I’m not surprised by this study since religion gives you a way to cope with the anxities of life and in some cases a reason for them.
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.
[...]
Professor Clark, from the Paris School of Economics, and co-author Dr Orsolya Lelkes from the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, used information from household surveys to analyse the attitudes of Christians – both Catholic and Protestant – not only to their own happiness, but also to issues such as unemployment.
Their findings, they said, suggested that religion could offer a “buffer” which protected from life’s disappointments.
Professor Clark said: “We originally started the research to work out why some European countries had more generous unemployment benefits than others, but our analysis suggested that religious people suffered less psychological harm from unemployment than the non-religious.
[...]
He said that the benefit might stem from the increased “purpose of life” felt by believers.
This isn’t surprising to me at all. If I know that problems in my life are used by the Lord to produce fruit, then suffering takes on new meaning and it’s something I can endure with confidence in the Lord that he will see me through it and it will be used for my betterment. How can I be so sure that my suffering has a purpose? The New Testament is filled with words of encouragement to help us endure and persevere in the face of suffering:
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 8:6 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Philippians 1:29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake
James 5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
Suffering draws me closer to Christ and conforms me to his image:
Philippians 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
2 Timothy 2:3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
1 Peter 2:21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
Also, knowing that the suffering of this life doesn’t compare to the glory that is to come, gives us the ability to endure whatever comes our way:
Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
If you have this understanding, is it any wonder that Christians could be content with whatever situation we are in?
Philippians 4:11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
Of course, it’s not always easy to feel that way and it’s a process we struggle with. We don’t enter the suffering ready to handle it as the Roman 5 passage makes clear.
And then there’s this:
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, which represents the interests of atheists and agnostics, said that studies purporting to show a link between happiness and religion were “all meaningless”.
“Non-believers can’t just turn on a faith in order to be happy. If you find religious claims incredible, then you won’t believe them, whatever the supposed rewards in terms of personal fulfilment.
Unfortunately she has this backward, no one is saying believe so you can be happy, it’s a cause and effect. Happiness flows from religion. I didn’t became a Christian to be happy, I became a Christian because I believed what the Bible said about Jesus. Happiness has flowed from that. How can you not be happy when the God of the universe has poured out his love on you?
Romans 5:5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
(via)
posted March 18, 2008 at 11:05 am
shocks such as losing a job or divorce
I can’t help but chuckle at the sorts of shocks cited. The cynic says, “So much for ’til death do us part and the work ethic!”
Certainly suffering can only make sense in the context of faith:
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Cor. 1:3b-4
posted March 18, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Ok, I have to be nasty about this one. I had a girlfriend many years ago who was a nurse who worked with the severly severly retarded and she told me that they were the happiest people on earth.
So if one were to extrapolite from that, and I know I’m being really evil here, could it mean that people of faith are happy because they are just too dumb not to be?
posted March 18, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Has that been your experience, that Christians are too dumb not to be happy? Even though I just gave you a valid apologetic as to why we are happy. Pretty amazing when you think about it.
posted March 18, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I also am not surprised by the results of such a study. On the other hand, I don’t think that Christianity needs to look to be “proven” by such studies. That may not be the intention of this article, but so often statistics and polls are used to support the validity of all sorts of things. Suppose that the studies somehow were showing that Christians were not better adjusted or happier than those who are not Christians? Would that prove Christianity false?
In the USA, those who identify themselves as “born-again” Christians are apparently 42% of the population (according to Barna Research Group studies). Yet the incidence of divorce among “born-agains” is just as high as those who are not.
Ron Sider writes, referring to “evangelicals”,
“Only 9 percent of evangelicals tithe. Of 12,000 teenagers who took the pledge to wait for marriage, 80% had sex outside marriage in the next 7 years. Twenty-six percent of traditional evangelicals do not think premarital sex is wrong. White evangelicals are more likely than Catholics and mainline Protestants to object to having black neighbors.”
John Piper says about the above, “In other words, the evangelical church as a whole in America is apparently not very unlike the world. It goes to church on Sunday and has a veneer of religion, but its religion is basically an add-on to the same way of life the world lives, not a radically transforming power.”
Yet Mr. Piper also goes on to point out that such surveys and studies are flawed in that they define “born-again” according to certain beliefs that people profess, rather than by looking at the “fruit” in the lives of those who call them selves Christian. It seems obvious that while many in the USA profess to be “born again” or Christians” or “evangelical”, their lives do not line up with what the Bible would say a Christian looks like. Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” Matthew 7:17-17
Mr. Piper argues that the New Testament does not begin with an assumption that just because someone professes to be “born again” that they necessarily are. Piper writes:
“Instead of moving from a profession of faith, to the label “born again,” to the worldliness of these so-called born again people, to the conclusion that the new birth does not radically change people, the New Testament moves the other direction. It moves from the absolute certainty that the new birth radically changes people, to the observation that many professing Christians are indeed (as the Barna Group says) not radically changed, to the conclusion that they are not born again. The New Testament, unlike the Barna Group, does not defile the new birth with the worldliness of unregenerate, professing American Christians.”
Christianity isn’t a religion of polls and surveys, vying along with other options to convince us we ought to follow it. Christianity is God’s revelation of Himself through Jesus Christ, and it calls sinners who know that there is a God (because it is self-evident) to repent and follow Him, for the kingdom of God has arrived.
posted March 18, 2008 at 1:37 pm
P.S. I have linked to your blog (in my blogroll) and would appreciate if you could also link back to my blog, Jordan’s View.
Thanks,
Alex
posted March 18, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Well, I certainly wasn’t using it to validate Christianity, I was doing the opposite. I was explaining the results of the poll.
posted March 18, 2008 at 2:01 pm
“a nurse who worked with the severly severly retarded and she told me that they were the happiest people on earth”
Talk about an absurn non-sequitur. The REASON they are happy is that they’ve got people like your girlfriend taking care of them, NOT because they are retarded. If they were living on the street, or in an abusive house, they would certainly NOT be happy. Ask a social worker for some stories.
posted March 18, 2008 at 2:27 pm
that people of faith are happy because they are just too dumb not to be?
My atheist husband is way smarter than me … and way happier … so perhaps happiness occupies folks at both ends of the IQ spectrum!
Ignosce mihi, Pater …