There are many family groups of Arguments for the existence of God. One family of arguments is known as “The Arguments from Desire.” Many have argued that certain desires, which dwell fixedly in the hearts of human beings, are evidence for God. I personally find such arguments can be compelling. The basic idea concerning these arguments is that every universal human desire has a fitting end which fulfills that desire. As hunger is satisfied by food so sexual desire is satisfied by intercourse, etc. It seems that it makes little sense for there to be universal human desires which do not have fitting ends. Desires are aims but if there is no target then the aiming becomes meaningless. If there is no fitting end to a desire then it is hard to explain why there should be such a desire at all. Of course a madman might have desires that are elusive to us all but when a desire is universally held by all people, something all of us empathize with, this seems a very different story.
One typical argument for God’s existence from desire centers on the universal human desire for Justice. Another version centers on what is perhaps the most obvious of all universal human desires, namely, the desire for Happiness. The latter will be the subject of this post.
Blaise Pascal, most often known for what is referred to as Pascal’s Wager (which is widely misunderstood and misused but, perhaps, I will talk about that another time), was a brilliant Christian philosopher, mathematician, and inventor. The following is from his book, Pensees (which should be mandatory Christian reading in my opinion). This book was published after his death. It is not properly a book, as we tend to think of them, but really a publication of his “commonplace” journal (a collection of notes and thoughts, some complete, others not so much). It’s wide ranging subject matter and reflections provide a wonderful place for jumping off into Christian reflections on many important issues. Here is a brief excerpt from this great book addressing the universal human desire for happiness and how it points us toward our Creator.
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.
And yet, after such a great number of years, no one without faith has reached the point to which all continually look. All complain, princes and subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young, strong and weak, learned and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all countries, all times, all ages, and all conditions.
A trial so long, so continuous, and so uniform, should certainly convince us of our inability to reach the good by our own efforts. But example teaches us little. No resemblance is ever so perfect that there is not some slight difference; and hence we expect that our hope will not be deceived on this occasion as before. And thus, while the present never satisfies us, experience dupes us and, from misfortune to misfortune, leads us to death, their eternal crown.
What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.1
I conclude with a formal logical expression of this argument.
If human beings universally experience a desire then there must be a fitting end to satisfy that desire.
Human beings have a universal desire for happiness.
Therefore there must be a fitting end which satisfies that desire.
Nothing in this world successfully satisfies the universal human desire for happiness.
Therefore the fitting end of humanity’s desire for happiness lies beyond this world.
Pascal, B. (1990). The Provincial Letters; Pensées; Scientific Treatises (M. J. Adler & R. McHenry, Eds.; W. F. Trotter, Trans.; Second Edition, Vol. 30, pp. 243–244). Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.