This is Part 1 in a four-part series on The Politics of Religion. Check back next week for the next part!
If you listen to religious figures speak during prayer, you’ll often hear a repetitive call for “peace.” In Christianity, a pastor might say — “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” In Islam, “Peace be upon you” is a very common phrase; in fact, assalamu alaykum, the Arabic word for hello, means just that. And, in Hinduism, peace and dharma or righteousness are intertwined in the scriptures.
With such repetitive narratives of peace, it is hard to deny the positivity that religions can sometimes create. When walking near the Western Wall in Jerusalem, even some non-Jewish people believe that they can feel a positive presence from all the prayer at the wall. So how exactly does religion make such a positive difference?
Studies show that religion is often correlated with happiness, particularly for people who are actively religious. The cause of such happiness is wider, however, than just a belief in God. Many recent studies, for instance, cite socialization created through religion as the primary cause.
More broadly, religions make people happy through four primary means — Participation, Reliance, Answers, and Yeasayers (PRAY). (And yeah, I picked those words for the cool acronym…
