Does believing in something help?

My statements are backed by the plethora of research I have read. Here is one:

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/...ract/149/4/557

Very funny.

Finally one link that we can't read without paying.

Maybe you can come up with some free links from that plethora?

It appears to me that reading what it has presented without pay, contains the information to use: </font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
For the great majority of the measures assessed, the studies reported a positive relationship between religious commitment and mental health.

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Posting a link that can't be read seems useless.

This though, seems to suggest that some types of faith help divorce.

Variation in divorce rates among Christian faith groups:
Denomination (in order of decreasing divorce rate) % who have been divorced
Non-denominational (small conservative groups; independents) 34%
Baptists 29%
Mainline Protestants 25%
Mormons 24%
Catholics 21%
Lutherans 21%

Barna's results verified findings of earlier polls: that conservative Protestant Christians, on average, have the highest divorce rate, while mainline Christians have a much lower rate. They found some new information as well: that atheists and agnostics have the lowest divorce rate of all. George Barna commented that the results raise "questions regarding the effectiveness of how churches minister to families." The data challenge "the idea that churches provide truly practical and life-changing support for marriage."

Atheists and Agnostics have the least divorce?

Wow!

Wouldn't the most mentally healthy people have the LEAST divorce?

Hmmmmm. Food for thought.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm

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Is_this_the_right_place said:
Does it help you having a religion when going through bad times. Why/why not?

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To answer the original,before the thread got hijacked, personal question asked, yes, for me, my religion helps when I am going through bad times. I define "religion" as my faith/personal set of beliefs. Religion doesn't have to be handed down or "taught" or be thought up by someone "outside" of one's self. Religion, for me, is merely what I hang my beliefs on; presumably I have more than one and my "religion" is the grouping of them, how I see them in the aggregate. Part of my relgious beliefs are that the sun will come up tomorrow, I didn't "create" it and it doesn't revolve around me

I will say this AGAIN -- this forum is not a place to debate religious concepts!!

It is a place where people who already believe in their own sense of spirituality -- whatever that may be -- to come in peace and harmony and share their faith with one another.

Please, if you contribute to a thread of this nature, do not get engaged in a debate about the nature of whether a particular religion, religious entity, etc. exists. The thread will be closed.

I think after all the positive things I've heard about having faith, I'll actually try going back to church. Thanks for all the replies, realy helped me. I've been reading some of the other posts in the forum, and it seems like there's a lot of joy to gain from faith, so I'll give it a try
Thank you for helping me make my descision, now I've heard the good things I can be more open about it, and maybe I will have faith again.

(((is this))) I'm glad to hear this... with some caveats I share: don't expect things to change overnight. The fellowship is there, I'm sure, but might take some digging and cautious observance. Our faith is often destroyed by the disorder...something about the brain chemicals destroying the memory of faith??
Go with what you can learn in your mind, and trust for some sense of it feeling wise later.

http://archfami.ama-assn.org/cgi/con...stract/7/2/118

http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10....7965PLI1303_04

http://www.jonmd.com/pt/re/jnmd/abst...856145!8091!-1

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cacheJcLhaM6rdYJ:arapaho.nsuok.edu/~celaya/spirit.pdf+relationship+between+religious+belief+and+health

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=007...M>2.0.CO%3B2-H

To answer your question about psychology and psychiatry research as opposed to religious research; the psychs have no religious agenda to prove while religious research does.
PS. there are many more where this came from. I did not post here to get into an argument. The relationship between faith and health is well studied, and the majority in the field agree that it is beneficial.

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The relationship between faith and health is well studied, and the majority in the field agree that it is beneficial.

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Den says:

It is most certainly passing strange, then.....that it is not similarly beneficial in the area of marriage and divorce.

And......incredibly strange that atheists and agnostics would have the lowest rate of divorce and Fundamentalist Christians the highest rate of divorce.

Ah, some mysterious dynamic must be at work here.

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George Barna noted that one reason why the divorce statistic among non-Born again adults is not higher is that a larger proportion of that group cohabits, effectively side-stepping marriage – and divorce – altogether. “Among born again adults, 80% have been married, compared to just 69% among the non-born again segment. If the non-born again population were to marry at the same rate as the born again group, it is likely that their divorce statistic would be roughly 38% - marginally higher than that among the born again group, but still surprisingly similar in magnitude.”

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That isn't very mysterious to me.

That doesn't explain the atheists and agnostics.

And Barna's backpedaling is pure speculation and flawed.

It does not take into account the fact that MANY women in FundaGelical churches are pressured to "submit" to bad and even abusive husbands.....
and thus DO NOT get a divorce--which pushes the divorce rate among the FundaGelicals DOWN.

That would more than offset the "living together" factor that he mentions.

So I don't buy his explanation (which probably came under pressure from the FundaGelicals).

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Folks, I will once again kindly remind everyone that this is NOT the place to debate the existence of a particular religion, religious figure, etc.

Please, keep your posts positively faith- and spirit-oriented, or refrain from visiting this forum. Thank you.

DocJohn

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Sky must agree with you because she didn't respond to your post by saying 'off topic!'

;-)

> To answer your question about psychology and psychiatry research as opposed to religious research; the psychs have no religious agenda to prove while religious research does.

Firstly, it is useful to distinguish between church sponsored research and theology (comparative theology) research. What is the difference? Church sponsered research has an agenda to push whereas theology research typically doesn't. Theology is an academic discipline that is related to philosophy, psychology, anthroplogy and sociology. Many people who study theology are atheists or agnostics or spiritualists or whatever. Theology is the OBJECTIVE study of religious beliefs.

