(December 9, 2015 at 9:37 am)Aractus Wrote: They have abundance of evidence for some things, including that religious people tend to be happier and healthier.
And there's significant evidence that that is not, in fact, the case:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.10...9908406340
Quote:The aim of the present work was to test for an association between religiosity and happiness... It was found that higher scores on the Francis Scale were associated with higher scores on the DHS, the OHI, the PIL, and the ISA, providing evidence for a positive association between religiosity and these facets of subjective well-being. However, partial correlations suggested that the association between religiosity and happiness is a function of purpose in life.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713675504
Quote:A number of recent studies have consistently reported a positive association between religiosity and happiness, when happiness is operationalised in terms of the Oxford Happiness Inventory and religiosity is operationalised in terms of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. However, this general finding is not consistent across other measures of either construct. The present aim was to examine the generalisability of the link between religion and happiness using the Francis Scale and the Depression-Happiness Scale. Among two samples (Anglican priests and members of the Anglican Church), no significant associations were found between scores on the religiosity and happiness measures. Further research is now required to clarify the components of happiness that are associated with the Francis Scale.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...6997889106
Quote:The aim of the present work was to test for an association between religiosity and happiness... The present data provide no evidence that, among two samples of undergraduate students, religious people are happier.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023...234#page-2
Quote:A sample of 331 students completed German editions of the Oxford Happiness Inventory and the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity... These data provide no evidence for a relationship between religiosity and happiness among German students, contrary to the conclusions of the recent studies that have employed the same indices in the UK and in the USA.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023...485#page-1
Quote:Robins and Francis (1996) note that the relationship between religiosity and happiness varies according to the precise measures used and the sample studies. The further explore the association between religiosity and happiness, 154 North Irish undergraduate students completely the Depression-Happiness Scale and a measure of frequency of church attendances. No significant association was found between a greater frequency of church attendance and happiness scores...
So if you're talking about uninformed arguments annoying you, you just walked into one.
(December 9, 2015 at 10:32 am)Evie Wrote: That isn't remotely relevant because it in no way says that what they believe is actually true. Why should I waste time refuting Christians when they still lack evidence for their God?
100% this. One's happiness does not mean that one's theistic beliefs are true.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.