Are theists happier then atheists?

[Jeremiah]

That was unworthy of you.

"That was unworthy of you."

Well, there was not much point in talking to you. I said this is how I believe and you said no that is how you believe. I was like ???? So, it was clear you were not listening to me. But I bet I got your attention now.

 

[Shia Islam]

Copernicus
It is irrational to argue that a belief must be true because goodness will result if the belief is true. If this is what you mean by "reason", then I doubt that you can mount a compelling argument for the existence of God.

What I meant by saying that a believer is on the safe side is the following:
Imagine you are in abuiding and some one came and told you that the buiding will collapse soon, if you go out you will be in the safe side…let it not collapse…if you argue with him …and stay there..then you are in risk…as when you argue that God is not there and resurrection is not there so you should do what you want and ignore what is said that God wants.

slave2six
That's like saying that all Muslims are likely to become suicide bombers.

The point here is that islam is not one school…
Yes in my opinion Muslims belongs to the Wahabi school are more likely to become suicide bombers. and all the September 11 bombers were Wahabis.

Bware
How does hedonism lead to sadness? Pleasure doesn't bring sadness.

Beware

Tiapan
Surely the Atheist has simply removed a large branch of fiction from his real life. That does not mean he suddenly turns to a feral animal

.

The problem is that the atheist confused God with fiction.

Let me add more reasons why Are theists happier then atheists:

1. Religiuos practices have their positive social impact as well, atheists just miss it. I don’t want to talk about a particular religion, but as an example, last year I made it to Mecca to do piligrimage, such a journey with people from different ages, and meeting people from different cultures…atheism just can’t organize such an event. Other religions sure have their examples.

2. Believers has their role models, lets take Jesus as an example as both muslims and Christians believe on him…these models have there effects. Athesists just can’t bring a close example to those great models.

3. Atheist just fail in difficult situations when no material hope of survivors are there…Not the believers.

4. All of these reasons are based on the assumption that God doesn’t exist. If he does exist, and that’s our belief, then this explain why Are theists happier then atheists.

 

[Falvlun]

I find that many religions people, when asked, tend to be less honest on the subject, since they feel it is almost expected of them to be content and happy. I don't think believing in a god makes you happier, but belonging to a religion or a gym might.

I'm actually quite surprised that no one else commented on the post: it seems to me like there is objective evidence out there that suggests that religious people tend to be happier than non religious people. And yet people in this thread seem to prefer the knee jerk "Nuh-uh!"

As for your specific criticism, ie, religious people are simply lying about it, I would think that this possibility would be effectively eliminated if those who are being asked the poll questions don't know that the pollsters are trying correlate happiness and religion.

Religion Linked to Happy Life
I thought this was a pretty balanced article.

"Religious people are better able to cope with shocks such as losing a job or divorce, claims the study presented to a Royal Economic Society conference. Data from thousands of Europeans revealed higher levels of "life satisfaction" in believers. "

Obviously, religion won't make every single person happier; it just seems to be a trend viewed in scientific studies. I heard a (rather unwarranted, imo) criticism leveled at liberals today on talk radio: Why is it that liberals laud science when it helps them, but then shove it away in favor of anecdotal stories when it doesn't?

It seems to me that the same thing is happening here: Atheists love science. It is often their backbone. And yet, when it's saying stuff they don't like, suddenly we should ignore it in favor of "well that's not how I feel".

 

[whereismynotecard]

A common argument for belief in gods is that it is fuzzy. Which is all well and good, but are theist really happier then atheist?

Some of them are.
I think it all really depends on what job you have.

For instance, if you work at KFC...
You're going to be miserable no matter what religion you are or aren't.

But if you don't have a job, and still get free money, you might be pretty happy, no matter what religion you are or aren't.

There are, of course, other aspects as well. If you never get to do anything fun, you might not be happy. If no one likes you or if you have a horrible migraine all the time you might not be happy. But if you have a puppy to play with and get to see a movie that you've been wanting to see, you'll probably be happy for that part of your life.

