Shock, Horror - Iona Institute Finds Religious People are "Happier" & "Healthier"

[Almanac]

I'd say almost all research with a "political/social" implicantion is supported by some organsiation with a stake in the matter.

Really? That's complete and utter undiluted nonsense. You have just excluded nearly all sociological research, a discipline incidentally with a distinctly anti-religious bias (its foundation is linked to Comte an atheist ideologue along with Marx, and Durkheim was also an atheist). If the studies were conducted by religious organisations, they would be without value. None of these studies had any links with any religious groups:

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]One major study, which was presented at the British Royal Economic Society's annual conference, demonstrated that believers are better able to cope with the disappointments of life such as becoming unemployed or getting divorced. The study, authored by Professor Andrew Clark and Dr Orsolya Lelkes, also found that the more a person attends church or prays the happier he/she becomes.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]The Irish Times reported recently (December 24th, 2008) on another wide-ranging US study which demonstrated that religious attendance “reduces death risk”[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]REGULAR ATTENDANCE at religious services reduces the risk of death by almost 20 per cent, new research claims...[/FONT][/COLOR]

[FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black]Using data from the Women's Health Initiative Study of over 92,000 women in the US, researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York looked at how women's religious service attendance and the degree to which they derived strength and comfort from religion affected their mortality. [/COLOR][/FONT]

Last October the Mail (Friday October 3, 2008) reported on a study which concluded that “believing in God makes people nicer.” Scientists analysed three decades of research and stated that religion“encourages individuals to be more helpful, honest andgenerous.” The study further found that religion“reduced rates of cheating in games and increased trust between strangers.” Believers “make more charitable donations and do more volunteer work.”

This study was also reported online in [/FONT][/COLOR][FONT=Calibri][COLOR=blue][FONT=Verdana]ScienceDaily[/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]. Available at: Religion Makes People Helpful And Generous -- Under Certain Conditions[/FONT][/COLOR]

[FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black]Award-winning Psychology Professor, Richard Wiseman, cited the following study in his book Quirkology which demonstrates that believers are more likely to behave in prosocial and altruistic ways:[/COLOR][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black]V. Saroglou, I. Pinchon, L. Trompette, M. Verschueren & R. Dernelle- 'Prosocial behaviour and religion: New evidence based on projective measures and peer ratings', Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion no. 44, pgs 323-48. 2005.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Almanac]

Do you not know? Why are implying it was rigged if you don't know anything about it? Why don't you go and find out what the questions were and then show us how they were rigged, good man.

Funny you ask about this but not once do you pull up those making wild unsubstantiated claims about the Iona report. A bit hypocritical, no?

[A_man_about_a_dog]

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]The Irish Times reported recently (December 24th, 2008) on another wide-ranging US study which demonstrated that religious attendance “reduces death risk”[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]:[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]REGULAR ATTENDANCE at religious services reduces the risk of death by almost 20 per cent, new research claims...[/FONT][/COLOR]

Care to elaborate on how religious attendance manages to "reduce death risk" by "almost 20%"? I'm just finding it a bit difficult to comprehend how going to a religious service once, twice, three times a week is going to prevent nature from taking it's course.

Like I said earlier in the thread, I fully accept the notion that religious commitment provides believers with a kind of 'crutch' which they can lean on in times of difficulty. Undoubtedly the existence of such a 'crutch' lessens the mental anxiety which the believer feels and it therefore helps to make them feel more relaxed, less pressurised. This in turn might make them feel healthier.... but in reality, the only meaningful difference is between how the believer and non-believer manage their anxiety and stress.

[tmesis2008]

Funny you ask about this but not once do you pull up those making wild unsubstantiated claims about the Iona report. A bit hypocritical, no?

What claims did I make?

[KingKane]

KFC are bringing out new research next week proving that people who eat fried chicken do better in a recession.

I understand the KFC report and the McDonald's report are to live together in a new TV3 reality show called 'Reportage'.

[tmesis2008]

You are right Tmesis. That is the central question. If Christianity is not true it's pointless regardless of how happy it makes you feel.

Agreed.

Fortunately Christianity is true. We know this because Jesus fulfilled in his person about 300 different Old Testament prophecies spread across centuries, including ones that He could not possibly have been conscious of such as his place of birth, the tribe he would be born into, the manner of his death. We know these could not have been forgeries since they have been carbon-dated back and some manuscripts date from hundreds of years before his birth.

The story of Jesus differs from author to author, and the authors knowing of the prophecies would have matched the story to the prophecies.

We could also look at the saints produced in every age, including our own, the countless recorded miracles such as that at Fatima- the sun dancing in the sky- which was witnessed by thousands of people, including non-believers and cynics of every description, such as reporters there only to cover the story. Doubtless you will dismiss this as mass hallucination but such usually only occurs in people who are receptive.

If the Sun actually did dance in the sky it would have huge implications for the Solar System, and we'd be able to see that for a time the Sun had moved around from noting the movement of the planets.

You could also consider that a miracle is required for both beatification (blessed) and the further stage of canonisation (saint) in those deemed to have reached such unity with God. There are many applicants. The vast majority are dismissed so stringent are the requirements. A team of scientists composed of both non-believers and Catholics investigates each claim that is brought for examination (a process of deselection precedes this stage). They do not declare that a miracle has occurred but that science cannot explain the cure.

Many "magicians" do tricks: just because a scientist cannot explain how the trick was done does not mean that "magic" occurred.

[Twin Towers]

Religious people are happier than miserable magicless secularists - goes without saying.

[ibis]

"People who practice religion are happier and healthier than those who don't, according to a study being published today by the Iona Institute.

The conservative think tank says the study has found that religious practice is associated with lower-than-average rates of depression and other mental illnesses and better rates of recovery following illness.

It is also associated with lower-than-average rates of alcohol and drug abuse, marital breakdown and crime.

The study concludes that religion is rarely socially destructive, but is usually socially and personally beneficial. "

Just being devil's advocate but it could also be that people lose their faith in religion when faced with real problems like "alcohol and drug abuse, marital breakdown and crime" because it fails them.

Or that religious people are unwilling to admit they have a problem with depression and mental illness? After all, is the decline in pirates the cause of global warning?

One wonders if they included the results of this study: Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies?

[The OD]

Good for them I say?

[imokyrok]

Good for them I say?

Agreed.

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality." George Bernard Shaw