I am much happier since I quit my religion and dumped all superstitions.

Ignorance is bliss

I am so much more happier as an atheist and I'm a better person as well.

From what I have observed and witnessed. religion generally raises false expectations that life will be better, when in reality is only creates hardships and disappointments.

Generally speaking religious people tend to be less intelligent than nonbelievers. Intelligent people tend to be less happy than unintelligent people. I know plenty of miserable Christians though.

I’m Irish. People have no idea what the Catholic Church done to our heads. James

Sure, just like drunk people are happier than those still sober. And the most miserable are the ones with a hangover.

Hey, I can use my favourite Douglas Adams quote HERE as well

"... so I'd much rather be happy than right"

" And ARE You ?" asked Ford

"Well, no ... that's where it all falls down you see " grinned Slartibartfast.

Once you know thats its nonsense, you can't possibly be happy trying to suppress facts. It just doesn't work.

"There is no going back" said Morpheus as he handed him the pills.

I think the sense of community that religion can create can be comforting. However thinking to my grandparents' miserable marriage both have refused to get out of, because religion, it can also create more misery!

HMM very interesting question

I think I will answer this by Quoting a man that is one of my hero's and goes right up there with Jean Paul Satre. This gentleman is my fellow countryman Sir Arthur C Clarke'

Finally, I would like to assure my many Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim friends that I am sincerely happy that the religion which Chance has given you has contributed to your peace of mind (and often, as Western medical science now reluctantly admits, to your physical well-being). Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future.”

3001 The Final Odyssey

So in my own words to sum up. YES religious people ARE happy, but they are NOT sane!

Most delusional people do appear happy on the outside, but their inner self does not match the joy shown on the surface

Who could be happy with all that guilt.

I was less happy as a Christian than I am now. I am liberated from the fear of hell and Yahweh .

I’m sure it is subjective, but many if the christians I know are unhappy. Think about it, god judges their every action and finds them unworthy to be loved.

Hitchens asks the question in "God is Not Great" that goes something like if their belief system is the one Truth, why doesn't it make its adherents happy? Why don't they rise to the top like cream? This seemed like a great question to me. And the idea that it brings them comfort has to be balanced out by the torture they feel by being human and occasionally doing deeds and performing acts that are proscribed. If it brings them any comfort it comes from the same hand that holds the lash. I say spank my ass and pass the bacon.

I miss believing in someone looking after me, and having a built-in social construct where I can plug in, and suddenly have friends, fellowship, group activities, can jam with fellow musicians, etc.

It's more difficult taking responsibility for my own life and mistakes, but OH SUCH A RELIEF!!!

After reading about the Sumerian texts carved on the Babylon wall, written 2000 years before the Bible, but with the same stories and similar names for characters, I was overjoyed to find that the bloody, revengeful Hebrew god of the Bible was likely modeled after blood-drinking, "Anu," the head Sumerian god.
I'd rather have been genetically engineered by aliens anyway, much more sci-fi, and cool!

The origins of human beings according to ancient Sumerian texts [ancient-origins.net]?

I definitely am glad I left the church and Christianity behind and began thinking more independently. By doing so, I've gained insights I might not have otherwise, and a greater awareness of possibilities and choices available to me. I think if some Christians are happier because of their religion, it's because ignorance can be bliss.

I don’t know why they would be happier as it seems they would be worried about going to hell. However you also have to consider the possibility that if they believed they were going to heaven and not ceasing to exist that could possibly make them happier.

How will I know without knocking on doors? Not a psychic. I am happy for what I had experience, for what I am and more than anything else because or what I don't envy from the guy next to me. I live without greed and when you live without greed... you can be happy pretty easy regardless of god or not god belief.

I'm much happier since leaving Christianity, probably due to the lack of cognitive dissonance in my life.

My parents are extremely religious and seem to find great comfort in their beliefs. My sister is a Christmas and Easter Christian who is raising her son to be the same (their family mostly worships at the altar of football, though). My brother is an extreme evangelical fundamentalist. None of them seem truly happy to me.

However, I've noticed that most people who don't think deeply are happiest with someone to tell them what to think and do. I find myself agreeing with Socrates that the unexamined life is not worth living.

If ignorance is bliss conservative christians must be ecstatic. So why are they such assholes?
And it must be a real drag carrying around all that fear of god.

I think it depends.

For most (all but two) of those I de-converted back to atheist, they have told me they are happier as atheists. One relapsed into theism and the other (the brightest of the lot) tells me she is much more miserable as she has become an enlightened and highly sceptical atheist who now sees the world the way it actually is.

My favorite analogy to this question is a quote from Darby O Gill and the Little People
"01:13:15 who was happy altogether... 01:13:19 the village idiot." Yes, the ignorance is bliss assertion - - As the question is happiness not enlightenment, theists may have the edge as they can use faith (belief without evidence) as a deluded methodology to accept whatever they wish as fact.

I am much happier since I dropped out of the religious scene. Religion always paced guilt before happiness and I found this to be wrong. Life was to short to always be feeling some kind of guilt and to spend hours saying the same words over and over again to no avail. I did not see the miracles some stated they viewed like those standing in a church when a tornado passed over taking the building but not the people. I asked why was god angry at the church? Common sense and logic won me over and I have been very happy sense.

The poor and uneducated(and particularly minorities)are the most religious people in the country, yet when I go to their communities, all I see is sheer misery...

I think it depends on the person, happiness comes from your state of mind and how you live + the people around you. It can take only one complete bastard to make your life a misery( its got nothing to do with believing in the ridiculous) surround yourself with positive people and tell the miserable sods to bugger off. The only outcome from believing in a God is disappointment .