beliefI have heard it said that believers are on average “Happier” (i know it is a subjective term) and live longer than their non-believer/atheist counterparts. Is this true? And would the situation change if the situation was reversed?
Firstly,
“The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.” – George Bernard Shaw
But, onward to the answer you’re looking for: maybe. There is certainly a lot of propagandizing around this point. My initial response is that if you’re looking for data pertaining to the primary cause being faith it would depend entirely on the specific faith. You’ll probably never get this type of question answered. Even if you narrowed it down to one religion, how do you suppose you would isolate other secondary factors, political, and family, to test:
Finally, I would ask that as a thought experiment you consider a religion that mandates the following dogma:
It would be easy to codify a religion that would statistically make you more happy – it just doesn’t get you anywhere.
For the theists are happier side I’d suggest you read the Conservapedia page on it, and also the Wikipedia article on Religion and happiness
Don’t know how good this source is, but you can take a look. It says that the community thing is what makes religion “good for you.”
The studies which have been done (sorry I don’t have any to hand) admitted that the correlation might have been to theists having a strong community and strong family ties, and that it was the social aspects of a community which provided the support and thereby the benefit — not the belief itself. So atheists who also have the same network of support should enjoy the same health/happiness benefits.
There is actually actually scientific study that measure happiness. But we need to differentiate correlation and causation. There could be a correlation without causation.
According to wikipedia there was study on correlation, it been found in some countries (Americans) and not other (Netherlands and Denmark). This is just a correlation, it could been explain by other factor, like the fact that unhappy people have a tendency to disbelieve or an ostracism of nonbelievers.
I am not aware of any proof of causation.
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