I think religion or lack of religion might play a small part in the happiness of people, but mostly it's all of the other parts of your life too, combined, which determines if you are generally a happy person. I'm pretty happy.

Even though I've got to read Shakespeare... But all of the theists in my class have to read it too.

 

[Zorro1227]

No, you believe. There's a difference. And that differences renders commentary on truth or falsehood pointless speculation.

I don't mean to pick on you. The original "what if it's false" question was what annoyed me.

I apologize for annoying you. I don't think it was an annoying question. I was just posing a question

 

[Copernicus]

If having an ontology, accompanied with their view of existence and rejection of the ideologies of others…if all of this is not an ideology ..what an ideology would be?!

A rejection of your ontology is not itself an ontology. If I reject the existence of mermaids, for example, I am not expressing an alternative ontology.

Indeed atheism is almost a religion, it has its preachers, institutions …they just need to call them churches.

Sweeping generalization. An individual atheist might be a communist, but that does not mean that all atheists are communists. Atheists are free to adopt any ideology that does not conflict with rejection of belief in gods. Be careful that you do not stereotype atheists on the basis of what some atheists say.

With my appreciation of the high education level of many atheists, What hold atheists back from claiming that it’s an ideology is that they failed deliver a full explanation about the big questions such as the those of the existence of the universe and its causes.

First of all, your religion has no explanation of the existence or causes of God, a being that is supposed to have created the universe. So it offers no ultimate explanation of the existence of the universe. Secondly, the question is not whether explanations are offered, but whether the explanations offered have any merit. If I tell you that Bugs Bunny created the universe, that is not necessarily a superior answer to "I do not know."

First I am not sure whether you have read the proofs of the Existence of Good, starting from the ancient philosophical proofs up until now and have falsified all of them…If you have done so them it would be nice to share these researches with other members here in RF.We can have a discussion about them

Nobody here, including yourself, has read everything on the subject, so nobody can conclude on that basis that God exists or does not exist. I am familiar with a great many arguments in favor of the existence of God (or gods), and I will repeat what I said in my last post. I have never seen a compelling argument to support belief in the existence of any god. If you have one, we can discuss it. If you want to argue that there must be some argument among the many that I am unaware of and have not refuted, then please reveal it to me so that I can revise my opinion.

The point is, there are many people who choose to be this and that…
You can see that the percentage of people who don’t believe that America has done it to the moon is relatively high. I don’t think that the problem here is with the proofs about the journey to the moon.

I honestly do not know what the percentage is of Americans who doubt that we have visited the Moon, and I fail to see its relevance here. There will always be people on both sides of every empirical argument. I do not see why that should affect what I believe.

Imagine you are in a building and some one came and told you that the building will collapse soon...

Right here, I have a problem with your hypothetical. If an engineer is telling me that, I would be very concerned. If a child or a crazy person is telling me that, I would be less concerned.

if you go out you will be in the safe side…let it not collapse…if you argue with him …and stay there..then you are in risk…

So somebody says to you that you are dying of cancer, but you do not know it yet. This person will sell you a bottle of snake oil to cure your cancer, but it will cost you $1000. Do you buy the snake oil?

...as when you argue that God is not there and resurrection is not there so you should do what you want and ignore what is said that God wants.

Must I believe everything that I am told? Is it forbidden to ask for some reasonable proof that God exists or that Jesus was resurrected? If I am forbidden to ignore these kinds of claims, then is there any claim at all that I can ignore?

The point here is that islam is not one school…
Yes in my opinion Muslims belongs to the Wahabi school are more likely to become suicide bombers. and all the September 11 bombers were Wahabis.

OK, so you reject Wahabbism. I have no problem with that, except that I cannot see why you accept Shiism instead. Or Christianity. How do you know that any one religious doctrine is superior to any other?

 

[Jeremiah]

You don't see how:

...is a relevant response to:

Dude, srsly?

Read the OP, it says, "A common argument for belief in gods is that it is fuzzy"

The argument, itself, is always about the belief in gods, not the existence of gods and I don't think it is ever intended to be interpreted the way you have.

 

[Jeremiah]

The only certainty is uncertainty

GhK.

