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Does God make you happy?

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Researchers accidentally discovered that people with religious beliefs tend to be more content in life.While not the original objective, the recent European study found that religious people are better able to cope with shocks such as losing a loved one or getting laid off of a job.

The European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, analyzed a variety of factors among Catholic and Protestant Christians and found that life satisfaction seems to be higher among the religious population. The authors concluded that religion in general, might act as a "buffer" that protects people from life's disappointments.

Data from thousands of European households revealed higher levels of "life satisfaction" in believers. The benefit might involve the increased "purpose of life" experienced by many believers that may not be as strongly felt among nonbelievers.

The researchers say they found that the religious crowd tended to experience more “current day rewards”, rather than storing them up for the future. Previous studies have also found strong correlations between religion and happiness.

The believer might find satisfaction in the scientific documentation of how human nature predisposes people to believe in God because it could reinforce the idea that people were divinely designed to know and believe in God.

The idea that religion may offer substantial psychological benefits in life, is in sharp contrast with another common viewpoint that religion is repressive and has a negative influence on human development.
smorrisey

80 responses // Does God make you happy?

  • ha ha

    I'm the happiest person I know.
    jade_azul16
  • http://www.venganza.org/
    There is not a god, but the Spaghetti Monster makes me happy!
    uroborus8
  • Duh. This is the stupidest "discovery" I've ever heard.
    kdepinna
  • odd, I must be the exception for this thesis.
    Varex_Sythe
  • That all seems very subjective to me.

    Are Catholics "happier" than Protestants?

    Are athiests "happier" than agnostics?

    Are Wiccans "happier" than Satanists?

    Are the Amish really "happier" than Scientologists?

    I bet the people of Jonestown would rank themselves has fairly "content" all the way up until the posion Kool-aid was being passed out -- so what does that say?

    I'm curious how this study was conducted. Did they just ask someone "How well did you cope with your job loss?" If people are scoring themselves -- wouldn't they skew the results as they tend to describe themselves more favorably to strangers?

    Maybe another study should be: How honestly do people portray themselves to scientists in studies?

    Kinda like when you ask someone, "How ya doing tday?" We all automatically respond, "Fine!"
    crob80227
  • ...wow...kind of obious...even for me, and I can't even spell obious!

    Although, I reckon only because they feel threatened by thier god(s).
    steadward
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here, here, here, and here
    No one else can make you happy but yourself. Happiness is a decision.
    It's a way of life.
    jade_azul16
  • Ha ha.

    If we asked the Heaven's Gate cult, er, I mean religious adherents if they felt happy and content with their lives -- if they enjoyed the running suits and the castration -- they'd probably say yes.

    At least that what they had said in their last video taped message to their families right before they stuffed a roll of quarters in their pockets and killed themselves to ascend spiritually into the spacecraft awaiting them in the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet.
    crob80227

  • Happy I am that the power and responsibility of life's purpose rests entirely within me.

    stephenthomson
  • If Jesus and Tony Robbins got in a fight --who would win?

    Sure Jesus can walk on water, but Tony can walk on fire! How can you beat that?

    I also personally happen to think Tony tells better parables than Jesus.
    crob80227
  • Ned Flanders makes me happy.

    God bless him.
    peenkeefeenger
  • Have you seen him without his shirt??

    hehe
    jade_azul16
  • "The authors concluded that religion in general, might act as a "buffer" that protects people from life's disappointments."

    And this is a good thing? Buffer, crutch, what's the difference? I'll walk through life (happily i might add) without a crutch slowing me down thank you.
    brylou01
  • I don't know, I think a belief in anything could make you happy. It's what keeps you going. Sometimes I think even Atheists aren't full on atheists, because we all look to something or someone even if it's just ourselves.

    If you are your own god, that faith in yourself will do just fine I think.

