OK, perhaps not quite as literally as the two young happy scientists flying in the anime “The Laws of Eternity”, also by Happy Science.

Actually, “Happy Science on Air” is the new broadcast / webcast from the optimistic little Japanese religion. It is in English and is broadcast each Friday morning in New Zealand. You can listen to it for a week on PlanetAudio.

I want to say a few words about the first ever broadcast, which was this Friday. It was, naturally, a bit of an introduction to Happy Science.  I particularly enjoyed his explanation of love based on his own life. It was spot on and memorable.  There is a lot of suffering in the world because people want to be loved, instead of just loving another.  Obviously when you are a small child, you need to be on the receiving end of love, or you die. As an adult, however, you need to be on the giving side of love. This is the law of life.

The weakness of the program was that, despite the best intentions, it basically preached to the choir. If there were any curious listeners who were not already familiar with Happy Science, I feel pretty sure they turned off quickly when Mr Bellingham asserted that Ryuho Okawa was God and Buddha. It may not be obvious after some months in the sect, but this really is an extraordinary claim and requires extraordinary proof. It is certainly not something one simply states as a fact and then goes on.

Because of this, it would probably have been better if they had skipped the whole “Ryuho Okawa is God and Buddha” thing at this point.  Especially since it is not something he used to bring up on his own in his early books.

Let me add something of my own here.

I have 17 books by Ryuho Okawa, and ordered another. I would have more if they were publicly available.  There are a number of interesting titles which seem to only be available in temples, presumably for members only. Perhaps those are where Okawa goes on in some detail about his divinity, because it is little more than implied in the books I have read, in many of them not mentioned at all. He does bring it up a few times in some of them though, but never in the form of requiring any kind of service or worship from others. Rather, he brings it up as an explanation of why he has dedicated his life to serve the world.

Of course, you can dedicate your life to the service of mankind without being an incarnation of the highest God.  Well, to some degree you can. Actually if you are filled with love for all people to an extreme degree, you cannot avoid being an extension of God, but let us not get into that level of detail here.

Anyway, if you are curious and have half an hour, follow the link. It is pretty simple, certainly if you understand my writing you understand Happy Science on Air even more easily. Whether you believe it is another matter. I hope at least you take with you the understanding that love is something you give, and this is how you become happy. In that regard at the very least, their science of happiness is spot on!