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:
- It provides us with hope at the point of death and a way to cope with our deaths.
- It infuses life with a sense of meaning and purpose.
- It gives us a reason to be moral and a way to transmit morality to our children.
- Clinical evidence exists that religious people who affirm the afterlife are healthier than nonbelievers.
Let me challenge each of D'Souza's points and show why they are, in fact, liabilities:
- The idea that you will live forever gives you a false sense of a glorious self that leads to extreme self-centeredness in this life. Furthermore, you may live in constant fear that any sin you might have committed will condemn you to an eternity of suffering in hell. Knowing you are not going to live forever restores a true sense of your place in the scheme of things and you don't have to worry about hell.
- If you don't believe in an afterlife you will find more meaning and purpose in this world and live your life to the fullest since it is the only life you have.
- Morality comes from human intelligence and has nothing to do with belief or nonbelief in an afterlife or God. You may not take action to seek justice in this life if you assume it will be provided in the next. You may not exercise your own best judgment in matters and allow yourself to be controlled others who claim sacred authority.
- As mentioned above, there is no convincing clinical evidence that religious belief improves health and some indications exists that it has harmful health effects.
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.