Gallup: Religious Americans Have Highest Levels of Well-Being

By Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

(RNS) The most religious Americans also have the highest rates of well-being, according to a new Gallup survey.

The finding is based on a survey of more than 550,000 people about their physical and emotional health and their work environment.

Overall, the very religious received a score on Gallup's well-being index of 68.7 percent, while both the moderately religious and the nonreligious received a score of 64.2 percent. The very religious were defined as those who said religion is an important part of their daily lives and they attend worship services at least every week or almost every week.

Researchers did not determine why the very religious had higher levels of health and happiness.

"It is possible that Americans who have higher well-being may be more likely to choose to be religious than those with lower well-being," the organization said in a Thursday (Oct. 28) report announcing the findings.

But it is also possible that being religious can contribute to higher levels of personal well-being.

The survey was the result of a partnership between Gallup and Healthways, a Tennessee company focused on health. It involved a random sample of 554,066 U.S. adults between Jan 2 and July 28 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 0.5 percentage points.

Comments

[Aesthete]

03:27 PM on 11/05/2010

All that my slave ancestors had was their Christian faith, without which they would not have made it. Given the past history of blacks in America, can you imagine life without the Christian tenet of forgiveness? There are people in this world who want to kill and terrorize over a whole lot less. My personal life experience is that a strong faith enables one to lift him- or herself up and overcome various hurdles, rising above past injustices and the legacy of slavery. I do not presume to speak for everybody, but I know what has enabled me to get over and this is the course I have chosen to follow.

[Big Game Hunter]

12:36 PM on 11/04/2010

...because only a fraction of them have been molested by spiritual leaders. Why should that ruin it for the rest of them?

[Caleb Owens]

03:47 AM on 11/03/2010

Ignorance is bliss?

[PaLmeTTo X]

03:35 PM on 11/03/2010

Towards religion, Yes. Towards the Bible , No

[ChaCubed]

02:06 PM on 11/02/2010

I can understand how hearing and believing and repeating religious or spiritual thoughts can increase happiness. "There is someone (something) who (that) loves me, and cares about me, and wants the best for me;" "There's a better place than this in the next life;" "When I die, I'm going to be united with all the people I love who died before me," are very uplifting thoughts.

[PaLmeTTo X]

03:02 PM on 11/03/2010

Farther Along
Tempted and tried, we’re oft made to wonder
Why it should be thus all the day long;
While there are others living about us,
Never molested, though in the wrong.

Refrain:
Farther along we’ll know more about it,
Farther along we’ll understand why;
Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine,
We’ll understand it all by and by.

Sometimes I wonder why I must suffer,
Go in the rain, the cold, and the snow,
When there are many living in comfort,
Giving no heed to all I can do.

Tempted and tried, how often we question
Why we must suffer year after year,
Being accused by those of our loved ones,
E’en though we’ve walked in God’s holy fear.

Often when death has taken our loved ones,
Leaving our home so lone and so drear,
Then do we wonder why others prosper,
Living so wicked year after year.

“Faithful till death,” saith our loving Master;
Short is our time to labor and wait;
Then will our toiling seem to be nothing,
When we shall pass the heavenly gate.

Soon we will see our dear, loving Savior,
Hear the last trumpet sound through the sky;
Then we will meet those gone on before us,
Then we shall know and understand why.

[Dr Carol LaBra]

01:43 AM on 11/02/2010

Well, I know somewhere that Jesus said referring to himself that, ¨The son of man has no where to lay his head.¨ And He definitely did commit a few felonies he never got charged with during that cleansing of the Temple stunt of his. Such as disrupting a religious service, destruction of sacred relics, assault and battery with a whip and he did die with out even clothes on his back as a common criminal between two other criminals. But then I agree with you...he wasn't a relig0ous American by any stretch of the imagination..

For example here´s another Christian terrorists who isn´t satisfied with just disrupting a religious service but he wants to cleans the whole world:

http://bramin.wordpress.com/page/2/

[PaLmeTTo X]

03:05 PM on 11/03/2010

"Well, I know somewhere that Jesus said....... "

You know nothing about Jesus. You will one day.

[Coldhandluke]

04:12 PM on 11/03/2010

Good stuff!

