Quote:When I imagine that there is no heaven, I will think of you.
And when I imagine that there is a heaven, I will think of you and a way out.
Quote:1) Are individuals happier with or without religion?
One should be careful when talking about religion. I do not mind Deism and similar beliefs. It is the religions that state there is some supreme being intervening in the actions of the world and has revealed laws, legislature, etc. that I do mind. For the purpose of this response I am talking about the latter forms of religion.
I think the stages of disbelief require distinction. One who is raised without religion can be perfectly happy without it. One who experiences a religious upbringing will be unhappy when first beginning to question their beliefs. They may feel that they are turning their back on their religious leaders, may begin to think that there isn't some big brother watching them and helping them, may feel that their past life may have been a lie, and so on. One who has moved away from their religious upbringing a sufficient amount will be happier to have been set on the right path and probably also happy about how much one has learned when being skeptical of one's beliefs. On an individual level I think people would be happier, in the long run, to not be religious.
If you are asking the question on a global level then I do think the world would be better without religion. Without religion there wouldn't be nearly as much sexual repression. Sexually repressed people can sometimes mutilate their bodies to keep repressing their sexuality. Saint Rose of Lima whipped her private region over 50,000 times, for instance. Some can become hysterical and begin to think religious figures are having their way with them. Personal vibrators were originally medical tools used to combat the problem of hysteria caused by sexual repression. Nowhere near as many sex crimes would be commited because a large portion of offenders have lived sexually repressed lives. Then there are those religious people who feel they should enforce sexual repression on the rest of society. Those are the people who try to influence the government, refuse to give rape victims the morning-after pill, those who bomb abortion clinics, try to prevent sex education, and so on. Teen pregnancy rates and STD infection rates are higher in the more religious societies because the teens try to repress their hormonal urges and then later break down into rampant promiscuity. Abortion rates are also highest in the more religious societies because there is more intimidation to repress one's urges and because they seek abortion to hopefully avoid the punishment that will be inflicted on them by their disappointed religious parents. Sexual repression also tends to lead to child molestation. It is no coincidence that children are more likely to be molested by fanatically religious parents. Divorce rates are also higher in the more religious societies and that is also largely rooted in sexual repression because people get married to have sex and later divorce because they were never in love. Then there is the problem of prosecution and murder. There wouldn't have been nearly as many prosecutions against scientists and other good people if religion weren't around. The advancements that could've been made by now if those scientists were allowed to live and continue their research is unthinkable. We probably would've been more prosperous than we are right now. It is difficult to think of a single thing where religion has actually helped. It is of my opinion that religions are more detrimental than beneficial.
Quote:2) Are populations of more religious countries happier or not?
They may claim to be happier and it may be possible to gather data on the claims of happiness but I do not see any way for someone to measure actual happiness. The UN's Human Development Index measures prosperity which does seem to have a correlation with societal happiness though. In the Human Development Index the least religious societies tend to be the most prosperous while the most religious societies tend to be the least prosperous. The two notable exceptions to this is Ireland and the United States. Ireland, as I explained earlier, was an absolute wreck until it joined the largely secular European Union and received loads of money to convert from an agricultural society to an industrialized one. Due to all of the recent child molestation and rape scandals amongst the churches in Ireland and their recent prosperity I think its religiosity will slowly decline from here on. The foundations of the United States were put in place by agnostics, atheists, deists, etc. and religions like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. had very little part in it. Besides America and Ireland, which were largely successful due to secular influences, practically all of the prosperous societies are secular and practically all of the less prosperous societies are unwaiveringly religious. Because of the correlation between prosperity and happiness, it is logical to conclude that secular societies tend to be the happiest.
Quote:3) Most importantly...is there a correlation, and is it causation, and in which direction? (eg Religion makes you more/less happy OR Being less happy leads to more religion)
I think unhappiness leads to religion and not the other way around. Russia, as I explained earlier, was a large mass of unhappy people. Now that communist government has essentially come to an end they sought to remedy their unhappiness with superstition. As their infant mortality rate increases, medical standards decrease, and so on they have again turned to superstition for "answers" to their problems. I also do not think it is a coincidence that the lower portion of the United States is more religious than the higher portion and also have higher STD infection rates, higher amount of abortions, higher amount of poverty, etc. It should also be pointed out that the nonreligious people who convert to a religion typically do so in their 40s or later and not early in their lives, which tells me that they sought religion because they were unhappy with the idea that their end is approaching. It is a truly rare occurance to see religion bring happiness or for happiness to bring religion, religion is practically handcuffed to the iron gates of unhappiness.
Quote:4) Is happiness more important than knowledge?
In my opinion, this is a weird question to ask. It is much like asking: are all of the floors above the first in an apartment complex more important than the elevator/steps that allows one to get there? Knowledge is one of the most influential factors in acheiving happiness. Knowledge of the Earth revolving around the Sun expanded our Universe from a few miles to billions and billions of miles and allowed us to truly appreciate the grandeur and awe-inspiring nature of the Universe. Knowledge of how light reacts to elements and shapes allowed us to see that diseases were not demons that possessed the body but were microscopic life forms and allowed us to combat them and save many lives. Knowledge of architecture and the needs of people allowed us to create portable homes that could be taken with us as we hunted instead of freezing in the cold searching for new caves. Knowledge allowed us to take heat away from elements and create refrigerators and then we were able to stock up on food and consequently create permenant homes. If it weren't for knowledge we would still be fighting bears with sticks and rocks to take over their caves and hoping that one of the many pregnancies will result in a child that wasn't stillborn. Knowledge has brought more happiness than any superstition.
(Edit: I have rewrote most of the text for readability, the overall message is the same.)
