People often ask me if praying leads to better health and longer life. For the past 20 years, my colleague Dr. Leslie Martin and I have been studying the religious beliefs, the personalities, the social relationships, the habits and the careers of more than 1,500 Californians who were first studied as children in 1921. They have been followed continuously for their whole lives, and we have been examining the eight decades of data to see who thrives and lives long, and who falters and succumbs by middle age. We report the surprising findings in our book, The Longevity Project, where one focus is on religiosity.
I used to wonder why people would turn to a scientist to ask a question about the supernatural -- does praying extend life? There is of course an intellectual problem involved, and scholarly interest in such matters traces back several hundred years to the philosopher David Hume, who wrote about the reasoning and evidence needed to establish the existence of miracles. But these days, I think people ask about prayer because the "science" of modern medicine is often too quick to reduce health to simple mechanical cause-and-effect relations, and so many patients feel a dissatisfaction and frustration with sterile medical care that sidesteps the human spirit.
Lots of studies show that religious people tend to live longer, but the studies usually have little idea why. (An obvious exception -- where the reason is clear -- involves those rare cases that examine non-smoking religious groups.) Because we cannot randomly assign individuals to an experiment in which some are religious and some are not, the best study would be one that follows people throughout their lives, measuring their religiosity and other characteristics. This is what we did; it is the first such study ever done. At various points in their lives, from childhood on, the participants reported on their religious instruction, their Bible reading, their worship, the extent to which they were religiously inclined, and much more.
Our findings confirmed that individuals who were religious, especially women, were more likely to live longer lives. But why? The very religious women tended to be quite friendly and sociable, but were also inclined to be worriers. We found that we could explain their long lives by taking into account their outgoing-yet-worrying personalities, and their good, helpful social ties and behaviors. In other words, for these individuals, religion was a core and stable part of who they were and how they behaved -- and it served them well in terms of long life. But there was more!
It was the least religious women who were, on average, least likely to live a very long life. These women were not religious in young adulthood and stayed that way throughout their lives. They were generally bright and productive but they were less likely to be very extroverted and trusting, less likely to get and stay married, and less likely to have children or to be extensively involved in helping others. Herein lay the core of our striking finding: overall it was not religiosity per se that was so important to long life, although it helped many women. Rather it was the characteristics that tended to go along with being religious that explained why these women lived longer. Those who gradually left their religious involvement were at high risk if they also let their community involvement falter and diminish. We found that the social engagement that is so much a part of religious community is one key explanation for the health of many religious people. Yes, those who prayed together, stayed together, and helped each other stay healthy. Naturally, many people found deep social ties and a meaningful community outside religion, and they thrived as well.
What about spirituality? We did uncover various hints of the health importance of a deeper meaning in life. Of course, many people live a consequential, purposeful life outside of any religious context; but many others find such meaning through religious wisdom. In The Longevity Project, we profile a man, Douglas Kelly, for whom meaning was everything. Kelly worked for the U.S. Army in 1946 evaluating some of the highest-ranking Nazis in preparation for their war-crimes trials in Nuremberg. But evidently, this life-changing experience with horror shattered Kelly's sense of agency and meaning, and he met a shocking early death. Those who developed catastrophizing, negative thought patterns were inclined to precipitous actions, injuries, accidents, suicides and related risks.
While we cannot provide empirical confirmation about whether being pious is important to gaining eternal life, The Longevity Project did uncover good evidence that at least some aspects of congregational participation can be relevant to the length of one's mortal life. It was the social involvement and service to others that went along with being religious that explained why these people, especially the religious women, lived longer. You may have heard the old saw that says, "The best of Men cannot suspend their Fate; The Good die early, and the Bad die late." This turned out to be myth! Instead, we sum it all up by saying, "It is the Good ones who can actually help shape their fate; The Bad die early, and the Good do great!"
Follow Howard S. Friedman, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrHSFriedman
Serene Jones: Equal Pray for Women
The Longevity Project: Decades of Data Reveal Paths to Long Life ...
Book Review: The Longevity Project - WSJ.com
The Longevity Project: Study Finds Parental Divorce During ...
Correlation is not causation.
Medical studies make the same mistake.
BTW, this is another example where I think atheists who claim that religion is totally useless are wrong. At earlier times in our development as a species it was quite beneficial to have something people could believe in to help them get better, even if there was nothing more to the rituals than the fact that people believed in them. But as we've progressed the value of religion becomes ever less and the cost becomes ever greater.
new study connects faith and fitness.
new study connects faith and environmentalism.
new study connects faith and morality.
new study connects faith and patriotism.
new study connects faith and self-image.
new study connects faith and highest levels of well-being
new study connects faith and healthier, longer lives.
It's fair to say a proper study would connect faith and people who make new studies.
But there is no evidence AT ALL that prayer make you healthier or makes you live longer.
The fact of the matter is that "belonging" is a basic human need and evolutionary trait that encourages mating. Belonging to a group that "accepts" you is what makes you live longer and today we have much more options available that needn't include divisive gods or chur.ches.
Just ask any biker how he feels about his "bros"
Just ask any happy family man how he feels about his children.
This "belonging" from Maslow's hierarchy of needs is the one at the top and it is what ch.urch delivers, and it is what the myths propagated by the chur.ch are trying to glom on.
The human brain has not evolved much since the pleistocen e era in which our ancestors had no science and had to see patterns that do not exist and causality behind perfectly random coincidenc es in order to survive. We are all gullible for superstiti ons and most of us can never shake off our childhood indoctrina tions.
We believe prayer works because we are guilty of confirmati on bias in which we discard the billions of failed prayers and hang onto what we believe are successful prayers. We do the same with astrology, with claims that vaccines cause autism, with belief that the Mercury retrograde causes bad things to happen, ...
We hang onto anecdotal stories that are not verifiable and not falsifiabl e in a way we would never do with any product we buy or any plane we get onto. And yet, we claim that the god our savior is the most important decision of our lives.
Stop being so gullible, people. There is so much more we can do for our neighbors than waste our life praying to something that almost certainly does not exist.
worriers? outgoing-yet-worrying personalities?
As to whether a religion does more good than harm, that's a complicated issue. Religion is in almost every major war but often as a tool and not a cause. That use as a tool, however, is a flaw with religion.
If you believe that when you die you go to heaven, then why would you want to live longer?
Seems to me that you would want to die sooner?
Also, and I don't know 'bout you, but I've worked in a nursing home and I really don't want to live longer. Living longer is really a problem for everyone especially for the younger generation.
Instead people who are a little older should consider ways that they can accelerate their own demise like drinking more whiskey while swimming or something.
This would be good for everyone.
"If you really believe that death leads to eternal bliss, then why are you wearing a seatbelt?"