Welcome to the 21st century, where we worship our devices.

Jokes, it isn’t quite all that bad, but a new study from the University of Cologne in Germany says that ‘faith in progress has overtaken religiosity as the answer to the question of how to be happier in secular societies’.

Of course these findings will vary greatly depending on who you’re sampling, but for their study they surveyed 1 500 peeps in the Netherlands.

They were quizzed about their values, religiosity, beliefs about progress (rating the resonance of statements like “science and technology are making our lives healthier, easier, and more comfortable”) and life satisfaction.

Some of the findings from QZ:

Based on the survey responses, the researchers concluded that both belief in scientific-technological progress and religiosity were associated with higher life satisfaction. Yet trust in progress made people feel significantly better than religion did, providing a far stronger sense of personal control…

They found a “correlation between a belief in scientific–technological progress and life satisfaction was positive and significant in 69 of the 72 countries.” Only in 28 countries did religiosity correlate positively with satisfaction at all.

I suppose at least when you ask Siri for a favour you’re guaranteed an answer.

Should we poke the bear and analyse the reasoning? Sure, why not:

The psychologists suggested that a reason science satisfies more is that it offers solutions to real and visible problems as opposed to the abstraction that is god. Or, as Albert Einstein said, the great merit of science is that “it has overcome man’s insecurity before himself and before nature.”

If it’s good enough for Einstein…

You can read the full report on that study HERE.

[source:qz]