Religion vs. Science

[The Former DMiller]

I don't want to totally discount those statistics you found LL, but they should be definitely be taken with some NACl.

Health: Recent epidemiological studies comparing health and longevity in secular and religious Israeli kibbutzim, and among religiously active and inactive Americans, find consistent correlations between religion and health. One recent national health study following 21,000 lives through time revealed that life expectancy among those never attending church is 75 years, but 83 years among those attending church more than weekly. For several reasons, an active faith is nearly as strongly associated with longevity as is nonsmoking.

There could be many reasons people who attend church more than weekly live longer. Generally people like that are going to live a healthier life as they may avoid smoking, drugs, alcohol, etc. Do people avoid those things because of their faith, or would they be things they would do anyway if they didn't go to church that often. It's a very difficult thing to prove causation for, although I would be interested in seeing the actual results of the correlation between going to church more than twice a week and longevity.

Happiness: Many studies have also found correlations between faith and "subjective well-being" (happiness and satisfaction with life). For example, in National Opinion Research Center surveys of 40,167 Americans since 1972, 26% of those never attending religious services reported being "very happy," as did 47% of those participating in services more than weekly. Faith, it seems, connects us with others, engenders meaning and purpose beyond self, provides a grace-filled basis for self-acceptance, and sustains our hope that, in the end, the very end, all shall indeed be well.

This study seems to be fairly narrow. It is surveying 40,000 people, but that is since 1972. That is not a lot of people given how many people have lived in the US since 1972. Also, these types of surveys can be faulty if the people selected for the survey aren't properly selected. I'm sure that part of the research was fine, though, but it's impossible to tell without knowing their selection method.

Coping: One national survey found that people who had recently suffered divorce, unemployment, bereavement, or serious illness or disability retained greater joy if they also had a strong faith. Compared with religiously inactive widows, recently widowed women who worship at their church or synagogue report greater well-being. Compared with irreligious mothers of children with developmental disabilities, those with a deep religious faith are less vulnerable to depression. "Religious faith buffers the negative effects of trauma on well-being," concluded University of Texas sociologist Christopher Ellison.

I definitely need to see some more info on this survey, since as it stands there is absolutely no statistical evidence behind it. At this point there is very little fact to back it up, but it is just a synopsis so there is more than likely more to it than that.

Goodness: Does faith feed morality and compassion, as Senator Lieberman argued during the 2000 presidential campaign? No way, said New York Times columnist Natalie Angier: "No evidence supports . . . the canard that godliness and goodliness are linked in any way but typographically." But Angier is demonstrably wrong: The 24% of Americans who attend church weekly give 48% of all charitable contributions to all causes in the United States and are twice as likely as the irreligious to volunteer among the poor, infirm, and elderly. Moreover, in areas where churchgoing is high, crime rates are low. Even the unbelieving skeptic Voltaire recognized the faith-morality connection: "I want my attorney, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God," he said. "Then I shall be robbed and cuckolded less often." And consider: Who is most likely to sponsor food pantries and soup kitchens? Who took medicine into the Third World and opened hospitals? Who sheltered orphans? Who spread literacy and established schools and universities? Who led movements to abolish the slave trade, end apartheid, and establish civil rights? Who most often adopts children? The answer to all these questions is the same.

This correlation makes a lot of sense, but, again, do the people attend church because they are good people, or are they good people because they attend church.


I'm sure all of those studies are fine, but it just goes to show that statistics could be misleading, and those synopsis posted on the site you linked could have easily misread the studies or manipulated them to fit the argument. Again, I don't disagree with what those suppositions, but the statistics major in me will jump over things like that. :)