Post by Aj_June on Jul 20, 2018 9:26:29 GMT
This is an age old topic for religious message boards but let us go through it once again. First and foremost if you search "are religious people happier than non-religious" then you get all sorts of contradictory evidence and results. The most important thing to do is to take data from neutral sources. There are propagandist organisations such as "Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture" which promote propaganda and lies. Next important thing to do is keep away our own biases and do not hold any preconceived ideas about the issue even when confronted with evidences contrary to our expectations.
Now before we try to debate this topic we have to ask is happiness something important? I have seen some atheists claiming things such as "I do rather live in reality than be happy". To be honest I find such responses to be rather shallow. If religious people are happier then the happiness does not necessarily come from holding false beliefs. The happiness comes from factors such as social support of fellow adherents, positive thinking, sharing common beliefs and other such factors that depend less on God but more on how assimilated adherents are with society, relatives and friends.
Dalai Lama once said that ultimate aim of religion is to provide happiness, spiritual peace and contentment to its adherents. Happiness is indeed a very important thing and if religions are able to provide happiness to its adherents then it is one good point about religions. So for the purpose of this thread we will only be concerned with happiness as a positive factor and we will try to examine if religious people are happier than non-religious on average or not. Now I will try to put forward some of the research conducted on the issue. I will avoid knowingly putting any research that may be biased. I will try to search for data from places such as UK and some European countries because there are less propagandist organisations in Europe.
1. The first research that I found was from UK Government's Office for National Statistics. According to its findings religious people on average are more happier than non-religious people. Hindus are the most happiest group and whose average level of happiness is almost at par with those people who are in a very good health. Christians are the second happiest group in the country and average happiness among Christians is more than average happiness of an average person of UK. Sikhs and Buddhists come in at no.3 and no.4 on happiness scale. Jews are less happy than an average person in UK while people with no religion are least happy among all groups. Among the religious the Muslims are the least happy.
Now this is an important research because UK is not a very religious country. As a matter of fact UK is far less religious than USA even if more religious than Scandinavian countries. So looking at results from UK we see that religious people are among the happier ones while non-religious are among the less happier ones. However, there may be other factors involved here. But at least we can conclude that religion does not significantly reduce your happiness.
2. The next research that I found was conducted on 20538 German speaking people from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I will directly quote some of the findings.
The findings of our study show that satisfaction with life was, as predicted, higher in individuals, who reported to practice their religion compared to the other respondents. Moreover, those individuals who are members of a religious community but do not practice their religion, did not differ from non-religious individuals regarding their life satisfaction. Apparently, people do not benefit from being religiousness unless they also engage in practicing their religion actively. The present results fit well with the findings of previous studies on religiousness and well-being that already noted the importance of carrying out religious practices (e.g., Sethi and Seligman, 1993; Mochon et al., 2008).
The results of the present study indicate that practicing (as opposed to merely passively “belonging to” a) religion does indeed make a difference regarding an individuals’ degree of satisfaction with life, their character strengths and their evaluation of the meaning in life. Drawing the distinction between people who actively practice their religion vs. those who consider themselves to be part of a religion but do not actively practice it enabled us to examine the importance of practicing one’s religion. The findings of the present research provide evidence for the widely shared assumption that the cultivation of one’s strengths is beneficial. Aside to being more satisfied with one’s life, it is possible that some of the other corresponding character strengths might be fostered as well.
Berthold, A., & Ruch, W. (2014). Satisfaction with life and character strengths of non-religious and religious people: it’s practicing one’s religion that makes the difference. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 876. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00876
So in 2# we find another survey/research that does picture religion in slightly positive light at least to the extent that it can provide happiness/satisfaction to its adherents.
3. Now lets bring some twist! I will quote an article from Psychology Today that comments on findings from various other researches.
In religious countries, including the U.S., religious people describe themselves as happier (1). In relatively godless countries, such as the Netherlands, or Denmark, religious people are not happier (2).
This striking inconsistency between the U.S. and godless countries may have a fairly simple explanation. Religious people are in the majority in the U.S., but in a minority in Denmark and the Netherlands. Feeling part of the mainstream may be comforting whereas being in the minority is stressful.
Even within the U.S. there are curious inconsistencies. The most religious states are the least happy based on Gallup data. This mirrors the pattern amongst countries.
Countries with the highest average self-reported happiness are the least religious (3). The happiest nations are, in order, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands (4). Sweden, Denmark and Norway are the second, third, and fourth least religious countries, being exceeded only by formerly-communist Estonia in their atheism.
