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Giving Increases Happiness
Posted on Saturday, June 16, 2007 at 11:17 AM by Jason Barker
The Dallas Morning News linked to an article about a University of Oregon study in the new field of neureconomics which concluded that donating money to a charity activates regions of the brain associated with pleasure. The findings are not restricted only to financial giving, but also to virtuous living. Manya Brachear writes:
Paul Zak, director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University, told me the findings speak not only to generosity but virtue. The study supports the theory that humans who strive to be virtuous are actually honing happier lives and better relationships, he said.
Scientists are puzzled as to why humans feel the need to give to others, and why they derive pleasure from such giving:
As for why humans would develop a desire to help others, the researchers can only speculate. "One basic is that early humans lived in small groups, where survival of the group helped your own cause," Mayr said. "But that still leaves the question of why you might care why someone in Africa is starving, how this particular mechanism becomes overgeneralized."
Christians, however, recognize such a life as a divine imperative, as just a small selections of biblical passages demonstrate:
- God Himself is generous (Matthew 7:7-11).
- It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).
- Generosity is rewarded by God (Proverbs 11:25; Matthew 25:34-40).
I've written before about ways in which you can donate to the Orthodox Christian Network and Ancient Faith Radio, and the Department of Youth Ministry can always use your donations of money and/or time to serve God and others.
Posted in Miscellaneous