if he stood on a street corner, one of the things he would see through the constant hum-drum chaos of modernity would be the heavy, but subtle sadness. Indeed he would be blown off his feet with wonder at the changes of 700 years, but it would be quite clear that whatever these changes were, they did not bring happiness to humanity. On the street you see the busy and concerned look of the businessman, the sad and pitiful countenance of some homeless person, the introvert selfishness of the teenager with headphones, the serious, yet almost despairing features of a student of modern philosophy, and the hollow smiles and cheap laughs mixed somewhere in this seething mass of man bordering on insentient robots. Where is happiness? To put it bluntly, it was banished from the lives of men when they abandoned God. This tragedy has separated creature from creator, object from end, hollowing man into the most morbid of atheists. The saddest part of all is that man doesn't even realize the treasure he has lost. Certainly he put God out of his mind, for with no God man is “free” to follow the cry of the Sirens of Original Sin, but without God there is emptiness in plenitude, loneliness in a crowd, and that deep sadness that even a smile cannot hide. Man was made for happiness because he was made for God and you cannot have one without the other for it is in God that man finds happiness. This leads to an idea of what happiness is: a fulfillment of one's end.
Everyone wants to be happy and so it is clear that everyone recognizes an end that needs to be
attained. Unfortunately through devilish treachery and the miserable pride of men, the end of an individual is presented in modern times as something that has to do with pleasing oneself, whether it be power, riches, sensual pleasure, fame, etc. Once a person latches on to what he thinks is a good that will lead him to happiness, he will soon tire of it and seek the next thing that seems to fulfill his longing for perfection. And so the chase goes on, which is really a chase to the death because no man will find what he is looking for unless it is in God.
If I met an atheist and proceeded to argue about the existence of God, I would bring up this 
discussion of happiness. Compare the lives of your typical modern man who has two cars, a big screen TV, and a girlfriend with the monk of Catholic history who chose poverty, chastity, and bodily mortification. These monks chose a hard life, but never felt loneliness, want, or sadness as long as they followed the path God had pointed out to them. There is an obvious difference here in a case where two people seek happiness, but in opposite directions. The modern man will not find fulfillment, but will hunger on for something supernatural, for his soul is not of this world and though it can be blinded, will still not find that for which it yearns. On the other hand, the monk realizes the fading pleasures of this life, which once touched are gone, and looks beyond the horizons of this world to the heavenly goal, which asks, as a proof of love, a separation of ourselves from attachment to earthly goods. 
All of this points to God, who created man with a desire for happiness which can only be fulfilled in a life of virtue and self-sacrifice. The atheist knows that man yearns for something and so tries to keep up with the tide of desires of modern society by supplementing God with other things. If man decided to use his reason and spiritual common sense, he would see that this eternal desire for a good that never ends and never leaves you lacking is not found in this world but only in the next. The next challenge is how to make sure that you make it to the bliss of the after-life and the answer is found in Christ and His Catholic Church to whom Simon Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou has the words of eternal life.”
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