The David Knight Show - HAPPY New Year? Study Tries to Determine What Happiness IS
Aired: 2025-01-02
Duration: 15:48


=== What Is True Happiness? (11:36) ===

[00:00:04]  We say Happy New Year all the time to people, but what does it take to be happy?
[00:00:09]  What is happiness?
[00:00:11]  Is it what happens to you?
[00:00:14]  You know, we're wishing people the best in the New Year, hoping that nothing happens to them.
[00:00:18]  But we don't always have control over what happens to us, do we?
[00:00:24]  So now there is a study about...
[00:00:30]  What happiness truly is.
[00:00:33]  And science, quote-unquote science, is going to give us the answers, as always.
[00:00:38]  It always seeks to give us the answers to things in life, but they just don't seem to be able to quite get there.
[00:00:47]  Well, it turns out that this guy begins his article.
[00:00:51]  He says, well, it's all very well for the Dalai Lama to pronounce that, quote, the purpose of our lives is to be happy, unquote.
[00:00:58]  But even he struggles to articulate how that is to happen.
[00:01:02]  Is that really the purpose of our life?
[00:01:05]  Boy, that's a...
[00:01:08]  You know, that's not much of a consolation to people if that is, I don't know, is he Buddhist or something?
[00:01:17]  If that's his perspective, that doesn't really offer much consolation, because you don't have control over that.
[00:01:23]  The biggest study of its kind is hoping to discover an answer that has eluded holy men, philosophers, and scientists alike.
[00:01:33]  The subjects will be asked to take part in a short happiness intervention, which might involve taking exercise or engaging in social interactions.
[00:01:41]  Oh, that'll make you happy, won't it?
[00:01:43]  Good on social media.
[00:01:44]  Boy, that's a really uplifting experience to go argue with people.
[00:01:50]  And whether these vary by age, income, and geography.
[00:01:56]  Well, you know, we've got the richest man in history, not just in the world now, but in history, Elon Musk has to medicate himself regularly with ketamine because he's depressed.
[00:02:08]  Is he unhappy?
[00:02:10]  He certainly got unhappy about the H-1B visa stuff, didn't he?
[00:02:14]  On social media.
[00:02:15]  He should stay off of social media.
[00:02:16]  He'd be much happier.
[00:02:18]  Maybe he could sell it to somebody.
[00:02:20]  But no, he's got his own social media site.
[00:02:24]  He's got massive amounts of money, and yet he's depressed.
[00:02:28]  He's unhappy.
[00:02:30]  Even somebody that has that much money...
[00:02:34]  Isn't truly in control of all the circumstances.
[00:02:37]  You know, there was, on the Drudge Report, they showed the daughter of one of the Walton brothers and her $300 million yacht.
[00:02:46]  And I was talking about all the stuff that was on there, and I thought, you know, I don't think that would make me happy.
[00:02:51]  I think I would just have this burden of, you know, sometimes things like that can become like, you know, like a ball and chain encumbering you.
[00:03:03]  With cares and worries about what is going to happen with that.
[00:03:06]  I don't envy her at all.
[00:03:09]  I said volunteers will be asked to perform activities which last no longer than 25 minutes because, you know, happiness is fleeting.
[00:03:18]  It isn't going to last.
[00:03:21]  And can be conducted in home without specialist equipment.
[00:03:25]  It is hoped that the research will shed new light on what, if anything, is guaranteed To provide us with a boost.
[00:03:35]  Well, you know, a drug can provide you with a boost, can't it?
[00:03:38]  This is one of the reasons why people turn to drugs, because they're looking for fleeting happiness.
[00:03:42]  They're looking for some kind of how they feel.
[00:03:46]  And, you know, pursuing that all the time.
[00:03:50]  But anything that is temporary like that, anything that is dependent on things that you don't control, It isn't going to get you there.
[00:03:59]  You know, when Christians talk, they don't talk about happiness, even though we say Happy New Year, you know, things like that.
[00:04:06]  What they really wish for people is joy.
[00:04:11]  And what is the difference between happiness and joy?
[00:04:14]  When we talk about Christian joy, we speak of it as a gift from God, and it is something that's going to take you through the horrible things of life, The heartaches, the despair, the sorrow, the injustices that are there.
[00:04:32]  Joy is different.
[00:04:34]  All of that destroys happiness.
[00:04:35]  All of those things destroy happiness.
[00:04:36]  But they don't destroy joy.
[00:04:38]  That's what we're looking for.
[00:04:39]  That's why we make that distinction between those things.
[00:04:42]  Because there is something from God that is a gift, that joy that we call it, that transcends all of those things.
[00:04:52]  You know, all of Musk's money can't buy it.
[00:04:56]  It's free, but it's a gift from God, and it's not something that he is pursuing.
[00:05:01]  And to give you an example of this, in Nigeria, we had 14 Christians, including a one-year-old girl and a pregnant woman, killed after singing Christmas carols at a service in Nigeria.
[00:05:19]  Now, this was not something that was really unexpected.
[00:05:23]  You know, are these people happy about it?
[00:05:25]  I'm sure that they're not.
[00:05:27]  Has it cost them their joy?
[00:05:29]  That's the difference.
[00:05:32]  The people who survive this have got a confident expectation of what eternally is going to happen to their relatives.
[00:05:43]  And that's the difference.
[00:05:44]  And these people in Nigeria knew this type of thing was likely to happen.
