Are religious people more miserable than non-believers?

[Midwest88]

Statistically, religious people are happier than nonreligious people. See wikipedia for a discussion of the link.

I wouldn’t use wiki as a reliable source, unless of course the reference within the article is from a credited source.

 

[jimmy]

Two questions.

(1)How would you respond to this?

I guess it depends on what country you’re in, what region and what religion. I have little experience with the South where Baptists seem to be the norm, or how Catholics are in NE America or in the PNW. My experience has been primarily in the Midwest. The Catholics I know aren’t miserable, at least to me, and just go about their day. If they do complain it’s not something that I would label them miserable - if I didn’t know that they were Catholics, let alone know who they were, and met them in a supply shop I wouldn’t think anything of it.

(2) In your experience, do those believe in God seem to be more miserable than non-believers?

It depends. A religious person might be pretty miserable with themselves particularly (as the quote says), if they don’t live according to what they believe. Guilt and shame can cause a lot of problems for people.

At the same time there are studies that show that religious people are happier, and that religion is very effective in helping people overcome their problems.

 

[Demetra2]

I don’t think truly religious people are more prone to being miserable. In fact, they should be more at peace because they have hope which eludes many non-believers. I think that true believers are more in tune to the signs of the times and therefore are not in denial about the true meaning of life as are so many with no or less belief. This may make religious people seem more serious about life but this a gift of awareness. St Faustina said that she had a vision of a wide road full of people laughing and basically not caring about living a virtuous life. Their path was easy until they came to the end of the road and fell off a cliff and into a pit. She also saw the followers of Christ making their way up a rocky and difficult path. They stumbled and often cried but at the end was heaven. Christ said that we should pick up our cross and follow Him. With that in mind, religious people are aware that life as a Christian will have many challenges, some good and some very bad. But our Catholic faith is our comfort and nourishment to give us peace and joy on that rocky path we must travel to be worthy of heaven.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

I can a pretty miserable person a t times. The reason for that is because I live in a fallen world and life is tough. We can all agree on this, right? I worry about my children a lot, about how they will cope and if they will keep the faith. That worry makes me extremely unhappy.

On the other hand, I find I can deal with personal disappointments, pain and loss much better than when I was not particularly religious. I have been asked on quite a few occasions by my non-religious friends about how I cope and how come I am such a calm person.