That is a contradiction.

 

[Jeremiah]

Some can be happy, even if it means that their happiness stems from being deluded. Others cannot.

And would you say that, generally speaking, the "some" is greater or less then the "other".

 

[Jeremiah]

I'm actually quite surprised that no one else commented on the post: it seems to me like there is objective evidence out there that suggests that religious people tend to be happier than non religious people. And yet people in this thread seem to prefer the knee jerk "Nuh-uh!"

As for your specific criticism, ie, religious people are simply lying about it, I would think that this possibility would be effectively eliminated if those who are being asked the poll questions don't know that the pollsters are trying correlate happiness and religion.

Religion Linked to Happy Life
I thought this was a pretty balanced article.

"Religious people are better able to cope with shocks such as losing a job or divorce, claims the study presented to a Royal Economic Society conference. Data from thousands of Europeans revealed higher levels of "life satisfaction" in believers. "

Obviously, religion won't make every single person happier; it just seems to be a trend viewed in scientific studies. I heard a (rather unwarranted, imo) criticism leveled at liberals today on talk radio: Why is it that liberals laud science when it helps them, but then shove it away in favor of anecdotal stories when it doesn't?

It seems to me that the same thing is happening here: Atheists love science. It is often their backbone. And yet, when it's saying stuff they don't like, suddenly we should ignore it in favor of "well that's not how I feel".

"I'm actually quite surprised that no one else commented on the post:"

I think people are on the defensive, they don't want to lose ground. Of the atheist that have reply many have added that being happy still does not prove gods as real.

But unlike other debates, this one is completely worldly and we don't need to debate it, we simply need to look at the evidence. And I agree, you'd think that is something atheist would eat up.

 

[Nepenthe]

Dude, srsly?

Read the OP, it says, "A common argument for belief in gods is that it is fuzzy"

The argument, itself, is always about the belief in gods, not the existence of gods and I don't think it is ever intended to be interpreted the way you have.

Then you don't understand the point I was making with the inclusion of the Shaw quote. Which leads to:

"I'm actually quite surprised that no one else commented on the post:"

I think people are on the defensive, they don't want to lose ground. Of the atheist that have reply many have added that being happy still does not prove gods as real.

But unlike other debates, this one is completely worldly and we don't need to debate it, we simply need to look at the evidence. And I agree, you'd think that is something atheist would eat up.

And that's exactly what I was saying. Religious beliefs do make people happier; polls consistently support the contention that believers are happier than non-believers. I thought that was a given. My point which you missed several times is that it's irrelevant in determining the validity of the belief. It was a relevant response and related to your OP.

 

[Scarlett Wampus]

It seems to me that the same thing is happening here: Atheists love science. It is often their backbone. And yet, when it's saying stuff they don't like, suddenly we should ignore it in favor of "well that's not how I feel".

*sigh*

I don't think anyone should ignore scientific evidence in favour of their own beliefs & opinions unless they can fess up that's what they're doing.

Theists are statistically more likely to be happier than atheists. That's how it is.

 

[Jeremiah]

Then you don't understand the point I was making with the inclusion of the Shaw quote. Which leads to:

And that's exactly what I was saying. Religious beliefs do make people happier; polls consistently support the contention that believers are happier than non-believers. I thought that was a given. My point which you missed several times is that it's irrelevant in determining the validity of the belief. It was a relevant response and related to your OP.

"Then you don't understand the point I was making with the inclusion of the Shaw quote. Which leads to: "

Good back and read my post , I said the top half, as in thee upper half of the post. Do you only see what you want to see?

"I thought that was a given."

The title of the thread is, " Are theists happier then atheists?" If I considered it a given would I be asking the question?

"My point which you missed several times"

I got it the first time but it was irrelevant to the entire thread. Great, happiness does not prove gods exist, thanks for stating the obvious for everyone.

"It was a relevant response and related to your OP."

No it was not and no it did not, the OP is not about the existance of gods. It clearly says, "argument for belief in gods." Do you know what the word "belief" means or do you need it explained?


