Positively Non-Religious

So one of the ideas that I am  passionate about (much more than simply deriding religions) is “How best to live our lives?”  I obviously do not agree with a pastor / religious institution making up arbitrary things for me to do supposedly dictated from a mythical being, but it does not exactly answer what SHOULD be done.  

I’m increasing in favor or just using common sense and looking to scientific studies to help gather data on those supposedly unanswerable questions.  I’ll skip the “ethics stems from rationality and data” stuff for now and just point out this survey.   What makes people happy?   Are happy people born happy or can you make decisions that influence this.   This study certainly points in the direction that, yes, we can make decisions that effect our happiness.  So if science can explain life, the universe, and even how to live our lives… what was the point of religion again?

Oh and I’d like to point out the study found “Attending church is regularly associated with increased long-term life satisfaction, although the study did not directly measure the effect of religious beliefs on happiness.”   I am actually not surprised by this at all.  I don’t think this contradicts my previous statements though.  Church gives a supportive social network and I think this certainly can be a great thing.   Its all the other BS in church I think is harmful.