[00:05:49]  And they did it anyway.
[00:05:52]  Doesn't make them responsible for it.
[00:05:55]  They're not at all responsible for it.
[00:05:57]  But they are, they understood the consequences of what they're doing.
[00:06:05]  They understood that there was a likelihood that somebody would seek them out, and yet they did it anyway.
[00:06:09]  Why?
[00:06:09]  Because they understood and had confidence in what was going to happen to them even if they were killed.
[00:06:16]  At least 14 Christians, including a one-year-old girl and a pregnant woman, killed in Plateau State, Nigeria, following a Christmas carol service.
[00:06:27]  The latest in a series of attacks against the Uruguay tribe in the north-central region of the country.
[00:06:36]  Yeah.
[00:06:37]  So, again, I know that the people that are there are very unhappy.
[00:06:43]  But I think these Christians are not without joy.
[00:06:46]  They are six and a half times more likely to die than the average person in Nigeria.
[00:06:53]  Because there are Muslims that are targeting them for death.
[00:06:59]  Community surrounding the church is home to about a thousand Christians.
[00:07:02]  A local leader was quoted as saying that he had alerted the military personnel at a nearby checkpoint about unusual activities, but felt that his warnings were dismissed and ignored.
[00:07:11]  And this is what we see all the time.
[00:07:13]  The Fulani tribesmen, the radical Muslims that are there.
[00:07:18]  The government is Muslim as well, and they look the other way.
[00:07:21]  They don't do anything to stop them, and they don't do anything to stop the attacks if they're happening.
[00:07:27]  They just walk away.
[00:07:29]  The attack resulted in the loss of entire families, and a mass burial was held.
[00:07:35]  The Irrigui people, a predominantly Christian group, have faced ongoing adversity, including violence and displacement by the Fulani militias, with more than 2,000 Christians killed since 2016, just out of that tribe.
[00:07:49]  Between 2019 and 2023, more than 16,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria.
[00:07:54]  Not just in that tribe, but in all of Nigeria.
[00:07:57]  And again, as I said, six and a half Christian deaths to every non-Christian death in that country.
[00:08:07]  Well, there's a lot of evil in the world.
[00:08:10]  And again, that is why I say when we talk about...
[00:08:15]  We talk about Happy New Year.
[00:08:18]  You know, the Christian hymn that I'm sure they might have been singing if it was, I don't know if they speak English or if they had a translation.
[00:08:30]  Joy to the world, right?
[00:08:32]  Joy to the world, not happiness to the world.
[00:08:34]  Joy to the world.
[00:08:37]  ACLU and Elliot Page, meanwhile, are telling children that transgenderism will lead you to happiness.
[00:08:43]  Talk about breaking baby's legs, talking about tearing them apart.
[00:08:46]  You know, if that doesn't happen to them, these people want to tear apart their genitals, mutilate them in the most horrific way.
[00:08:54]  You know, I am absolutely certain that in a few years, people are going to look back at all of this mutilation of children in the same way that we look back on these frontal lobotomies that were done.
[00:09:09]  And, of course, it was done to one of the Kennedy kids.
[00:09:13]  She had that done to her, you know, by her family.
[00:09:16]  It was sold by the medical community as something that would be okay, and they didn't realize, I think.
[00:09:21]  I don't think anybody would do that to their own child.
[00:09:24]  Who knows?
[00:09:24]  But I can't imagine anybody doing that to their own child unless they were given some really, really false medical advice about it.
[00:09:34]  You know, if you look at One Flew of the Cuckoo's Nest, that's what eventually happens to the protagonist there, because he caused trouble.
[00:09:41]  But I think that that horrendous practice is going to pale in comparison to these predatory practices being done on children.
[00:09:51]  Elliot Page, who was formerly known as Ellen Page, now promising children happiness.
[00:09:57]  Happiness.
[00:09:58]  Yeah.
[00:10:00]  If they become transgender.
[00:10:02]  My message to my younger self would be just like, you know who you are.
[00:10:06]  Please embrace that.
[00:10:08]  She said in a video that's posted to social media by the ACLU. ACLU that partners all the time with Planned Parenthood.
[00:10:17]  Because Planned Parenthood has a new profit center in this.
[00:10:20]  It's not just black genocide anymore.
[00:10:22]  It's child mutilation.
[00:10:24]  Why, Speaker Johnson, are you funding this stuff?
[00:10:30]  It's despicable that you would do this.
[00:10:34]  Absolutely despicable.
[00:10:36]  Trans people know who we are and we should be free to embrace our authentic selves.
[00:10:42]  Well, you know, she did this as an adult.
[00:10:46]  But she's promoting this to children.
[00:10:49]  She said she would tell her younger self to just keep going on the journey of embracing who you truly are and that's what's going to lead you to happiness.
[00:10:58]  That's the message of Hollywood, isn't it?
[00:11:00]  You know, this actress.
[00:11:03]  The message of Hollywood is always to follow your heart, except that your heart, God says, your heart is deceitfully wicked.
[00:11:11]  Who can understand how bad that is?
[00:11:15]  And this is not the first time that she has promoted transgenderism to children as part of the massive gaslighting.
[00:11:21]  Well, before we take a break here, I just want to talk about something that had an anniversary on New Year's Day.

