Are Atheists More Depressed than Religious People - Essay Example

For instance, in the year 1992, researchers carried out a mass inquest amongst Lutheran Protestants and Roman Catholics, members of Germany’s two main churches, and they found out that amid regular churchgoers, self-professed contentment with the living was over ten percent higher compared to that of among people who were not churchgoers. Among others, this statement appeared to validate earlier broad studies’ results, all of which indicate that generally, practicing and pious followers of religion were less susceptible to depression compared to people who grew up in religious faith but avert from church later on. Other studies carried out among lesser populations also point to the fact that religion has a small positive total effect on self-acuity of contentment (Buggle 1).

A 2003 report from Warwick University’s Dr. Stephen Joseph indicated that people who have some religious affiliations appear to have a better reason in life, which makes them happier. For instance, he quoted evidence from research that indicated that generally, Christians who commemorate Christmas are likely to live happier lives. According to Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Health, and Theology, as far as atheism and physical and mental health are concerned; theism is of great assistance as opposed to atheism. In the year 2001, the esteemed Mayo Clinic also conducted other studies on the connection between spirituality and religious involvement and mental health, physical health, health-associated life quality as well as other health outcomes. They revealed that according to most of the almost three hundred and fifty physical health studies and eight hundred and fifty mental health studies that have used spiritual and religious variables, spirituality and religious affiliation are linked with enhanced health results (Murray 1-4).

According to Conservapedia.com, in other studies, it was confirmed that there exists an inverse association between depression and doing volunteer work (charitableness). Atheists were found to engage less in charitable activities and volunteering per head, unlike their theist counterparts.

A common aftermath of depression is suicide. Various studies have investigated the relationship between suicide and religion in terms of either hypothesis of the regulative merits of religion or Durkheim’s social integration hypothesis. These studies entailed comparing depressed inpatients who reported to belonging to a particular religion to those depressed inpatients who described themselves as lacking affiliation to any religion. The comparison was particularly in terms of their clinical and demographic characteristics. Unlike subjects who had an association with a religious affiliation, subjects who did not have any religious affiliations exhibited not only more lifetime suicide attempts but also more first-degree relations who committed suicide (Dervic, et al. 1).

The majority of subjects who were unaffiliated to religion were younger; less often had children; less often married and had limited contact with their families. Moreover, they did not perceive many reasons for living – principally, they exhibited fewer moral objections to suicide. In terms of clinical characteristics, subjects without religious affiliations had more lifetime aggression, impulsivity, as well as past substance use disorder. Additionally, they exhibited no differences in the intensity of subjective and objective depression, stressful life events, or hopelessness. After controlling other factors, it was found that lower aggression levels in addition to greater moral objections to suicide in subjects who have affiliations with religion might act as defensive factors against suicide attempts (Dervic et al. 1).

With respect to lack of religious affiliation (atheism) and suicide, the website Adherents.com reported that Phil Zuckerman, a sociologist at Pitzer College, compiled a survey, polling, and census numbers from country to country relating to agnosticism, disbelief in God, atheism as well as populace who have no religious preference or claim no religious affiliations. Zuckerman, in examining various societal health indicators, concludes that concerning the rates of suicide, religious nations fare much better as compared to secular nations. Additionally, the 2003 report for the World Health Organization on international male rates of suicides, which compared to one hundred nations, indicated that of the top ten countries with the highest rates of male suicide, nine are strongly irreligious countries with statistically high atheism levels. Conversely, of the top ten countries with the lowest rates of male suicide, all are strongly religious countries with statistically immaterial levels of atheism (Conservapedia 8).

Apparently, there exists a substantial amount of scientific proof suggesting that as opposed to theism, atheism is a great contributing factor to physical and mental health. Generally, strictly religious individuals exhibit fewer indicators of depressive conditions than atheists to whom faith has no importance. I believe that whether there are any gods or not, it is better to have some form of religious affiliations since entertaining the thought of a disinterested universe without gods is just too depressing.