No, I don't.

On the contrary, most atheists I know are happier than theists. I know many theists living their lives in fear, confusion, guilt and sadness. Does this mean all theists are one way and atheists are another way? No, both accounts are anecdotal and can change from person to person. 

The human psyche is certainly a wild place to be. There are so many chemicals and goings-on that I can't begin to understand.

I had a thought about this topic which I thought I'd share:

"I found Jesus and my life felt better, I felt like my eyes had been opened and that I could accomplish anything"

Here is why Jesus freaks have a tendency to be happy, glowing people...

In American society we are presented with the idea that we can accomplish anything if we put our minds to it. We can vote to have representation in government, we can work hard to be successful in life, and we can find a wonderful partner to marry and be happy with. Even in the most dysfunctional of homes this message still gets through to us.

Then we add reality to the mix.

Since we are only human our level of dedication is not what it needs to be in order to "pull ourselves up from our boot straps". We see that there are those who always seem to be one step ahead of us. We work as hard as we can but the work is unrewarding and we start to wonder what the hell we're doing it for. We meet someone and everything is great for a while but then we realize that having a life partner is actually quite difficult. We're never quite smart enough or pretty enough to make them happy (at least in our minds). This is the case with most things in our lives; we want to be good enough but so often we are not. We want to be loved and respected but so often we are not.

Enter Jesus.

Now we have an imaginary spirit that we talk to all of the time and we say over and over again that he loves us and will never abandon us. We repeat the mantras that we were taught in daycare and remember the fuzzy warm feelings we had in church as children.

He has a plan so all of my mistakes are part of a bigger picture.
He loves me the way I am (prividing I get on my knees and subjugate myself to his whim) and will never abandon me. So the fact that my life partner thinks I'm a dolt doesn't matter ... cuz gosh darnit I'm good enough.

Lo and behold, we start to feel better.

Imagine that.

This self delusion is sure to make us feel better. It's a lot like positive self talk with the addition of a little schizophrenia. If we work hard enough we can convince ourselves of just about anything. If we can manage to convince ourselves that there is a guy up in the clouds staring at us, who loves us etc, we can add quite a bit of gilded happiness to our lives.

The problem? Positive self talk is one thing, believing in imaginary sky pixies is another matter entirely. I can't bring myself to believe that the Matrix is better than reality.

Ignorance is bliss.

Possibly, but then it depends on which verstion of their god they believe in. Is the the happy god who has unconditional love for everyone. Or the vengeful god who is completly disgusted by mankind and might save a few of us if we suck up really well.

Those who's delusions include the happy god do tend to be happier than me. But I find it's a scary cultish sort of happy. Only in these people do I see the true meaning of the phrase "Ignorance is bliss".

Those who believe in the vengeful god tend to be not so happy. The seem filled with guilt and fear and often spend a lot of time being angry with those who they think live up to god's standards even less than they do.

Personally I think that some unhappiness is a good thing. It drives us to improove ourselves and our lives. Without it noone would achieve anything. It takes discomfort with the current state of things to motivate us to change them. What matters is the conviction that it is within our own power to do something about our unhappiness.

I don't really get the concept of nirvana (the state, not the band, although I have trouble understandind them too). Without suffering and desire what's the point? There's no drive to do anything, to learn or create. I suppose heaven has the same problem. If everything is perfect then existence would get very boring.

I, for one, wish that I was brought up as a firm believer in God. Becasue, having blind faith in God would have saved me from many depressions in life. Knowing that, no matter the truth about God, I've gained nothing from my quest in atheism other than so many unanswered questions and sleepless nights.

I would have chosen happiness over knowledge if I had a second choice.

I second what Susan said, but there's another angle.  Here's a brief excerpt from an e-mail my mother sent to me a couple of days ago:

My mother brought me up to believe blindly, but it didn't "take" because I was too inquisitive and too goddamn smart.   I started doubting.  As a fundamentalist Christian, I was taught that doubting led to hell.  During the deconversion process I had nightmares and would wake up nearly screaming.  The nightmares usually involved being left behind.  I would sometimes awake just before I was cast into hell.

Also, when I came to realize that this life is probably our only shot, I had to face down that fear.  Religion led to a lot of misery for me.

Now, let's go back to what my mother said: "If someone could prove to me this very day that God did not exist then I would continue to believe because I am content and happy."

In order to maintain her own "happiness," my mother lied to herself and taught me a lie that brought me great emotional trauma.  Maintaining her faith was more important to her than  truth or any harm her beliefs caused to me or to society.  Even now she's working with the likes of Pat Robertson and his ilk to turn this nation into a theocracy. 

I have not brought up religion or politics to my mother in a long time, yet she found it necessary to hurt me again (won't go into the details) and once again proclaim that her god-belief is more important to her than me or the truth.

I just wanted to point out that 1) god-belief does not necessarily lead to happiness and 2) clinging to a god-belief for your own happiness is selfish and can cause much suffering. 

I know I'm far happier as an atheist than I was as a Christian. I always felt insignificant and guilty, and I always had to lie to myself and ignore reason to make sense of god and the bible. Also, I know several Christians that are constantly depressed, as well as several who have the exact same attitude toward their beliefs as Iruka's mother. No matter how rediculous their beliefs are, they will not give them up because they're happy the way they are. I know exactly how this is, how selfish and dishonest and hurtful it is, but instead of my mother saying it, it's my father.

Considering that the most Atheist nations in the world also ranks as the happiest, I wouldnt think happines has anything to do with religion.

Happiest nations:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lif_hap_net-lifestyle-happiness-net

How many atheists:

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html

Edit:  Poverty/wealth is probably a more important variable.