The studies I posted links to were from a theology / sociology journal, for example. If you were correct that those kinds of journals always have a religous agenda to push then you would expect to find more support for your position from there. The studies I cited did not support your position, however.

> I did not post here to get into an argument.

Neither did I. I do think it is wise to think critically about the research, however. For every study for there are typically several against. Even scientific research can be influenced by political and funding agendas (sponsored by the dairy board or by drug companies, for example. Psychologists can have a religous agenda to push too...)

> The relationship between faith and health is well studied, and the majority in the field agree that it is beneficial.

I disagree.

Firstly:

How is benefit measured? Self report? Beneficial to the individual or to society?

You may be correct with respect to self report. What questions are asked? 'Are you happier because of your religious faith?'

Self report typically isn't given terribly high credance in scientific disciplines. One of the major advances was to look to objective measures of improvement rather than relying on self report. How many people self report benefit to seeing a psychoanalyst 5 times a week? How many people report benefit to taking a placebo? How many people confabulate self reports where the self reports are actually inaccurate with respect to the causes of behaviour?

This bears on the original question in the thread in the following respects.

Firstly, it is controversial whether people self report more happiness as a result of... What? Belief in a personal God who cares? Church attendance? Reading the Bible?

Cross-cultural studies muddy the waters considerably. Even if there is a consensus on the above with respect to American culture (which I'm personally dubious about) there is far from consensus that this is a universal phenomena. There is considerable cross cultural variation...

Secondly, it is controversial whether people actually are better off as a result of belief in a personal God, church attendance, or reading the Bible.

Thirdly, it is controversial whether society is better off as a result of the members believing in a personal God, attending church, or reading the Bible.

Controversial.

That is my answer to the question the person asked.

From my personal perspective I've found much benefit to replacing supernatural explanations with natural explanations and belief in supernatural agents with belief in natural agents. Sure I have no God, but the converse is that I have no Satan. I've found a benefit to looking to natualised ethics with respect to figuring out what sort of a person I want to be and hence what sorts of things I should do instead of looking to religious faiths with respect to their telling me what sort of a person I should be and what I should do.

That is my personal experience.

Whether that is the norm or whether people vary considerably on that is controversial. The majority of people were posting their experiences of benefits to the above. When people started making claims about the way things are for people more generally I thought the original poster might benefit from hearing the other side of the story, however.

To provide for a more balanced thread so that...

They could decide for themself.

I was recently asked, "why is the public school system so horrible, when it used to be so good". I have an opinion as a doctor, a child psychologist, a person with 10+ years of training, and a father, and feel strongly about it, but I know enough to know I really don't know much about the multiple factors involved to say anything substantive. Knowing enough to know where your knowledge is limited is a very important trait. This forum is for those who believe in a God, religion or higher power, and to support that dialogue. I am not religious, and have no agenda, but simply wanted to give a bit of my knowledge of the science in this area to believers at this time of year to help them get through a difficult time. If you believe in something else get a different forum, but do not attack these people, and people like me offering a nugget of science to support the need for the people who read this forum to believe.

Hey.

To the best of my knowledge... I'm not attacking anybody. Though I certainly feel like people keep on accusing me of attacking them...

And I'm not attacking you either.

My mistake I guess... But as I said, I thought that the person who started the thread was looking for a range of views on what people find helps them. I offered some support in the form of how I know someone who finds the religious rites to be soothing to him and how he finds they help him feel part of something greater than himself.

When people offer scientific claims (about the way the world is) then to my mind that is a bit different from reporting experiences, however.

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psisci said:
I was recently asked, "why is the public school system so horrible, when it used to be so good". I have an opinion as a doctor, a child psychologist, a person with 10+ years of training, and a father, and feel strongly about it, but I know enough to know I really don't know much about the multiple factors involved to say anything substantive. Knowing enough to know where your knowledge is limited is a very important trait. This forum is for those who believe in a God, religion or higher power, and to support that dialogue. I am not religious, and have no agenda, but simply wanted to give a bit of my knowledge of the science in this area to believers at this time of year to help them get through a difficult time. If you believe in something else get a different forum, but do not attack these people, and people like me offering a nugget of science to support the need for the people who read this forum to believe.

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Den says:

Anyone who thinks you should back up your claims with valid supporting links should go to another forum?

Anyone who answers a question in a way you don't like should go to another forum?

The thread is about religion having a positive inlfuence. Sometimes it's nice when things get to big to believe that there is a higher power who will carry your problems... if only for a while, it gives me time to take a breath and get some perspective. For me it is definately less stressful...

I should probably not have dragged this thread up again, as I don't know how far down it is, but it came up in my search and I find it interesting, and yes, research definately backs it.

I admire those who can believe. I was raised Catholic, attended 13 years in the Catholic education system, and I feel that along the way, I myself wasnt able to fully believe, I never embraced instead I questioned, I questioned with science, I questioned logic, i questioned reason... and now I find myself wondering if maybe i could remember a time when i did believe, then maybe i could believe again...

sorry!

There's nothing wrong with questioning. If you never question you never get answers and there will always be a little shadow nagging you, whether or not you listen to it. If you question, you can find your answers, and be more secure in what you believe. You don't always end up believing the same thing that was taught to you, but isn't it better if you find what you, yourself, believe? Questioning eventually can lead to stronger faith. You just have to use some judgement about who and what and when you question, I guess, but seeking answers is a good thing, I think.

I can't remember if I answered this thread or not, but I can't imagine what life would like without believing in God and that there is someone who cares about us, and that we have a purpose here. I don't think that I would have survived this long without those beliefs.

Rap