[Okiemama]

05:31 PM on 11/03/2010

I am positive she knows more than you.

[nomadrdw]

06:52 PM on 11/01/2010

first off, it says religious people, NOT christians or any other major religion. i personally would translate that to spirituality, NOT christianity. i am not christian, but am very connected to the natural world, and consider my garden my version of a church. i am happiest when i am working with my hands and my animals. i make my living being an artist, and NOTHING is greater on this planet than the joy of creating with the gifts that nature has given me.

[PaLmeTTo X]

03:26 PM on 11/03/2010

"Man cannot invent what nature already created"

You mentioning about the love of gardening makes me think of this quote
"Man cannot invent what nature already created"
Nature is very powerful. Can't remember where I heard that from but I liked it.

[Eric Shun]

05:43 PM on 11/03/2010

Man cannot invent what nature already created

True - but

Who created Nature?

[cayuse]

06:09 PM on 11/01/2010

Polls are like statistics, they do not lie if scientific, BUT LIARS DO STATISTICS

Well being is greater for those who have no wants and desires. I first studied that as an economist learning that Economics was the large body of knowledge dealing with unlimited WANT and limited Resources.

Later i got my Well Being by learning how to control my sense desired and ambitions. Able to life material life with or without what ever comes my way.

When my son died it lived in the joy of our experience instead of feeling sorry for myself and realized the rest of my life was for me to be and not tax what we shared. My reward upon his death was quite spectacular in spiritual sharing of light related to his physical existence, but in deep spiritual meditation.

Yah, well being is surely not material accumulation or even material at all

[shatner99]

04:34 PM on 11/01/2010

The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
-- Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion, Preface (1916)

I always loved this quote.

[slackbatter]

03:21 PM on 11/01/2010

Take it easy folks, it's just a lame Gallup correlational study. Nobody's feeling should be hurt by this. You can still have "well-being" and be nonreligious. Getting upset at the very religious for having a generally high well-being according to one study will only be detrimental to your personal well-being.

[Coldhandluke]

04:15 PM on 11/03/2010

There are always exceptions to the rule.

[Dan Jighter]

03:15 AM on 11/01/2010

I was looking over the survey and noticed that one of the defining factors of the survey was in the Healthy Habits section (i.e. smoking, diet, and exercise habits). The very religious rated 66.3%, moderately religious 60.6%, and nonreligious 58.3%. This category had the highest difference between very religious and nonreligious. So to understand the survey, one has to answer the following question:

Why do very religious people report healthier habits than less religious people?

I'm not sure of the answer right off. Mostly because I don't see how religion relates to health habits.

[Dan Jighter]

04:18 AM on 11/01/2010

After some quick thought, here are some (perhaps correct, perhaps stupid) hypotheses.

Perhaps healthier habits are related to religiosity through something cultural or environmental. For example, more religious people live in more rural areas were meals consists of fruits and vegetables and other natural foods. Nonreligious people tend to live in suburbs and cities where meals are more processed, on the go and thus are more unhealthy. (I'm just speaking tendencies here of course.)

Perhaps religious taboos and attitudes against habits like drinking and even smoking are being reflected in the healthier habits.

Note this second hypothesis suggests that "higher well being" isn't a big deal. For example, drinking beer socially in moderation might reflect in lower well being numbers and still reflect a more than adequate well being. This shouldn't be about scoring higher, it's about having a better life. Maybe the nonreligious well being is actually more than fine.

Another hypothesis is maybe there are church groups and activities to promote habits like more exercise. For example congregational soccer.

[dubbleplusgood]

05:44 AM on 11/01/2010

maybe they don't understand the question and answer they feel great, then keel over the next day.

[Weirdwriter]

04:54 PM on 11/01/2010

First of all, "religion" is a broad term for a very wide spectrum of belief -- from non-theist Buddhism to poly-divine Hinduism to nature-focused Pagan sects, and lot more in between.

There appears to be no breakdown of specific religious affiliation among the respondents, only that the "very religious" said it was a very big part of their daily life, and they attend worship services at least once a week or every other week. That covers a lot of different sorts of religious believers.

Second, people who feel their bodies were given to them for a higher purpose may feel a need to consciously pursue health as a spiritual responsibility and act of gratitude. They might also feel that concern for the environment and the humane treatment of animals is important, just to give a couple of other factors. They may be concerned about becoming a burden on others if their health is poor.

