happiness and religion essay

This collection of chapters composed in honor of Julia Annas by her colleagues and students reflects the enormous influence Annas has had on diverse philosophical topics: the ancients’ (and others’) many representations of Socrates; the interpretation of that fascinating and maddening text, Plato’s Republic; contemporary virtue ethics; and our understanding of the structure of ancient ethical theories. Keywords: Julia Annas, ancients, Socrates, Plato, Republic, ethical theories Bibliographic Information Print publication date: 2012 Print ISBN-13: 9780199646043 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2013 DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199646043.001.0001.
I begin with a bit of self-disclosure. I don’t have a religious or spiritual bone in my body. (Yes, maybe even less than Richard Dawkins.) But this doesn’t mean that I’m not open-minded about research on happiness and religion. As I write in my book, The How of Happiness, just because (most) religious beliefs cannot be empirically tested or falsified doesn’t mean that the consequences of having religious faith, participating in religious life, or searching for the sacred cannot be studied. Indeed, a growing body of psychological science is suggesting that religious folks are happier, healthier, and recover better after traumas than nonreligious ones. Consider just two examples: • If you are having serious cardiac surgery and receive strength and comfort from your religious faith, you’ll be almost 3 times more likely to be alive 6 months later.• 47 percent of people who report attending religious services several times a week describe themselves as “very happy,” versus 28 percent of those who attend less than once a month. The trouble is that researchers don’t really know why. The social support and sense of identity provided by belonging to a close-knit church, temple, or mosque could be the operative mechanisms. After all, religion is usually not practiced in isolation but within a “fellowship of kindred spirits,” who share one another’s burdens, reach out to those in need, and offer friendship and companionship. Indeed, people who attend religious services on a regular basis have larger social networks – that is, more friends and acquaintances on whom they can and do rely. Second, a person’s relationship with God can clearly be a source of comfort in troubled times, as well as a foundation for self-esteem, feeling unconditionally valued, loved, and cared for. Those who feel this way have an amazing sense of security. Their belief that God will intervene when needed.
Is it possible that the human future depends upon a new sacred story—a story that gives us a reason to care? Could it be a story already embraced by a majority, although it has neither institutional support nor a place in the public conversation? posted Jan 17, 2013 “For people, generally, their story of the universe and the human role in the universe is their primary source of intelligibility and value,” Thomas Berry wrote in The Dream of the Earth. “The deepest crises experienced by any society are those moments of change when the story becomes inadequate for meeting the survival demands of a present situation.” The challenge before us is to create a new civilization based on a cosmology—a story of the origin, nature, and purpose of creation that reflects the fullness of our current human knowledge. We live at such a moment. Humanity’s current behavior threatens Earth’s capacity to support life and relegates more than a billion people to lives of destitution. This self-destructive behavior and our seeming inability to change have deep roots in the stories by which we understand the nature and meaning of our existence. The challenge before us is to create a new civilization based on a cosmology—a story of the origin, nature, and purpose of creation—that reflects the fullness of our current human knowledge; a story to guide us to mature relationships with one another and a living Earth. Three Cosmologies Three distinct cosmologies have each had their influence in shaping the Western worldview. Two are familiar. The third—and most relevant to the task at hand—has ancient roots, and may in one form or another be the most widely held. It has virtually no public presence. The cosmos is created and ruled by a Distant Patriarch. This is the cosmology most commonly associated with the institutions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It views creation as the work of an.