A widespread belief exists that even if it is not true religion is worth practicing because of its benefits. In fact, any health benefits are problematical. The only definite positive correlation between religious practice and health is with church-going, and it is not proven that this is anything supernatural. It is far more likely simply to be the result of a healthier lifestyle among churchgoers. There's no smoking or drinking in church, except for a sip of watered-down wine. For some reason, those who study the relationship between religion and health never seem to include nonbelievers as a "control sample," which does not strike me as very good science practice.
The life-style interpretation agrees with the evidence that less religious nations are happier and healthier. According to the study by sociologist Phil Zuckerman, the godless societies of Scandinavia rank near the top in every measure of societal and personal health.
And, what about the significant negative impact that religion has on health? Between 1975 and 1995 at least 172 children in the United Stated died, perhaps 140 of medically curable illnesses, because their parents refused them medical treatment for religious reasons [E. Gunn, "Death By Prayer," Freethought Today (September, 2008): 6-7]. Many more are undoubtedly harmed by lack of immunizations and other refusals by religious parents to provide modern medical treatments and preventative measures. Parents are allowed to do this because of unconscionable religious exemptions in child abuse prevention laws.
Believers often bring up the famous argument called Pascals' wager formulated by the French philosopher, physicist, and mathematician Blaise Pascal (d. 1662). A medieval Muslim thinker Abu Hamid al-Ghazali may have proposed the wager earlier. Basically the argument is that you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by betting on the existence of God. On the other hand, you have nothing to gain and everything to lose in rejecting it.
Many people, including the great philosopher Bertrand Russell, have seen the flaw in this argument. Assuming God is a just God, wouldn't he look with more favor on someone who honestly didn't believe for lack of evidence than someone who, without evidence, says he believes just so he can get his ass into heaven?
Political commentator Dinesh D'Souza has drawn up a list of benefits for belief in God and, in particular, an afterlife. Let me list these systematically:
Assets of belief in an afterlife
Let me challenge each of D'Souza's points and show why they are, in fact, liabilities:
Liabilities of belief in an afterlife
Simply put, no basis exists for the claim often made by believers that religion is necessary for a person to live a healthy, happy, and moral life. Religion blinds, deafens, and numbs us to the reality around us and though this may temporarily soothe our anxieties, like drugs or alcohol, there is a painful price to be paid down the road for such cowardly denial and self-defeating ignorance. Not only can we be both well and good without God, we can be better.
Adam and Eve refused to accept God’s gifts in God’s spiritual way. They attempt to grasp them in their own way. This human mentality becomes an obstacle in humanity’s communion with God and leads to a loss of function of humanity. Humans cannot grow in the Spirit and become Godlike. On the contrary they are filled with the “spirit of the fallen angel”. Humanity’s problem therefore becomes not simply an ethical problem of disobedience to a divine commandment {a problem that could be possibly fixed by cognitive-behavioral therapy}. It is the destruction of any possibility for growth in the Spirit, because humans are filled with another kind of spirit, that is the demonic spirit. The complete man is a mixture and union of a soul which takes to itself the Spirit of The Father, to which is united the fleshly nature which was fashioned in the image of God. It is an existential problem that only the Creator God can solve out of love for His reatures, and us humans can multiply with constant Prayer.
In response to your response to my comment below, thank you for checking out the links (and apologies for my poor internet skills). You note that one study points to the beneficial affects of community in religious life. Yes, exactly. The claim is not that there is some kind of cosmic reward for being religious (or, conversely, some kind of punishment for not - that's absurd), or that there is even anything particularly beneficial in religion per se. Instead, religion, at its best, fosters an optimistic outlook, a community of caring friends, and a sense of meaning and purpose. These are all clearly beneficial to our health.
This is not an either/or scenario: Of course one does not need religion to be healthy, and one can get all these benefits through many secular activities.
All the best,
Alan
The claim to stand for reason, yet to throw out an unfounded generality that religion is a "cowardly denial and self-defeating ignorance" is irrational and not based on facts. People come to religion for many, many reasons - not simply based on fear of death.
Please, can't we have an intelligent conversation about religion, with the recognition that it can not be reduced to such simplistic and self-congratulatory slogans!
I think this blog is about whether or not there are health benefits to religion.
Good to hear from you too. I hope that you are well.
The health benefits of religion have been scientifically proven, which is why the author needed to resort to the types of bromides that I mentioned, and only quoted one minute and dubious statistic to counter the argument. He also limited his blog to the belief in an afterlife, which is not the primary concern of many (most?) religious folks, and in Judaism is generally not a concern at all. The health benefits of religion is a caring community, a feeling of optimism, a sense that life has a purpose, the knowledge that life is holy, and the desire to love others. Do all religious folks have this? Of course not, but this is offered.
Few claim, as the author asserts, that "religion is necessary for a person to live a healthy, happy, and moral life", but religious beliefs have been proven to lead to a happier life in general.
All the best,
Alan
Though I have recently been fond of joking about God coming to me in my early teens and telling me he didn't exist, the real problem for me at that time was the temporary usurpation of my puberty by the nonsensical proscription of certain practices that virtually all adolescent boys follow in a "Code of Jewish Law" I got as a present from the Hebrew School I graduated...Some present!
It was a relief to read Dr. Rose N. Franzblau on the subject some time later and never worrying about it again. (My palms remain hairless even at my present age and my dental hygiene, though imperfect perhaps, has mostly kept my breath presentable.)
No one should have to become prisoner to any dogmas of any religion just because they want to keep control over their followers' physical, mental and monetary functioning through their fables and horror stories.
There is hope for us all...
For this to be true in America, a supposedly Christian country whose fundamentalists have been growing in number and power, is a paradox. In Matthew 25 (the "parable of the sheep and the goats"), Jesus specifically outlines what behaviors will lead to an individual going to heaven, and which behaviors lead to eternal damnation. The behaviors that earn heaven are: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, welcome the stranger, and visit those in prison (at that time, he meant debtor's prison). Behaviors that merit damnation are to ignore the poor, the sick, the stranger, and the prisoner. And yet in america, the demographic group MOST in favor of cutting programs for the poor, MOST against health care for everyone, MOST against immigrants, and MOST in favor of torturing middle east prisoners are the fundamentalists. Although fundamentalists talk about churches having responsibility for caring for the poor etc.--something the churches haven't had the resources or organizational skills to do since the great depression--in fact their political views lead only to the enrichment of the wealthy. And Jesus's view of the wealthy was quite negative.
The problem with America isn't our religion. It's our hypocrisy.
One world at a time.
-- H D Thoreau
Lower the cone of silence.
-- Mel Brooks
I think what is really happening here is people are trying to make black and white pictures out of things that are all gray. The disparities in health is cultural and geographic and IMO, have very little to do with god belief. If everyone eats deep fried food, the people that pray aren't going to be any healthier than the people that don't.