Quote:-A team of Swedish researchers had found that the presence of a receptor that regulates general serotonin activity in the brain correlates with people’s capacity for transcendence, the ability to apprehend phenomena that cannot be explained objectively.

-Reporting in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the researchers see the evidence as contradicting the common belief that religious behaviour is determined strictly by environmental and cultural factors. What it means is those with a higher concentration of serotonin receptors will therefore most likely show a stronger inclination towards experiences where they see God or they experience higher connections with themselves and the universe.

So does this mean that believers in God are happier than those who do not believe in this? Or does believing in any sort of philosophical ideology, or science,... or any thing make you more happy,than if you would not believe in anything? Is it even possible to believe in nothing?

Serotin Receptors May Be Linked to Spirituality
Study: The Effects Of Serotonin On Spirituality
Serotin Facilitates Deep States of Spirituality

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I'm very interested in the neuroscience of religious experience. There's more than one area of the brain involved and God On The Brain will explain it better than I could.

It's very likely that serotonin receptors have something to do with it but not necessarily for all people.

(May 24, 2014 at 12:58 pm)MountainsWinAgain Wrote: So does this mean that believers in God are happier than those who do not believe in this? Or does believing in any sort of philosophical ideology, or science,... or any thing make you more happy,than if you would not believe in anything? Is it even possible to believe in nothing?

People can believe in things that make them unhappy.

(May 24, 2014 at 12:58 pm)MountainsWinAgain Wrote: So does this mean that believers in God are happier than those who do not believe in this?

Higher levels of serotonin do not translate into higher levels of happiness. The link between interventions relating to serotonin and depression are complex, but there is no reason to presume that people with more serotonin are "happier." Also, the first article states the relationship is an inverse relationship between serotonin and transcendence measures.