Two University of Miami psychologists have published a study in the Psychological Bulletin concluding that “religious belief and piety promote self-control.” Their research was motivated by the broader question of “why religion evolved and why it helps so many people,” as well as a desire to get to the bottom of why religious people “tend to do better in school, live longer, have more satisfying marriages and be generally happier.”

Such benefits are often credited to the legalistic demands made on people who are active participants in religious communities, but the researchers say, “Not so fast.”  While external factors like church attendance are certainly contributors, it is the internal factor of faith in God that sustains the external behaviors, not the other way around.

The study makes a distinction between “religious” people and “spiritual” people, the religious being defined as those who practiced their faith in a community context and by strictly defined standards and the spiritual being defined as those who were more independent in their spiritual practice and had a view of God as more of “a spiritual force” or “a connection to humanity.”

Those defined  as religious exhibited more self-control and experienced more of the benefits of a satisfying life than those defined as spiritual. The study observes that “the self-control effect seems to come from being engaged in religious institutions and behaviors.”

So how can non-religious people who desire the benefits of a happy life gain those benefits without being religious? The psychologists who conducted the study suggest the non-religious try a secular version of the religious practices that produce the desire benefits. Rather than commit yourself to a worshipping community, find a civic organization with “strong ideals” and practice “private meditation.”

This conclusion totally contradicts early statements in their study which suggest that merely practicing the external rituals has no effect without the internal motivation that comes from religious belief.

The report fails to recognize that people of faith (characterized as “religious” in the report) are not happy because of what they DO. They do what they do because they are happy. And this happiness (the Bible calls it “joy”) comes from “a well of life springing up in them,” a result of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Merely replicating the behavior of religious people will not make you happy or more satisfied. The psychologists limited their study to what they could see and quantify. They failed to take into account what cannot be seen and what cannot be qualified, thus misdiagnosing why so many secular people live unsatisfied lives. They also err in prescribing “a righteousness that comes from the law (i.e., obeying rules)” (see Paul in Philippians 3) rather than “a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ – a righteousness that comes FROM GOD through faith” (Philippians 3:9).

Religious practice does not produce faith. Faith produces religious practice, which is why “faith without works is dead.”