This striking inconsistency between the U.S. and godless countries may have a fairly simple explanation. Religious people are in the majority in the U.S., but in a minority in Denmark and the Netherlands. Feeling part of the mainstream may be comforting whereas being in the minority is stressful.
Even within the U.S. there are curious inconsistencies. The most religious states are the least happy based on Gallup data. This mirrors the pattern amongst countries.
Countries with the highest average self-reported happiness are the least religious (3). The happiest nations are, in order, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands (4). Sweden, Denmark and Norway are the second, third, and fourth least religious countries, being exceeded only by formerly-communist Estonia in their atheism.
In widely read earlier posts, I argued that the basic function of religion is coping with anxiety. More specifically, it helps people to deal with the stress of uncertainty from third-world living conditions. In countries with a better standard of living, basic anxieties about food supply and illness recede and religion fades along with them.
If this is true then, religion has a primary soothing function rather like the security blanket from which a small child derives comfort. We now have good scientific evidence that religious rituals and prayer work in just this way. Each produces a slowing of heart rate and other signs of physiological calming (5).
This implies that the psychological effects of religious rituals are analogous to those of anti-anxiety drugs like tranquillizers or alcohol (5). Religion is a downer in terms of effects on the brain.
So how does this help us to understand why religious people in the same community are happier than their less religious counterparts?
In very religious places, there is a great deal of misery because the quality of life is abysmal. Think of Afghanistan, or Somalia. Within that environment, the security blanket of religion may be the only effective anti-anxiety agent around. As a result, people who are deeply religious can achieve a level of calm that eludes their less religious neighbors.
In developed countries, there are two key difference. First, the quality of life is so much better that large numbers of people (even the majority) can turn their backs on religion. Second, there are many other avenues for anxiety reduction that range from anti-anxiety drugs to endless entertainment.
In the grand scheme of global differences, religious people are actually quite miserable. Yet, thanks to religious beliefs and practices they are less miserable than they would otherwise be. If you want to be happier, the last thing you should do would be to move to a religious country. You might consider living in a country like Sweden instead where most people are happy atheists.Source: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201211/are-religious-people-happier
If this is true then, religion has a primary soothing function rather like the security blanket from which a small child derives comfort. We now have good scientific evidence that religious rituals and prayer work in just this way. Each produces a slowing of heart rate and other signs of physiological calming (5).
This implies that the psychological effects of religious rituals are analogous to those of anti-anxiety drugs like tranquillizers or alcohol (5). Religion is a downer in terms of effects on the brain.
So how does this help us to understand why religious people in the same community are happier than their less religious counterparts?
In very religious places, there is a great deal of misery because the quality of life is abysmal. Think of Afghanistan, or Somalia. Within that environment, the security blanket of religion may be the only effective anti-anxiety agent around. As a result, people who are deeply religious can achieve a level of calm that eludes their less religious neighbors.
In developed countries, there are two key difference. First, the quality of life is so much better that large numbers of people (even the majority) can turn their backs on religion. Second, there are many other avenues for anxiety reduction that range from anti-anxiety drugs to endless entertainment.
In the grand scheme of global differences, religious people are actually quite miserable. Yet, thanks to religious beliefs and practices they are less miserable than they would otherwise be. If you want to be happier, the last thing you should do would be to move to a religious country. You might consider living in a country like Sweden instead where most people are happy atheists.Source: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201211/are-religious-people-happier
I believe that the author above is being disingenuous. He has made switch from countries like Denmark, Sweden to third world nations. True that the Scandinavian countries are among the happiest but the average quality of life in countries like Germany, UK and USA are not significantly worse off than average quality of life in Scandinavian countries. The fact that there are quite a number of researches that support the findings that religion may promote higher degree of satisfaction among its adherents in residents of countries such as Switzerland, UK and Germany bolsters the argument that religion could have a positive effect on its adherents. Just because non-religious residents of Scandinavian countries are more happy than religious residents of Scandinavian country we can't put all the merits of religion being effective only till as far coping with stress of third world countries is concerned. There may be alternate explanations for why people are on average happier in Scandinavian country than in non-Scandinavian countries and why the religious people of Scandinavian countries are less happier than non-religious people.
My conclusion: I believe the findings from different articles on the correlation between religion and happiness/satisfaction are contradictory and hence we cannot conclude anything with a great degree of confidence. The people who jump to conclusion on religion and its ability or inability to provide happiness to its adherents are being less rational and careless. My personal belief is that moderate amounts of religious practise may not have materially adverse effects on its practitioners nor is religion likely to make its practitioner significantly better off.
What are your views on the topic?
