Atheism and Your Health.

[Khandro]

Is Atheism detrimental to your health and general wellbeing?

[naomi24]

What a strange question. What prompted it?

[Anngel123]

So believing you will roast in hell if you don't follow 2000 year old rules is good for your health is it? Personally, having expectations of yourself which are difficult if not impossible can be very stressful, thus unhealthy....goes and hides behind sofa waiting for the backlash.

[ladybirder]

Just the opposite I would say.

[jomifl]

Only if you live in a muslim state where half of the surgeons operating on females have to wear burkhas.

[Father-Ted]

To be sure Khandro, that is a very strange question. Perhaps you should put your cards on the table and tell us why you would ask it, do you believe atheism undermines your beliefs, are you wavering just a little perhaps?

[tonyav]

lol.

[seadogg]

Radio 4 programme "Beyond Belief" today had a discussion on the relationship between clinical depression and religion. Worth a listen on "Listen Again" if you are interested. Naturally the conclusions were rather open but there can be a strong link between religion and depression if the patient feels inadequate to live by the tenets of the religious belief he subscribes to.

[modeller]

Theists fear their sinful life on earth , they worry about not going to church. They worry that they may have chosen the wrong religion and they don't know where they are going Heaven ,Hell , Purgatory or Limbo. No wonder many end up in a state of depression .
Atheists have no such worries and enjoy life on earth . No depression worries there.

[sandyRoe]

CG Jung stated:
"I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life-that is to say, over 35- there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life."
Clearly, he thought atheism wasn't the best option.

[bigbadmarty]

Our knees are not so worn out :)

[wildwood]

Not such a strange question. While I believe all religions are a load of claptrap, we do have friends who believe and find solace in their misguided convictions, especially when an infant grandchild dies. Instead of asking why, they just find it easier to believe that it is god's plan. This, of course, is illogical but it does help them to come to terms with their sad loss.

As humans have invented religion to compensate for lack of understanding of evolution, it is only natural that even Atheists will grasp at straws when the end of their life is imminent and turn to religion as a security blanket. If this helps them to face death then it is a good thing.

[douglas9401]

Nope.

[LazyGun]

@ Sandy - i hate to appear ignorant, but I have read that quotation you posted from Jung several times, and I am still struggling to understand what he was trying to say. i wonder if you would translate his convoluted sentence into plain english for me? Are you interpreting his quotation to mean that everyone he saw over the age of 35, presumably in his professional capacity as a psychologist, was an atheist? That does not seem very likely at all to me....

My memory is pretty hazy, but Jung himself was pretty hung up on the idea of religiousity / spirituality wasn't he?

@Wildwood. Not sure that religion was invented to explain evolution :) More to do with our place in the universe, and the creation of life, especially human life, I would have thought - or is that what you meant? And it might be true that some atheists coming to the end of their lives may develop deist tendencies - One example often quoted is Antony Flew, a philospher of some note - but I think it would be the minority who would genuinely convert. This assumption that even atheists would turn to religion at the end of their lives seems very similar to me to the phrase " there are no atheists in foxholes" - which essentially says that in mortal peril,it becomes impossible to maintain a disbelief in a higher, saving power.

The logical fallacy behind such a viewpoint has been well documented - essentially, it reinforces the idea that religion is just a prop, an emotional comfort blanket. One would also have to question if such a conversion was a genuine, long term change.

And the other problem with that notion is that the complete opposite has also been shown to occur - returning war veterans, previously devout theists, have, as a consequence of the horrors of war they have experienced, renounced their religion.

As to Khandros OP - No, I don't think so.Part of the problem with trying to establish such a link is the subjective nature of the evidence.

There have been reports in the media concerning studies that purportedly show a positive correlation between having faith and a better quality of life, but I have no idea of the quality of the studies, how statistically significant the findings, or indeed how objective the research. It is sufficiently interesting that if i get time, I might take a look in the pubmed archives :)

[birdie1971]

Khandro - “Is Atheism detrimental to your health and general wellbeing?”

Clearly it is. Christopher Hitchens was a prominent atheist and look what happened to him. Conversely, not a single religious person has ever met an untimely death due to contracting a fatal illness nor have they ever been found to be suffering from depression nor had any kind of mental health problems whatsoever.

The evidence is clear: religious people are simply more healthy and happy than atheists.

Good question Khandro. One in the eye for atheists methinks!

[mibn2cweus]

//Is Atheism detrimental to your health and general wellbeing?//

Perhaps not so much now as it might have been, say . . . during the inquisition?

Although when the God squad comes knockin' on the door, that could conceivably contribute to an elevation in blood pressure.

[RATTER15]

I find Atheism a very positive thing, health-wise! for a start it is a sign that im not deluded easily and I don't need to be ashamed of my faiths past or present wrong-doings. that's got to be good!!

[sandyRoe]

LazyGun, He was badly served by his translator. I take that to mean that the source of the problem that brought them to the psychiatrists couch wasn't their religion.

[jake-the-peg]

http://3.bp.blogspot....d+life+expectancy.jpg

doesn't look like it

(PS I am aware of the less than rigorous nature of this chart)

I expect that some religious people live longer due to their dietry regieme

[naomi24]

It seems some of these answers relate this question predominantly to mental health rather than to physical well-being. I wonder why?

[slaney]

There are indeed many published papers, mostly American, on the subject - most showing a positive benefit for religious faith.

http://ukpmc.ac.uk/ab...F7OkvXFPD0sRoezO7z.16

More references than you can shake a stick at in here...

http://www.people.hbs...n%20ariely%202011.pdf

And the definitive work seems to be this ...

http://en.wikipedia.o...f_Religion_and_Health

As ever, better designed trials are needed.