Update to the “Is Religion Good or Bad” opinion chart. A commenter wondered if more religious countries were happier or not. I took data from the World Database of Happiness and correlated the two. It doesn’t appear that there is any from a lay perspective. (But I am not a statistician.)
This is not surprising to me given recent research on why religious people report being happier (they suggest it’s not religious belief itself but more about being part of a community, having more friendships, doing work for the greater good, etc.) But I’m sure it’s also because happiness is a complicated thing, as seen from the complexity of Dr. Ruut Veenhoven’s research.
(Also: The World Database of Happiness’ interactive happiness maps are interesting.)
Great work, thank you!