Soyin Milka

*curtsies*

Good day infidels, free-thinkers and believers of all kinds.

I had heard a few times before scientific studies had found a correlation between religious practice (Not necessarily faith) and general health and life expectancy. Apparently, people who belong to religious communites have better health and live longer. Here's an article I found after a google search I did using "health life expectancy religious practice" as query:
http://www.sciencenews.org/20000603/fob8.asp

And an intriguing site full of abstracts about research about religious practice, prayer and things like survival rate of patients with cancer and other diseases:
http://www.dukespiritualityandhealth.org/research.html

It seems religious practice is good for the immune system. Now, I heard about this from a christian who used this as evidence that God actually cares about his followers. Since that conversation, I've been trying to find a study showing that muslims live longer than christians just for fun, but the health of muslims doesn't seem to be the object of much research sadly. But this gave me time to think and eventually stumble upon a moral pebble of sort:

If religious practice is good for my christian friend's health, should I keep debating with him about faith? If he loses his faith and quits his religious practice, this could have consequences for his health. What if his odds of making it to 80 are really better if he keeps going to church?

He just quit smoking. I don't want to endanger his health!

I'm not losing sleep over this
But I was wondering if anyone here had any thoughts on this topic.

Soyin

keyser_soze

Well, as someone kindly pointed out in another thread, millions upon millions of people died, or earned a shorter life expectancy due to a belief that handwashing was unnecessary during the first two thousand years of the christian cycle. I think you will probably find, that a truly objective study would conclude that religion has NO bearing on life expectancy or health. People worldwide suffer and die, doesn't matter the faith. If one faith could be tied to a longer life span or better health, you can be sure that the number of adherants would skyrocket. People are dumb enough to buy into crystals....what makes you think that the mentality that would allow one to do that would not join up to a religion in a heartbeat?

southernhybrid

I've read these findings before and my personal take on it is that religious people usually have a better support system than those of us who are not religious. My mother has almost all of her friends from church. Without that she would be very isolated. We are very social animals and we benefit from the support of others of our species.

I only read part of your link but I noticed that attending a religious service was always associated with the positive benefits of religion. That implies that there are social benefits to attending church.

I suppose that prayer could have some positive benefits to individuals in the same way that relaxation or any type of generic meditation would also have benefits. My husband's grandmother was always chanting with her rosary beads. She lived to be a very healthy 93. I think it is possible that her rosary habit helped her reduce stress. Stress reduction can help limit hormones which have a negative impact on the bodies immune system, i.e. corticosteroids. If prayer or chanting helps calm a person down, it makes sense to me that it could have a positive impact on health. Of course there are other relaxation techniques and exercise that could be used in place of prayer and religion to receive these same benefits.

I would even speculate that many atheists seek out the UU Church or organized groups such as secular humanist groups or freethought groups to achieve the same benefits that religion offers to it's followers.

Soyin Milka

Hi again.

Southernhybrid, by UU church, did you mean Unitarian Universalist church? I did a search and that's all I found. I think your take on the benefits of religious practice is interesting. Bio-feedback, meditation and prayer are probably equally beneficial. I was already on agreement with that. Your "social being" explanation is an interesting lead also. I'll keep reading and learning.

Keyser Soze. You're right to point out religions have led the the brutal ending of many lives. I'm more interested by religious practice (and equivalents) as a health issue tho.

Thank you both for taking time to reply.

Soyin

wildernesse

I agree with Southernhybrid. Humans are social animals and are healthier when they have a strong social network to help them through life.

Church/Religious organizations provide just that--a strong social network that can be counted on in time of need. I also agree that religious practices such as prayer and other rituals structure believers lives and provide means of reducing stress and creating order. Also, a belief that something greater than you is in control could possibly reduce stress in situations where events are out of your control completely.

People who think that no good can possibly come from religious practices maybe aren't being totally objective themselves.

--tibac

MortalWombat

I wonder how much of the increase in life expectancy among religious people is actually an artifact of selecting those people who are in good enough health to be able to go to religious services in the first place.

If one is chronically too sick or disabled to go to regular church services, then chances are that their life expectancy is lower than average to begin with.

thebeave

I've always wondered if the Mormons had a slight edge over other mainstream religions in terms of health and, thus, life expectancy. After all, it is forbidden to drink alcohol and smoke, both of which reduce your life expectancy. Plus, the Mormon women are encouraged to have children (and at a young age), which improves the odds for avoiding breast cancer. The tightknit family and social structure also help too, as the aforementioned posts point out. Also, from what I've seen (anecdotally BTW), Mormons tend to be a bit higher on the socioeconomic ladder, which in itself tends to have health benefits (better health awareness, better access to good healthcare, etc). I'm sure I could think of more.

So if my little pet theory is true, then next time a Christian throws it in your face that religious people live longer, point out the Mormons live longer and are healthier than the rest, and are thus most favored with God. So that means that Mormonism is really the "one true religion" (just like South Park said it was). [Be prepared to dim your headlights so as not to totally and permanently blind the deer.]

Jamie_L

First of all, with any study one has to examine the study to make sure it's results are valid. Often, when people set out to find a particular answer and set up a study to test it: surprise! They get the answer they were looking for. This was always a problem for "researchers" trying to prove the existence of ESP, etc.

It would be interesting to look at the make-up of group in the study that wasn't religious. Why weren't they religious? Lives too busy? Maybe they had other external stress factors. For that matter, what did the religious group look like? Were they all devout and pious? How many just went to church more as a social obligation? Etc. What about economic factors?

With that said, if the results are valid, then what others have said makes sense:

Churches are social, emotional, and even financial/practical support networks. Such things can go a long way towards improving health.

Psychological state can influence the body's ability to repair itself. Religious belief can give people a positive outlook that may be harder to come by for the non-religious.

In a world dominated by religion, being non-religious can have negative social and emotional impacts. Imagine having cancer, being an atheist, and having all your relatives constantly calling to pray for you, or talk to you about God, yadda-yadda-yadda. Talk about potential for stress when you don't need it!

Jamie

Soyin Milka

I love this board!

Married men live longer and are less likely to be involved in car accidents. One of the christians at my choir sells insurance He basically agreed with what you all seem to agree on, on the relaxing effect of prayer and the value of belonging to a community. He believes singing can be as effective as prayer in healing the body...

He disagreed with the notion the mormons are God's chosen people tho

I'm gonna try to look at the make-up of the non-religious group. I'm curious about that. Thanks everyone for all the replies!

Soyin

Amos

Could be, but would that no be a very boring life? If so, could it be said that non religious people get more life out of life per day or per year?