We had a great discussion last night with a group of friends on, Does religion make you happy?

I would like to ask the question here and see what you guys think.

My Faith gives me strength and I truly believe Jesus helps me.

I'm not in any religion but I think it helps people by giving them principles and values to focus on and in some cases, having the feeling of being connected to god.
They seem to get guidance and personal growth from it..

The main principles we discussed during our talk was:
People who are religious or who belief in a higher power tend to be more happy although there does not seem to be a lot of research to back this theory up. We discussed why people affiliate themselves with a particular faith and what they receive from it which in return could/might make them happy.

What was interesting about this discussion is that we had people participate who were agnostic or atheist and they said they were happy that more people were "coming out of the closet" that they are agnostic or atheist. We talked about if troubling times brought out more people to say they were agnostic or atheist. They said it has and finally accepting that they do not believe in a higher power or have doubts about a higher belief system.

Someone gave a quote of: happiness is a privilege not a right. While another person asked, Is the Pope happy?