Tentatively Christian; looking for a reasonable discussion

[watchamadoodle]

That would be an interesting experiment. Take two groups of atheists, and make one of the groups all go to church and play along with all the religious stuff for a year. Then see which group is happiest after the year. Any predictions?

Studies on theist versus atheist are pointless, because it's not a choice. So whatever the outcome, it has no practical use.

Unless it shows atheists are better. Then it has a point.

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Another thought:

A better experiment would be to evaluate a group of church goers, and compare their happiness to a group of ex-theists who have stopped all religious activity.

I guess the problem with using ex-theists is that it isn't random. They may not have been true Scotsmen/Scotswomen. The only solution is to perform the experiment in Scotland.