This is a great article about a study of about 2 million tweets from more than 16,000 users on Twitter. The study was of followers of both Atheist and Christians. They studied the feeds of followers of five Atheists which included Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Monica Salcedo and Michael Shermer, and then the five Christians were Pope Benedict XVI, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, conservative political commentator Dinesh D’Souza and Joyce Meyer.The researchers found or concluded that “Christians tweet with higher frequency words reflecting positive emotions, social relationships and an intuitive style of thinking – the sort that’s gut-driven….This isn't to say that atheists don’t use these words, too, but they out-tweet Christians when it comes to analytic words and words associated with negative emotions (http://religion.blogs.cnn.com).”
My thoughts on this study are that I am not sure that the fact that one uses happy words or such does not really imply that the person is happy. I recently saw an interview with Richard Dawkins on Book TV, and I think that he seems like a happy person, just to defend him on that matter. Of course, this study was about his followers and perhaps they may or may not be happy, but I suppose this study is a start and does point in a certain direction. In all fairness to Atheist also, even Pope Francis recently said: “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone,” the pope told worshipers at morning Mass on Wednesday. “‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone(http://religion.blogs.cnn.com)!”
In conclusion, I am not sure if being Christian means that one is suppose to be happy, although perhaps the ones on twitter seem to be. I do know that James, the Lords brother, said in James 1:2: “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials… (RSV Bible).” So, perhaps these Christians in the study already have this attitude that James mentions; therefore, the results show a reflection of happiness. I think that last thought is perhaps the reality here. Blessings! Oh, why I just caught myself saying something happy to you the readers, I said blessings…lol. Oh well, again, blessings!
In conclusion, I am not sure if being Christian means that one is suppose to be happy, although perhaps the ones on twitter seem to be. I do know that James, the Lords brother, said in James 1:2: “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials… (RSV Bible).” So, perhaps these Christians in the study already have this attitude that James mentions; therefore, the results show a reflection of happiness. I think that last thought is perhaps the reality here. Blessings! Oh, why I just caught myself saying something happy to you the readers, I said blessings…lol. Oh well, again, blessings!
References:
RSV Bible
I am not trying to be bashing on Atheist. I love my neighbor, but I do like presenting the polemics on this issue. So, I am strongly suggesting that you watch a video on the C-SPAN VIDEO LIBRARY. The video is Curtis White talking about his book, The Science Delusion: Asking the Big Questions in a Culture of Easy Answers. Just to give a heads up, in the book he discusses how such as Richard Dawkins, and others are misguided. The link to the video is below.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/313538-1