Religion can bring happiness – if it is practised voluntarily

PATRICIA Casey reports (‘Religious practice offers a happy alternative to young’, Irish Independent, January 9) on worldwide studies which indicate higher levels of happiness in those who practise religion compared with those who do not.

But she omits one key factor – to achieve this outcome the practise of religion must be a voluntary activity. For instance, the recent riots in theocratic Pakistan over the acquittal of a young Christian woman for blasphemy would not indicate significant levels of happiness among the rioters.

Similarly in Ireland, it is not so long ago that Ireland was effectively a Catholic theocracy – in 1991 there was no freely available contraception, Magdalene Laundries were still open and there was no divorce. Eighty per cent of Catholics attended weekly Mass but there was no indication Irish people were significantly happier than, say, UK people in general, where a only small minority of people practised religion – but on a voluntary basis.

Unfortunately, we have not reached the stage where the practise of religion in Ireland is entirely voluntary.

Patients of reproductive age must accept Catholic medical ethics in their treatment – whether they agree with those ethics or not – if they are admitted to publicly funded Catholic hospitals, as must the doctors and nurses who work there.

Children whose parents do not want them to be exposed to Catholic dogma are obliged to sit at the back of the classroom when Catholic dogma is being taught. Anthony O’Leary

Portmarnock, Co Dublin