https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... g?lang=engGrowing evidence highlights this striking fact: religious believers are on average happier, healthier, and more fulfilled than those without spiritual commitment or connection. Happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, even financial and material stability—on each measure, religious practitioners flourish.
The source is noted as:
See "Religion and Spirituality: Tools for Better Wellbeing?," Gallup Blog, Oct. 10, 2023, news.gallup.com. "Worldwide, people with a greater commitment to spirituality or religion have better wellbeing in many respects"—including positive emotions, sense of purpose, community engagement, and social connections (Faith and Wellness: The Worldwide Connection between Spirituality and Wellbeing [2023], 4,
faithandmedia.com/research/gallup).
Here are the actual findings from that report.
https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/ ... being.aspxAn analysis of World Poll data collected over 10 years in 152 countries and territories, which includes interviews with approximately 1.5 million people, shows a strong association between religiosity and wellbeing. Gallup indexes that measure positive emotions, social life, optimism and community basics show a positive relationship between religiosity -- defined by the self-expressed importance of religion in one’s daily life -- and wellbeing outcomes.
Each one-point difference in index scores between religious and nonreligious people represents an effect for an estimated 40 million adults worldwide. For example, the four-point difference between religious and nonreligious people on the Positive Experience Index means that an estimated 160 million more adults worldwide have positive experiences than would be the case if those adults were not religious.
On other Gallup global measures, there is no relationship between religiosity and wellbeing, and in some cases the relationship is negative, such that people who are more religious tend to have worse scores. For example, at the individual level, religious people may attribute negative events in their lives, such as illness, to a higher power abandoning them and thus experience more negative emotions than a nonreligious person.
Not quite the overarching slam dunk that Gong portrayed in his conference talk.
Which is actually a rebuttal to Gong’s misreading of the report.While the scholarship and analysis detailed in the report illustrate that there is often a positive relationship between spirituality and wellbeing, the relationship is complex and nuanced.
In the most religious or moderately religious countries -- where upward of 66% of the population says religion is important to them -- there are stronger positive relationships between religiosity and wellbeing. Countries that are categorized as less religious are often wealthier, and their residents score higher on wellbeing, regardless of religiosity or economic influences.