So it wouldn't be surprising if these folks don't smoke, don't routinely over-eat or abuse liquor and other drugs, prescribed or otherwise, try to get regular hours of sleep and exercise, and choose their food sources carefully, among other things. Or, at least, they try.

If their faiths also inspire them to feel affirmed, loved and worthy of respect, that's certainly a positive psychological booster. If the belief systems encourage forgiveness, lack of bitterness and judgmentalism, empathy, tolerance, generosity and compassion, that means there's less power for stress to harm their health.

[Dan Jighter]

05:51 PM on 11/01/2010

"Second, people who feel their bodies were given to them for a higher purpose may feel a need to consciously pursue health as a spiritual responsibility and act of gratitude."

That's possible. Certainly for example Buddhists do feel that it is better to not corrupt one's mind with alcohol. But on the other hand, there are also Christians who are simply waiting for the rapture and better health habits and more respect for the environment is irrelevant to that.

There is the converse possibility that nonreligious people, in rejecting traditional attitudes including but not only religion, don't see getting a full night's rest or drinking a little too much on occasion as a big deal. Which gets back to my point that maybe "higher well being" doesn't matter, as slightly unhealthier habits would score lower but still allow for more than adequate well being.

"If their faiths also inspire them to feel affirmed, loved and worthy of respect, that's certainly a positive psychological booster."

This has nothing to do with better health habits. This has to do with psychological habits that were measured elsewhere with noticeably smaller difference between devoutly religious and nonreligious folks.

[Saganslegacy]

02:45 AM on 11/01/2010

If I watch one of these televangelists, how run these mantras, these convolutions in reasoning, the way they use their voices, and ...it all looks to me like a voodoo event. It's probably stimulating an expression of neurotransmitters that gets them elevated, euphoric. In other words: it's self drugging. And that helps in everyday life, for sure.

Do they match the realty better? I really doubt that.

[Coldhandluke]

04:18 PM on 11/03/2010

Don't watch TV angels. They don't preach the Bible. Your Voodoo analogy is close.

[Okiemama]

11:20 PM on 10/31/2010

In my home state, religions rules and the ruling religion is Christian fundamentalism. Churches are packed on Sunday mornings and everyone is willing to tell you about their personal relationship with Jesus. Oklahoma ties with Arkansas for the number of people married three or more times. Oklahoma leads the nation in cases of domestic violence and the percent of its female population that is in prison. It is fifth in the number of women murdered by a spouse or significant other. It leads the nation in the percent of its population that has heart disease. Fifty percent of all births there are to teenagers, eighty percent of those unmarried. Eighty percent of Oklahomans call themselves Christian fundamentalists and they vote the way their are told by their preachers. So much for health and happiness.

[Coldhandluke]

04:23 PM on 11/03/2010

People who claim they are and people who live it are two different groups.
Remember.
2Cr 11:14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
2Cr 11:15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

[Okiemama]

05:25 PM on 11/03/2010

One of the reasons Oklahoma has so many problems is because most of them do believe in Satan. Logic and reason not big in Oklahoma. Look at the other most religious states (same problems).

[Okiemama]

05:35 PM on 11/03/2010

Or and the article said that religious people have the most well being. Guess if you are a divorced pregnant teen whose husband beat you and you just got out of prison and you are developing early heart disease you have to be happy as long as you have Jesus.

[A-Superstitionist]

11:12 PM on 10/31/2010

Religion is like homeopathy part of the placebo industry. Both are not supported by evidence and both make the gullible feel better but both have nothing to do with truth.

[Coldhandluke]

04:25 PM on 11/03/2010

Study that shows the opposite?

[1jurisdiva]

08:50 PM on 10/31/2010

Well, they do say ignorance is bliss.

[MSB]

04:20 AM on 11/01/2010

Exactly correct. You beat me to it.

[Caleb Owens]

03:49 AM on 11/03/2010

Ah, man, I said it too late.

[Nargit]

08:01 PM on 10/31/2010

Naturally, God loves religious people more than atheists and does them favors. How could it be otherwise?

[Coldhandluke]

04:26 PM on 11/03/2010

Just about the only accurate post here.