Player1x3 said:
pearljammer said:
The major problem with these studies is that they're often only done in the United States where the religious are a majority and the non-religious are a minority. This of course satifies another criteria for happiness.
In fact, a study done in the Netherlands and Denmark, where the non-religious are the majority, resulted in much, much lower differences between the two. As the study concludes:
| "the question in further research should not be whether religiousness boosts happiness, but in what conditions for what people." |
There are just so many variables involved here, namely geographical, that a blanket conclusion that 'religious people are more likely to be happy' is a gross oversimplification.
A sense of community is what I would attribute as being the strongest factor for that argument. Of course, I'm talking purely out of my ass on that thought.
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Well, there are almost no countries in the world where the majority is non religious, the only ones coming to my mind are Czech Republic and Estonia, all other countries have a religious majority in the.n. If its gonna help, a similar research was done in my country and in Bosnia, and same results came up like in this OP. I have a link, only, you wouldnt be able to understand anything
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That's not the point. In the few where it is the case, the results were drastically reduced suggesting that religiosity is not as a significant factor as what is suggesting in the study from the OP. The better question to ask would be "In what conditions can religiosity be attributed to greater happiness?"
The Bosnian study that you may have is neglible here as it has the same conditions of that of the Americas - the religious far outnumber the non-religious. The studies fail to account for other factors - those that are also attributtal to happiness like social ties (support and contact) and culture.
Though, as Rath mentioned, even if it this were to be true, it doesn't validate their belief in any way. It speaks nothing to the merits of either stance.
