in the Christian sense is often seen as just breaking a rule, God or the law says not to do something, and you end up doing it anyway. There’s more to it though, Sin in a twiste... ... middle of paper ... ...ugustine about the human condition. Throughout life we are faced with many decisions both right and wrong, however the wrong option always seems more fun or better in someone even though we know its wrong. Something so basic like breaking the speed limit is a choice we know is wrong and could end it punishment but we do it anyway, because we just enjoy doing the wrong thing, its part of our human nature to do wrong. However in Augustine’s time there was no question that God existed, if you broke a law or sinned you where doing so against God, now if you sin or break a law, the human population focuses more on how the law will punish you, rather than how God will feel about it. Happiness and sin are two sides of the same coin, you cant achieve one without the other, and because of our human nature sinning and choosing false happiness will always “look’ better to us.
St. Augustine’s Confessions is written through the Christian perspective of religion. Christianity is founded on the idea that there is one God who oversees all actions. Though all actions are observed by a higher power, God instills in us a free will. As Christians we are free to make our own decisions whether right or wrong. In his Biography St Augustine expresses that he feels like a sinner. He struggles with the fact that he is a thrill seeker. He loves to watch blood sports. He watches gladiators fight to the death and commit murder. Not only does he watch, but he enjoys observing these acts. He is also expressing his sins in his biography when he writes about stealing, which is another sin. He steals pears for fun. St Augustine doesn’t even eat the pears he steals, but throws them to the pigs to eat. Through the story St Augustine struggles interna...
Augustine remarks that he sees man as seeking what gives him glory rather than what brings glory to God. When talking about self Augustine shares that he enjoyed studying Latin in school simply because it came easy to him, not because it brought glory to God. As he grew, he was, in the eyes of his society, an upstanding citizen, he did nothing inherently wrong. However, Augustine believes he did considerable wrong; rather than living for and seeking after the Lord, he was living for and seeking after his own desires. These claims exemplify mankind’s tendency to turn its back on its beliefs and the One in whom they
After reading St. Augustine’s book it seemed to me that he had very little interest in politics as a whole, but he did seem to have a a great interest on the moral problems that plagued them. The books that make up this work come from one of his previous works entitled, The City of God, in which Augustine discusses many different aspects of the city. Augustine’s view of Christianity in regard to politics was due to the moral decline of the Roman Empire and the effect of this decline on the still faithful Christians. Augustine blamed the pagan gods and their lack of concern for the moral character which defined those who worshiped them. He also makes a reference to Plato’s Republic, in regards to the way Plato wanted to banish the poets from his city in speech. Augustine also felt that there should be strong censorship of the poets when writing about the gods because they made fools out of them. Augustine is also very concerned with the amount of people who in past invasions of their homelands escaped by lying about being Christians and then turned their backs on Christ when the danger had subsided. Augustine’s work also raises the question of why mercy is extended to the pious and ungrateful. Augustine responds by reminding everyone that, “The sun rises upon the good and evil, and the rains fall upon the just and the unjust.” The book also discusses Gods patience with humans and how the choice to repent ones sins lies within the man. He tells how some will recognize...
Sin is a lie. It is a way for rulers to create and have order in society. What is sin? Sin is what a pastor on Sunday persuades a group of people to believe in because they can’t make decisions
In his book Confessions, Saint Augustine writes about his conversion from a Manichee to a Christian. He confesses to God and asserts that God is “incorruptible and inviolable and unchangeable” (Augustine 111). Based on his deep faith in God, Augustine abandons the concept of Manichee dualism and believes in God as “not only [the] good but the supreme good” (114). At first he has no idea what the nature of evil is, but finally he starts to understand that the nature of evil is not a substance at all, but rather “a perversity of will twisted away from the highest substance [– God]” (Augustine 124-126). He contends that the totality, rather than the evil or goodness of individual things should be considered (125). In this essay, I am going to argue that Augustine’s reflection and understanding are better described as knowledge, rather than correct opinion.
In “On Free Choice of the Will”, Augustine indicates the importance of his beliefs and opinions of human nature and of God. He thinks as greatly of God as possible and centralizes his thoughts of goodness with the concept of being/form (God); he also gives a description of how God’s rightness can be interpreted clearly through the evil doings of the world. One of the biggest and most difficult problems facing people is the problem of doing evil. If God is being, unchanging, eternal and all-powerful, then how is it that people do evil? Augustine tries to solve the problem by examining the “source of evil” and “what evil is”. He explores the ways in which to live a happy life and an evil-free life by having a perfectly ordered soul—a life willed by the virtues—through free will. In the pursuit to find out how it is that evil exists, Augustine explores how people sin with inordinate desire as the driving force and free will. He lists the things we need to possess in order to sin and to live a happy life—goods of the will and temporal goods—that is, one cannot sin without temporal goods, inordinate desire, and free will. In the same way, one cannot live a happy life without goods of the will and free will.
