Q&A: Is Optimism Connected to Religion
Is Optimism Connected to Religion
Question
Hello!
There are optimistic and pessimistic approaches in the world. One approach says that human life in this world is suffering and pain, and the other says that life is, on the whole, good.
In today’s religious world, the optimistic outlook is perceived as “religious.” In the eyes of many rabbis, many religious people, and many people across the spectrum — even completely secular people — optimism is seen as a religious phenomenon, and even as belonging (at least correlatively) to the religious-right-conservative camp.
It is true that the religious pessimistic approach also assumes that there is a World to Come that will compensate for the suffering in this world (Maimonides, for example, advocated the optimistic approach in The Guide for the Perplexed, whereas Ramchal at the beginning of The Path of the Just presents the pessimistic approach as the rationale for why man’s purpose is the World to Come), but is this in fact an essential connection, or just a random evolution of outlooks that in Tel Aviv State crystallized into nihilism and depression, while in the city of Bnei Brak there is rejoicing and happiness? Could it just as plausibly have been the other way around — that the secular world would be optimistic and the religious world sunk in deep depression? Should a person who sees the glass as half full be linked to his religious background, or is this just a random correlation?
Answer
What you called here “approaches” are really statements dealing with feeling, and therefore they belong to psychology, not theology or thought. You are basically asking why religious people feel good in the world. That is a question for psychologists, and so in my view it is not a very interesting question. The interesting and relevant question is whether the belief is true or not. That is what should determine my attitude toward it, not the feelings that accompany it on the psychological plane. If it is true, then it should be embraced even if believers feel awful, and if it is not true, then it should not be embraced even if it gives a wonderful feeling.
Discussion on Answer
I repeat that in my view these are not “approaches” but feelings. The choice of what to focus on is a psychological choice. Therefore it is not similar to right and left, which are ideological-intellectual positions.
There is no one who does not recommend optimism, religious or secular. It is healthy and good for life. In practice, there are optimists and there are those who are not, and that probably lies in psychology. So I do not understand what the discussion is about.
If we consistently discover that religious people are more optimistic / happier people, even if optimism and joy are “only” feelings and not approaches, it would be reasonable to assume that this is not connected only to human psychology, because the division between religious and secular should be irrelevant to the issue. Apparently there is something in religion that causes this.
And then the question arises whether this is something essential in religion that causes it (for example theology or thought), or a result of all kinds of environmental-social factors. That does not contradict (and is unrelated to) the question of whether the belief is true or not. It is a separate question.
What did that add? That was exactly the original question. Now I will repeat that this question should be addressed to psychologists/sociologists, and it does not seem very interesting to me (of course, a matter of personal taste).
Life is divided into horrific and miserable.
The horrific is the terminally ill and the like. The miserable is everyone else.
Whoever has the good fortune to be miserable should be grateful for it.
With God’s help, 7 Kislev 5782
Optimism derives from faith. If everything is random, then there is no reason at all to hope דווקא for a “happy ending,” since just as something good can happen, so too something bad can happen.
By contrast, when one believes that there is a “Master of the palace,” one may assume that the Creator of the world will help His world reach the realization of the good purpose within creation. And optimism is even more called for in the case of one who believes in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), which is full of explicit promises that exiles and crises are a case of “descent for the sake of ascent.”
With blessings, Pedatzur Fish"l HaLevi Pereg-Gan,
Thank you.
The question of feeling does indeed belong to the field of psychology.
As for the factual question — I’m not sure I understood the response, because when a person suffers, but is not suffering in every possible way, he can always choose whether to focus on the good experiences or the bad ones. If the facts are that he is sick but has a high salary, or has healthy children but lost his job — that is not a factual question but a question of attitude.
My question may not belong distinctly to theology, but it does belong to the plane of thought — does religious thought encourage optimism (to the proper degree? to the degree of irrational bias?), or is this just a random connection?
To illustrate: in some columns, the Rabbi presents the question whether there is a connection between religiosity and political right-wing views (or a national outlook), or whether this is a correlation created by characteristics of the religious and right-wing community in our generation.
My question is whether there is a connection between optimistic approaches (“I’m breathing — thank God,” “You woke up in the morning — everything else is a bonus,” “Rich is the one who has eyes, teeth, hands, feet”) and religion, or whether this is just a random correlation.