=== John Newton's Hymn (03:35) ===

[00:11:29]  And that is the song Amazing Grace.
[00:11:33]  The first time it was sung was at a service on New Year's Day.
[00:11:37]  And John Stone Street has an op-ed piece.
[00:11:41]  He said, what better way to start the New Year than to remind ourselves about how God is at work in his world and in our lives.
[00:11:49]  That's what John Newton did in 1773.
[00:11:52]  At the very end of December 1772, John Newton would preach on the text of 1 Chronicles 17, verses 16 and 17.
[00:12:01]  That passage was David's response to God after Nathan had informed him that his descendants would be enthroned forever as kings of Israel.
[00:12:09]  David, once the poor shepherd boy, the man who had repented of adultery and murder, He responded to the news by saying, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family that you have brought me thus far?
[00:12:23]  Stone Street said those words struck a deep chord in the heart of John Newton.
[00:12:27]  In those last days of 1772, he found himself running out of empty pages in his journal, a bound book of 300 pages, holding 16 years' worth of entries.
[00:12:39]  His mind was drawn to the pages of his past, the story of his life, from his days as an unregenerate slave trader to becoming a child of God.
[00:12:48]  Newton would have remembered when his rebellious spirit got him thrown off of numerous ships, publicly flogged, and ousted from his majesty's navy.
[00:12:56]  He would have remembered the shipwrecks and the mutinies and then the transformation of his heart by the power of the gospel.
[00:13:03]  As was his habit, Newton set to work composing a hymn to illustrate his New Year's Day sermon.
[00:13:10]  In that hymn, he would tell his poor congregation, Composed of lace makers and low-paid artisans, he'd tell them about the dangers and snares that he had faced, and he would reflect on the amazing grace that had saved a wretch like him.
[00:13:25]  Those now famous words.
[00:13:35]  First song, 1773, New Year's Day.
[00:13:42]  They lingered in obscurity for many years, even as Newton counseled the young William Wilberforce and encouraged him to stay the course in his long battle against the slave trade.
[00:13:58]  The words to Amazing Grace were rarely sung in England, but the hymn later published by Newton caught on in the Americas.
[00:14:07]  The words of Amazing Grace would surface again 80 years later.
[00:14:12]  In a book that would change the course of the nation, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
[00:14:15]  In it, the slave, Tom, at his lowest point, sings the words.
[00:14:23]  He said this verse is rarely sung today.
[00:14:26]  It says, And when this mortal life shall fail, and flesh and sense shall cease, I shall possess within the veil a life of joy and peace.
[00:14:45]  This is the hope that we have in God.

=== Beautiful Grey Hoodies (01:01) ===

[00:14:48]  Even when we face deep injustice, this is the hope that the people in Nigeria had that the scientists and that Elon Musk will never understand.
[00:14:59]  Hello, it's me, Volodymyr Zelensky.
[00:15:02]  I'm so tired of wearing these same t-shirts everywhere for years.
[00:15:06]  You'd think with all the billions I've skimmed off America, I could dress better.
[00:15:11]  And I could, if only David Knight would send me one of his beautiful grey MacGuffin hoodies or a new black t-shirt with the MacGuffin logo in blue.
[00:15:22]  But he told me to get lost.
[00:15:24]  Maybe one of you American suckers can buy me some at thedavidknightshow.com.
[00:15:29]  And David is giving a 10% discount to listeners from now until 2025. At that price, you should be able to buy me several hundred.
[00:15:38]  Those amazing sand-colored microphone hoodies are so beautiful.
[00:15:43]  I'd wear something other than green military cosplay to my various galas and social events.