    Although, methinks a belief system is what makes you happy. Not a church, cathedral, synagogue, etc. If you can find peace and happiness through meditation in your studio apt, go for it.
    MornRail
  • In related news, I recently discovered a $20 bill in a jacket I hadn't worn in a while.

    That made me more content with life too.
    joebrilliant
  • I absolutely believe in a greater Intelligence in the universe because I feel I've directly experienced it on many occasions. And I look to some of the greatest people in recent human history as my inspiration, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Albert Einstein, etc. etc. - one thing they all had in common was a devout belief in the existence of the divine. I don’t belong to an organized religion or a cult, and I’m proud to say that I was once and atheist and a questioner. Yet I’m so grateful I took the leap across the quantum, to know that there is infinitely more to this great and wonderful universe than our puny human existence and our sometimes narrow conception of it. Even if this is just Mother Nature encouraging me to be happier so I can survive longer – works for me and apparently millions of others like me.
    anniefree
  • God has always made me happy and I pray that other people can experiance the love and compasion he shows for his children
    mr_jaron2u
  • I was going to say I don't belong to an organized religion -- but I have been an avid Mac owner for the past decade, so obviously I do.

    The iPhone is God (albeit without 3G and true GPS. Dammit. Hopefully the 2nd Coming of the iPhone will banish those sinful oversights)
    crob80227
  • A similar study revealed that twenty ounces of rum had pretty much the same effect.
    recommended by  jade_azul16
    AceHardchester
  • i think that it is not religion per se, but, rather, belief or spirituality. i absolutely abhor religion, all of them, for all the false texts, stolen stories, mis-translations, subliminal messages for control of the populus, etc... but on the other hand while i have no religion i do have my own personal philosophy and spirituality that has made my life easier to maintain and ultimately enjoy. please, believe me when i say i've been down the nihilist path and it made life difficult to no end.
    dirkglitchmann
  • Ignorance is bliss!
    derk
  • Thank God my faith doesn't lie in the hands of man! I have faith in God, but not man. Several months back I read a book titled "When God Winks". I enjoyed it, because I have had many winks. Not financially. I haven't won the lottery, but I ask for it every day. Money is not the only blessing worth receiving.

    Seeing a double rainbow, lifted my spirit when I was very low. Going for a ride on 9/11 several years ago and coming across a group of hot air balloons. My husband and I pulled into the church parking lot where they were taking off from and watched them go up. It was great! Unfortunately, I didn't have my digital camera, so I used Conigital "pictures in my mind, complete with smell-o-vision. I say click and take a deep breath. I have so many Conigitals, I can picture them any time I'm feeling low and lift my spirits. It may not be God, but it makes me feel better
    Conniepae
  • i am happy being the smoldering cynic who looks upon the cotton ball insulated psyches of the religious peeps and feels superior - if it weren't for the cattle minded in this world , i'd lose the very foundation for my self esteem . i thank "god" for ignorance .
    malathion
  • i think the key factor here is the belief, or faith (whatever you want to call it) that there is a 'greater' purpose, meaning, design, flow, richness...etc... to life than what we experience in our daily trivial individual routines.

    people with a spiritual practice - i would disagree that it only applies to those following a conventional religion, based on my experience as a yoga practitioner and my observations of yogis and meditators i've known - have a more sustained and stable way of cutting through the bullshit and remembering who we are.

    so do people who do a lot of drugs. but they also have to deal with hijacked brain chemicals.

    regina
  • what exactly is "normal functioning" that any drug user's brain should be "hi-jacked" by chemicals ? actually - what is the "reality" which the perceived departure from would imply "abnormality" ? could it not also be said that drugs actually help certain peeps "deal" with the state of things which would otherwise hijack their sanity ( which would apply to any altered state of consciousness , including yogic meditation ) ? think about what you're saying yoda .
    malathion
  • very happy , thanks for asking .
    malathion
  • I am all for the flying spaghetti monster.

