In many ways, effects will vary, based on how you define religion.” — Education had a strong and positive effect on religious participation. With each additional year of education, the odds of attending religious services increased 15 percent. — Increases in education were associated with reading the Bible.

Religion gives people something to believe in, provides a sense of structure and typically offers a group of people to connect with over similar beliefs. These facets can have a large positive impact on mental health—research suggests that religiosity reduces suicide rates, alcoholism and drug use.

Religion may reduce likelihood of certain diseases. Studies suggest that it guards against cardiovascular disease by reducing blood pressure, and also improves immune system functioning. Similar studies have been done investigating religious emotions and health.

Barro and McCleary suggest that higher rates of religious beliefs stimulate growth because they help to sustain aspects of individual behavior that enhance productivity. They believe that higher church attendance depresses growth because it signifies a greater use of resources by the religion sector.

How does religiosity affect growth? The researchers found that for given religious beliefs, increases in church attendance reduce economic growth. This is because it reflects greater diversion of resources to the religion sector, leaving less for allocation for other purposes.

“Religion emphasizes moral codes designed to instill values such as self-control and social competence,” said Dr. That study found that religion was linked to enhanced psychological adjustment and social competence among primary school-age children (kindergartners).

Religion may serve as a source of certain emotion, and may influence emotional well-being (Silberman 2003; Emmons 2005). It is also claimed that religious individuals may present increased awareness of emotion, as well as greater self-control skills (Allen 1997; Geyer and Baumeister 2005).

The concept of “religious feeling”, as used in theology, philosophy and other disciplines, has for long be associated with individual faith and subjective religious experience as Schleiermacher defines religion to be “the sense of absolute dependence on God”.

Religious experience, specific experience such as wonder at the infinity of the cosmos, the sense of awe and mystery in the presence of the sacred or holy, feeling of dependence on a divine power or an unseen order, the sense of guilt and anxiety accompanying belief in a divine judgment, or the feeling of peace that …

The term mystic is derived from the Greek noun mystes, which originally designated an initiate of a secret cult or mystery religion. In Classical Greece (5th–4th century bce) and during the Hellenistic Age (323 bce–330 ce), the rites of the mystery religions were largely or wholly secret.

During the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman identified six basic emotions that he suggested were universally experienced in all human cultures. The emotions he identified were happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger.