There are studies that show that people benefit from having belief that church is actually a good thing it's good for you we might benefit from having a belief system in general. People who stated going to church at least three times a month had blood pressure that was on average 1-2 points lower than those who didn't go to church. Thinking about God calms people down if they are religious. And a study published in the journal for the association of psychological science showed that brain activity decreases in areas related to regulating arousal and alerting us when things are wrong while we were thinking about God. Religious parents are found to have better behaved and more social children .
A study found that church goers live 2 to 4 years longer than on church goers and another study even touted an extra 7 years of life expectancy for the faithful. One study showed that Christians seem to be happier on social media versus atheists on social media. But believing in God clearly has some positive effects so if you believe in multiple gods does that mean you get more benefit you multiplying your benefits because there are more God's around that's not really been studied in the same way.
But a cool 2007 LA Times article by Mary Lefkowitz made a really quick really great observation in a monotheistic religion God is always good provides judgment and is just believers take the blame for things that go wrong but polytheistic religions different gods do battle amongst themselves some create evil in the world some are good believers of polytheistic religions might be less stressed when bad things happen because they can shift the justification off of themselves oh that's just this evil God doing this thing you know they're polytheists of like the Norse religion who have the god Loki the god of mischief and it would make sense to be like oh this bad thing happen you know what must be loki is being crazy and then good things happen all know that must be this God that does good stuff and it's it's a way to spread the blame around but again not scientific study just a cool observation.
I think the real question here that are atheists happier than theists or vice versa a study showed that was in the UK most significantly that spiritual people were nearly three times more likely to experience of depression then secular people we say that again just to make sure our spiritual people were nearly three times more likely to experience of depression in secular people but again religion can certainly help people be happier but other people can also help you be happier other things help you do the same thing a peaceful cooperative society even in the absence of religion has the same effect as a religious society most of the time when we study religion what we're actually studying is social structure.
we're studying this community of people who have something to share when i was young i went to church from time to time I was exposed to religion but I wasn't told that i must be part of that my parents weren't particularly religious so I didn't have to be part of a religion if I didn't want to but I still went to church and I was also part of the boy scouts I'm an Eagle Scout and that requires a religious component you cannot become an Eagle Scout without a sign-off from a religious person or religious group I have nothing but praise to heap on scouting and what it taught me over the years including the tolerance for different religions because you're exposed to so many different kinds of people especially it bigger and bigger and bigger levels but as a person who was less religious than some of the faithful around be I still saw benefits from being in these communities because what you're really talking about is social groups talking about this social group that's part of this social group that's part of this social group and we share values and we can all talk about it can feel good about it some people get really amazing value and pride from their faith and some people draw pride and value from elsewhere both are significant both are important and you know what both our personal I know this is a super-crazy subject but please tell us what you think down in the comments and let me know how you feel about this.
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I don't see any sources...
I just can't take religion seriously. I was never really a believer despite going to Sunday school as a kid. We each have to find our own way to happiness.
I guess religion could make some happier because it fosters community. The problem is that you need to be part of the religion to belong to the community, so basically they are keeping you by exploiting your need to belong, your vulnerability when being alone.
For many people, quitting their religion means they won't be able to interact with their own family in the same way. Because many cults will tell their followers to turn their back on family that rejects the religion.
That's why someone who is away from the religion is not necessarily suffering from lack of order or lack or god, they are suffering lack of people, marginalization.