Saint Augustine believed that grace is impacted by Adam and Eve’s sin and the reason that sin keeps happening is because of people having sex. He believes that when humans have sex, they are committing a sin which needs to be repented in order to be in the good grace of god. Augustine also believes that everyone was born into original sin which means that you are born with the knowledge to only sin and to do the wrong thing. This also means that when you have a choice between doing the right thing and being sinful, being sinful will always be more attractive, which is to be disobedient from god. To Saint Augustine, the urge to be evil and to sin was always greater than anything else, which caused all of the bad in the world and why the world
Why does St. Augustine seek God? Through his Confessions we come to understand that he struggled a great deal with confusion about his faith, before finally and wholeheartedly accepting God into his life. But we never get a complete or explicit sense of what led Augustine to search for God in the first place. Did he feel a void in his life? Was he experiencing particular problems in other relationships that he thought a relationship with God would solve for him? Or perhaps he sought a sense of security from religion? A closer analysis of the text of St. Augustine’s Confessions will provide some insight into these fundamental questions.
Augustine’s contention that man cannot possibly come into truth by reason in his temporal life constitutes his initial departure from the ancients, and results in the need for an entirely new structuring of the relationship between man and the good. In differentiating between the nature of God and man, Augustine argues that man’s nature—unlike God’s—is corruptible, and is thus “deprived of the light of eternal truth” (XI, 22) . This stands the thought of Plato on its head, since now no amount of contemplation and argument will be capable of getting man closer to a truth that exists on a plane that “surpasses the reach of the human mind” (XXI, 5). If reason is an instrument as flawed as man himself, how, then, is man to know the supreme good if he is forced to grope blindly for it in a state of sin without any assistance from the powers of his own mind? It is this question which serves as the premise for Augustine’s division of existence into the City of Man and the City of God and articulation of a system of vice and struggle against vice that keeps man anchored to the City of Man and prevents him from entering the City of God in temporal life.
In his Confessions, Saint Augustine warns against the many pleasures of life. "Day after day," he observes, "without ceasing these temptations put us to the test" (245).[1] He argues that a man can become happy only by resisting worldly pleasures. But according to Aristotle, virtue and happiness depend on achieving the "moral mean" in all facets of life. If we accept Aristotle's ideal of a balanced life, we are forced to view Saint Augustine's denial of temptations from a different perspective. His avoidance of worldly pleasures is an excess of self-restraint that keeps him from the moral mean between pleasure and self-restraint. In this view, he is sacrificing balance for excess, and is no different from a drunkard who cannot moderate his desire for alcohol.
It therefore appears evident that God must be the root of all evil, as He created all things. However, Augustine delves deeper in search for a true answer. This paper will follow ...
When someone has a cold or a headache, what are the common cures that come to mind? In Western cultures, some common cures may include drinking fluids, getting more rest, taking over the counter medications, and eating soup. In Southeast Asian cultures, coining is a very popular home therapy used to relieve colds and headaches. Coining involve using a coin dipped with hot balm oil to rub back and forth repeatedly on skin to create a redden color bruise (Nguyen, 1985). This technique is believed to release all bad energy from the bodies and help cure illnesses of those feeling sick. Typically in Western medicine, coining is not view as a health benefit, but as healthcare providers, it is important to interject different health beliefs from patients in which we are caring for.
Sin has been defined as many things by many groups throughout the ages. In the Old Testament it was defined as a failure to hit a mark or an attitude of rebellion. In the New Testament it is defined as failing to conform to a standard or as a condition. However, we must decide for ourselves what it means in our own lives. The Holy Spirit will guide us in our definition. Without being taught right and wrong we still are able to decipher between the two.
..., the closer he was really moving toward God. He began to realize that God is all good, so nothing he creates will be of evil. “God does not create evil but it is of the world” (Augustine 230-31). Once he took responsibility for his personal life and spiritual walk, Augustine began to uncover the truths to his life. He reveals one must take responsibility for their actions and confess to develop a stronger connection with God. He then comprehends; God allows bad things to happen in your life to show you that you need him. Evil is not a lesser good, but it is a reflection of ones moral well-being. In order for one’s well being to be saved one must confess their sins to Christ.
So what is sin exactly? The way I think about it is anything that goes against what God wants from us. Obviously we are human and we are not perfect so we will make mistakes and get caught up in sin just because it’s a habit, but that does not mean it is appropriate for a Christian lifestyle. Many people talk around a sinful situation, trying to make it sound better than it is. The example given in the assignment was sex before marriage, “Well we are engaged