Abstract This study investigates the relationship between religiosity and subjective-wellbeing by focusing on different aspects of religious belief and their individual interactions with life satisfaction. The findings indicated a lack of distinction between the life satisfaction of the religious and irreligious. Certainty of belief was strongly correlated with life satisfaction indicating the positive effects of a stable worldview on wellbeing whether that be religious or irreligious. Amongst Christians it was found that orthodoxy of belief and church attendance related positively to life satisfaction with this affect being largely mediated (although not completely) by their level of existential certainty. This supported a view of religion as a means of control and was further investigated with a second experiment that assessed the affects of priming for different feelings of control on religious commitment and scientific worldviews. The results of this study did not support the theory of religion as a means of control. Implications for the direction of future research on religiosity and subjective wellbeing are discussed.