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Yep - it's been shown in a dozen different ways that those with faith are happier and live longer. It's a survival mechanism, no question.
Where it really gets interesting is when you start comparing the survival merits of different religions. For example, Catholicism's "no birth control" policy would seem to be a strong one, but some aspects of the faith may be too harsh to allow your average person to maintain the rules, so you risk losing followers. On the other hand, an "easygoing" and more palatable religion is also more likely to be pacifistic, and thus a target for being wiped out by an aggressive convert-or-die kind of religion.
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