I'll tell you what happen, you just wanted to say gods don't exist and you just got overzealous. You simply wanted to shoot down the idea because *gasp* it might be OK to believe in "God"; it might even be logical.

Is atheism a faith? I don't know but some of them sure do act like it.

 

[ProudAtheist122208]

theists spend their lives worshiping and living their lives to please god because they are promised another life while atheists realize that you only have one life so you better live it to the fullest

 

[Nepenthe]

The title of the thread is, " Are theists happier then atheists?" If I considered it a given would I be asking the question?

I said I thought it was a given; I have no idea what you are or aren't aware of.

I got it the first time but it was irrelevant to the entire thread. Great, happiness does not prove gods exist, thanks for stating the obvious for everyone.

And theists are statistically happier than non-theists; thanks for an easy to answer OP. It took 8 pages to arrive at the obvious?

No it was not and no it did not, the OP is not about the existance of gods. It clearly says, "argument for belief in gods." Do you know what the word "belief" means or do you need it explained?

It was relevant. Being condescending does little to substantiate your difficulty in understanding the point. Theistic beliefs are connected to happiness- what of it?

I'll tell you what happen, you just wanted to say gods don't exist and you just got overzealous. You simply wanted to shoot down the idea because *gasp* it might be OK to believe in "God"; it might even be logical.

I'll tell you what, don't make assumptions that have no basis whatsoever. God(s) don't exist, but that wasn't the point of my initial post. But your failure to grasp that is becoming all too obvious. Why would it not be "ok" to believe in God? Please tell me where I even insinuated otherwise? What relevance does that even have with your OP? As for logical, I'd disagree- but again, what does that have to do with anything mentioned thus far?

Is atheism a faith? I don't know but some of them sure do act like it.

Now this is deviating from the OP and has no relevance whatsoever. You really don't understand the definition of atheism or faith do you? I can define them if you'd like. Hint: nothing I've posted here has anything to do with atheism as faith.

 

[Jeremiah]

I said I thought it was a given; I have no idea what you are or aren't aware of.

And theists are statistically happier than non-theists; thanks for an easy to answer OP. It took 8 pages to arrive at the obvious?

It was relevant. Being condescending does little to substantiate your difficulty in understanding the point. Theistic beliefs are connected to happiness- what of it?

I'll tell you what, don't make assumptions that have no basis whatsoever. God(s) don't exist, but that wasn't the point of my initial post. But your failure to grasp that is becoming all too obvious. Why would it not be "ok" to believe in God? Please tell me where I even insinuated otherwise? What relevance does that even have with your OP? As for logical, I'd disagree- but again, what does that have to do with anything mentioned thus far?

Now this is deviating from the OP and has no relevance whatsoever. You really don't understand the definition of atheism or faith do you? I can define them if you'd like. Hint: nothing I've posted here has anything to do with atheism as faith.

Ya, blah, blah, blah...whatever.

 

[3.14]

Theists are statistically more likely to be happier than atheists. That's how it is.

could you link to the study ? cause i find it hard to belief they were able to eliminate all other variable's that contribute to happyness

 

[Bware]

And theists are statistically happier than non-theists; thanks for an easy to answer OP. It took 8 pages to arrive at the obvious?

What study is this taken from? Links? I think you are just pulling this out of your a** personally. Like I said earlier, having a good social network is a way for people to share emotions, sadness happiness whatever. Feeling like you belong someplace, and you have people to fall back on, tends to make people a little happier. Theists generally go to church, so they tend to have an automatic social network. Hence happiness. I have a great social network, I'm plenty happy, in fact I don't think I could be much happier than I am now. I am very happy with my belief system though too, maybe people are less happy until they find that?

 

[Commoner]

What study is this taken from? Links?

I don't believe such a study has ever been done. I would also ask for a reference, please!

 

[Storm]

"That was unworthy of you."

Well, there was not much point in talking to you. I said this is how I believe and you said no that is how you believe. I was like ???? So, it was clear you were not listening to me. But I bet I got your attention now.

You didn't say it was what you believed, you said it was what you knew. There's a difference. Perhaps your problem is that I was paying too much attention.