Are Religious People Happier?

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Baron Max

Registered Senior Member
Ya' know, I've heard that comment many, many times in my life and from some very intelligent, knowledgeable people. I've also known many religious people who do seem to be more content than those who do not believe in some religious doctrine. Do you suppose that it's true? And if so, why?

And, please, this is NOT about radical extremists, etc., but just good ol' fashioned belief and basic good ol', plain, ordinary, church-going people.

Baron Max
 
Probably since they think they have solved a major problem - death.

Similarly I suspect that cows are largely quite happy right up to the point where they are slaughtered for meat.

Those of us who take a more realistic approach to life must somehow come to terms with our inevitable and probable non existence. This is not something I find comforting.
 
Surveys on personal contentment do not show any greater self-rated happiness for religious people.
 
James,

Surveys on personal contentment do not show any greater self-rated happiness for religious people.
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I wonder if that could be explained by the rules of religions that create feelings of guilt that perfectly counterbalance the belief of eternal life.
 
I don't know the reasons, Cris. It's complicated.

Interestingly, self-rated happiness doesn't even correlate with wealth.
 
Ok, although the wealth aspect doesn't surprise me.

Do you have any references?
 
Similarly I suspect that cows are largely quite happy right up to the point where they are slaughtered for meat.
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Not in factory farming. They live miserable lives.

I'd say that IF it's true that religious people are happier, it's because they think they know it all.
 
Baron Max said:
Ya' know, I've heard that comment many, many times in my life and from some very intelligent, knowledgeable people. I've also known many religious people who do seem to be more content than those who do not believe in some religious doctrine. Do you suppose that it's true? And if so, why?

And, please, this is NOT about radical extremists, etc., but just good ol' fashioned belief and basic good ol', plain, ordinary, church-going people.

Baron Max
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of course they are, ignorance is bliss.

The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. Other people's brains might shut out this same information through a process called "latent inhibition" - defined as an animal's unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs. Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition.

"This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra information constantly streaming in from the environment," says co-author and U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson. "The normal person classifies an object, and then forgets about it, even though that object is much more complex and interesting than he or she thinks. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new possibilities."

reviously, scientists have associated failure to screen out stimuli with psychosis. However, Peterson and his co-researchers - lead author and psychology lecturer Shelley Carson of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard PhD candidate Daniel Higgins - hypothesized that it might also contribute to original thinking, especially when combined with high IQ. They administered tests of latent inhibition to Harvard undergraduates. Those classified as eminent creative achievers - participants under age 21 who reported unusually high scores in a single area of creative achievement - were seven times more likely to have low latent inhibition scores.

The authors hypothesize that latent inhibition may be positive when combined with high intelligence and good working memory - the capacity to think about many things at once - but negative otherwise.

taken from here...http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001684.html
 
i think it depends on how you define happiness. since there is no definition of it that will work for everyone, i think its hard to say.
 
If I believed everything I learned at school, I would be happy, I would not need any answeres.

Religious have the answers

P.s. forgive mistakes in post, new years drunk!
 
I say Yes and No.

Yes - refer to geeser's post.

No - Unhappy people (especially poverty stricken people in third world countries) turn to religion as a hope of God giving them a better life. They are religious, but yet unhappy, so the answer to the question is Yes and No based upon how you look at it.
 
BeavisAndButthead said:
...(especially poverty stricken people in third world countries) turn to religion as a hope of God giving them a better life. They are religious, but yet unhappy, ....
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But the question isn't "are they happy", but are they HAPPIER than those in similar conditions. I.e., we all know that starving people probably aren't happy, but of all of those unhappy, starving people, are those who are religious happier, stressing the -IER, than the other starving people?

Also I think it's easy, simplistic, to say "Ignorance is bliss", but I've not seen anything to support the notion that religious people are any more ignorant than non-religious people.

Of two groups of people - one group religious, one group non-religious; of equal status in the community; with equal wealth; with equal intelligence ...is the religious group happier than the non-religious group?

It's been my 60-some years of observations that religious people are happier than the non-religious people. But let's face it, I don't know all that many people of the world! So the question still stands unanswered.

Baron Max
 
Why should they be? I'm as happy as I can be, this is a wonderful world! And I follow no religious belief.
Death / disintegration is nothing to worry about, imo, it's a vital part of how this universe works. It's not that something bad happens.

Myself being aware of the supposed age of this universe, this planet, the countless life-forms that have been inhabiting it, species appearing, disappearing, from simple micro-organisms, to first fishes, tetrapods, dinosaurs, sabre tooths, homo neanderthalis, etc... Cells dividing, dying, atoms rearranging, extinctions, new life appearing..
To put any importance in my existance as an individual in this grand theatre would be the most egoistic arrogance ever.

Paradise, afterworlds, bah! :D
Illusions to make weak people feel better.

Oh, and as an ending quote, words from a German film "In weiter Ferne, so nah!" (in german it sounds better)
To every thing there is a season...
a time to every purpose
under heaven.

There is a time to be born...
a time to die...
a time to kill...
a time to heal...
a time to weep...
a time to laugh...
a time to seek...
a time to keep silent...
a time to speak...
a time to love.

- A time...
- to love...
- a time...
- to hate...
- a time...
for conflict...
a time...
for peace.
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Avatar said:
Why should they be? I'm as happy as I can be, this is a wonderful world! And I follow no religious belief.
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Well, I don't know why they should be happier ...or even if they are. And that's why this topic was raised. I don't know the answer, and I was hoping that someone else might know.

But, Avatar, you being just one person does not make anything true for anyone else ...so your own happiness isn't even a factor in the discussion. And quoting someone else's opinion is also not much of a factor in the discussion ...it doesn't help answer the question. Just like some Hollywood movie wouldn't answer the question either!

Baron Max
 
Sure, but my mental state shows that one (and potentially others) doesn't have to be religious in order to be very happy and content.
 
That quote was not intended for you, but for anyone who thinks that life is too short therefore an afterlife has to be imagined and desired.
 
How can people think of death as something bad? Even if you're the happiest person ever, it doesn't matter -- when you're dead, you're dead. For me it sounds like the ultimate liberation to not exist. But for some reason, ever since I was small, I have never believed in non-existence. Non-existence is just what it is: it does not exist. Hopefully it can still be attained with complete self-knowledge.

Religious people are happier because they have hope and faith in God. Faith in God is subconsciously faith in oneself. Atheists also believe in themselves, but they may not know their actual power because they only believe in what they know about themselves. Christ came to earth to show that everyone can become like him. That's how we are in reality, that's the one we should have faith in.

Maybe not then...
 
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