Happiness, Health and Economy: Three Strongly Related Elements of Religious Faith

For many people in the world they have their own religions and beliefs. For some this can be a great part of their life. With it being such a great part with their life, it might be the only thing keeping them going through the day. Keeping faith can be hard during hardship some stages some people might experience would be devotion, questioning faith and finally losing faith.

The Church of the Latter-Day Saints of Jesus Christ is viewed by many as nothing more than a different form of evangelical Christianity. After all, LDS theology seems to appear to share many similarities with that of Christianity at first glance. Both speak of Jesus Christ as savior of the world, both talk about repentance and forgiveness, both believe in some sort of afterlife where the righteous are rewarded and the unrighteous condemned, both advocate for a strong commitment to good morals, and both include a Father God, Son, and Holy Spirit. These similarities, however, are only apparent on the surface. Just because both religious groups attend a Sunday morning service each week, pray to Jesus, read the Bible, and maybe even call themselves Christians, does not mean they are simply different expressions of the same religion. A closer look at the doctrines of both the LDS church and Christianity will establish that, at the heart of it, the religion popularly known as Mormonism is quite distinct from Christianity.

Religion in all aspects is based on faith and commitment. It starts with a faith that people have in something that they have not seen. I have always wondered about the faith people show for their religion. No matter what is happening they stay strong in whatever it is that they believe in. Humans have come a long way from the beginning of time when it comes to forming religions. There are so many different kinds of religions out there in this world right now. And all those religions come from some kind of faith and are based on a faith that emerged through something or someone. There are people out there in this time that are dying and killing for their faith. There are some religions that are based on the same roots but are called known

According to psychological and social science studies, well being is the high positive correlated to religious engagement. People are happier and less stress for those who are religious than non-religious. Social scientist have research the number of mechanism explain why religion are making individual happier which called “ Divine intervention or Supernatural phenomenon”. Features of religions practice include: Social contract, large non-family network  support, positive mental health derived from optimism, copy strategies to enhance one’s ability to deal with stress and a worldview that prevents existential questions from rising. Religious are involve in less psychological distress, life satisfaction, and better self moral.

“The Latter-day Saints believe in a loving, personal God as our heavenly Father. Since He is the Father of our spirits, all people are His children and thus all people are brothers and sisters” (Mormon Newsroom). The church/organization is led by a prophet which is the president of the church as well as 2 councilors. In church the leaders do not aspire to church positions but rather respond to “callings”. They believe God was once mortal as well as that Lucifer was Jesus’s brother. Therefore one has both a bad side and a good. When being apart of the church, one must give 10% of their income to them for the tithe to build God’s Kingdom upon earth like it once was. Church’s

Before I get into to religious belief, we should start of on what religion means. Religion is a group of beliefs, values, and practices that people feel strong about. People's religious beliefs almost shape who a person is and how they want to live their life. Their beliefs actually can show where someone came from and how they live their after lives. People may believe in one or many gods, these religions are called monotheism and Polytheism. Monotheism is the worship of a single God, while Polytheism consist of worshiping many Gods. When it comes to christianity(monotheism), Thomas Aquinas a Catholic priest says he can prove the existence of God in many ways.

Peck’s third section of his work discusses the role of religion in one’s growth. According to Peck, our understanding of the world changes in accordance to our growth in discipline and love, which creates varying understandings of the meaning of life. Everyone has a certain world view that constitutes our understanding and that is our religion. For Peck, he argues that psychotherapists often do not pay attention to the individual world view of their patients which play a role in their problems. Simultaneously, patients may be unaware of their own world views that will be necessary for how they confront the world. The development of their religion is rooted in their culture where the most influential part is one’s family. The family dynamic

1. The relationship between religion and happiness is a topic that I believe gets a good amount of attention by researchers. I feel that defining happiness is very subjective for each individual person, therefore making it tough to generalize for everyone. You mention that Myers (2010) states that “widows, mothers of developmentally challenged children, and people experiencing significant hardships are more joyful, resilient against depression, and able to bounce back”, but I wonder what criteria is used for this information (p. 66). As a young widow my definition of joy has completely changed and though I never lost sight of God through my trials I can say that joy was not a word in my vocabulary at the time. My faith in God did get me

He eventually felt positive that the healthier we are emotionally the higher the probability of a peak-experience. Maslow said that as we age, the intensity of peak experiences provide a gentler state of serenity that he acknowledge as plateau-experiences. In contrast to peak-experiences, he advised that such plateaus may be cultivated through awareness and effort.

A large sample of more than two thousand adults aged over 65 living in community centers in mainly rural Eastern North Carolina were interviewed. It is worth noting that the study found Christian belief and church going to be more common in this rural areas. Church attendance and belief that prayers could help with illnesses were studied. The respondents said that they believed prayers and belief in God combined with medical care helps with curing illnesses including mental health and depression (Mitchell &Weatherly, (2000). The results of the study also suggests that reduced health including physical limitations and limited church participation led to poorer self-rated mental health and more symptoms of

A 10-year study from the Journal of Family Practice, “found that 83% of the studies done on spirituality found a positive effect on physical health, 92% showed mental health benefits, 4% showed neither a positive nor negative effect and 4% showed harm” ("Spirituality and prayer," 2012), and in these studies spirituality was measured by participation in a religious ceremony, social support, prayer and belief in a higher power. Research among women diagnosed with breast cancer show that “prayer was associated with improved psychological well-being” ("Spirituality and prayer," 2012) and that high religiosity was linked to much lower levels of depression.

Christianity is by far the largest religious group which is then followed closely by Islam. All over the world, Christianity seems to be growing more and more steadily. It also seems that in some cases, it actually boosts an economy positively. It was stated in “The Telegraph” that by the year 2030 China will become the worlds most “Christian Nation.” Even though the United States is currently the largest Christian nation in the world, it will soon become second to China. Yes so called communist China, who’s religion of Buddhism was once the primarily practiced religion, is now embracing the beliefs of Christianity. As a result more and more Christian missionaries are being sent to China and are setting up medical and nursing schools

The Puritan and Virginia colonies both had a tremendous hand in the development of the United States. While they both began in the same time, the values on which they were based were vastly different. Life in the colonial era was a struggle for survival on all fronts. The Puritan and Virginia colonies managed to survive and thrive in different ways yet each left their legacy that can still be seen in the present-day United States.

The topic of this paper is on Religion, Social Networks, and Life Satisfaction (2010). This was found in the American Sociological Review (ASR) As we go through this paper we will see how the authors, do not necessarily meet the criteria that they set out for and in what way they could have tried to help reach what they set out to look for. The simple reasoning behind why they do not meet their criteria is due to how they tried to do their research and what they lacked.

The strong interrelationship between religion and economy apparent in Minoan crete indicates that women enjoyed an elite and possibly powerful status in society. The Minoans occupied crete for about 1500 years and yet the Evidence derived from archaeological sources display the omnipresent representation of women and supports the idea that the Minoans were a female dominated society. However, written references to the Minoan ruler mention a ‘King Minos’ and create a platform for debate as to who, if anybody, ruled Minoan Crete.