Atheism, Secularity, and Well-Being — Truth or Fiction

[apophenia]

"Atheism, Secularity, and Well-Being: How the Findings of Social Science Counter Negative Stereotypes and Assumptions" — Phil Zuckerman

Abstract
What do we currently know about atheists and secular people? In what ways are atheism and secularity correlated with positive societal outcomes? This article offers a rough presentation and discussion of the latest social scientific research concerning the identities, values, and behaviors of people who don’t believe in God or are non-religious, and addresses the ways in which atheism and secularity are positively correlated with societal well-being.

While acknowledging the many disagreements and discrepancies above, the fact still remains that a preponderance of studies do indicate that secular people don’t seem to fare as well as their religious peers when it comes to selected aspects of psychological well-being (Hackney and Sanders 2003; Pargament 2002; Schnittker 2001; Hood et al. 1996; Idler and Stanislav 1992; Petersen and Roy 1985). For instance, Ellison (1991), Jones (1993), and Pollner (1989) found that religious beliefs correlate with a sense of life-satisfaction and well-being, and Myers (1992) found that religious faith is correlated with hope and optimism. McIntosh et al. (1993) report that religious people have a better time adjusting to and coping with sad or difficult life events than secular people; Mattlin et al. (1990) and Palmer and Noble (1986) report that religion is beneficial for people dealing with chronic illness or the death of a loved one. Based on a systematic examination of over 100 studies – and drawing heavily from the work of Koenig et al. (2001) – McCullough and Smith (2003, 191–192) conclude that ‘‘people who are religious devout, but not extremists, tend to report greater subjective well-being and life satisfaction…more ability to cope with stress and crises…and fewer symptoms of depression’’ than secular people...

The paper includes sections on demographics, criminality, morality, well-being and other things.

[And no, I haven’t had time to read and digest the paper; it struck me as a quality overview with plenty of references to the primary literature. Food for thought, grist for the mill.]

[Animavore]

Oh well. Not much I can do about. I can't make myself religious on purpose so if I suffer more for my worldview so be it. Not that I feel that I do.

[Svartalf]

Neither can I pretend.

[charlou]

I have some immediate thoughts on reading the extracts in the OP ... I'll take a look at the paper before commenting.

[Tero]

Well, dumb people are often happy. They just need bread and circuses.

[hadespussercats]

Well, dumb people are often happy. They just need bread and circuses.

This is basically what I was thinking. Or... that people who cannot be made happy by being religious might leave religion and still have no real method for becoming happy.

I don't know. Is happiness the point, anyway?

[Seth]

bookmarking.

[Rum]

I speed read the body (I used to have to absorb large gobs of government legislation, so its a useful tool!) and read the conclusion in full. Which says, encouragingly and counter to many stereotyping views:-

"This essay began with a well-known Biblical quote stating that atheists are simply no
good. Do the findings of contemporary social science support this Biblical assertion? The
clear answer is no. Atheism and secularity have many positive correlates, such as higher
levels of education and verbal ability, lower levels of prejudice, ethnocentrism, racism,
and homophobia, greater support for women’s equality, child-rearing that promotes independent
thinking and an absence of corporal punishment, etc. And at the societal level,
with the important exception of suicide, states and nations with a higher proportion of
secular people fare markedly better than those with a higher proportion of religious
people".

Oh and thanks for posting the article.

[Animavore]

So higher ethical values come with a cost of happiness?
I must give this a look later.

[HomerJay]

Better to be Socrates and unhappy than a pig and happy.

The report's not saying a great deal, is it? Religious people different vision of death and fatatily, atheists cleverer and higher up the evolutionary tree, quelle surprise.

[Robert_S]

Yeah, religion will be a solace and a comfort to the 15 year old mom, the sufferer of an incurable disease, the closeted gay teen suffering for god... But secular humanism will get you sex education and birth control, real medical advances, and away from the stupid and destructive superstitions of small-minded and fearful people.

If you don't let your wounds get gangrene then you'll have less use for morphine.. or opium or whatever the fuck palliative care you want for your mind.

[JimC]

Of course, a key question involves cause and effect...

Is there a statistical tendency for people that are less likely to want to "belong" to have somewhat more unhappiness in some aspects of their life (even if it is, perhaps, intellectually fulfilling...)

If so, it may be that it is not atheism that leads to the negative personal issues discussed, but simply that, on average, they tend to correlate, due to an underlying personality type......

[Callan]

Better to be Socrates and unhappy than a pig and happy.

You really think so?
You don't think that intelligence is a curse and a scourge and the enemy of happiness?

I'll quote a Chinese poem, though I never knew the poet's name:

Most people, at the birth of a child, wish for it to be clever.
I, however, wish for it to be stupid.
Then it will crown a happy life by becoming a politician.

I memorised this years ago because I thought it sad but true.
I still do.

[amused]

Ignorance = Happiness

or rather...

Self-satisfied self-delusion = Happiness

Huh... I'm doing this all wrong then.

[Rum]

I think self satisfaction is probably the key to ignorant happiness. When you think you know the world you can be more or less content. When you develop the X-ray eyes of relativism and see the world as contingent, temporary, precarious, translucent, deeply mysterious and tentative, then uncertainty is your fate I fear.

Personally I prefer open eye to blinkered ones.