    "I want you to know, when it comes to believing in god- I really tried. I really really tried. I tried to believe that there is a god who created each one of us in his own image and likeness, loves us very much and keeps a close eye on things. I really tried to believe that, but I gotta tell you, the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize...something is FUCKED-UP. Something is WRONG here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is NOT good work. If this is the best god can do, I am NOT impressed. Results like these do not belong on the resume of a supreme being. This is the kind of shit you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently run universe, this guy would have been out on his all-powerful-ass a long time ago." -george carlin

    katharinekov
  • Perhaps I am missing something. Religion came about from primitive peoples' intent to understand the frightening things in the world that they were not capable of understanding. Religion was the shield to protect them from the things that frightened them. It spread to include those things that made them feel good. These researchers need to understand that contemporary religions did not arrise in a vacuum but were adopted directly from those ancient beliefs and did not replace or displace them as much as they adopted them and enhanced them.
    1lipmoving
  • Happiness is totally subjective. One defines their own terms, and I'd like to make the clarification that religion does not make happiness. Low standards make happiness. For example, I can lay in my bean bag, transfixed by the TV, sipping Sunkist, and eating Spaghettios, and I am truly happy. Is this because I have found inner peace, and a meaning for my bleak, insignificant life? No. It's because for this brief moment, I am contented enough to forget about, or ignore any problems that I may be facing. Others find perpetual ignorance in the arms of dogmatic religion. Others find ignorance pseudo-spiritual transindentalism. Still others find there ignorance in an unending search for the truth. This seems contradictory, in that one may be both ignorant and curious at the same time, but it is not so. Whatever takes your mind off your trpubles, is happiness.

    and katharinekov - propson the carlin quote. I think HE is the supreme intelligence everyone's looking for.
    dco
    • dco
    • 3 months ago
  • This article made me depressed :(
    VSiskos
  • JADE_AZUL16!!
    You said it best "No one else can make you happy but yourself. Happiness is a decision.
    It's a way of life."
    rigellianaire
  • http://current.com/items/88876297_opinion_poll_paradox
    Image...
    "Happiness is totally subjective"
    so is that opinion

    its certainly debatable, and does not mean that constants and empirical evidence cannot be postulated based on a groups' psychological state.

    The reason this "irrelevant" story blipped the radar is because these researchers allegedly came to their conclusions by accident.

    noone wouldnt argue happiness comes from within..... but this study highlights the fact that people who do not believe in a higher power show measurable differences in behavior from that of the ned flanders crowd.

    if yall wanna see a seriously statistically whacked out oxyMoronic poll study, chek it >
    smorrisey
  • "happiness is a warm gun " John Lennon
    malathion
  • Does praying to the porcelain god after too many shots of patron count?

    Sometimes it is difficult for people to see things for what they are and make up stories for why things happened(play the victim). I think if you are able to move on from a negative situation and make it into a positive one, you'll be much happier. Religious or not.
    sabkl
  • I am interested in why many people responded so negatively to this article. Almost in a defensive way as if the article was attacking them personally.
    smashingjoey
  • it is sorta freudian isn't it ? if you psychoanalyze it enough you might just come up with the answers - and you'll probably be right , interestingly enough .
    malathion
  • Believing in a higher power is not the exclusive domain of religion. There are many twelve step programs that offer a pathway to God without a bunch of religious dogma or rituals. God is love, God does not punish anyone, God does not judge.

    Perhaps there was something missing from the study, following a religion and believing in God are not synonymous.
    recommended by  jade_azul16
    jubal
  • Abraham Lincoln said "People are as happy as they make their minds up to be."
    jubal
  • I'm sticking to ignorance as it provides me all the bliss that I need and asks little in return.
    Faith can be a comfort while remaining very fragile. The moment a mind asks itself, "Why would God let something like ____________ happen?", Faith can be shattered by doubt. I can't imagine anything more profoundly life damaging than when a believer starts questioning God's ways.
    huntre
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