john_v_h

I put the United Health Foundation scores into an Excel worksheet along with the percentage religious population from this 2000 study. I'm afraid the correlation is essentially nonexistent, only about .12 for Pearson's R.

djrafikie

oh, fer fs, I was so hoping they would all die off.
Of course, I did mean that in the nicest possible way.

SLD

Yeah, I know.

Sure there are a lot of factors that go into the equation. The important point though is that it is proof that God does not protect his followers as so many religious people seem to think.

There are also a lot of people who think that because they love Geezus, no harm will come to them.

Living in the heart of the bible belt, it wouldn't surprise me in the least that this attitude could account for a significant fraction of the problem.

SLD

Verus

God also didn't protect Jesus. There are things that go on that we'll never understand. The important point for an atheist to know is that God shows very little partiality. He loves everybody. He causes the sun to shine on believer and unbeliever alike. St Catherine of Siena supposedly had a dialogue with God in which God reportedly told her that He even allows the faithful to experience more crap than unbelievers because their faith allows them to handle a little more than unbelievers. He coddles unbelievers in the hope that they will see his mercy and kindness. Make of that what you will.

DBT

Does He?

PSA 145:9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

JER 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

Jedi Mind Trick

Kentucky is number 12 from the bottom and Georgia is in there close by... all in the negative numbers and all southern fried.

Jedi Mind Trick

The Lord takes care of those who take care of themselves.

Vicar Philip

And why would he? With his omniscience he knew that was going to happen from the beginning of time and STILL bestowed all the faults and weaknesses on us that led up to such a thing.Finally, something we agree on. And how exactly do you know this, other than what you've memorized from the bible? I thought the ways of god were unknowable, like you said above.He also allows earthquakes and hurricanes to kill good and bad people. What does this tell us? How would the world be any different if there was no god up there supposedly looking out for us?What I make of it is that it's bullshit. Please present your evidence that believers endure more hardship than unbelievers. Further, I thought you just said above that "god shows very little partiality"- which is it?

EarlOfLade

The idiocy of the Jesus myth were this god creature, torture itself before it has some men kill itself. What a heap of balony!

SLD

Here's a great graphic to compare with the OP:

http://www.teachingaboutreligion.org...nreligious.htm

As can be seen the most unhealthy states are the ones with the lowest percentages of freethinkers, generally.

I also wonder if that is in part due to scientific thinking among the non-religious. They are thus more likely to seek a scientific solution to their health problem and not rely on Gawd and prayer.

SLD