Are we better off with or without belief in "God"?

[Alceste]

(Haven't read thread.)

I've read that religious people are happier than non-religious, but then George Bernard Shaw said, "The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one."

I value the truth above all things, possibly even happiness, so believe I am better off not believing.

Koenig is a pretty dubious character, actually. I know he made headlines with that "religious people are happier" claim, but I smell propaganda. Or, at the very least, sloppy research and wishful thinking by a religious person on a mission to win souls for Jesus.

"My prayer is that God would heal me miraculously, completely -- so I could run and play with my kids and sleep at night. But, "Thy will be done" -- that sense of humility that I don't know everything. It's okay that I'm not in control, because I trust that God is in control and God will take care of things. And healing may not be physical healing. Healing may be social, it may be emotional, it may be spiritual. And God may decide that we need that more than we need the physical healing." source

 

[logician]

The thread topic really is illogical, in thal it posits that we should believe something based upon whether we think we are "better off" believing it. It really doesn't work this way. I am convinced there is no god. I cannot make myself believe in a god unless I am totally dishonest with myself. Whether I am better or worse off with this belief is really irrelevant.