The idea described by the concept of capitalism does not address why human happiness exists, in abundance, on this planet. Capitalism was not created to address the issue of happy human existence. Capitalism was created only to describe how properly functioning persons behave when socially engaged; they behave rationally. In other words, capitalism discusses that behavior, the natural product of which is the proper existence of human beings in a social setting. It does not discuss that behavior, the natural product of which is the happy existence of individual human beings.

As implied above, there is a specific kind of capitalistic behavior that is responsible for the selfish production of personal happiness. But to avoid a great deal of confusion, we must replace the term capitalism whenever we discuss the purposefully selfish production of personal happiness. That new term is God. Like capitalism, God also describes proper human behavior in a social setting. Where capitalism describes rational human behavior, God describes required human behavior. To be considered a happy human being, one must not only be able to act in accordance with what God is and describes, one must actually do that.

God is the new term replacing capitalism whenever that specific behavior responsible for the purposeful production of human happiness is discussed. God is responsible for causing, or producing, that intellectual condition the existence of which is called happiness. Note here that human happiness does not exist in reality, it exists in intelligence. One cannot go to a market and purchase a bag full of happiness. Intellectual happiness is produced by a specific kind of human activity; it is produced by that specific capitalistic activity called God.

What happiness explains the existence of must be produced by those who are interested in experiencing it. God is not what happiness is or explains, nor is God the product resulting from the production of happiness. God is that specific human activity the naturally occurring result of which is called intellectual happiness.

Happiness is not real; it is ideal. As implied above—where capitalism involves the ideal production of reality-based profit, God involves the ideal production of reality-based happiness. Like all ideas are natural resultants of the human mind’s ability to understand the fundamental nature of reality, so is the idea of God.

Notice that, because God is a more fundamental term than capitalism, whenever we use the pre-capitalistic term God we cannot continue to properly use the newer capitalistic term profit to denote the ideal existence of its real product. The pre-capitalistic term used to denote the ideal existence of the real product of God is child. The child of God replaces the profit of capitalism when discussing human happiness. Child is the natural result of the purposeful production of self. Where capitalism is that idea focused on the needs of society, God is that idea focused on the needs of individual humans.

It is the selfish production of profit that capitalism describes. It is the happy production of children that God describes. Each is a requirement of the continued existence of human existence, although God is the more fundamental requirement. The previous allows for introducing the distinction between need and value.

Distinguishing Need from Value.

Need is a metaphysical term, and is therefore called a word. When the physical basis of need is idealized it becomes pleasure. Pleasure is the term used to describe the human animal’s automatically occurring (instinctual) response to satisfaction of need.

Where need is a requirement of proper living, pleasure is a requirement of intellectual happiness. The fundamental needs of living are food, oxygen, water and reproduction. The fundamental pleasure of understanding one is not only able to achieve eternal survival, but has enacted the virtue necessary to bring that into reality, is happiness.

Happiness moves pleasure into intelligence and calls it the fundamental human value. Happiness, then, is the intellectual concomitant of what it means to satisfy the fundamental needs of life. Not just any life, human life. Not just any human life, one’s own.

Notice how, when speaking about the selfish production of personal happiness, it is no longer proper to say we are acting in a capitalistic way. To avoid confusion when discussing that activity responsible for the selfish production of personal happiness, we must change the term we use. When producing personal happiness, we have transitioned from acting in a capitalistic manner to acting in a godly manner.

We are the source of the happiness our parents experienced in the same way our children are the source of the happiness we experience. We have reproduced the happiness they experienced by reproducing that which is responsible for it: ourselves. For our parents, the product of our selfish production of happiness is called their grandchild. Whenever we act in a godly manner, we are responsible for extending their happiness into the future. Again, personal happiness is the proper state of intellectual existence for humans, making God responsible for the rational existence of human happiness right here on earth.

Very importantly, our child is not something new in the sense that it came from nothing. Our child is the existence of a real something which continues to exist. Our child is our living-existence existing not anew, but still. Our child is our living-existence existing again as a separate living person.

Notice we have again advanced the discussion, and this requires us to change the terms we use. To avoid confusion when discussing the reproduction of self, we can no longer use the capitalistic idea of social interaction. The new idea is sexual intercourse. Sexual intercourse replaces social interaction whenever we discuss our purposefully selfish godly interactions. Sexual intercourse is the fundamental moral idea because it is the fundamental ethical requirement. Recall that ethics requires that individual persons benefit from their own selfishly motivated actions. The greatest benefit an ethical person can enjoy is the continued existence of self.

God was created by the human mind to denote the existence of that special capitalistic relationship that can exist only between a man and a woman.

Where capitalism describes the fundamental requirements for the social production of profit, God describes the fundamental requirements for the social production of “the children of God.”

A capitalistic interaction produces that which is a requirement of human existence. A godly interaction produces that which is a requirement of human happiness.

God is the basis of—it is the fundamental requirement of—what capitalistic production is and requires. For capitalism to continue to produce the needs of human beings, God must continue to reproduce the living-existence of those same individual human beings, over and over again. God did not create living human beings; it only describes how their living-existence, right here on earth, is saved.

Why and how living humans came into existence in the first place is for another book. Since this is a scientific issue, it is outside the philosophical focus of this book. But let it be said here and now: like water, living human existence is the result of a naturally occurring physical phenomenon.